Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Torta Panini

I LOVE Trader Joe's. Really. But now I am learning to love some Trader Joe's more than others. La Canada TJ's has the best samples, hands down. I sampled this one last week and knew what dinner was going to be the next night. I made this along with a salad, some fresh strawberries, and Charlie could not stop commenting on how this was the perfect meal.

1 container Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
1 container Genova Pesto
1 container whipped cream chees
Tuscan Pane (or other sourdough type bread)
sliced turkey
sliced Fontina

Mix the top three ingredients and spread on one side of each piece of bread. Add turkey and a slice of fontina. I put it in th broiler for a few minutes and then sliced them up. Perfect.

Chinese Chicken Salad

Mmm. Easy dressing. Thanks Yum Sugar for this one. I modified it a bit.

Ingredients

1-inch piece of grated ginger
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce
Freshly ground pepper

sliced chicken
4 scallions
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1 cup chow mein noodles
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 bunch chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped almonds
cucumber chunked

Directions

1. In small bowl, whisk the rice vinegar with the sesame oil, soy sauce, grated ginger. Season with salt and pepper.
2. In a large bowl, toss everything with the dressing and enjoy.
   

Empanadas

Our friends Jeremy and Danielle made these for us. They were so good. Tonight my kids finally caught the love of them. This turned out to be a fairly easy meal b/c I could prep it in shifts. The night before I knew I was going to have leftover mashed potatoes. So while they were boiling, I chopped the onions and bell peppers so I could saute them the next day for this. So after dance and right before the baseball game, I had about 40 minutes to make salsa, make the dough, saute the stuff and miraculous find all the missing parts of the baseball uniform. I mixed the whole filling together and let it sit while we left for the game. So when we came home at 7pm dinner was ready in about 15 minutes and it was delicious.

Filling
leftover mashed potatoes (or 4 potatoes)
1/2 cup bell pepper
2 small onions chopped
3 Tbs oil
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 cup corn
1/2 cup chopped pimientos
1 cup cream cheese room temperature
1 cup mild cheddar and mild jack

Saute the onions and bell peppers for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and be careful not to enjoy it like you do cookie dough!

Dough
1 cup warm water
1/2 Tbs vinegar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups flour
3 Tbs melted butter
oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients together. I found that when I let it sit for a good hour or two the consistency was much better. It's great to make right before a baseball game.

Serve with Lupita's Green Salsa and this great Salsa.

Salsa

1/3 cup of chopped onions
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
4 tomatoes
2 Tbs canola oil
1 Tbs vinegar
1 Tbs lemon
1 garlic minced
salt and pepper
2 Tbs Tabasco

Lupita's Green Salsa

Christmas Eve Lupita taught me how to make tamales. I need to do it again to remember the tricks. Buuuut I remember the Green Salsa she taught me how to make. This is Delicious.

6 Tomatillos (golf ball sized)
1 bunch of cilantro
3-4 jalapenos
2-4 garlic cloves
1/4 onion
2 avocados

This is the best part ... remove the peels on everything and stick it aaaaall in the blender! Add a little water a tablespoon or two at a time until it gets a little liquidy.

Salmon with an Indian Flare

So I modified this recipe from Cooks Illustrated The Best Recipe. It turned out to be very flavorful. I had a small salmon fillet but it turned out to be perfect b/c the spices were a mouthful. I did not have mango to add on top this time, but I bet that would soften the kick. It was still delicious without the mango.

Ingredients

1-2 Tbs fresh minced ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground corriander
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 good long wild salmon fillet
Sesame Oil

Chutney
2 Tbs chopped cilantro
1/2 chopped onion
3 Tbs lemon juice
1 large chopped mango (this I didn't have tonight but look forward to trying it)

Mix all the spices together and smother on top of salmon. Pour lemon juice on top. Let marinade for no more than 30 minutes. Saute in Sesame Oil along with the chopped onions. Remove the salmon and cook the onions with the cilantro for just a minute more. Serve on top Salmon and enjoy!

My Mashed Potatoes

You know it's one of those staples ... well here is what I tried tonight that worked well for me.

peeled potatoes
whole garlic
salt
cream

Roast a whole head of garlic in the oven for 45 minutes at 350/400. Afterwards the peel comes off easily. Dump into the room temperature cream and mash in boiled potatoes. Add some good kosher salt and voila ...