Janel's Chile Verde

Why start this post with sunflowers? My sister Janel and I picked some up at the Sunflower Market grocery store earlier this summer after kicking around at the downtown Salt Lake farmers market where we shared Sudanese food, sipped blueberry lemonade and I bought a tomato that was too expensive. And so sunflowers... time with my sister... and we arrive at... her recipe for Chile Verde.

Wait for it... wait for it... "even though..." the original recipe sounded do-able, there was one step I was like "There's no way." ... "You want me to boil it down, how many times?" ... "Really?!?" Janel has been mentioned around these parts before for making The Columbia Restaurant 1905 Salad for me after I'd had surgery. She's a nice kind of gal like that. Even though her recipe was already the cat's meow, I didn't think I could handle boiling down a roast as called for so I started thinking... "I wonder if this would work in the Crock-Pot."And then "I wonder if pork chops would work as well as a roast?" And the answer is: "Yes." I've made it twice and I think I've got the Cock Pot version down pat!

The beginning of the Crock-Pot phase below. Everybody into the pool!

And "poof" it's done!

Chile Verde

1 medium size jar of chile verde salsa (verde = green)

2 cans diced chiles (mild)

1 yellow onion

Black pepper (fresh cracked)

1-2 packages of pork chops

1 can of vegetarian refried beans

Add the chile verde salsa to the Crock-Pot. Rinse the jar with about 1/4-1/2 C of water and add the water and the chiles to the Crock-Pot. Next brown the meat, crack fresh pepper on the pork chops while cooking. Cut up the onion in large chunks and add both the meat and the onion to the Crock-Pot. Deglaze the frying pan with water (about 1/4-1/2 C) and add the sauce this creates to the Crock-Pot too. Cook on high for approximately 5 hours. You'll know it's done because the meat will easily come apart with a fork. Add the can of refried beans and stir. Using two forks pull the meat apart into bite sized pieces (or smaller). Allow to cook for 15-30 minutes and serve. 

Serving Suggestions: At our house we serve the Chile Verde as single servings in a bowl, as a hot dip with corn chips. Optional: embellish with fat free grated cheddar, and fat free sour cream.

Source: Janel, my sister (Gracias señorita!), with edits from me.

P.S. A little bit of trivia here, my Crock-Pot will be turning 22 next week.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten free chocolate chip cookies

I'd like to tell you about some chocolate chip cookies I made this week. The cookies went with us on an urban hike to the new "The Commons, City Creek Center" area in downtown Salt Lake City. These cookies are not your everyday chocolate chip cookie. We're doing an elimination diet at our house, dietician led, trying to track down possible allergies that are triggering migraines. First up? Gluten.

My first few tries at gluten free baking has delivered muffins that puff up in the oven then fall to about 1/2 the size. These chocolate chip cookies puff up too, but after they settle they still look and taste reasonably like the real thing (make sure you have a cup of milk when you eat them, they're kind of dry - but if you like a "crisp" chocolate chip cookie, you'll probably like these.) Here are a couple of tips for along the way, then the recipe and a few photos from the morning around town.

Use your favorite vanilla. For me that means Mexican Vanilla Extract. I don't know where to get more of this. I went to their online store and they don't sell it there. (Am I going to need to drive to Minnesota where we bought it? Or Mexico?)

 Cream the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla, just like regular chocolate chip cookies.

 Mix the dry ingredients. Some people sift, I fluff the ingredients together with a fork.

Important Read This Part: Next mix the wet and dry ingredients and add 3/4-1 bag of mini chocolate chips. Based on comments I read at All Recipes I did a test cookie at first, and my first cookie (even though the dough looked like normal cookie dough) spread into a lace-cookie. So I added more gluten free flour until I couldn't get any more to mix into the dough, then I tried it again, and it worked! I made little round cookies and pressed them down just a little with a spoon before baking, but it looks like they would have spread anyway.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract (Mexican Vanilla)

1 egg (the original recipe called for egg substitute)

2 1/4 cups gluten-free flour (Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 bag mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 and butter your cookie sheet. Mix butter, sugar(s) and egg. (I mixed this by hand with a wooden spoon. The dietician mentioned if you use your regular mixer the wheat flour dust from earlier baking projects could get into the gluten free dough.) In a separate bowl add gluten free flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and stir with a fork. Combine the butter and flour mixtures and add the chocolate chips. If you're worried about the cookies spreading to much, bake a test cookie so you can see how it'll come out. If it spreads too much add a spoonful or two more gluten free flour. I added more flour until the dough just didn't allow me to add any more (like 1/2 C) you don't want the dough to be in crumbles. Drop cookies by the spoonful (you may need to sort-of help shape them by hand) onto a buttered cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool 2-5 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet.

*A Note About Ingredients: To really make sure what you're baking is gluten free check the ingredient lists for the items called for in the recipe.

Recipe Source: All Recipes: Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free) by Barbara Arnold

We took some of the chocolate chip cookies with us downtown for a Saturday morning photography trip; homework for my daughters digital photography class. Not all of us are on a gluten free diet, but the cookies are family friendly! Here are some pics I took while she was doing homework.

 We've got a fancy new skywalk right in the middle of downtown. Very metro.

 Urban forest and parking.

 Fountain at the "City Creek Commons."

 Another very cool fountain.

Good luck with the cookies!

Suz

Snow White (Light)

Turn back the calendar to the 1950's, to a small town in Idaho not far from Bear Lake. On the main drag there's a Rexall drug store where my mom worked as a soda jerk. This is the reason we had a "soda fountain" birthday party for her this year. My daughter made a 50's play list, there were pink and grey balloons and streamers and poodle applique decor.

Planning the party, I learned about soda fountain drinks I'd never heard of like Black Cows and Snow White. When the party arrived I decided to try the Snow White (with updated ingredients).

 

Snow White (Light)
Sprite Zero
Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
Lime (quarter - optional)

Add 1-2 scoops of frozen yogurt to a cup. Pour Sprite Zero over the ice cream until the cup is about 2/3rds full. The drink will bubble up, so wait a minute then add more Sprite Zero to fill the cup. Add the juice from a quarter of a lime. Serve with a straw and spoon.

Enjoy,

Suz

The Soup Kitchen

The Soup Kitchen (Sugarhouse, Utah)

The Soup Kitchen is one of the places my husband and the guys from his work used to go to lunch when he worked in Sugarhouse. It's located in an older neighborhood--and is across the street from a used bookstore. Score! You may have a difficult time finding parking, but you can usually find a spot. The prices are reasonable and it's especially nice on a cold, cloudy day. You'll find cool 70's art on the walls, a huge chalk board menu and a clear-your-own table environment that enfolds you in a feeling of "welcome."

Above: The Soup Kitchen Special (SKS) turkey, bacon, swiss sandwich.

They're famous for their chunky breadsticks. The Cream of Tomato soup is so creamy and good it makes me think of the soup described in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory without the blueberry ending. ;)

(The soup is at :21 seconds)

The Soup Kitchen

2012 South 1100 East

Sugarhouse, UT

Suzanne
Cookbook Bites
Subscribe to Cookbook Bites (Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, AIM) 
Get posts right to your inbox (Subscribe right below my pic)

Yosemite

I learned the name "Ansel Adams" when I was a kid because of a photo of "Aunt Tilly" (as my dad would call her) which was hung on the wall directly behind where I practiced the piano. The photo is actually called "Woman Behind Screen Door, Independence, California." I would wonder "Is she really my aunt?" and "Is she watching me practice?" (In a Haunted Mansion kind of way.) Ansel Adams also photographed Yosemite National Park which is where my family visited this summer.

The black and white photo above? Not an Ansel Adams, my husband took it. Scroll down to see the photo in color.

Wow! Right?!? In the late afternoon we came to an outlook with a view of Bridal Veil falls. At first we could see the mist at the bottom of the falls was kind of orange. After a few moments the mist of the waterfall had blossomed into a rainbow.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast, the Alpenglo Inn, just outside of the park. Which I recommend for amazing sunsets, star gazing, constellation-spotting and Milky Way viewing (take your Off spray). Tim, who runs the inn, made us a hearty breakfast casserole, the recipe he said was traditional Americana goodness--Betty Crocker. I'm not sure if this is the recipe, but I think it's close: Do Ahead Breakfast Bake. I think I'll try baking it when the ice cream trucks have retired for the season. There's a point during summer in Utah when you just stop using the oven.

I took this photo with my phone. I didn't want to make a production by getting my camera. Taking pictures at the table? You know, etiquette and all. ;)

Hope you're having a nice summer!

Suz