Chilaquiles

Sadly, as many of you already found out, my beloved Mexico national team was eliminated once again in the round of 16 none other by the same team that knocked them out 4 years ago; Argentina. You live and learn from your mistakes and move on, but I have high hopes for the future of the national team as many young hopefuls showed signs of greatness during the tournament. All in all, it was enjoyable month of soccer, minus all the controversy involved in a lot of the games.

Anyways, onto my World Cup cook-up. I decided to go with one of my all time favorite breakfast mexican dishes; Chilaquiles. It comes in many different styles depending on the preference of whomever is cooking it, but the general makeup of the dish is:

Corn tortillas (chips)
Sauce
Eggs
Cheese

I've had versions with added meats and vegitables before, but I enjoy the simple make up a lot better. With a small plate of rice and beans, a glass of orange juice, and family near by, you can bet there will be a smile on my brown face!

Onto my recipe. This can be labeled as a fast, last minute, version of it since I used pre-stale/fried tortilla chips from Superior. Some methods require up to an hour to make it depending on if you create your tortilla chips from scratch using stale corn tortillas.

Ingredients:

Corn Tortilla Chips
Salsa
Eggs (scrambled)
Cheese
Salt
Pepper
Vegitable Oil

Process:
Preheat a skillet on medium and throw in a little bit of vegitable oil and a hand-full of chips (or any amount of your preference) and do your best to soften up the corn chips. This is to allow the chips to soak up some of the salsa once it is added. Do not soften them to much because you want them to have a little bit of a crunch when they are ready to eat. Next add in the salsa or pre- made sauce of your choice; add it little by little so that the majority of the tortilla chips are covered.



Next add in the scrabbled egg (I used about 1 egg per handfull of tortilla chips) and mix into the sauce and chips.


Once the eggs are all cooked, throw the mix onto a plate and top with cheese. Tada! You have a nice plate of Chilaquiles.



Just to let you know, this does not serve justice to what Chilaquiles can taste like. While my recipe was good, I have tried versions and many different places that were amazingly delicious. The Arizona Cafe in Bakersfield is a prime example of what Chilaquiles should always taste like. I'm not quite sure how they do it, but every time I eat there everything is absolutely perfect. It's not the healthiest thing to eat, and you will probably fall asleep shortly after eating it, but my goodness it is so delicious it is always a must visit every time I take a trip back home.

-Joe

Firecracker Sliders

How can you celebrate Independence Day without burgers?  It's just not American.  So, for the 4th of July, I decided to make sliders with a bit of an... Asian... flare.  I call 'em my Firecracker Sliders.

Firecracker Sliders:

3 lbs of 70% lean ground beef
1 grated carrot
1/2 super duper finely chopped sweet onion
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of dried garlic
2 tablespoons of mirin
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 packages of King's Hawaiian Bread Rolls (24 total)
Spicy mayo (mixture of mayo and chili sauce)
1 mashed avocado
Sliced swiss cheese

In a big bowl, combine beef, carrot, onion, salt, pepper, garlic, mirin, and soy sauce.  Use your hands!  Don't be afraid to stick your foot in there.  Food needs love, too.  Do not overmix or the meat will become tough as it cooks.  The grated carrot gives the meat extra moisture, added sweetness, and a great way to sneak in those veggies. 

This should make 24 patties.  Just keep dividing the meat mixture in half until you have 24.  The patties should be fairly thick, maybe 1.5 inches.

Cook the patties over a high heat grill, about 4 minutes on each side.  Flip the patty only 1 time and do not press it down with your spatula.  I guarantee you will have a juicier patty if you follow my rules.  Place a piece of swiss cheese on the patty during the last minute of cooking.  Slice the Hawaiian bread in half.  Spread spicy mayo and avocado on the patty.  It's a guaranteed yum yum in your tum tum. 

Serve with a nice salad.

Spaghetti with Baked Mussels

Pasta to me is a blank canvas waiting for someone to draw on it.  There are so many different things you can do with it.  The sauces, the meats, the vegetables, the cheeses, the combinations are limitless. 

Spaghetti with Baked Mussels

1 package of spaghetti
1 can of diced tomatoes (Italian style preferred)
2 garlic cloves chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Dried parsley
Frozen mussels
Olive oil
Handful of julienned basil
Baguette (optional)

Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions just shy of 1 or 2 minutes in salted water.  One trick I've learned about how much salt to add is add enough like you would season a soup.  You will later cook the spaghetti more in the sauce so you want the noodles to be just shy of perfectly al dente.  Place the frozen mussels on a baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil on top and season with salt, pepper, and dried parsley.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

In a big pan, combine the spaghetti, canned tomatoes, chopped garlic, basil, and salt and pepper to taste in medium heat and cook for about 5 minutes. 

Serve the spaghetti with baked mussels and sliced bread.  Enjoy!

Toasto

It took me some time to recover from the depression I experienced after Korea's devastating loss to Argentina, so I apologize for the delay in this post.  Korea 2014!

As mentioned before, Joe and I wanted to honor our teams by cooking the food from their countries.  Since the South Korea game was in the morning, we decided to do breakfast.  Wait... breakfast in Korea?  Isn't that just rice and soup and kimchi?  Yes, the traditional breakfast does, but there is a food that the Koreans call "Toasto" (basically a fobby toast).  It's super buttered toast with a veggie omelet, lots of ketchup, and sugar in between.  I don't know how you can go wrong with that!

Toasto:

2 finely chopped carrots
1/2 finely chopped cabbage
12 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Buttered and toasted white bread
Ketchup
Brown sugar

First, finely chop the carrots and cabbage.

Mix the eggs, vegetables, salt, and pepper in a big bowl.  In medium-high heat, and oil the pan with butter to make individual omelettes in the size of the bread or a big omelette if you can flip it.  Cook until egg is cooked through.  Toast and butter all sides of the white bread.  Put an omelette on the toast, liberally squeeze ketchup on top, sprinkle about 1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar, depending on how sweet you like it, on top of the ketchup and enjoy!  A super easy, fattening, sugary "Korean" breakfast.

Down it with a glass of Korean rice wine or a few shots of soju, and you'll really feel Korean in the morning!

World Cup!

In honor of World Cup, we will be posting a series of World Cup related food adventures.  I'm rooting for South Korea (Ohhh! Pilseung Korea!) and Joe will be rooting for Mexico (GOAL GOAL GOAL GOOOOOOAL!).  You will be pleasantly surprised for our World Cup finals battle.  Stay tuned to find out!

Good luck to everyone's team (if they made it)!

Mystery Meat Challenge

Ah, mystery meat.  You can never go wrong with a little fried up mystery meat.  Spam, sausages, and - the main ingredient for this battle - hot dogs.  Wikipedia defines a hot dog as "a moist sausage of soft, even texture and flavor, often made from meat slurry."  Wtf is meat slurry?  Nope, nope, I don't want to know. 

Who won this one?  Did the men prove that only those with wieners can cook up a mean wiener?  No, sir!  In this hot dog battle, the woman showed that her wiener was the best... by default, anyway.  Joe and I were supposed to battle it out before game 2 of the NBA finals but he was too busy throwing rocks at the Hollywood sign or something to arrive in time for the battle.  Joe 1, Linda 2!!!  In your face, tostada!

The inspiration for this dog came from the OC Greek Festival we attended a couple weekends ago.  Lamb, gyros, feta, baklava, oh my! 

My Big, Fat, Greek (Hot) Dog

8 all beef dogs (I bought whatever was on sale)
4 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

4 pitas cut in half

1 cucumber, half chopped and half sliced
1/2 lemon

2 chopped garlic cloves

8 oz Greek yogurt, drained of excess liquid
Feta cheese
Sliced tomatoes

Sliced black olives

Sliced onion

Combine the olive oil, oregano, crushed red pepper, and garlic powder.  Cut slits into the dogs and cover with marinade.  I let the dogs marinade in the fridge overnight. 

Drain yogurt of any excess liquid.  I put the yogurt on a bunch of paper towels and let the towels soak up the liquid for about 20 minutes.  You'll be surprised at how much liquid comes out!  Combine yogurt, chopped cucumber, juice from 1/2 lemon, chopped garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.  This is a very good and quick tzatziki sauce. 

Grill the dogs until golden brown and grill the pita until warm. 

Place a dog into the pita bread, add tomatoes, cucumber slices, onion, tzatziki sauce, and top with feta cheese and olives.  ENJOY!

Here is the hot dog our Italian friend, John, made for shizz and giggles.  Hot dog, parsley, artichoke wrapped in a Pillsbury Crescent dough, wrapped in bacon and grilled then placed inside a hot dog bun topped with artichoke, parsley, tomato, and cream cheese.  It's one of those foods you see on thisiswhyyourefat dot com.  It was actually pretty good because of the crispiness from the bacon and crescent roll.  One bite was enough for me.

Battle Break

I hope everybody got to enjoy their 3-day weekend!  I know we've been MIA the last couple of weeks, but I promise we'll battle again real soon!  A little taste of Solo Ensemble for you, perhaps?  In the meantime, here's my spinach and artichoke dip recipe to keep you crazy kids interested. 

Linda's Spinach and Artichoke Dip

3 8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature
8 oz sour cream
3 cloves of chopped garlic
1 package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained of excess liquid
1 can of artichokes, chopped
1/2 cup of parmesan plus more for topping
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of butter cut up into pieces
Cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a big bowl, mix cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, spinach, artichokes, parmesan, salt, and pepper.  Even spread mixture into a 8x8 baking dish. Top with more parmesan, pieces of butter, and sprinkle with cayenne pepper. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips, veggies, or sliced French bread. Mouth watering! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to show you, but here's what I did with the leftovers:

Spinach and artichoke omelette with baby spinach, cranberry, walnut salad with orange vinaigrette for brunch. Huzzah!

And just for shizz and giggles:

R.I.P. Mustacheerio