Black Bean Dip

This is a recipe from Bryan's Aunt Andrea. Doesn't look pretty but it tastes wonderful.

1 15oz can of black beans
1C grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 7oz can of Herdez Salsa Verde (I used Trader Joe's, probably any salsa verde will work)

Drain beans and mix with salsa and cheese in bowl. Place in oven safe dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips. (If it is a little runny, it will thicken as it cools)

Random restaurant in Hannibal

On a lazy drive back home Bryan and I stopped in Hannibal to go to the Mark Twain cave that was written about in his stories and to wander around the town a bit. Bryan picked this restaurant based on this sign:

The Rumor Has it Bar and Grill is not a high falutin' establishment but it was perfect day and they had tables outside. Food was really good. I have never had a waitress under 30 so excited about a Ruben sandwich. I got a "girrrrrrl you gotta get the Ruben, it is awesome!"

And it was. Bryan's burger was very good and pure beef taste. Skip the fries and go for the onion rings. Fries were good, onion rings were better. Prices were very reasonable.

My attempts at Salsa

Salsa is good stuff and fresh salsa is awesome. The problem is that there is so much variance of what people like in terms of flavor and heat. Stephen's project this summer was to keep the variety of pepper plants alive that I bought for him to make salsa with because he likes hot and spicy things. I had no idea what I was buying, I just grabbed a variety. Three of them seem to be winners for different reasons. The Habaneros have flowers but haven't produced anything and the Tai Hot aren't ready so I can't judge them. The gypsy peppers are just kind of there and haven't used them too much. Here are the peppers we grew and used, what they look like and their Scoville Units

Serrano 22,000













Anaheim 2,500












Caribbean Red 400,000










For the salsa we also used jalapeno (jalapeno is 8,000)
and a long skinny one purchased at Dierbergs that only listed it as "pepper." which didn't have a lot of heat, just nice flavor. I will try to find out what the heck it was but so far every visual guide I have found doesn't list it. A lot of times salsa doesn't really have good flavor, it is just hot. I wanted to focus on the flavor first and then build up the heat. The equipment I used proved invaluable. The first, surprisingly, was the salad spinner. The second was my Kitchenaid food processor. I am not going to be able to give a specific recipe list, sorry, but more a guide of things to add. The problem is with a true recipe you need measurements but there are too many variables, such as how big are the tomatoes, how are their flavor, how hot is this particular pepper, etc. So this is my process if you would like to try your own hand at making and experimenting.

Equipment:
2 cutting boards
2 knives
rubber gloves
food processor
salad spinner

Ingredients
Serrano pepper
Anaheim pepper
Caribbean Red pepper ( I didn't use this for my personal batch and you might not be able to find it)
Jalapeno
mystery long green pepper
green bell pepper
lime
garlic gloves
tomato (several, around 5)
white onion
salt
cilantro (optional)

OK! This is my process. I keep two cutting boards for this I didn't want to get any of the oil from the peppers on where I would be cutting up the other ingredients. Stephen and my first experiment was good, just too watery, then last Saturday when I was watching James Cecil chop up the tomatoes and we were complaining about the watery salsa issue I realised the salad spinner might take care of that, which it did beautifully. So when it came time for me to try I got that thing out right away. It got all of the water out and most of the seeds.

Since this was a experiment with many small batches being made I decided to get all the basic ingredients ready first so I could just mix them up with the peppers rather than having a puree. First, each ingredient was chopped up separately in the processor and returned to bowls. This includes the onion, garlic, green bell pepper, tomato (post spinner) and lime. Now most recipes call for lime juice, I chopped off a chunk off small each end squeezed out the juice and threw the middle section rest in. The lime zest added a beautiful flavor to it. If you are not sure about that just add the juice, but I will be adding the zest from now on.

Now the peppers. This is important, Please please please use gloves when handling/chopping the peppers. Use a cutting board and knife just for them. This is not a joke. Do not eat the peppers by themselves, especially not the Caribbean red. It is the fifth pepper from getting to the levels of pepper spray. Cecil literally had puffy burns on his face from it because he didn't realise how dangerous the thing was. They went down but yikes! It has a wonderful flavor and adds that warming heat in small quantities. Basically it is a five to ten second delay, and it will become milder after the salsa has sat for a day or two.

There were two small main batches we made. One was medium but flavorful and the other was a hot. Both had the same beginning. This is listed in "abouts." All of these ingredients were already chopped except for the peppers.

1st batch
Serrano pepper about a 1" piece
Anaheim pepper 2" piece
mystery long green pepper 1" piece

These were added to the processor and chopped up with about a teaspoon of the lime Then I added the rest of the ingredients.

green bell pepper 1 T
garlic gloves 1 t
tomato 1 1/2C
white onion 2 T
salt 1t

You might have to add more or so of each of these. Just experiment The second batch was the same, except this time the burn was added.

1" of jalapeno
1/2" of Caribbean red

The jalapeno was the nice initial hot flavor and the Caribbean red balanced out the finish. These were good to eat right away, they didn't need to sit. The lime can get too potent overnight so you might want to put a little more juice and a less zest. We were eating some right away so it was pretty darn good. Again, this was stuff I liked. I don't know what everyone else enjoys so like I mentioned before, it is hard to make a recipe for this. Enjoy experimenting!

Places we like in Chicago

There are more restaurants than you can imagine in Chicago, so I am not going to say these are the best or whatever. However, these are a few restaurants that Bryan and I like and make a point of going to when we are visiting Jessi and John. If anyone has a place they particularly like please let me know! We always like to try something new!

First up - Portillo's

This is one of the few things we can thank Steve's ex for. It is very good and known for their hot dogs. Order at a counter type. I do not eat hot dogs, but I am more than happy with the roast beef sandwiches and their chopped salad with their house dressing is amazing. There are several locations but I believe the main is downtown (it is the biggest one I have gone to) It even has a very nice patio for the month that it is pleasant weather.

Fogo de Chao
Meat. SOOOOO much meat. You get a card. One side is red. One side is green. Red means leave me alone. Green means BRING MEAT. And they do....so much meat. Small bits so you can try everything. We aren't talking Pondersoa "quality." This is lamb, and filet mingnon (with or without bacon) and steak and chicken and pork....The whole thing isn't cheap but we were able to go on a weekday and it was less expensive. It was worth it. They also bring sides to the table, and one thing I liked alot is that they would give you a clean plate every so often. A word to the wise, the salad bar is there to slow you from the meats. Eat a little so you don't get sick but don't fill up on the amazing cheeses and veggies they have or you will have less room for meat.

Pizza
There are two places we get pizza for Chicago style. Perry's and Giordanos.
Perry's is heavy thick pizza. As in one sliced kicked Bryan's brother Kevin's butt and Bryan himself usually maxes out at 3. I am a 1.5 slice person. I prefer it to Giordanos, but it is more out of the way and there is only one location. It is my favorite Chicago style.
Giordanos is also very good. Heavy pizza and leftovers are good for breakfast. Both of these serve the traditional sauce on top which keeps everything from getting overdone, especially when you microwave it later.

Goose Island
They make beer but like most "smaller" breweries (meaning not Miller or AB) they have a restaurant. I am not a beer drinker but I do like me a root beer now and again. Good pub style food. Parking can be a pain in the butt though.