Happy Spoons.

Creepster Spoon likes Mexican-Style Loaded Baked Potatoes…a little too much.*

Recipe (adjust amounts to personal taste and number of potato-eaters):

• russet potatoes, washed and scrubbed
• olive oil to coat the potatoes
• salt, to taste
• soyrizo (or chorizo, your call)
• avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced
• roma tomato, cubed
• green onions, sliced into little bits
• sour cream
• cheese shreds (I use cheddar rice cheese or cotija cheese)
• hot sauce (Tapatio is my hot sauce of choice, ole!)

Directions:

• Scrub the potatoes under running water so they are nice and clean!
• Fork those taters! (poke holes in them with a fork)
• Coat the potatoes in olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
• Bake at 350 °F for 1 hour, placing directly on the rack in the middle of the oven.
• Cut open your potato, and add all of the toppings at will.  Don’t be shy!  Eat it; it’s so delicious!

Fun Fact: The more toppings you pile onto your potato, the more delicious it will become.  The more the merrier!

*Happy Spoons original recipe!

Happy Spoon likes to make Chorizo and Egg Veggie Burritos.*

Recipe (makes two burritos):

• 1 tube soyrizo
• 3 green onions, diced
• about 1-2 cups frozen cut spinach
• 4 eggs
• 2 large tortillas (I use whole wheat)
• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• Hot sauce (optional)
• Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions:

• Heat the oil in a large skillet, and add the green onions.  Sautee for ~3 min.
• Add the frozen spinach, and allow it to thaw, breaking it apart.
• Add the soyrizo, and fry everything together until hot and the chorizo starts to look tasty and sizzle and whatnot.
• Add the eggs into the skillet, and mush around until they are cooked and everything is all mixed up.
• Warm the tortillas by microwaving them for 10 s or heating briefly on a large dry skillet; set aside.
• Scoop the chorizo mixture onto the tortillas and wrap them up like a burrito!  Add hot sauce or cheese to your liking.

Fun Fact: A great way to make a tasty chorizo and egg breakfast burrito, but much healthier than normal (soyrizo tastes the same as chorizo but without the fat, and spinach makes it healthy…right?).

*Happy Spoons original recipe!

Happy Spoon likes to make Chorizo Sopes with Fresh Tomatillo Salsa.

Recipe (featured in Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless):

• 2 1/4 cups instant masa flour mix, mixed with 1.5 cups hot water, covered, and left to stand for 20 min
• 2 Tbsp vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup flour (+ 1 Tbsp for masa)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• small can of black beans, juices retained
• 12 oz soyrizo (I use soyrizo instead of chorizo, for the health benefits!)
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1/2 cup crumbled Mexican cheese (I like cotija)
• lettuce (optional)

Tomatillo Salsa:

• 8 oz tomatillos, husked, stemmed, and washed
• 2 serrano chiles (SPICY! you can use less spicy chiles if you wish, like jalapenos or even mild green chiles like pasillas or Anaheim peppers)
• 6 sprigs of fresh cilantro (aka coriander)
• 1/2 small yellow onion
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Salsa:

• Boil the tomatillos in salted water for ~9 min until barely tender, then drain.
• Add all the ingredients to a food processor or blender; coarsely puree.
• Let stand for ~30 min to allow the flavors to blend.
• Salsa time!  (you can eat this by itself with chips, or serve on tops of your sopes!)

Sopes:

• With the moistened masa mix, add shortening, flour, salt, and baking powder.  I used a pastry blender to thoroughly mix in the shortening, similar to making a pie crust from scratch.  After ingredients are mixed, knead until the consistency allows you to form dough balls.  If you need to, add 1 Tbsp of water at a time to moisten the dough and adjust consistency.
•  Divide the dough into ~12 balls, covering with plastic wrap when not in use.  Flatten each ball into a small disc, ~2.5 inch in diameter.
• Heat a skillet over medium heat, and cook each masa disc about 2 min on each side, until lightly browned.
• Cut each masa disc in half like a hamburger bun, keeping them covered in plastic wrap when not being used.  You are supposed to form ridges around the edges of the masa discs to hold toppings, but I didn’t do this because it was too much work.
• Start cooking the toppings.  Put the beans in a small saucepan with their juices and heat, covered, until warmed and juices thickened into a beany broth.
• Cook the soyrizo in a small skillet with 1 Tbsp oil over medium-low heat until crispy (for real chorizo, you’ll need to drain the fat afterwards); cover to keep warm.
• Fry the masa discs!  Heat ~3/4 in oil in a skillet (to ~360 °F).  Fry each masa disc ~3-4 min until lightly browned and lightly crispy.  Drain on paper towels and keep warm in a low oven.
• Assemble the sopes!  These are kind of like mini tostadas; masa disc on the bottom, scoop a Tbsp or so each of beans, chorizo, and tomatillo salsa.  You can put lettuce on it too, but I decided that this was too messy and didn’t add much to the overall dish.  Top with crumbly Mexican cheese, like cotija or queso fresco.
• Eat them up, yum!

Fun Fact: These are supposed to be appetizers according to Rick Bayless…but I definitely ate them as a meal.

Happy Spoon likes to make Taco Biscuit Ring.*

Recipe (featured in my childhood, invented by my mother):

Serves ~2-3 people, double the recipe for more!

• 1 roll of Pillsbury crescent roll dough (I use the reduced fat dough)
• ~1-1.5 cups cooked carne asada, chopped (alternatively, cook ground beef with a packet of taco seasoning, omitting the food processor step)
• 1 yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 serrano chile, stem removed (SPICY!)
• ~1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used Monterey Jack or soy cheese)
• 1 Tbsp Mexican seasoning
• dried parsley, for aesthetic appeal (or to distinguish the half with real cheese from the half with sad soy cheese)
• taco biscuit toppings (I like sliced avocado, hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, etc.)

Directions:

• Combine the carne asada, bell pepper, chile, and Mexican seasoning in a food processor or blender and blend briefly until the consistency of ground beef.
• Lightly grease a pizza pan or cookie sheet (I use PAM baking spray…magical!); preheat the oven to 375 °F.
• Separate the crescent roll dough into the individual triangle pieces. Arrange them in a circle with the points sticking outward.
• On the inside of the circle, scoop the meat/vegetable mixture into a donut shape (as pictured); cover with cheese.
• Grab each point of the dough and wrap it over the meat, tucking it under the center of the ring. If done properly, it will look like the picture above. Cover with parsley to make it pretty!
• Bake in the oven for ~15 min, or until the dough is golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Cut into slices along the meat stripes, serve with avocado and hot sauce (Tapatio!!), or any other taco-appropriate toppings.

Fun Fact: A great way to use leftover cooked meat! Just grind it up and enjoy taco biscuit ring MAGIC DELICIOUSNESS!!!

*Happy Spoons original recipe!

Creepster Spoon likes Sinaloa-Style Charcoal-Grilled Chicken…a little too much.

WARNING: The chicken should be marinated overnight, and it will still take about 1.5 hours to cook after that.

Recipe (featured in Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless):

• Whole chicken (~3.5 lbs)…I found this to be incredibly difficult to deal with a whole chicken, so I would recommend using cut pieces of chicken instead, such as legs or breasts.  Parts of the chicken were nearly overcooked, while other parts were raw.  It was sad news, albeit tasty sad news.
• 1/2 small onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp dried marjoram
• 2 bay leaves, crushed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

• Figure out how to split a chicken for grilling.  I am retarded at it, and apparently I should invest in a meat cleaver or kitchen shears.  This YouTube video was helpful: Splitting a Chicken
• After splitting your chicken, place in a non-corrosive bowl for marinating.
• Puree all the remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Pour the mixture over the chicken, rubbing into the skin.  Cover, and refrigerate overnight, turning the chicken several times.
• Preheat the grill to a medium-high heat, making sure to have the grill positioned about 8 in above the flame.  Lightly oil the grill.  I use PAM grilling spray, which is magical.
• Lay the chicken on the grill skin side up, and grill for ~45 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so (we weren’t sure about the turning…we took it to mean “rotating”, leaving the chicken skin side up the whole time).  It’s supposedly ready when you stab a fork into the thigh meat and clear juices squirt out (as opposed to pink juices).  Again, our chicken was well-cooked in some places and raw in others…I would recommend this recipe for chicken pieces rather than a whole chicken.
• Make an inappropriate joke about juices squirting out of stuff.
• Remove chicken from grill when cooked, then cut up the meat to serve.

Fun Fact:  Eating raw chicken is not as fun as eating cooked chicken.

Happy Spoon likes to make Zucchini with Roasted Peppers, Corn, and Cream.

Recipe (featured in Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless):

• 1 lb zucchini (~4 small zucchinis), cut into cubes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 1 chile poblano (I live in California, and here they are called pasillas at the grocery store), roasted, seeded, peeled, and sliced into strips (if you are lazy, it would probably be acceptable to use drained, canned green chiles instead)
• 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

• Sweat the zucchini: In a colander, toss the zucchini with the salt, and let stand over a plate for 30 min.  Rinse the zucchini and dry on paper towels.
• Prepare the roasted chile poblano while the zucchini sweat it out: There are different ways to do this, but Rick Bayless says to roast it over a gas flame.  Who am I to argue with Rick?  Anyway, I turned up my gas stove to the maximum setting, and holding the chile with tongs, roasted it until the skin was black and blistered all over (about 5 min or so).  Immediately after, wrap it in a damp hand towel to steam for about 5 min.  Rub off the charred skin and rinse.  Remove the seeds, stem, and white veins before cutting into strips.
• In a large skillet, heat the butter and oil over medium-high.  Add the zucchini and cook for 8-10 min, stirring frequently until zucchini are slightly browned.  Remove them from the pan and place in a bowl, leaving as much butter and oil behind in the skillet as possible.  Reduce the heat to medium.
• Add the corn, onion, and chile, cooking for 8-10 min, until onion is lightly browned.
• Stir in the cream and zucchini, and stir for a few minutes until the cream has formed a thick glaze.
• Serve hot, adding salt or pepper to taste if desired.  YUM!

Fun Fact: You could probably sautee anything in cream and it would taste like heaven.