In the Kitchen Again...

I'm always looking for new dinner ideas overseas, and the other day, I feel like I hit the jackpot! Our oven was not working and it was going to be a few days before someone could come fix it. Of course in that moment, the only things I could think to make involved the oven, when in reality, we don't use it that much.

Today, I'm posting three recipes: a creamy pasta, chocolate chip cookie bars, and pico de gallo.

So, oven is out and you don't want plain pasta again, enter Creamy Spinach Tomato Tortellini! This recipe was ready in just 30 minutes, and it was so delicious...and really rich. Here's what you'll need:

• 1 bag regular sized Barilla three cheese tortellini (8 oz) or 16 oz fresh tortellini in the refrigerated section of your grocery store (fresh 4 cheese = amazing)
• 2 teaspoon minced garlic (I just cut up garlic cloves because I have yet to find a jar of this)
• 1 cup chopped fresh spinach
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon onion flakes
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

First go ahead and cook your tortellini and set it off to the side. Meanwhile chop your spinach up. Then heat a large skillet using medium heat and put the two teaspoons of minced garlic into it (or your fresh garlic with a tiny bit of oil). Sautee it until fragrant, just briefly. Then add into the skillet the petite diced tomatoes (undrained), spinach, salt, pepper, dried basil, and onion flakes. Cook and stir over medium high heat until the mixture begins to bubble.

In another bowl, combine the flour and half-and-half. Whisk until fairly smooth.  Add this mixture into the the skillet along with the parmesan cheese. Heat through and reduce the heat to medium low and continue to stir and cook until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Mix in the drained tortellini gently and you're done! Seriously, a delicious meal!!

 Second thing I want to share with you: an incredibly easy recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I'm sure I'll make them again because they were no mess and few ingredients. Tasted like home :) So, you'll need:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup flour sifted
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

First melt your butter. Let it cool for a minute, then add your brown sugar, egg, and vanilla.  Mix them all well. Then add your other dry ingredients gradually. Hold off on the chocolate chips!!! You don't mix them in. Blend well and pour into a 9x9 greased or floured pan.  Now you can add your chocolate chips, you top the pan off with them and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

And, if you're still with me, I made some Pico de Gallo to go with some tacos for lunch today and my friend loved them! I'm pretty sure it was the cilantro, but just in case, here you have this recipe too:

2 or 3 Roma tomatoes
1 sweet onion
1/2 -1 c. chopped cilantro
1/2 lime, squeezed
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
<Feel free to add a jalepeño. I asked for one and since Argentines don't do spice, we don't have them here. I got another red small pepper in its family and I swear to you it was 5x hotter than a jalepeño! Needless to say, I didn't add it.>

Chop up the tomatoes (keeping the juices), then the onion and cilantro. Squeeze the lime over it and add your salt and pepper. Mix together and chill before serving. I also would like to add that I got all of the above produce for just $1.80 today! Just another thing to love about Argentina.

Adventures in Cooking.

Often times I think "adventures" is a code word we use for things that go terribly wrong, but I haven't had any cooking mishaps here yet! All my experiments have turned out really well, thankfully. I will say I'm on a great team of amazing housewives because they can all cook! One makes cinnamon rolls for every team meeting, the other has homemade pancakes, french toast or waffles made every time we're over, and the other gave me a recipe I'm about to share with you.

America I've learned since being here is the land of convenience. You may think I'm dumb for having to leave the country to figure that out (i.e, convenience stores) but it's true. I miss going to Wal-Mart for all my needs (for the record, there is a Wal-Mart here, I just haven't been yet... it's not too far away though). When I go shopping for groceries, I have to plan where I'm going to get what things. Cocoa and poppyseeds are from the dietetica. Meat of any kind is cheapest at the carneceria. The Chinese Supermercados are relatively cheap and convenient, and the Bolivians have the best fruit stands, for the most part. So, to make most night's dinners I've traveled to about 4 stores to get everything.

I've been asked for 2 receipes lately and I thought if I could make these things here in Argentina with what limited supplies we have, then I'll share them so wherever you're at in the world, you can *hopefully* make them too!

Banana Bread (w/ Brown Sugar Glaze)
-3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed
-1/3 c. melted butter (76 g.)
-3/4 c - 1c sugar
-1 egg, beaten
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp baking soda
-Pinch of salt
-1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

*Glaze
-1/2 c. packed brown sugar
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-2 Tbsp water

Preaheat the oven to 350* (175*C). With wooden spoon, mix butter and bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture & mix in. Add the flour last and mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 loaf pan (or do muffin cups). *Mix glaze ingredients together and drizzle on top of bread before baking. Bake for 1 hour and then cool on a rack.

**Okay, so it wasn't really a drizzle. It was more like dousing it. But don't worry, it will seep around the edges and get to the sides and bottom of the bread and it will turn out like this picture, and taste really good!

 

I made stir fry the other night it was so simple and so fresh! I love experimenting with it because you can always try different veggies with whatever you have and honestly, how can you mess up stir fry? I apologize in advance, I am my mother's daughter and I didn't really measure this stir fry sauce... I kind of made it up as I went along, so bear with me. But take heart, you can't mess up a stir fry!!

Chicken Stir Fry
-Whatever veggies you want! For me, that included: Mushrooms, Broccoli, Purple onion, Snap peas, Cabbage and Carrots. Argentina vendors sell really cool prepackaged shredded vegetables and I was thankful for this. Other wise I would finely chop it up so it cooks through quickly.
-2 Chicken breast
-Cooking oil
-1/2 lemon
And for the sauce:
-Soy sauce, about 1/2 c. more or less. 
-1 garlic clove, finely chopped
-Sugar, maybe 1 tbsp (I think I went back and added a little more though)
-Brown sugar, 1 tbsp
-Dash of white vinegar
-flour, 1 or 2 tbsp
-little bit of water (should be half of the amount of water you add) (to my credit, you are supposed to make this using cornstarch. Without cornstarch, you can use flour and water, so I was guessing for its consistency. If you have it, use 1 Tbsp of Cornstarch).
-1/2 lemon

Ok, if you've stuck with me this far, you're doing great.

For your sauce, you're going to want to mix all those 8 ingredients together in some kind of bottle and shake it up! The point of the flour/water combo is to thicken it, but mine was still watery, so don't worry about it. It's all going to cook into the veggies anyway. And if you think it smells too much of soy sauce, that's what the sugars and lemon are for! Seriously, that's why I don't have a good measure of them, is because I kept added to it. Once the sauce it made, we can move on to the chicken.

With the chicken, cut it into cubes and put it into a skillet with a little bit of oil. Squeeze that half lemon over it and just let the chicken cook for a little bit. Before it gets too white, pour a little bit of sauce into the skillet so the chicken soaks the flavor. Keep it on low heat and then focus on your veggies.

I added some oil to my biggest skillet since I was without a wok and added my broccoli and snap peas since I knew they could be the hardest to cook. Once they're getting dark green but not brown, add the rest of your veggies (and oil if necessary)... and before long you're going to add all your sauce. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, stirring. You know it's ready when the vegetables aren't hard. Throw your chicken into the mix and you're done! Serve over some rice and enjoy.

Fall in Argentina, Summer in my Mouth (is that awkward??)

Y'all, I have to say that although it's a steady 60 degrees here and leaves falling all around, I was desperate for one last summer salad. Dressings here are terrible (Ranch is a watery substitute...) and oil and vinegar is okay if you like pure olive juice. So for our team meeting yesterday, I was craving a salad with strawberries and caramelized nuts (which you can find on street corners everywhere here) and behold, I knew this was the perfect dressing for it:




Perfect Strawberry-Poppyseed Dressing
1 clove garlic
1/8 slice of a small purple onion
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c fresh strawberries, raspberries (or 2 T. raspberry jam)
1/3 c white vinegar
1/2 c extra light olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp poppyseeds

Place all ingredients (except poppyseeds) into a blender. Blend until entirely pureed. Stir in poppyseeds. Serve immediately over your favorite salad for store for up to 48 hours.

My notes: What the heck is 1/8 slice of a small purple onion? I do not know. So I used a small amount, maybe 1 Tbsp. of onion. I actually doubled the recipe (except for the garlic and onion) since it was for 12 adults, but there was plenty left over. Probably could have done without doubling it. I also used red wine vinegar. I don't know if that made it more pink or not, but it was still sweet. And since I can't stand a hint of olive, I used sunflower oil instead of olive oil. Basically, make do with what you have and it should come out fine. I love this stuff!!

Holy Guacamole!

As promised, here is a recipe for amazing guacamole from my trusted Colombian friend, Alexandra. It is all natural, no spices--unless you count salt. It varies a little bit from what I learned in Mexico, but it's still fresh. Growing up my mom always added sour cream, cumin, garlic salt and additional spices... but when you take that away it is SO much better (I think) (sorry mom!), I promise you!

You will need:

• Green Onions
• 2-3 Tomatoes
• 1 Onion
• 3 Lemons 
• 1 Banana Pepper
• 6-7 Avocados
• Fresh Cilantro
• Salt to your taste

 

Look at all that freshness!

Really it's a no brainer to make this.  But some of the steps are different (see the grater to the right??) than how I would make it at home. So, in 10 or less easy steps, here you go:

1. Finely chop up your green onion and add to the bowl.
2. Grate your tomato. See picture below. I cut it in half and shred it like a block of cheese.

3. Add the avocados! Scoop out the good stuff and then smash it up with a fork.
4. Then chop up the onion (the finer the better, I think) and mix it in!
5. Next add your lemon juice. Start with half... but you'll probably end up using all of this.

6. Cilantro! Finely chop it up and add. I don't have an amount for it, but can you ever have too much?
7. Take your banana pepper and make sure you scoop out all your seeds! Else it will be hotter than you ever imagined. Just like the tomato, shred/grate it, leaving only the skin.
8. Salt! This started with 7 avocados, so you'll probably want quite a bit I think.

Yum!