Pesto

Ingredients

• Spaghetti
• A few bunches of fresh basil (there is no standard bunch so you're going to have to go by your gut--more basil is better, though)
• One bunch of cilantro
• 1/2C nuts (Pine nuts for sure. Adding hazelnuts (my preference) and/or walnuts (in a pinch) is not a bad idea.)
• 1/2C extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon (optional)

Directions

1. Start cooking your spaghetti.
2. Heat up some water in a small pot.
3. Remove the big stems from the basil. It doesn't have to be just leaves (although that's nice) but those really big stems aren't going to cut up so well.
4. Twist off the top of the cilantro (usually right above where the twist-tie is) and discard the bottom bunch of stems.
5. Turn off the heat under the water and put both the basil and cilantro in for a few minutes. When done, pour the contents of the pot into a collander.
6. Place a small pan on medium heat and roast the pine nuts by stirring them every so often until they turn color. Make sure they don't burn to a crisp. You can also roast the hazelnuts if you would prefer. This can be done while the greens are soaking.
7. Put all the nuts in a food processor along with a pinch of salt.
8. Turn on the food processor until the nuts are thoroughly chopped.
9. Add olive oil, lemon (if you'd like), and greens. Process until soupy.
10. When spaghetti is ready, take 1/2C of spaghetti water and add to the food processor.
11. Turn on the food processor just long enough to mix. This is your pesto.
12. Drain the spaghetti.
13. Put spaghetti into large mixing bowl.
14. Add pesto and toss until pasta evenly coated.
15. Serve with fresh parmesan cheese and toasted garlic bread on the side.

Chile Verde

Notes

I would make this for chicken enchiladas. Rosa doesn't like my enchiladas so these days I mostly make it for...Chili Verde, which just means simmering pork in this sauce.

Ingredients

• Some tomatillos (I dunno...5, 6, 7, 8?)
• An onion
• Peppers (one Jalapeño for mild, increase for spicy, use Serranos for spicier, etc.)
• How easy is this, right?

Directions

1. Heat a small pot of water.
2. While the water is heating, peel the papery skin off the tomatillos and put them in the water.
3. Simmer the tomatillos until they soften. You can tell because they will change color slightly and look squishier.
4. Drain the tomatillos and place in blender.
5. Blend.
6. Add onion and peppers.
7. Add salt, if desired.
8. Blend.
9. How easy is this, right?

Habañero Chili Sauce

Notes

Another one you didn't grow up with. Rosa makes a chili sauce, much like my grandmother made. Problem is, I don't like it. So I came up with my own. This one's not bad. Hot but not too hot with an interesting taste.

Ingredients

• 4 Habañero Peppers
• 4 Roma Tomatoes
• 2 Carrots, peeled and sliced into chunks
• 1 Brown Onion, peeled and halved
• 1 Roasted Red Bell Pepper (you can roast it over the burner of a gas stove)
• 2 heaping tablespoons Minced Garlic

Directions

1. Put habañeros, tomatoes, carrots, and onion into a pot and cover with water.
2. Heat pot on high until boiling, then simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Turn heat off, place red peppers in pot, and let it sit for a while. Even overnight.
4. Dump pot into a collander and place contents with garlic into a blender.
5. Blend until puréed.

Carnitas

Notes

• You didn't grow up with Carnitas but these are so good that I had to pass them on.
• This started with a post someone shared on Facebook but, as cooks do, I've tweaked it and made it my own.
• This is cooked in a Crock Pot all day but there is still a little bit of work to do in the evening before serving.
• The night it is cooked we make tacos with salsa (and avocado, if we can) and Jarritos to drink.
• A night or two later: nachos.

Ingredients

• Pork shoulder/butt (depending on where you go) with a nice layer of fat on top and preferably a bone inside
• 1C Orange Juice
• 4 California Chile pods (they're smoked Anaheims)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cumin seeds
• 2 heaping tablespoons Garlic (I use minced)
• 1 Medium Onion, chopped
• 3 Jalapeño Chiles, chopped
• 3 Serrano Chiles, chopped

Directions

1. Start preparations in the morning.
2. Pour orange juice into Crock Pot.
3. Place pork, with fat layer on top, into pot.
4. Cut/tear the California Chiles in half and place in the bottom of the pot.
5. Place the rest of the ingredients on the pork (don't worry, most will fall off and that's fine) and cover.
6. Turn Crock Pot on high and let cook until 30 minutes before serving.
7. Turn off and unplug Crock Pot.
8. Scrape fat and whatnot off top of pork.
9. Transfer pork from pot to large plate, breaking it up as you go.
10. Set up a colander over a bowl in the sink and pour contents of Crock Pot into it.
11. Heat up a cast iron skillet (medium high or 8/10) and pour a couple of tablespoons of oil into it.
12. Dump the pork from the plate into the skillet.
13. Cook pork long enough that the bottom gets a bit crunchy.
14. Turn pork (in sections) over with a flipper spatula. Cook until that side gets crunchy.
15. Turn pork over halfway and spread out over pan.
16. Pour the liquid from the bowl into the pan and simmer until almost gone (some of the liquid is fat and that will not boil away).
17. Serve.

Roast Chicken on Potatoes

Notes

• You might think this dish is about the chicken. Wrong! It is all about the potatoes swimming in chicken fat.
• The chicken does have its purpose, though. Since you are using a whole chicken, after dinner separate the chicken from the carcass and turn that into chicken stock for chicken soup.
• Cooking this always takes longer than I expect. Plan accordingly.
• If you don't have an oven thermometer with a temperature alarm, now is the time to get one.
• You can adjust the amount of potato crispiness by adjusting that first cooking time without the bird. Be careful, though, it doesn't take much to end up with really crispy (which I actually like) or over-done potatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• Several potatoes, washed, unpeeled and cut into cubes (red or russet--I used to use just red but, it turns out, it doesn't really matter)
• Minced garlic
• EV olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• ½ onion
• Fresh rosemary (if available)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 415°.
2. Combine potatoes, enough olive oil to coat them, a few tablespoons of garlic, and salt & pepper to taste in roasting pan.
3. Place in oven for 30 minutes.
4. Rinse bird then stuff with onion and a sprig of rosemary.
5. Place sprigs of rosemary under breast skin, one on each half.
6. After the 30 minutes, take the pan out of the oven. Place bird in the pan, set thermometer alarm to 170°, and insert probe into breast. Place pan back in oven.
7. Cook for another 30 minutes.
8. Set oven to 350°, take pan out of oven, cover with aluminum foil, and place back in oven until done (when the alarm goes off).

Michael-style Deli Sandwich (Coleslaw Sriracha Sandwich)

Notes

Funny thing is, if you Google "coleslaw sriracha sandwich", all you find is a bunch of "sriracha coleslaw" recipes and videos. Near as I can tell, I am the only person on the planet who likes sandwiches this way. I'm a precious snowflake!

Ingredients

• Bag o' coleslaw cabbage
• Jar o' coleslaw sauce
• Sriracha
• Sandwich roll
• Deli meat and cheese and whatnot except condiments

Directions

1. Combine the bag o's in a mixing bowl and mix together.
2. Assemble your sandwich.
3. Spoon coleslaw onto sandwich.
4. Squirt Sriracha on top of coleslaw.
5. Eat yummy sandwich.

Chocolate Scotcheroos

Notes

• A slight variation on the classic, with the chocolate in a middle layer rather than on top.
• The big win here is I can put in some helpful steps that the official recipe doesn't go into.
• If ever there was a recipe that benefits from mise en place, this is it.
• Note that this is one third of the official recipe because this I make these for bicycling snacks, so I don't want them too big. Need to feed a lot of people? Triple it.
• For sticky ingredients like corn syrup and peanut butter, first spray non-stick in the measuring cups. That will help them slide back out.
• The Scotcheroos are going in a 9"x5" loaf pan. It's the same one I use for meat loaf.

Ingredients

• ⅓C corn syrup
• ⅓C sugar
• ⅓C creamy, non-natural peanut butter like Skippy
• 2C Rice Krispies
• ⅓C semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• ⅓C butterscotch morsels

Directions

1. Put the sugar and corn syrup in a small, non-stick pot on the stove.
2. Measure out the peanut butter have it ready to add to the pot.
3. Measure out the Rice Krispies and put them in a bowl.
4. Put the morsels in a microwave-safe bowl and place in the microwave oven.
5. Spray the loaf pan with non-stick then tear off a piece of wax paper big enough to cover it.
6. Now the cooking starts. Turn the burner under the pot onto low-medium heat (my burner is set to 4 out of 10).
7. Start heating the morsels in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until they are almost completely melted. They will be so hot that stirring them a bit more will finish the melting. This keeps them from burning.
8. When the sugar/corn syrup mixture starts simmering, stir (with a wooden spatula, I hope) until it is mostly clear.
9. Turn off the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir until mixed in.
10. Add the Rice Krispies and stir until well-coated.
11. Add ½ of the mixture to the loaf pan and spread a bit with a spatula.
12. Use the wax paper to cover the mixture and spread the mixture evenly and into the corners. The mixture is hot but, hopefully, not too hot through the wax paper. If your fingers aren't as tough as mine, use a towel. It's okay because you're still on the wax paper.
13. Now add the chocolate/butterscotch to the top of the mixture. Don't worry if it doesn't reach the edges.
14. Put the mixture pot back on the stove and the set heat to the lowest setting.
15. Put the loaf pan in the freezer for five minutes.
16. Take the pan out of the freezer and press the remaining mixture into the pan.
17. Cover pan with wax paper and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
18. Take out of refrigerator and the whole thing should pop right out of the pan, making it very easy to cut.
19. Store, covered in the refrigerator when the weather is warm or things can get melty.