¡Muy Delicioso!

Sorry to keep our long and loyal follower(s) waiting.  We have cooked many things worth mentioning, but will only discuss a few.  We tried our luck at an authentic German Chocolate Cake, straight from the beloved Ghirardelli cookbook, and we failed miserably.  While it tasted heavenly, it was lacking aesthetically.  You see, some of the chefs didn’t know that after one bakes a cake, it has to cool off for hours before being handled.  We only allowed a few minutes of cooling time, and the cake started to cave in.  It was not photogenic enough to post on this blog.  So, moving on to other recipes…

We made salsa from scratch.  This required some fresh tomatoes and Serrano peppers from the Farmer’s market, and some fresh jalapeno peppers from Bryan’s plant on our porch.  Follow the recipe below and people will devour your Mexican creation.

Salsa

·         2 fresh tomatoes (beefsteak)

·         1 deseeded jalapeno pepper (homegrown)

·         1 serrano pepper

·         1 pinch of salt

Personal Suggestions: Follow this recipe, because we got it right on the first try.

Directions: Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove.  Clean all of your vegetable ingredients with highly-alkaline water if possible.  Once the water boils, add the vegetable ingredients and let sit for 15 minutes, or until the skin starts to peel off of the ingredients.  Then, drain the water, extract the vegetables, and try to drain the water from the tomatoes by squeezing.  Then, using a molcajete (mortar and pestil), place a pepper in the molcajete and mash it with a masher.  Then, add one tomato and mash that, followed by the other pepper and tomato.

Mash vigorously, and mix, and then let the mixure cool off.  This hot salsa is ready to be served, with chips or any other items of your choosing. ¡Muy Delicioso!

Next on the menu is hot sauce.  For this, you need as many fresh red cayenne peppers as you can get your hands on, preferably home-grown.  It's delicious, and can be added to almost anything.

Hot Sauce

• 15+ red cayenne peppers (dried out)
• white vinegar
• other peppers according to personal preference (optional)

Personal Suggestions:  For the love of all that is holy, please de-seed the peppers, or you will effectively burn all of your tastebuds into oblivion.  We apologize that there is no exact measurement for the peppers or vinegar, but cooking is an art, not a science.  If you prefer your hot sauce to be more vinegary, then anticipate for this and add more vinegar than we recommend.  If you like your hot sauce spicy, we would not recommend adding less vinegar, as the consistency may be negatively affected.  We'll tell you how to make it hotter during the latter portion of the recipe (you don't do this until days after preparing).    

Directions:  Buy the peppers fresh, or grow them yourselves if you can.  Then, hang them on fishing line in a dry place, preferably above your dryer, for about 1 month.  They will turn a beautiful maroon color during this time.  Once they are dry, and you will know because when you knock on a pepper the seeds will rattle, then unstring them.  Prepare a glass bottle by pouring some boiling water in it to kill bacteria, and let it sit.  Rinse the dried peppers.  Place the peppers into a food processor, and pour enough white vinegar into the unit to cover the peppers.  Pour a little extra to allow for evaporation that will occur during the boiling process.  Process the mixture for approximately three minutes, until it looks like hot sauce.  Transfer the mixture to a pot and bring to a boil  Add some sliced jalapeno peppers, or any other type, according to personal preference, though this step is wholly unnecessary as the cayenne peppers have a great flavor already.  Boil for 15 minutes, stirring vigorously on occasion.  Then, drain the glass bottle of its hot water, and carefully pour the hot peppery mixture into into the bottle, seal it, and place it in your refrigerator.  Allow it to settle for a few days.  Smell it, and if it needs to be reduced because it's ungodly strong, then boil it again, and add more vinegar.  Do this process quickly, or the vinegar will evaporate, leaving you with an even stronger, hotter hot sauce, which may be the desired outcome for some of you who have already charred your tastebuds.

The final segment of our Latin cuisine consists of Guacamole, an all-time favorite, and an easy blunder if directions are not precisely followed.  

Guacamole

• 2 Hass avocados
• onion
• cilantro
• tomato
• serrano peppers

Personal Recommendations: Make sure the avocados are ripe, or the final product may not be as tasty as expected.  Also, we didn't have cilantro to use, but we are positive it would have perfected our already delicious creation.

Directions: