Cabo Food Adventures

We had tons of fun in Cabo san Lucas Mexico. We stayed at the Pueblo Bonito Rose. Next time, we would stay in the Pueblo Bonito. Cabo was fun, but we thought that our Occidental Grand Xcaret experience the previous year was superior.
Here are some plates that we took pictures of in Cabo.

lobster stew

Garlic Shrimp

Crab Cakes

Cream Cheese Poblano Chile with HIBISCUS sauce

Coconut Shrimp with Mango Chutney

Beach!!!!

Green Chile Stew ala Manny with Guiness Beer Bread

We are back! We have been gone last week to a wonderful vacation in Cabo. Now we are back to the New Mexico desert, just in time to find fresh roasted green chile at the grower's market at a park around the corner from our house! We decided to make green chile stew. Alona got this recipe from a coworker, years ago. It is a great way to make the stew and turns out great! Be careful to not make your stew too spicy. Make sure to test your chile prior to adding it to the soup. We got a mixed baggie of green and red peppers. Seems like the green ones are very spicy while the red ones are just mildly so. Also, removing the seeds will help to reduce the spiciness a lot. We also made beer bread to go along with the soup. The sweetness of the bread really went well with the spiciness of the soup!

Green Chile Stew

Guinness Beer Bread

Stew in Dutch Oven 

Bread!!!

Ingredients:

Stew:
1.5 lb beef, cubed
1 can stewed tomatoes
3-4 potatoes, cubed
2-3 carrots, sliced into circles
4 sticks celery, sliced
1 onion, chopped
3-4 chopped fresh roasted green chiles
5 cloves garlic, sliced or chopped
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp ground corriander
cilantro for garnish, optional
beef broth, optional (could use water instead)

Bread:
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 bottle Guinness
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

1. Heat up the dutch oven and pour oil. When heated, add in the meat. Add salt and pepper and add garlic. Cook until the meat is browned.
2. Add in onions, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, green chile and celery. Add in ground corriander
3. Add beef broth to fill the dutch oven. You can vary your broth depending on how much liquid you like in your soup.
4. Add salt to taste.
5. Cover and cook for about an hour. Garnish with cilantro (optional)

Bread:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Spray bread pan with cooking spray
3. combine 3 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 bottle Guinness beer. Mix well.
4. Pour batter into the bread pan.
5. Pour melted butter over the bread.
6. Bake for 55 minutes. 

What we liked:

The green chile stew was great, not too spicy. The beer bread came out perfect with a crispy outer side - great served with butter.

What we didn't like:

Nick thought the soup was a litttttle spicy - but that's because he avoided all the chile until the end and ended up with a bowl of chile pieces! 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He liked the bread and butter! Astrid liked it all - nom nom nom. 

Next time:

No change- perfect!

Bertolli Pasta and Meatballs

Pasta and Meatballs! Costco had the sauce on sale, so we had four jars of this. Life has been a little hectic, so we were looking for something we could throw together super quickly and this won the draw. It tasted very good and was fast to prepare. Doesn't quite compare to the homemade sauces, but it's worth it for the time saved.
Here is the original recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/bertolli-spaghetti-meatballs

Pasta and Meatballs!

Meatballs are done!

Pasta

Ready to cook! 

Made meatballs!

Ingredients:

12 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup water
2 egg
2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 jar Bertolli® Tomato & Basil Sauce
16 ounces pasta, cooked and drained

Directions:

1. Combine ground beef, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, water, egg, garlic and salt in medium bowl; shape into meatballs.
2. Bring Sauce to a boil over medium-high heat in 3-quart saucepan. Gently stir in uncooked meatballs.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes or until meatballs are done. Serve over hot spaghetti and sprinkle, if desired, with Parmesan cheese.

What we liked:

Fast and good!

What we didn't like:

The sauce is a little sweet. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

Both Kaspian and Astrid loved the pasta. 

Next time:

no change. 

Chicken Salad Sandwich

This was the best chicken salad sandwich we have ever had. It was really really good and easy to make. The capers really add to the chicken and the dill and sour cream create a delicious dressing for this salad. We will definitely be making this again soon. We used a rotisserie chicken meat from Costco. There was both brown and white meat in the salad.
Here is the original recipe: http://spiritedcook.com/chicken-salad/

Ingredients:

3 cups finely chopped cooked chicken, both light and dark meat
1⅓ cups sliced celery (about 2 large stalks, quartered lengthwise and sliced)
¾ cup chopped red onion
⅓ cup finely chopped fresh dill
¼ cup bottled capers, rinsed and drained
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
⅜ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients together except sour cream and mayonnaise in a large bowl
2. Mix sour cream and mayonnaise together and add to the bowl
3. Mix and serve over bread.. or lettuce.. or eat by itself! 

What we liked:

Best Chicken Salad recipe ever. 

What we didn't like:

Nothing, it was pretty perfect.

What Kaspian thought about it:

Still on the dino chicken nuggets...

Next time:

No Change except maybe make more!

Stuffed Cuban Pork Tenderloin and Summer Squash

This recipe was very simple and quick. We did marinate the squash a couple of hours ahead of time but that was also very quick to put together - then it just sat until grilling time!
The pork came out sooo good! We have tried this recipe before, about a week before we decided to start keeping track of these in the blog. Last time, we noticed that some changes needed to be made - we used more pickles this time, and not bread and butter. We used mozzarella cheese this time, but it is still not ideal - perhaps Gouda next time? Anyways - this was DELICIOUS, and definitely saved to use in the future. Also, we had previously used toothpicks to hold the pork roll together, we used twine this time and would definitely recommend using the twine. The twine really held it together well so the meat roll did not fall apart. The squash were sooo good too, they were perfectly citrus and herb infused! The squash came from our neighbor's garden. You can't really compare store squash to fresh garden grown, it's just so much better! This year our garden didn't really quite work out the way we planned it, with chickens eating it and watering system set up..but hopefully next year we can do better. In the meantime, we are thankful we have people like our neighbors to share their wonderful garden grown food with us :)

Here's the original recipe for the pork tenderloin: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/stuffed-cuban-pork-tenderloin

Here is the squash recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/marinated-zucchini-and-summer-squash-recipe.html

Plated

Featuring: Summer Squash!

Grilled Pork tenderloin

Grilled Summer Squash

Stuffed Cuban Pork Tenderloin

Cooking on the grill!

Ready to grill!

Marinating

Ingredients:

Cuban Pork Tenderloin:
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
3 tablespoons whole-grain Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese
5 spears of dill pickles
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray

Summer Squash:
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (juice from 1 lemon)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound squash, cut into diagonal circles

Directions:

Squash:
1. Combine white wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, thyme, black pepper and olive oil in a bowl and mix together.
2. Add squash circles and mix to coat.
3. Let marinate for a couple of hours
4. Grill in a grill basket for about 10 minutes

Pork:
1. Pre-heat grill to medium high.
2. Cut a lengthwise slit down the center of the tenderloin two-thirds of the way through the meat. Open halves, laying tenderloin flat. Place tenderloin between 2 sheets of plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or heavy skillet.
3. Spread mustard evenly over pork. Arrange cheese and pickles over pork in a single layer. Roll up, starting with long side; secure pork at 1-inch intervals with twine. Sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.

3. Place the pork on a grill rack coated with cooking spray. Grill 22 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155°, turning after 11 minutes. Remove from grill. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Cut into 12 slices.

What we liked:

This was sooo good. The best pork tenderloin we have ever had... or made!

What we didn't like:

The cheese was still not quite right, but neither was the swiss when we made it with that. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He was more into dinosaur chicken nuggets.
Astrid however, thought that the squash were amazing and felt great against her teething gums. She just loved it! She also loved the meat too. 

Next time:

Try a different cheese