mo food

I spent this last weekend hanging out with my family at Mo Ranch, where we enjoyed catching up, soaking in the Guadalupe, reading, playing with a puzzle (yeah, we're super cool), watching adorable toddlers run around...all of these things are wonderful.  But let's be honest.  The main event of family reunions is the food.  It's no different in my family.  You should've seen the massive ice chests full of food that arrived.  The sweet treats brought (those nutella brownies included).  It makes kitchen stadium (aka Iron Chef's abode) look like a 7-11.  

This year, we did what we should've done years ago and let folks sign up to prepare a meal for the rest of the group (15 hungry adults + little ones).  It worked out great.  There was SO much amazing food and I had to share some of it with y'all.  There are a few things I missed (like my sister's rockstar egg casserole) but that's only because I ate them before I could get a picture.  Yummy.  Here's breakfast the first morning:

Yeah, I know.  You're drooling on your laptop aren't you?  Fluffly, light, sugary blueberry crumb cakes, made in individual little loaves (so one could eat say, five, and not feel guilty).  My cousin Adele made these, and I think she used this recipe. God bless that Pioneer Woman.  Alongside the little loaves of wonder was keilbasa sausage, providing the perfect balance of saltiness to go with the sweet loaves.  And of course, there was gallons of coffee (literally, y'all, we go through more coffee than Starbucks) to wash it down with.  Fan-tas-tic.

(Oh, did I mention she's friends with someone who has a blueberry farm?!  And that this amazing friend brings her pounds of fresh blueberries every year??  If any of you fall into this category, pretty please be my friend.)

Now, one might think that after such a substantial breakfast we would perhaps "go light" for lunch.  One does not know my family.  You could say we instead went "the whole hog" for lunch, because we had amazing barbecued pork ribs with pinto beans, homemade bread, corn and cole slaw (we're such vegetarians).  My Aunt Madelynn put a crazy-good teriyaki marinade on the ribs. Sooo good.

I signed up for dinner that night and made my fabulous friend Karen's chicken and black bean tacos (because it can feed an army and a Texan family gathering without something at least a bit Mexican is just wrong).  I'll share this super-complicated recipe with you.  You ready?  Think Julia Child's aspic-complicated...and then go in the totally opposite direction.  

Ingredients:

1 can mild Rotel

1 can black beans, rinsed really well

1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces

10-12 flour tortillas (as fresh as possible: don't mean to brag, but my grocery store makes fresh ones there.  Yum.)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 T cumin

1 T chili powder

salt and pepper

vegetable oil

Toppings:

shredded cheese

sour cream

chopped cilantro

fresh lime wedges

chopped avocado

(Makes 4 hefty servings.  Naturally, I quadrupled the recipe for my family).

Directions:

Heat 2 T vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high, add chicken, s&p, cumin and chili powder and cook until almost cooked through (about 7 min).  Add onion, cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, cook for 2 min.  Now, add Rotel and black beans.  Let simmer for about 20 minutes (gets the chicken nice and tender and lets all the flavors come together).  

Meanwhile, heat tortillas on a cast iron skillet (very hot), with no oil, until charred a bit and starting to inflate (fresh tortillas will puff up wiht air when heated).  Keep hot in foil with a paper towel in it to absorb steam (you don't want soggy tortillas).  

Serve chicken and black bean mixture in tortillas and squeeze fresh lime juice on top and top with whatever you like (I love a bit of fresh cilantro on them, but I don't judge those who think cilantro's grown in Hades).  I served mine with spanish rice (made by my awesome Mamacita).  

 Easy, right?  And SO good.  Thanks, Karen!

The next morning, we had more amazing tortilla goodness: chorizo (Mexican sausage) taquitos.  I love salty, spicy chorizo and eggs.  And my cousin Lee and her boyfriend Luis even brought fresh tortillas that they cooked.  We topped 'em with my mom's homemade hot sauce.  Wow.  Good morning to us.

And, finally, there was my Mom's amazing chicken tetrazzini with caesar salad (yep, we're so healthy) and garlic bread.  The chicken tetrazzini recipe comes from my Great-Grandmother Mimmie and it's always amazing.  What a delicious weekend.  What are y'all eating these days?  Share, share!

Bon appetit!
lilrevchef

who ya callin' shrimp?

Driving an hour-and-a-half to Port Aransas, Texas just to appreciate the summery joy of the beach: worth it.  

Driving an hour-and-a-half to Port Aransas to appreciate the summery joy of the beach AND eat amazing fresh seafood from waters right beyond the deck of the restaurant: really, really worth it!  

There's nothing better than eating seafood while watching the water and hearing seagulls singing around you.  I went with my parents to Port A for the day (our shared motivation really was the seafood), and I fully intended on this hot HOT Texas day to have some nice light grilled shrimp or fish, perhaps with a little wild rice or something and water.  This is what I actually had:

An ice-cold Pacifico and...

...a massive crunchy basket of fresh fried shrimp and french fries.  

And while grilled shrimp (ever grilled shrimp on rosemary skewers? a-maz-ing!) would've been healthier, this was just fantastic.  Absolutely worth the trip!  For those of you relatively near a beach this summer: make the drive and load up on fresh yummy seafood.  For those of you who find yourselves a little land-locked these days, get to your grocery store and pretend you were just at the coast.  Happy summer, y'all.

Bon appetit!
lilrevchef

Welcome!

Welcome to my brand new blog on my favorite thing: food!

This will be the place where I share old recipes I love, new experiments in my kitchen and whatever other culinary adventures that happen to come my way. I'm a Presbyterian minister of the foodie variety and have shared many delicious morsels on my first blog, Glimpses of Grace, a place where I record holiness in the everydayness of life. I wanted to get a bit more creative about sharing my cooking and eating joys all in one place, and so this lil' blog was born!

Now, some of you who may have googled wild honey and randomly found yourself here will wonder what this "hold the locusts" business is all about. It's just where my nerdy theological self and food-obsessed self meet. You see in the Bible, John the Baptist is known for several strange practices: wearing camel hair (in the summer! in the desert! crazy!), eating wild honey (well, that's acceptable) and eating locusts (they have a nice...texture??). Yep, he was his own person. Hence, the name for this blog: a place where another strange religious-type seeks to enjoy whatever cuisine comes her way (with the notable exception of locusts thankyouverymuch). I hope you enjoy stopping by and I hope we share many meals together over this communal interweb.

And speaking of sharing meals...let's get started, shall we? You're gonna see a lot of pictures on this here blog because I love taking them and I'm a visual person, so sharing recipes that way makes the most sense to me. We're starting with something simple that I eat nearly every morning since being back in Texas, y'all: breakfast taquitos. In Texas, a taquito is a flour or corn tortilla filled with all sorts of delicious combinations with egg: chorizo (the BEST), veggies (like mine here), bacon & potato (beats a McD's bacon, egg & cheese biscuit every time) and anything else folks dream up. Mine are simple (like I said)...just egg, onion and bell pepper. This recipe's just to make my breakfast, so that's 1 generous serving. So, here we go:

You'll need couple of these round things. They're pretty much my favorite food.

Saute some onion and bell pepper (about 1/4 c each): red, orange or yellow, whatever you like. I find green bell peppers to often be bitter (must be jealous of their brighter cousins). One of the most basic important cooking tips from lilrevchef here: season every layer of cooking. Salt & pepper those veggies, they'll soften quicker and take in the seasoning. Cook until soft and starting to caramelize (brown) a bit.

Whisk those eggs together with the high-tech tool pictured above and, of course, s&p those eggaroos.

Cook 'em with your peppers & onions until they're as done as you like. I like mine pretty firm, but to each their own. Toss on some cheese, again as much as you like.

You'll need to heat up your tortillas. Put a cast iron skillet or grill pan on high heat, heat tortillas about 1 min on each side to get a nice char on 'em. You don't need any oil on the pan at all. Then fill those delicious tortillas with your scrambled eggs, top generously with hot sauce (that recipe will appear here one of these days) and enjoy! A fabulous way to start the day...so long as you have a nice cup of coffee to go with it. Don't ever forget the coffee!

Thanks for perusing my inaugural post. I'm looking forward to many more. I will be out of town for the rest of this week, so you might not hear from me til I'm back, but fear not, I'll have more tasty things to share. In the meantime, leave a comment!

Bon appetit!

lilrevchef