herbiehancock

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican army's victory over the invading French army in 1862. One way to celebrate? With food, of course! I had planned on making salmon patties for dinner, so instead of my usual ingredients, I added some flavors of Mexican influence and here you go... Mexican Salmon Patties! The only thing that was missing was a margarita! PRINT RECIPE Mexican Salmon Patties 1 can salmon, drained 1 egg 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 tsp lime juice 1/2 jalapeno, stemmed, seeded, and finely diced 1 rib celery, finely diced 1 T finely chopped cilantro 4 green onions, finely chopped 3 T crumbled Queso Fresco 3 T bread crumbs 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well. Shape into patties. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour. Oil for frying 1 egg, beaten Panko bread crumbs Dip each patty into the egg. Roll in Panko bread crumbs. Fry at 350F until browned on both sides. Serve with rice and garnish with sliced avoc...

I'm very excited to be the winner of this beautiful molcajete in a blog giveaway! Thank you Mely! Mely has a wonderful blog, Mexico in My Kitchen , where she posts mouth-watering recipes for authentic Mexican food. If you haven't seen Mely's blog yet, go take a look. You'll find all sorts of great food! A molcajete is a bowl carved in one piece by hand  from volcanic stone and is used to make salsa, guacamole and other condiments.  The molcajete was too heavy to weigh on my kitchen scale, but it's   very  heavy!  The tejolote, which is the round hand held grinder weighed in at 1 pound, 5 ounces!  Before using a new molcajete, it must be seasoned. This is done by grinding white rice until it becomes a gray powder, having picked up some of the volcanic rock in the process. This is repeated until the rice powder remains white. This ensures that when you make salsa, it will be grit free.   Here's an interesting video that shows how these beauties are ...

I'm in love with Clementines.  You know what I like best about them?  No seeds.  When I was a kid, I didn't eat oranges because of the seeds.  Seems strange to me now - why didn't I just take (or spit) them out?  I guess it seemed easier at the time just to not eat them at all. Do you like salsa?  I do.  I've made meals of chips and salsa.  It's best when you make your own because then you can put in what you like and you can make it as spicy as you like, or not spicy at all.   My gardener has the anti-cilantro gene, so I don't usually put it in our salsa.  Sometimes I'll divide the salsa (60-40) and put cilantro in my 60%.  When we eat in Mexican restaurants, sometimes he forgets to say "No cilantro!" and of course ends up with it in his meal.  When we go out now I make him wear this .  Problem solved! I didn't feel like getting into mathematics today, so I just left the cilantro out of today's salsa.  You can add it...

Let's tour the garden today and I then have a hot and spicy recipe for you afterwards. This is the raised garden where we have radishes, green onions, purple onions, spinach (which isn't doing so well), jalapeno, tomatoes and zucchini. Here's the jalapeno plant. If this does well and we get some peppers, I'd like to put them in the smoker to make our own chipotle peppers. Gorgeous peonies that are on their way to blooming. Sadly, the blooms don't last long which only make them that much more special. I don't know what this plant is called, but it puts out pretty blue flowers that last all summer long. Pansies are always a happy flower to have in the garden and I love yellow and purple anything side by side. Here's the lily barrel. I forget what type of geranium this is... peppermint, candy cane... something like that. That's our garden for this week. Things are coming along nicely but I'm anxious for some return! Now, let's make some chile c...

I love, love good Mexican food and my all-time, hands-down favorite are chile rellenos. Chile rellenos means 'stuffed chile' and you can use a variety of ingredients as stuffing. Cheese is a popular one and probably the most requested, but you can use a meat mixture, shrimp, beans... really, anything you'd like. I used Anaheim peppers today, but Poblanos can also be used, particularly when stuffing with anything but cheese because they're a little larger and not as fragile as roasted Anaheims. We're going to start by making the salsa to top the rellenos when we serve them. The basic ingredients are green peppers, tomatoes and onion. I added a thinly sliced jalapeno and one roasted Anaheim chile. Coarsley chop the vegetables... ... Put them in a pot and cover with water. The veggies are boiled for 15 minutes, then the heat is turned down and they simmer for one hour. After an hour, add some caldo de pollo (a powdered chicken bouillion), oregeno and tomato paste. If...

Chile Verde is my second all-time favorite in Mexican food. (I haven't blogged yet about my #1 favorite yet!) I've had this recipe for years and have only made it a few times. Why? Because when I lived in SoCal, I could go to a restaurant and order it instead of going to the work of making it! Now that I'm living in Havre, Montana and the only Mexican restaurants in town are Taco John's , Taco Time , and Taco Treat , I'll probably be using this recipe more often than I have in the past. If you want the taste of authentic Chile Verde, you'll have to try this recipe. It tastes so good you'll think you've died and gone to heaven the Imperial Valley where you can find the best Mexican food in the world! Yes, I said it. The best. Here are the ingredients: chicken bouillon, onion, pork shoulder, jalapenos, tomatillos, and canned whole green chiles. You'll need two corn tortillas and five cloves of garlic, too. I'm going to make this in my big ol'...