Monday, January 26, 2009

Jalapeno Pepper Spread

A new, yummy recipe to share. For those of you that like spicy food (like me!) substitute fresh jalapeno for the canned. I also substituted low- or non-fat cream cheese, and sour cream in place of the mayo. This tastes better after it sits in the fridge overnight and the flavors blend.

Jalapeno Pepper Spread

Ingredients:

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies, drained
2 ounces canned diced jalapeno peppers, drained
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Stir together cream cheese and mayonnaise in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in green chiles and jalapeno peppers. Pour mixture into a microwave safe serving dish, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Microwave on High until hot, about 3 minutes. If you would like to brown the cheese, bake at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Hill Street Cafe

Yesterday was my sister's birthday. In celebration, we went to this restaurant that my other sister works - Hill Street Cafe in La Canada. I was a little underwhelmed with this place, which is unfortunate because they had a lot potential.

Details:
Hill Street Cafe
1004 Foothill Blvd.
La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011
tel: (818) 952-1019

All of us got breakfast at Hill Street Cafe, and the food wasn't bad - it was just... uninspiring. The coffee was good, and the bread they serve is decent - but very sticky because of the sweet onions they put on it, which is not a huge plus for me. I prefer not-sticky bread.

I got my standby for a new breakfast place - two eggs over medium with corned beef hash. I know it's not all that creative, but it's a good dish to judge how well a place does other dishes. I asked for the hash browns and corned beef hash to be made crispy, but you wouldn't have known it from how my meal came out. My eggs were a bit watery, which I hate (and why I order them over medium instead of over easy), and they had butter all over them. And my hash browns and corned beef hash were not crispy. The flavors were fine, I was just rather disappointed in the execution.

My dad had Eggs Benedict which he said was ok, except that the hollandaise sauce was not very awe-inspiring. My stepmom had a "fruit" crepe that had bananas and canned peaches on it. My sister had a giant California omelet, which seems to be one of the things they do correctly. And my sister's boyfriend had a crazy spicy chorizo scramble that came with tortillas that were on their way out of life. Overall, we were extremely disappointed, even in the free dessert they brought for my sister. It was this apple cobbler type thing, only the cobbler layers were vanilla cake mix, basically raw.

On top of everything else, it was all pretty expensive. There were six of us eating breakfast and the bill was almost $100. Crazy.

They're supposed to have good lunch combos - soups and sandwiches and salads, etc. I don't know much about the restaurant in general, and I would be open to trying it again for lunch. But I highly doubt this place will ever be one of my favorites.

Good for:

- not entirely sure yet

Bad for:

- bang for your buck
- breakfast

Adriana'a overall rating: 4/10 (and 1 of those points is due to my sister working there)

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Muddy Buddies

Okay, so the recipes for NYE didn't go as planned. The cheesecake came out alright, but not as spectacular as I envisioned, so I gave up on the cheese appetizers. Luckily, my hubby helped me make Muddy Buddies the night before. I can't believe how many people at the party had never experienced the joy of Muddy Buddies! They're super easy to make and addictive as hell - it's a good thing this recipe makes 9 cups of the stuff.


Ingredients

9 cups Chex® (any flavor; I did rice)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Measure the cereal into a large bowl; set aside.

Microwave the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir until smooth. If needed, microwave about 30 seconds longer or until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated (and be careful to not break the cereal!).

Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag and add the powdered sugar. Seal the bag and shake until well coated. (I only had 1-gallon bags so I split the recipe up into 2 bags with 3/4 cup powdered sugar in each). Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.