Mexican Hot Sauce

Chips and hot sauce. Who doesn't love that combination? Who cares that you can eat an entire basket of chips before your meal arrives? Who cares that every 4-6 chips or so is probably an entire corn tortilla? Who cares that you probably ate a 12 count package of tortillas before your meal? Cut them up, fry them, salt them and serve them to me stat! I don't judge! I've probably done it a number of times. Who am I kidding? I'm a sucker for chips and hot sauce. However, I prefer my hot sauce a bit chunky WITH cilantro and warmed up. Now, everyone has an opinion when it comes to hot sauce. Blended. Chunky. Warm. Cold. Skip the sauce and go for the pico de gallo? I do love a good pico too :)

Anyway, this recipe caught my eye for a few reasons. It doesn't call for canned tomatoes. It has Worcestershire sauce, celery salt and apple cider vinegar. And, it's got zero cilantro in it. (That part especially makes me sad). This is definitely a different recipe for hot sauce! 

Make this recipe at your own risk. Honestly, we ended up throwing it out. It was way too vinegary for our liking. The jalapeños I used must not have been hot because there was no spiciness to it whatsoever. 

Let me know if you try it or modify it in any way. Comment below on how you like your hot sauce! And if you like cilantro or not :)

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Mexican Hot Sauce

1 tsp black pepper

8 tomatoes

1 med. onion

1 or 2 jalapeño peppers (seeds out)

1 Tablespoon salt

1 tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp oregano

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp celery salt

½ c. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp red pepper

Put ingredients in blender.

Pour in saucepan & boil, simmer for 30 minutes or until sauce thickens.

*I used roma tomatoes

*I used 2 jalapeños 

*I wasn't sure what red pepper was so since it called for 1 tsp, I used paprika. 

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Garden Salad

Another day, another salad...right? I find soooo many different kinds of salads going through my recipes. Most of them are jello based but we'll save that for another day. This one, while it's called Garden Salad, does not have any type of leafy greens in it. However, it does have...vinegar! So much vinegar! Let me say that if a "salad" recipe doesn't call for jello, it calls for vinegar :) This particular salad was a hit amongst many individuals who tried it. It made a pretty big batch, so I was able to share it with others, which makes my heart happy :) Oh! And don't let the amount of green onion sway you to cut back. I was skeptical but 2 bunches worked just fine.

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Garden Salad

1¼ cup sugar

¾ cup crisco oil

¾ cup vinegar

1¼ tsp black pepper

Mix & bring to a boil & cool.

1 can shoe peg corn

1 can tiny English peas

1 can french style beans

1 small jar pimentos

1 cup cut up celery

1 cup cut up pepper

2 bunches of green onions 

Mix all vegetables, pour dressing over all & refrigerate.

*I used apple cider vinegar

*Two bunches of green onions was not too much like I thought it would be

*You can easily add more veggies because the dressing is a lot

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Vegetable Salad

 

If you like vinegar based veggie salads, then this one is for you. I've learned that I do, in fact, like these types of dishes. No one else in my family did so I had a lot of leftovers to eat. It's a perfect crunch and super easy to make. In my opinion, it had too much oil in it. I would definitely cut it in half to start with and then go from there. But for the ingredient amounts listed, everything was swimming in an oil and vinegar dressing. I did like it though!

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Vegetable Salad

by Penny

1 can white corn

1 can early english peas (sweet peas)

1 small onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

Dressing

½ cup vinegar - sweeten to taste

1 cup salad oil

Add dressing to salad, let refrigerate overnight 

Optional egg wedge on top of each serving.

*I couldn't find a can of all white corn so I used a yellow & white mix (see picture for the one I used)

*The 3 ribs of celery plus the tip parts were exactly one cup chopped

*I used apple cider vinegar

*I added about 2Tbs of sugar to "sweeten to taste"

*I forgot about the boiled egg! oops :)

 

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Marinated Beans

Let me start by saying I love beans. When I saw this was a bean type of salad, I was in! I will say that my oldest liked them (but didn't eat any after the first day) and I think my husband did too. Not 100% sure about that though. My youngest, isn't really a bean fan but he did at least try them. Personally, I loved this recipe. It was just a lot for me to eat on my own though. I will say that I used pinto beans  and cooked them with very little seasonings. Normally I season them up really well when just making a fresh pot of pintos. I also never soak my beans, but I did for this recipe because that's what the recipe says to do. To cut out a step, just buy some canned beans, drain and rinse them really well. They'll work just fine if you don't want to cook them first :)

* What kind of oil is usually used for salad oil? Also, what kind of vinegar is usually used when a recipe just calls for vinegar? I never know what to use! Please let me know in the comments what you'd suggest :) 

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Marinated Beans

From the Kitchen of Aileen

1# (pound) beans, soak over night, or prepare beans by cooking until just tender, drain & cook.

1 bunch green onions

½ c. celery

½ c. bell pepper (optional)

1½ tsp salt

1½ tsp course ground pepper

1 c. salad oil

½ tsp garlic

½ tsp celery salt

1¼ c. vinegar (champagne vinegar may be used also)

Mix all together & let stand over night or several hours.

*I used pinto beans. Soaked overnight then cooked with just a tad bit of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.

*For the salad oil, I used canola oil

*For the vinegar, I used apple cider vinegar

Delicious when you first make it, but even better the next day when served cold.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.