homemade hot sauce!

 here is my version of homemade hot sauce:

Ingredients:
(depending on how hot or sweet you want your sauce, you can use a variety of peppers - these ones were freshly-picked off the vine)

3 big bomb peppers, sliced (you can keep the seeds in or remove them, we keep them in for added taste)
2 sweet italian peppers, sliced
5 cayenne peppers, sliced
1/2 a medium white, sweet onion thinly sliced
4-5 garlic cloves (we probably used 10 but we love garlic!)
2 cups of water
1 cup of white vinegar
1 teaspoon of olive oil
sea salt and fresh-cracked pepper to taste

Steps:

1. sautee the peppers in the olive oil with onion and garlic for about 4-5 minutes. 

2. add the water.

3. keep cooking on medium-high heat until you have cooked off the majority of the water.

4. cool the peppers to room temperature, and once cooled, puree them in the blender.

5. add the vinegar as you are pureeing.

6. puree until smooth if you like a smooth, liquidy sauce, or just chop if you like a chunky sauce.

Notes - you can add/substitute tabasco and/or serrano chilies to make the sauce hotter, or jalapeno peppers.
To make the sauce sweeter, add more italian peppers and less hot peppers. To make the sauce more vinegary, add a little more vinegar.

This recipe is a base recipe - once you make it, you can figure out your own way to tweak it to your liking!

Mike - i am sure that you can make this sauce with either dried or freeze-dried peppers. You'll have to give it a test try and let us know what you used and how it turns out!

i looove gwak-a-mole!

(h/t to poor Joan Jett for what i have done to her song. Ms. Jett - i apologize...but just can't help myself!)

(sung to the tune of "i love rock 'n roll" - by the great Joan Jett)

"i love gwak-a-mole
so put another dime in the jukebox baby
i love gwak-a-mole
so come and take your time and dance with me - YA!"

i love pronouncing words in english phonetically! i know that "guacamole" is properly pronounced "gwa-ka-mol-ee", but i just can't help myself...being a trained linguist and all.

you can serve guacamole on a fancy platter with salsa, toasted greek pita chips, some mango and additional lemon and limes for added punch....or you can drop dollops of the stuff on your loaded nachos!

with fresh-made guacamole you can dip chips in, crackers, all kinds of veg - the possibilities are endless. and if you aren't making your own guacamole...well, all i can say is shame on you. and i mean it. shame on you.

here's some awesome-kick-you-into-next-week guacamole. give it a try!

Ingredients:

2 nicely-ripened avocados (they should be firm, but a  little softish to the touch)
8 million garlic cloves (ok - maybe 4-6 for normal people, but we loooove garlic)
2 or 3 big, heaping spoons of greek yoghurt
the juice of half of a lime
a big dash of cumin
a big dash of cayenne (or lay off it you don't like it too spicy!)
a big dash of turmeric
sea salt and fresh-cracked black pepper

Directions:

1. Cut your avocados in half and scoop out the pits. BIG SECRET: suck the avocado off of the pits - it will be messy! then rinse them nice and clean! and set them aside!

2. Scoop the 2 sides of the avocados into a bowl. Mash the avocado with a fork - i like mine chunky so i don't mash it too much. if you like a smoother guacamole - mash it up quite a bit. you can use a potatoe masher if you like.

3. Crush the garlic cloves into the avocado mash.

4. Add the lime and all of the spices.

5. Splooch in how much greek yoghurt that you would like.

6. Stir and mash all of this together and now here's another BIG SECRET: once you are satisfied with the taste - drop the avocado pits into the centre of the bowl/container. having the pits in the bowl/container helps keep the guacamole from going brown too fast.

7. Refrigerate for at least one half hour before serving to let all of the flavours mingle.

Notes:

Yes, i know that some tried and true Mexican and/or other recipes call for adding tomatoes, onions, chives - you name it. But, i always serve guacamole WITH home-made salsa, so tomatoes, onions and chives are already covered by the salsa. It's up to you to add or subtract to this recipe. Like all recipes - it's all about tweaking until it's right for you.

i hope that you enjoy. but anyway...

"i love gwak-a-mole
so put another dime in the jukebox baby...."

(try getting that song out of your head for the next, say, day, day and a half - bahahahahah! your welcome!)

Hollandaise sauce!

one of my favourite breakfast treats is hollandaise sauce on poached eggs on toast - yummeh!

here is my simple, yet delicious, tried and true hollandaise sauce recipe (and i have tried many over the years!!!!):

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter
3 large egg yolks, separated from the whites
1 Tablespoon plus one teaspoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon of salt
a dash of cayenne pepper
a splooch of hot sauce (we use home-made but you can use Frank's or any other kind, and use as much as you want)
2 Tablespoons of hot water
freshly-cracked black pepper to taste

Garnish:
fresh-picked chives

Directions:

1. Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan, on low-medium heat, until hot and foamy - stay on it - don't let it brown at all.
2. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with lemon juice, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and hot sauce.
3. Once the butter is frothy, gently whisk it into the egg yolk mixture - not all at once, just a steady, slow stream.
4. Add the water and continue whisking.
5. Return the mixture to the sauce pan and continue whisking over very low heat until slightly thickened.
6. Serve immediately or let stand over a bowl/pot of hot water for no longer than 30 minutes.

This hollandaise sauce is delicious! i love mine on poached eggs on toast...but as is pictured we also serve it over steamed broccoli and/or asparagus and/or any vegetable that you would like. Enjoy!