I love spicy foods but Colin doesn’t appreciate the spice like we do, so we have been spicing things up in our plates more lately.

I bought a bottle of hot sauce for Simon around his birthday and I have to admit that I am the one that finished it off. It was so good on everything that I tried it on, but so expensive. It made me realize how much I love the taste of Jalapeños and I just had to try making my own version. I never really thought about making my own hot sauce before but I am so glad I did.  I really can’t get enough!

The first time I made it I took all of the seeds out of the peppers and mashed it but didn’t blend it so it made a chunkier and milder sauce, more like the original. This time I left some seeds in and blended it making a hot and smooth sauce.  I think both ways turned out great! The Tequila flavour really stands out and if you don’t know it is there it leaves you wondering…

This is not an exact recipe, but more of a guide… I tried my best to give amounts though…

You will need:

20 Jalapeño peppers

2 Cubanelle Peppers

Seed the peppers (or not depending on how hot you want the sauce) and chop roughly: and don’t forget to use gloves!!! Hot pepper burns are not fun! (don’t ask me how I know)

1 medium onion, or half or a large onion, 6-7 Shallots and about 6 cloves of garlic.

mince finely and start sautéing in a few tsp of oil until translucent.

Chop up a tomato and add to the onion mixture. Add a few tsp of salt and some if you love garlic like me add a bit of garlic powder.

Cook down for a few minutes and add the chopped peppers.

Add about 2 cups of water.

Cover and Simmer…

Keep on simmering until everything is fully cooked and soft.

Juice two limes

Add the Lime juice to the sauce, add 2 tsp of sugar and adjust the salt if needed.

Turn off  the heat and add about 1 ounce of Tequila… or maybe a bit more

Wait until Cooled and then Blend, mush or use a wand.

While blending, start adding the vinegar, start with 1 cup, taste and add more if needed. The first time 1 cup was enough but this time I used about 1 1/3 cups.

and there you have it!

Jalapeño Tequila Lime hot sauce.

Here’s the Recipe again.

• 20 Jalapeño peppers
• 2 Cubanelle Peppers
• 1 medium Onion (or half Large)- minced
• 1 cup of minced shallots
• 6 cloves of garlic – minced
• 1 tomato (chopped)
• 2 cups of Water
• salt
• garlic powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 ounce Tequila (or a bit more)
• 1 – 1 1/3 cup vinegar

This makes a large batch! But it stores beautifully.

I got this recipe from Annie and decided to tweak it a bit…

These are my new favourite cookie… I made them today to make me feel better and also to bring to my meeting tonight to share…

This is for a double batch… (I like to  refrigerate half and bake them when I need a fix)

• 2 cups Sugar
• 1/2 cup Butter, room temperature
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• Zest of 3 Lime
• 2 large Egg
• Juice of 3 limes
• 3 1/2 cup Unbleached Flour
• 1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp  Salt
• 1 heaping tsp Cardamom

1. Preheat oven to 350?
2. Cream sugar, butter, oil, and zest together until light and fluffy. Add egg and lime juice and beat to incorporate.
3. In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add to wet and mix together well.
4. Make balls with batter and slightly flatten on a cookie sheet. Leave enough room for cookies to spread a bit on sheet.
5. sprinkle with sugar before baking.
6. Bake about 8 minutes or until edges and bottom golden.

Enjoy!!

I have been really making an effort  to make all the bread products we eat from scratch… breads, rolls, sourdough, ciabatta, hotdog/hamburger buns, tortilla’s, pizza dough and more…

(simple crusty bread)

It does take time and effort and planning but really the more often I do it the easier it becomes… the first times I made tortillas it took me about an hour tp make a batch and now I can make them in less than 30 min… and I even make a 1/2 batch more so that we have leftovers and can freeze them if we need to…

Here is a simple wrap made with my tortillas, grilled veggies and tofu with an avocado-wasabi mayo…

Our everyday bread I make about once a week and I make 3-4 loaves at a time… it takes a few minutes to make the dough and then all that is left is to let it rise and make the loaves and bake…

Hotdog and hamburger buns are very simple and it takes a few minutes to make the dough and then they rise quickly and bake in a few minutes…

Though I use WW flour often, I use Unbleached flour as  the usual flour because it bakes really well and makes a lighter bread which the family enjoys, and I add a 12 grain mix (especially to our everyday bread) to make it healthier and more nutritious…  I also now I have a new flour (local organic flour that I have been using)… but that will be another post!

(Yorkshire pudding)

There is a lot of work in cooking from scratch, but I know what we are eating, the taste is so much better, the smell of bread baking and food cooking is so worth the effort, and we are saving money and eating better….

(garlic and cheese flatbread)

(pumpkin cinnamon buns)

and honestly doing it makes me feel proud…

I first started this Vanilla in January…

It looked like this….

Now… it looks like this…

After about 6-7 weeks I was able to start using it and haven’t looked back… Every now and again I add a bit more alchool or a vanilla bean after I used the seeds in a recipe to keep it replenished and it is the most amazing Vanilla I have ever had… and the cheapest!!

With this vanilla, when a recipe calls for a tsp, you only need a tsp… if you use more, the vanilla flavour will stand out even more but for somethings it can even become overwhelming if you use too much… and I am a vanilla lover!!

I hadn’t tried Quinoa until last year but since then I have been hooked.

My favourites are the coconut quinoa that Annie shared with me… and this Quinoa salad…

it is so easy to make, simple and fresh and full of flavour…

It is one of those non-recipes…where you just throw things in and adjust the taste as needed…

First,  cook the Quinoa the same as you would rice….

When cooked and cooled a bit (but still a bit warm), add some chopped up veggies…I like adding peppers and carrots and celery. Then add a bit of olive oil, some salt or tamari to taste, some fresh (or dried) parsley, a bit of garlic powder and I like adding a bit of curry powder which seems to bring all of the other flavours out…

This is just a simple salad that can be eaten as a side, and because it is so complete nutritionally it can also be a meal in itself and keeps well and travels well…

Annie shared this recipe on her blog a while back and I have been dying to make it…

I used my favourite dough which I shared in this post…

For the sauce… (I changed it a bit to suit my taste and Annie’s recipe didn’t have water and it just doesn’t work without it for me)

Peanut Pizza Sauce

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp Ginger, minced
• 3-4 heaping tbsp  Peanut Butter
• 2 tbsp Tamari
• 1 tbsp Demerara Sugar
• Garlic Chili Paste (to taste)
• 2 tbsp Green Onion, chopped (I use two)
• 1/3 cup of warm water (or more depending on how thin you want it)

Blend together to make a sauce

Ready to be blended…

Peanut sauce is done… this stuff is amazing… not only for pizza but for a dipping sauce also…

Caramelize the onions… I then added garlic, mushrooms and then some spinach…

Spread the sauce on the prepared dough and then add the toppings…

I then added some more fresh spinach and grated carrot…

Bake at 400 for about  15 min…

What a treat!

Pizza is such a great meal to make… it is easy, pretty cheap, delicious and there are always leftovers!

My favourite recipe for the dough makes 3 good sized pizza’s…

• 2 1/2 cup of warm water
• 3 tsp yeast
• 2 tsp honey
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tsp salt
• 5 1/2 cups of flour

Put the water in a large bowl (or the bowl of your mixer) and add the yeast and honey and let sit for about 5 min…

Meanwhile, mix the flour and salt together…

Add the olive oil to the yeasty water, mix then add the flour. The dough should be quite moist and a bit sticky. Knead until you get a soft and satiny dough… set aside in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled.. about 45 min to an hour….

When the dough had doubled, divide into three pieces and prepare….

Tonight the boys all wanted pepperoni and cheese…and I wanted to make the caramelized onion and spinach pizza with peanut sauce that Annie had shared… and of course the beauty of pizza is that you can make your own…

Here is the Pepperoni and cheese…

We use a can of Garlic Tomato paste mixed with a can of water and some basil to make the pizza sauce…

I have been making weekly menus now for a few years but Annie has inspired me to share my routine and my weeks menu here also…

My weekly routine is to get up Saturday morning and look at the local flyers online and see what is on special and where… most of the time I go to two grocery stores. The stores that have cheaper prices (Super-C and Maxi) often have the nicest looking produce because their turnover is quicker but don’t have much in the way of choice or “speciality” foods… but the staples (flour, eggs, TP etc…) are much cheaper and it really makes a difference to take the effort to go to both types of stores…The other stores (IGA and Metro) are more expensive but have more choice and organic sections.

So the factors that go into my weekly menu are what we already have in the house, what is on special and what we feel like eating that week… I always try to choose at least 2 meals that are quick and easy for the nights that I just don’t feel like cooking or we have something planned and I always try to make sure that the suppers we eat on weekdays are things that have leftovers for Simon’s lunch the next day… though we are not vegetarian, I always have a few vegetarian meals because I enjoy it and I know that I don’t feel good eating meat too often.

After choosing the meals, I go through each item on my list and figure out what we already have and what we need and make my grocery list…

This weeks grocery bill came out to about 135$ (with a few staples)

Meals for the week (not in the order we will be eating them):

• Steaks with grilled Asparagus and spinach salad
• Crispy Tofu with Coconut Quinoa (the curried version of this)
  
• “Quick Spaghetti” (bacon, onion, mushrooms, garlic etc on pasta for the guys and spinach for myself)
• Pizza
• Grilled veggie wraps with avocado-wasabi mayo and homemade tortillas
• Creamy Broccoli soup
• Bar-B-Barn ribs with veggies

(I really need to share more recipes!)

For breakfasts, lunches and snacks we have eggs, oatmeal, homemade bread, pancakes, croissants, crackers and cheese, fruit, veggies etc…

I will most likely be making some treats also…