Punt the Velveeta for a Super Bowl of Queso!

That’s right.  It’s Super Bowl time again.  Even though Hubby’s two least favorite teams will be playing, I have a feeling we’ll still be watching it, regardless of how much he rants about the Patriots.  Yes, we live in Massachusetts, and my husband hates the Patriots.  And although he also hates the New York Giants, his favorite team is the Jets, who are also from New York.  I don’t really get it.  I have a feeling it has a lot more to do with uniform colors than anything else.  Anyway, enough about the sport, let’s talk food.  More specifically, let’s talk Chili con Queso… or more commonly known as just Queso.  I have to admit that I love the stuff.  Warm, creamy, spicy, cheesy, what’s not to love, right?  I’ll answer that for you.  Velveeta.  Velveeta is a creepy, ‘cheese food’, product that requires no refrigeration and never goes bad.  Honestly, I’m surprised it even works as fish bait.  Unfortunately, probably every queso you’ve ever eaten was made from it, or something very similar.  Well, no more.  I wasn’t sure I could actually make a dip that would have the same creamy consistency using real cheese, but I did, and it is amazing. 

Here’s what you’ll need:   

18 oz. grated cheese (about 5-ish cups)
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 – 3 jalapenos, diced
½ onion, diced
2 – 3 tomatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tablespoon)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoons chili powder
½ cup cilantro, chopped
¼ cup sour cream

The first thing you’ll want to do is dice everything up.  Then, in a sauce pan over medium low heat, melt 2 Tablespoons of butter and throw in your jalapeno and onion. 

Sprinkle over the salt, pepper, and chili powder. 

Stir the mixture and allow it to begin to sweat off some of its liquid.  After about 5 minutes, stir in the garlic.

Continue to cook the mixture for another 5 minutes or so, stirring frequently.  While it’s cooking you can go ahead and grate the cheese.  It’ll be much easier to do if you put it in the freezer for 15 minute or so first.  It’s very important to grate your own cheese for this.  The pregrated stuff doesn’t melt as well.  It’s also important to use cheeses that melt very easily.  I used about equal parts of Monterey jack and mild cheddar.

Once the vegetable mixture has cooked down and everything is mostly soft, add the diced tomatoes. 

Stir them around just long enough to cook off some of the moisture.  About 2 minutes.  Sprinkle the flour over the top of the mixture. 

Stir it in until it is completely incorporated and you no longer see any dry flour.  The mixture will be thick and pasty. 

Cook it for about a minute, stirring constantly, and then pour in the milk. 

Stir until the mixture become thick and creamy and comes to a boil.  You might need to increase the heat a little for that.  Once it’s come to a full boil, turn off the heat and throw in the cilantro.

Stir that in and allow the mixture to cool slightly before beginning to add the cheese.  There are two very important rules you need to follow in order to ensure you’ll end up with a nice creamy dip and not an oil clumpy mess.  First, it CANNOT be boiling when the cheese goes in.  Second, the cheese has to go in very, VERY slowly.  You want to add maybe ¼ cup at a time. 

Then stir it in and allow it to fully incorporate before sprinkling in the next addition.  If you have strings like this,

It’s not ready for another addition yet.  It should be smooth and creamy, with no stretchy, stingy, anything.  If the mixture cools too much, you might want to turn the burner back on to a very low heat, but be careful.  If it gets too hot, it will turn grainy and will eventually break.  If at any time, you start to see it becoming a grainy texture, remove it from the heat immediately and stir in a couple of ice cubes and a tablespoon of milk.  If you’re lucky, that will save it for you, but no guarantee.  Remember, low and slow is your friend here.  Continue to stir in the cheese until it’s all incorporated completely, then add the sour cream. 

Stir that in.  The heat will slowly allow it to melt and disperse into the mixture.  There you have it.  Creamy, delicious queso made without using any processed, cheese food product.  If you have a way to keep it warm at a very low temperature, that will keep the consistency the best.  If not, just cover it and serve it in small portions that can be eaten before it cools completely.  Serve with your favorite tortilla chips. 

Creamy, slightly spicy, and delicious.  The perfect accompaniment for the Super Bowl.

So, Pats or Giants?  Who are you rooting for?     

Carroty Carrot Muffins

One of these days I'll figure out wake up early enough in the morning that I can actually sit down and eat a piece of toast for breakfast. I've never been much of a breakfast person though. This is not to say tht I don't like breakfast foods, or don't eat breakfast. It's just that I need to be up and about for a while before I eat something.

Sleep is a precious commodity in my world. I will take sleep over most other early morning activities. That's why I've got my morning routine down to a 17 minute science. Really sucks on days when the the overnight low was below -20 (i.e. every night from now until April) because I have to get up four minutes earlier to run out in my pajamas to start the car before I start getting ready. And there are still mornings when I'm ready to go before the car is. 2 more years of school. 2 more years. 2 more. 2 ...

Carroty Carrot Muffins

What You Need:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup ground flax seed

• OR 2 cups flour

• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c carrot juice (or orange juice or milk)
• 1/2 c vegetable oil (I used peanut)
• 1/2 c unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 c honey
• 1 1/2 c grated carrots (at least)

Nope, no sugar at all. And no dairy. These will never be entirley vegan though (even if you did use some kind of egg substitute) because of the honey. Poor little worker bees, working so hard.

What You Gotta Do:

Preheat the oven to 350. (and yes, I really did remember)

In a small bowl, combine the flour, flax seed, baking soda, baking powder, and the salt.

A whisk works well for this.

In a large bowl, dump in everything else except the carrots.

Whisk this all together. The spices really contribute to the colour.

Tip the floury stuff from the small bowl into the wet eggy stuff in the large bowl. Mix this with a whisk. Yes, I know I'm making muffins which only need to be just-mixed. It is possible to merely stir things with a whisk.

What you can't do with a whisk really, though I suppose if you really wanted to you could probably pull it off, is fold. Fold the grated carrots into your just-mixed batter.

The balance of my bag of baby carrots only made for about 2 cups of grated carrots. This recipe can definitely take more than that.

You should end up with enough batter to generously fill 12 muffin cups. (I think I may try this as a snack cake next time. The texture is soft and cake like.)

Bake them for about 20 minutes at 350. Then let them cool a bit before you try taking them out of the pan. If you use the paper cups, you can get them out right away, but I prefer my muffins without cups.

These are fabulous with a bit of cream cheese on them.

This recipe is decidedly not sweet, but it's also not savoury. You could add chocolate chips, dried fruit (I'm thinking chopped apricots would be very tasty in them), or even nuts (weirdo).

You could probably even top them with cream cheese icing and pass them off as a carrot cake. Sneaky.

How do you hide vgetables?