Pretty healthy for tex-mex!

My dad stopped by a few weeks ago and brought me some salmon that he caught on a recent trip to Alaska. When you catch the fish, they basically filet it and flash freeze it so it’s still incredibly fresh when you eat it later.

At first I was going to just grill or sear the fish to really let the fresh salmon flavors shine, but then my creativity got the best of me.

I’ve made a lot of fish tacos, but a lot of times the fish is fried which is delicious but not healthy and definitely hides the fish flavor. So I thought I would keep these tacos very simple with just a few toppings.

While the tacos were absolutely outstanding, what I did with the salmon skin was even better.

Salmon Tacos

Yield: Makes 6-8 tacos

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound salmon, skin removed and seared
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Flour Tortillas
Avocado, sliced thin
Salsa

Marinated Red Onions
1/2 red onion, sliced very thin
1 lime, juice only
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Spicy Sour Cream
1 cup sour cream
1 jalapeno, diced (remove seeds for less heat)
1/2 lime, juice only

Helpful Equipment:
Silpat mat (for skin)

Directions:

1) For marinated onions, slice them thinly and toss them with lime juice and salt. Let them sit for at least 15 minutes before using.

2) Mix together ingredients for sour cream.

3) Remove skin from salmon and, optionally, cut the skin into strips and lay out on a silpat mat.

4) Sprinkle skin chips with oil and salt and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until very crispy.

5) For salmon, rub with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Sear on medium-high heat in a large skillet for about 3 minutes per side, until it's cooked through.

6) Using some small/medium flour tortillas, add a spoonful of salsa and sour cream. Lay in a piece or two of salmon (or some salmon skin). Top with avocado, cilantro, and marinated onions.

The Toppings

There’s really nothing to these tacos and you can throw them together in under 30 minutes. The toppings are where it’s at though.

I started by jazzing up some sour cream by adding some fresh jalapenos and lime juice to it.

Dice that pepper.

If you want the sour cream to have some some real heat to it, leave the seeds and guts in the jalapenos, otherwise you can just scoop them out before dicing the peppers.

Stir these into some sour cream with a squeeze of lime juice.

This stuff is fantastic on tacos.

Tasty stuff.

Marinated Onions

One of my favorite toppings for tacos is simple marinated red onions. The key to these is to slice them as thin as you can. No need to use a professional slicer or anything, but just take your time and get them thin.

Toss them with some lime juice and salt and let them sit for a few minutes. The onions will get slightly soft as they marinate and will be really delicious.

One of my favorite toppings

In my house, tacos without avocados is a pretty big no-no.

Also good to have.

The Salmon

Salmon comes in many different shapes and sizes these days depending on how you get it. I prefer to buy salmon with the skin on because it keeps it a bit fresher (I think) and I also think the skin is delicious (more on that in a minute).

But for tacos, step one is slicing the skin off the filets. This isn’t too hard if you have a decent knife. You can just run it under the filet and the skin should peel off pretty easily.

Straight from Alaska!

For the actual salmon, just rub each filet with some olive oil and season them well with salt and pepper on each side. Then just sear them over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side. Salmon, like most fish, will cook pretty quickly and you don’t want to over-cook it or it will get really dry.

The total time it’ll take to cook depends a lot on the thickness of your filets so just keep an eye on them and start checking on them after they’ve been cooking for 6 minutes or so.

When the salmon is done, just dice it up into big pieces that would fit nicely in a taco!

Try not to overcook it!

The Skinny

The first time I had salmon skin was actually at a sushi place. They were charging like $5 for a roll with salmon skin in it. I thought this was very inventive and a great use for a piece of the fish that most people probably just throw away.

Oh… and it also happened to be delicious. It’s one of my favorite rolls now and I order it every chance I get.

I quickly learned how to reproduce it at home.

The key to doing this correctly is to cut the skin into strips and use a nonstick mat (like a silpat mat). I’ve made these without the mat and they still work (parchment paper is another option), but you really need something like that or they will just stick pretty badly to the baking sheet.

So just lay out your skin pieces and drizzle them with oil and give them a good sprinkle of kosher salt.

The skinny.

Bake these guys at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until they are very crispy. No need to turn them or anything, just let them bake.

Normally, I eat these just like this. Little salmon chips!

It may sound weird, but they are seriously addictive and use a piece of the fish that most people discard.

These are seriously delicious.

The Tacos

I think you know the story from here on out. Basically just spread some of that delicious sour cream mixture on a tortilla and maybe a spoonful of salsa. Top with a few piece of salmon, some cilantro, avocado and some of the marinated onions.

A salmon taco!

If you want to get crazy, you can put the salmon skin right in a taco! While I made a few all skin tacos, a better way to do it is to just put one or two salmon chips in with a normal taco which makes it nice and crispy.

An all skin taco was great also though.

My favorite.

The next time you get your hands on some salmon, consider the taco. It’s about as healthy as a taco can get and is super-flavorful. It’s also a good way to stretch out what can be an expensive cut of fish.

But seriously, salmon skin. Sounds weird. So delicious!

This warms the soul.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted something made in my crockpot, almost two years in fact. So I was very happy when a crockpot dish won the poll last week.

Plus, it just makes sense. It’s cold and you’re probably busy this time of year so a dish that you can RONCO (set it and forget it) is probably helpful.

Funnily, this soup fits almost all of the categories in the poll last week. I swear that wasn’t planned… sometimes it just works out that way.

I’ve made chicken tortilla soup before, but never posted on it. This version was, by far, the best version I’ve ever made though. Something about letting the flavors just kind of mingle all day long really gave the finished soup an interesting and deep flavor.

You’d be silly not to try this!

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Yield: Serves 5-6

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 8 hours

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Serrano pepper, diced (with seeds)
1 red pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 chipotle pepper, minced
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 pound chicken breasts
2 dried New Mexico chile peppers (or poblano)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock
A few sprigs cilantro
3 corn tortillas, diced
1 cup corn
Salt and pepper

Garnish:
Corn tortilla strips
Avocados
Limes
Cotija cheese
Sour cream

Helpful Equipment:
Crockpot

Directions:

1) Finely dice the onion, garlic, peppers, and celery and add them to a crockpot.

2) Also add in the chicken breasts, canned tomatoes, bay leaves, cumin seeds, dried chiles, and chicken stock. The stock should just cover all the ingredients.

3) Cover and set the crockpot on low. Cook for 6-8 hours.

4) Remove dried chiles and bay leaves and discard. Remove chicken breasts, shred, and return to crockpot.

5) Add in cilantro sprigs, corn, and a few corn tortillas cut into bits. Let the crockpot simmer for another 30-60 minutes.

6) Season soup with salt and pepper.

7) To make tortilla strips, dice corn tortillas into strips and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned and crispy.

8) Serve soup piled high with tortilla strips. Other fun garnishes include lime wedges, crumbled cotija cheese, avocados, and sour cream.

Preparing the Veggies

I know what you’re thinking: ”Holy crap that’s a lot of ingredients!”

True. But hang in there. Most of them are basic stuff and once they are all in the pot, there’s very little work involved in this meal. You can go cross stuff off your list and come home to a delicious soup.

These are the few veggies that you need to start this soup.

Just a few basics.

The key to these is to dice them pretty finely.

For the Serrano pepper, I left the seeds in. You could take them out though if you’re worried about the heat.

Then just toss all this stuff into your slow cooker!

A fine dice.

Besides the veggies you need a few other things to get this soup going.

This is where a lot of the flavor comes from in this soup.

Flavor town.

Add all this stuff to the crockpot along with your chicken breasts. I would shoot for about a pound of chicken but you could use more if you wanted.

For the chipotle pepper, make sure you dice it very finely. Nobody wants a big bite of chipotle in their soup.

For the dried peppers, you can use almost any dried pepper. I went with New Mexico chile peppers, but poblanos would work also. Just break up the dried peppers into a few pieces and scrape out the seeds. Then throw the dried pieces into the crockpot along with the chicken breasts.

Everybody in the pot!

Add in all your chicken stock which should just barely cover all the ingredients.

A Slow Cook

Set your crockpot to a low heat and let this sucker cook, covered, for at least six hours. If you wanted you could cook it for even longer though. Six hours is the minimum.

After that, your house will smell amazing and your soup will look something like this.

6 hours later...

Finishing the Soup

There’s a few things we need to do to finish this soup now that most of the cooking is done.

For starters, take out the bay leaves and dried peppers from the soup and discard them. They’ve given the soup plenty of flavor and there’s no need to hang on to them.

Next, take out the chicken breasts and use a few forks to gently shred the meat. Then you can return it to the crockpot.

Get it?

Finally, there are three new ingredients that I recommend adding at this point as they don’t need to simmer all day long.

First, add some corn and cilantro sprigs. Second, cube up a few corn tortillas and add those cubes straight to the soup.

Just some more flavor!

Cover this and let it simmer for another 30-45 minutes. The tortillas will soften and some will completely disintegrate into the soup which will give it a really rich texture. The cilantro will give the soup a nice herb flavor.

After it’s second cooking, remove the cilantro stalks and season the soup generously with salt and pepper.

The Garnishes

My favorite part of chicken tortilla soup is serving it with tons of fun garnishes and toppings and then people can kind of make their own bowls.

The essential topping (in my opinion) is crispy tortilla strips. These are super-easy to make. Just cut a few corn tortillas into long strips and bake them at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

The strips will be lightly browned when the are done and super-crispy.

Great garnish.

Some other topping ideas that I like are sliced avocado, crumbled cotija cheese (or any cheese really), sour cream, and lime wedges.

Some other fun add-ins.

Once your soup is seasoned well with salt and pepper just ladle it into a bowl and pile on the toppings!

From above.

It’s actually a very filling meal for soup because of the chicken, tortillas, and cheese. It’s very warming and just a complete winner of a meal in my book.

Don’t be daunted by the ingredient list here, people. You can and should give this a shot sometime this winter!

The cute little napkins in this post were kindly donated by Oh Little Rabbit.

Good lookin' wrap!

“I think I’m good on cookies for a while.”

That’s what Betsy told me a few days ago and I couldn’t agree with her more. After a full week of nothing but cookies and sugar, I’m ready to move back into the land of the savory.

Heck. I don’t even have a sweet tooth really so I’m very excited to post something without sugar in it.

This quick wrap is something that Betsy and I have been eating recently. I love it because it works great for a lunch dish, but is also good to have if you want a lighter dinner option. It’s pretty healthy actually and jam-packed with flavor.

Baja Chicken Wraps

Yield: 4 wraps

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken breasts, grilled and chopped
Lettuce
Avocado
Ranch Dressing (homemade is good)
Hot Sauce
Large tortillas

Chicken Marinade:
2 limes, juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1) Mix together marinade ingredients. Add chicken breasts and let marinate for a few minutes.

2) Grill chicken over high heat for about 8-10 minutes per side until they are cooked through.

3) Slice chicken thinly.

4) In a bowl, mix together chopped lettuce, a drizzle of ranch dressing, and a dash of hot sauce.

5) Lay out a large tortilla and put down a layer of the lettuce mixture.

6) Top with about 1/4 of an avocado and a layer of chicken. I recommend about 4 ounces of chicken per wrap.

7) Top with a drizzle of ranch and an extra dash of hot sauce and roll the wrap up.

8) Slice and serve!

Prepping the Chicken

I decided to grill the chicken for these wraps even though it’s December. I’m a year around griller, but if you don’t want to venture out in the cold just to grill a few chicken breasts, you can definitely just sear these in a pan for a few minutes a side and then finish them off in a 350 degree oven.

Whether you grill or not, I recommend giving the chicken breasts some serious flavor with a quick marinade.

Tasty marinade.

I just whisked together some spices with some lime and olive oil and then tossed in my chicken breasts.

You don’t need to marinate these guys very long to give them some flavor. Even 10 minutes in this mixture will do the trick.

All mixed up.

So, like I said, you have two options for cooking the chicken in my mind.

1) Grill them. Pretty straightforward, just toss them on a hot grill for about 8-10 minutes per side until they are cooked through.

2) Sear them in a sturdy pan. Cast iron would work well, but any pan should do the trick. After you sear them for a few minutes over medium-high heat, stick them in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes to finish cooking them. If the pan you sear in isn’t oven-safe, just transfer the breasts to a baking dish for the oven cooking.

The reason you will probably want to finish the chicken breasts in the oven is because they might burn if you keep them over high heat for too long. Finishing them in the oven solves that problem and still gives you a nice sear on the outside.

I just tossed mine on the grill though. That’s easiest and best way to cook chicken breasts in my opinion.

Who says you can't grill in the winter?

Once the chicken breasts cool a bit, slice them up!

Keep in mind that we’re going to be adding these slices to a wrap so try to keep the slices pretty thin.

Thinner the better.

The Lettuce

I love lettuce in wraps, but I wanted to use the lettuce as a flavor vehicle also.

So I ripped up some lettuce (a few cups) and then tossed it with a few tablespoons of homemade ranch dressing and a few dashes of hot sauce. Of course, you don’t have to make homemade ranch dressing for this, but the homemade version is really packed with flavor.

Hot sauce is very important.

Mix this all up really well and you’re ready to make a wrap!

Making the Wraps

You should be able to get about 4 wraps out of one pound of grilled chicken. Of course, that largely depends on how big you make your wraps…

I use the biggest tortillas I could find just so I could really stuff them.

Start by laying down a nice layer of the lettuce. Then add about 1/4 of an avocado that’s sliced up.

Don't skimp on the 'cado.

Top that with some of the grilled chicken and maybe give it an extra drizzle of ranch or hot sauce.

Then you’re ready to roll.

Get it?

Fold the ends toward the center and just roll the wrap up tightly.

While you don’t have to slice this in half, I think it’s a little easier to eat in two pieces. Plus it looks good.

That's a wrap!

There’s a lot of good flavors here. The lime marinade goes perfectly with the rich avocado. The lettuce gives it lots of good crunch and flavor because of the dressing and hot sauce.

If you didn’t want to use chicken, I actually think you could sub tofu for this without too much trouble. I would still marinate it and grill it just like I did with the chicken.

If you’re looking for a really tasty wrap, give this a shot. I thought it was absolutely delicious!

Good stuff.

After a long holiday week of binge eating turkey and cookies, Betsy and I got off the plane and the first thing she said was, “Can we just eat salad for a week?”

I was happy to oblige for at least one dinner. My body was sort of screaming at me to pack in some veggies.

A lot of times I hear people say that they can’t make a meal out of salad and my response normally is, “You’re not making the right kind of salad!”

For me, a salad can definitely be a meal if it has a lot of different vegetables, textures, and flavors. One key element of the salad, for me, is always a delicious dressing.

While ranch dressing can be heavy, a little goes a long way and the subtle spice and herb flavors of this version can really round out a salad and make it a full meal.

Jalapeno Ranch Dressing

Yield: Makes about 3 cups.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup buttermilk (if you want a dip, use 1/4 cup)
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh chives
1 tablespoon fresh dill
1 jalapeno, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Dice garlic clove and add it to a bowl with a pinch of salt. Using a fork, mash the garlic and salt together to form a garlic paste.

2) Mince all the fresh herbs and add them the garlic paste. Mash them all together a bit and combine them well.

3) Mince jalapeno finely and add to the bowl. If you want the dressing to be really spicy, leave in seeds and pith of the pepper.

4) Add mayonnaise and greek yogurt to the bowl and stir well. Add in lime juice as well.

5) Thin the dressing out with buttermilk until it's the desired consistency. For a dip I would use 1/4 cup, for a dressing, use 1/2 cup.

6) Stir or shake dressing together well and use immediately or store for a week or two in the fridge.

Dressing Ingredients

Ranch dressing normally has sour cream in it, but I subbed Greek yogurt to make it somewhat healthier. Of course, it still has mayonnaise and buttermilk.

You can’t win them all.

The good news is that because of all the delicious herbs and stuff, just a few tablespoons of this dressing will add a lot of flavor to any salad. You don’t need to drown your salad to add a lot of flavor to it.

Lots of good fresh herbs.

Mincing and Mashing

When I’m making a dressing or sauce with garlic in it, I like to mince my clove of garlic and then add it to a bowl with a pinch of kosher salt. Then I grab a fork and just kind of mash the garlic and salt together.

This releases a lot of the juices in the garlic and makes a salty garlic paste. It’s why you definitely only need one clove of garlic for this recipe. Two would be over-powering.

One clove is all ya need.

Besides the garlic, take the time to really mince up the ingredients finely. It’s a dressing after all and you don’t want any huge pieces of any one thing.

For the jalapeno, I decided to take out the seeds and just mince the pepper. I think if I made this again, I would actually leave the seeds and pith of the pepper in to make it even a bit more spicy.

It’s just personal preference though. If you want it spicier, leave in the seeds and pith. If you want it more mild, take them out!

You could leave the seeds in if you wanted it real spicy.

All the herbs should be diced pretty finely. While you could leave out the dill in this recipe, I think the parsley and chives are pretty mandatory.

Gotta have chives in ranch.

Once all your herbs are chopped, add them to the bowl with the garlic paste. Squeeze in some fresh lime juice and mash everything together a bit to combine the flavors.

Good green stuff.

A Dip or a Dressing?

After your herbs are chopped and mixed, stir in the mayo and greek yogurt.

Then comes the decision part. Do you want a dip or a dressing? If you want a dip, add in just a tiny bit of buttermilk to give it some tang but leave it thick. If you’re shooting for a dressing, thin it out more with the buttermilk.

I used about 1/2 cup of buttermilk for my dressing version. At the end of the day though, you could thin it out more or less. Again, it’s personal preference on this.

Buttermilk is very important.

The Salad

When I’m making a salad as a meal, I like to pile on lots of interesting flavors and textures. Sometimes this can mean a protein like grilled chicken, but it doesn’t have to. In this case, I didn’t add any meat.

I did add some homemade croutons though that I tossed with some olive oil and garlic.

I also roasted some small beets which are the last thing I harvested from my summer garden! These were really sweet and delicious in the salad.

Yum.

Besides those things, my salad was basically a large chunk of the produce section.

Green lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumbers, red peppers, scallions, radishes, avocado, cheddar cheese…

A salad can be a meal.

As you can see, I just added a few drizzles of dressing and it was more than enough to flavor the salad.

This was a delicious meal and left me FULL.

The dressing will obviously not last as long as store-bought ranch dressing because it doesn’t have any preservatives or anything in it. The tradeoff is that it has a lot more flavor, so you need to use less of it.

I think it will easily last 2 weeks in the fridge though.

Give this dressing a shot if you’re in a salad rut!

You guys really pulled a fast one on me with the poll last week. It was a perfect tie between gin and rum! What’s a mixologist to do?

At first I tried to come up with a drink that had both gin and rum in it, but that proved to be pretty hard. Drinks do exist that use both, but they have a pretty specific flavor profile. Most of them weren’t really in the Halloween spirit so I thought it would be easier and more fun to just make two cocktails: one with rum and one with gin.

Frankly, both turned out better than I was expecting due to some awesome simple syrups.

Two Halloween Cocktails

Yield: 1 drink of each

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Simple Syrup:
1/2 Cup pumpkin puree
1/2 Cup water
1/2 Cup sugar

Pumpkin Martini:
2 ounces rum (spiced rum would be good)
2 ounces pumpkin simple syrup
1 ounce cream
Cinnamon sugar (for rim)

Vampire Blood:
2 cups cranberry juice
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup dried hibiscus flowers

Vampire Blood Cocktail:
2.5 ounces gin
3 ounces club soda
1/2 ounce vampire blood
Garnish with lime

Helpful Equipment:
Cocktail Set

Directions:

1) For pumpkin syrup, just mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes and then chill and use. It will store in the fridge fine for a week.

2) For pumpkin martini, wet rim and run it around some cinnamon sugar. Then shake ingredients together with ice and strain into chilled glass.

3) For vampire blood, combine ingredients in small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce the mixture down by about 1/3 which should take about 20 minutes. Chill and use or store for up to 2 weeks.

4) For cocktail, mix gin and club soda over ice. Pour over vampire blood mixture and garnish with lime.

Pumpkin Martini

It’s Halloween and I just had to try to mix pumpkin into one of these cocktails. Anytime you’re trying to mix in a flavor with a drink, it’s usually best to try to make a simple syrup out of it which will make it easy to mix into things.

I was a bit worried that the pumpkin wouldn’t mix well due to it’s lumpiness…

Wasn't sure about this...

But after I started stirring this mixture together though, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. The pumpkin just kind of melted in with the sugar and after a few minutes of simmering I had this surprisingly smooth syrup that I knew would work great in a cocktail.

Pretty silky smooth!

One Note: For the pumpkin, be sure to use just 100% canned pumpkin. Don’t use the pumpkin pie filling stuff. That stuff has all kinds of crazy stuff in it.

Shake It Up

While you could make this drink on the rocks (over ice) if you wanted, it seemed a bit more elegant to make a real martini out of it. That’s means you’ll need a shaker set of some sort if you don’t have one.

Try it with spiced rum....

A Bartender’s Trick

If you want to know a hint to watch for to see if your bartender is a good one and cares about the drinks they are making, see how they handle the glass. A good bartender will always always chill the glass. That means that if the glasses aren’t kept in a refrigerator, they will ice and chill every single glass that they pour into.

It only takes a few seconds and really helps keep your drink cool for as long as possible.

Very important.

At the last minute, I decided to add a cinnamon sugar rim to the glass also just to play off some of the pumpkin flavors. Not essential, but a fun little touch.

For the rim...

Just wet your glass with a paper towel and then run the rim in the cinnamon sugar. After that, just add your ingredients to your shaker with some ice and shake shake shake. Or stir stir stir. Whatever.

It’s a pretty drink and really tasty. I think if I made this again, I might try it with spiced rum instead of white rum.

Beautiful thing.

Vampire Blood Cocktail

Ok. Onto gin land! This is Halloween play on gin and juice basically. I wanted to make a blood red syrup and then add it to a gin soda and I figured it would be cool looking and delicious.

You’ll need some red stuff to start. I used real, pure cranberry juice, but you could also use pomegranate juice.

making blood!

See those withered flower things down there? Those are hibiscus flowers and they turn things bright red and give them a light floral taste. I love them in cocktails.

Here’s an up close look at these weird things.

They kind of look like what I would imagine vampire flowers would look like actually.

Up close!

Anyway, just like the pumpkin syrup, just mix all these together and bring them to a simmer. The only difference is that with this one you want it to simmer and reduce for about 20 minutes to thicken it up a bit.

Making blood!

A Chill Tip

For both of these syrups, they are best when they are cold. They will take hours to cool off completely in the fridge. What I like to do is set up a bowl with some ice water in it and then put the syrup in a smaller bowl inside the larger bowl. Stir the syrup and the ice water in the outer bowl will chill the syrup down in just a minute or two.

Back to the cocktail!

Then just add your gin and club soda (or tonic) to a tall glass with ice and a small shot of the vampire syrup and you’re all set!

Feel free to garnish with a lime and some fangs!

Awesome drink.

Both of these drinks are freakin’ delicious and you better bet that I’m going to be having one or two of both over the Halloween weekend.

Healthiest drink ever?

While I was at the beach a few weeks ago I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. If you haven’t read it and are at all interested in running or just cool stories, I highly recommend it.

The book tells a bunch of different stories – it follows a hidden Mexican tribe of runners, a few people who run super-marathons (100 miles without stopping), and one crazy dude name Caballo Blanco (white horse) who used to be the latter, but is now closer to the former.

I really related to the author in the book because, like him, I enjoy running but I’m just not great at it. I usually run 3-5 miles and then just kind of decide that beer is way more fun than running the next 3-5 miles. The idea of running a marathon, or four in row, is not something I can even picture in my mind.

As you can imagine, if you’re running 60-100 miles at a time, it’s pretty darn important what you fuel your body with. When the author was hanging with the cool Mexican tribe, Tarahumara, they introduced him to a drink called Iskiate which he claimed gave him an immediate boost of energy. Like, he drank some and then ran 10-15 miles. No sweat.

It should go without saying that I had to try this stuff out.

Iskiate

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes + time to chill

Ingredients:

4 cups water
2 limes, juice only
1/4 cup raw chia seeds
1/4 cup agave nectar, honey, or sugar

Directions:

1) Mix water, and lime juice in a small pot until steaming, but not boiling.

2) Stir in chia seeds and stir well so they don't stick together. Add sweetener and continue to stir.

3) Cook for another minute or two, stirring continuously.

4) Chill completely and drink a cup or two of it a few minutes before doing something active.

The Chia

There are really only 3 ingredients in this drink. It’s dumb simple to make, but the key ingredient is a good dose of chia seeds.

I think Chris McDougall does a great job of summing up the nutritional power of these little guys:

In terms of nutritional content, a tablespoon of chia is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach, and human growth hormone. As tiny as those seeds are, they’re superpacked with omega-3S, omega-6S, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, fiber, and antioxidants.

And guess what… they don’t taste that bad to boot!

Just three things!

Here’s a close up shot of those little guys. Unlike flax seeds, your body can digest these whole so there’s no need to grind them up or anything.

Up close.

Making the Drink

While you could make this drink one cup at a time, I decided to make a larger batch of it and then just store it in the fridge. It’s good for a few days without a problem.

To do this, I added the lime juice and water to a small sauce pan and let it heat up. Once it was steaming (no need to boil it) add in all the chia seeds. Stir them up really well. They might stick together some, but that’s okay.

A quick simmer...

Add the agave nectar and continue to stir it. If you don’t have agave, you can definitely use honey or sugar. Agave is the real deal though.

Agave or sugar... whatever works.

Just stir this all together really well for a minute or two and then stick it all in the fridge to cool down.

Once the drink is cool, you’ll notice that most of the seeds have settled and all the seeds are partially dissolved. I don’t know how else to describe it, but as the seeds dissolve, they give the drink a very light slimy texture. I realize that doesn’t sound appetizing, but it’s not heavy at all. That said, I’ve never drank anything like it in my life.

Nice and cool.

Once it’s chilled there’s no need to serve it with ice or anything. You can just drink it straight. I added some ice to mine though just to keep it really nice and cold.

It’s good to give the drink a stir every once in awhile or all the seeds will settle. You want those seeds!

Tastier than it looks!

The Results

I did a little unscientific test yesterday to test this drink out. Normally after I cook at the homeless shelter on a Tuesday, I’m pretty spent the rest of the day. I usually try to get in a short run or something, but it’s never a fun experience. I usually just want to go to bed!

Today though, I drank a big glass of Iskiate about 20 minutes before going for a 3 mile jog. It definitely wasn’t like I turned into Superman or anything, but I did feel a lot better! Considering I didn’t eat anything all morning before the run, I had a good amount of energy and when I normally hit a wall (mile 2ish), I just breezed right through it! I definitely felt like I could’ve ran for a few more miles.

Now, of course, this could’ve been 100% psychosomatic. I could’ve felt better running because I thought I was supposed to be feeling better while running.

But who cares? Psychosomatic or not, the run went well! And the drink is actually quite refreshing because of the lime and sugar.

It’s not the most visually appealing drink ever created, but hey, if people run 60 miles and attribute even a fraction of their energy to a simple-to-make drink with three ingredients, you better believe I’m on board with it!

Pretty good taco.

As I mentioned in my hash brown benedict post on Saturday, Betsy and I had a few friends from the big city come visit a few weeks ago. This was a big deal. You can pretty much guarantee that if you fly 2,000 miles to visit me, I’ll cook you anything you want.

These friends were easy to please though. Besides brunch, they just asked for something Tex-mex and something grilled. So I decided to slam the two together and make some awesome grilled carnitas.

The benefits of grilling these guys (they are normally braised like this), is that you don’t have to turn your oven on! This might seem like a small win, but if you’re cooking something for 4-5 hours, it’s a big deal. Also, grilled things tend to taste good.

The downside of grilling these guys is that you want to cook them as low and slow as possible. So get ready for a day of cooking. I don’t really consider this a downside, but some people just might.

Grilled Carnitas

Yield: Serves 10.

Prep Time: 20 minutes + Resting Time

Total Time: 10 hours

Ingredients:

1 5 pound pork butt (shoulder) cut. If you get a full pork shoulder (~10 pounds) you can just cut it in half or do the whole thing if you need to feed a million people.
Flour Tortillas
1 Red onion
2 limes, juice only
1/3 Cup spice rub (below)
Salsa Verde (below or jarred is okay)
Cojita Cheese, crumbled
Radishes, sliced thin (optional)
Guacamole (below)

Spice Rub: Enough for a 5 pound pork butt
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 Tablespoon ground cumin

Salsa Verde:
1 pound tomatillos, halved
1/2 white onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic
2-3 jalapenos
1 lime, juice only
1 handful of cilantro
Pinch of salt

Basic Guacamole:
4 avocados, pitted
2 shallots, minced (you can also use red onion)
2 serrano peppers, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 handful cilantro, minced (optional)
1-2 limes, juice only
Pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
Oven thermometer
Meat Thermometer
Blender (just for salsa)

Directions:

1) For rub, mix ingredients in a bowl.

2) Butterfly pork butt but leave a piece attached. Don't cut it completely in two. Cover entire butt with rub. Let sit overnight in the fridge.

3) Preheat grill to 250 degrees. Use an oven thermometer to ensure even temp.

4) Cook pork butt for 8-10 hours on grill, rotating every 2 hours.

5) Once butt hits 190-200 degrees, it's done. Then wrap in tin foil and let sit for 30-45 minutes.

6) Use two forks to shred pork butt into strips.

7) As an optional step, mix in 1/4 cup of melted butter in with pork and broil the meat for a few minutes on high to really crisp up the carnitas.

8) Serve with tortillas, guacamole, salsa, onions, cojita, and radishes.

Prepping the Carnitas

There were a lot of variables that went into this dish. Since it was my first time trying it, I decided to follow one of my basic cooking rules which is that if you don’t know what you’re doing, keep it as simple as possible.

That means that I didn’t get fancy with my rub, I didn’t use charcoal or try to smoke the shoulder in any way. My main goals were just to flavor it decently and cook it perfectly. And that’s what I did.

I kept my rub very simple with these guys.

Keep it simple.

I wanted to really maximize the surface area that the rub was on, so I decided to butterfly my shoulder a bit and really coat the entire thing in the rub.

If I would’ve had my way, I would’ve gone with a pork shoulder with the bone in, but the butcher was fresh out so I had to go with the boneless variety. Not a huge deal.

Really feel free to go heavy on the rub.

Butterflied and rubbed.

Now, you could throw this on the grill right away, but you’ll get a lot more flavor out of it if you can let it rest overnight – in the fridge of course.

This normally isn’t a huge deal because since it’s going to need to cook all day anyway, any prep you can do the night before is good.

Grilling the Butt

I’m not sure if you can tell from the photos, but this is a big hunk of meat. It weighed in at about 5 pounds and this was only half of the shoulder. I’d guess that most pork shoulders are 20-30% fat which really works to our advantage here. That means that we can cook it low and slow and the high fat content will make it almost impossible to over-cook.

What you don’t want to do is cook it on a grill that’s too hot. If you do that, you run the risk of completely charring the outside and leaving the inside really tough still. No good.

The only way to make sure your grill is the right temperature is to get yourself an oven thermometer and plop it down right on the grill. If you’re using a gas grill like me, it’s just a matter of playing around with your heat until you get a steady 250 degree heat.

For me, the setting that finally worked was to turn on only the very back fire element and turn it on its lowest setting. With the lid closed, the grill kept a steady 250-255 degree temperature.

The start of something beautiful.

One Note: If your grill has a built in thermometer, just ignore it. Those things are WAY off. Mine was registering 50-75 degrees off the entire cooking time.

One Other Note: If you’re using charcoal/wood, more power to you. I want to do my next one this way. You just have to be diligent about adding coals and keeping the temperature in a good range.

A five pound pork but will need about 9-10 hours on the grill. This was mine after about 6 hours.

I also turned my butt every two hours just to make sure it was cooking evenly.

A bit over halfway.

The Fixings

Ten hours is a long time. At some point during that time, you’ll want to make some good fixings for your tacos.

Guacamole never hurts and is a requirement at my house for any Tex-Mex dinner.

Essential.

I also decided to whip up a batch of salsa verde to go with the pork. I figured the slightly bitter salsa would go really well with the pork.

To make the salsa, just roast all the ingredients except the cilantro and limes for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Then blend them up and season with salt!

Feel free to use jarred stuff.

I also marinated some sliced red onions in a bit of lime juice, sliced some radishes thinly, and crumbled some cojita cheese. In my opinion, the radishes and cheese are optional, the onions are not!

Fun toppings.

Finishing the Carnitas

Let me warn you. When you are cooking five pounds of meat for an entire day, you need a meat thermometer.

You also need a lot of beer, but that’s neither here nor there.

The meat thermometer is really the only way to know when this guy is done. When it hits 190-200 degrees in the center, it’s done. That may seem really high, but that’s the temperature when all that fat is melting away, which is what you want.

Done deal!

When you pull your pork butt off the grill, it will be falling apart. Do your best to keep it in one piece and wrap the whole thing in foil. Let it sit for about 45 minutes. This will give it time to cool slowly so you can work with it. Trying to do anything with it when it comes off the grill is a recipe for second degree burns.

It’ll still be plenty hot after 45 minutes, but you should be able to easily handle it and pull it apart.

Fall-apart tender.

Grab a few forks and get to work shredding. The meat is so tender that it should be a pretty easy task.

Shred it, dude!

You can serve the tacos just like this if you want or you can take it to the next level!

If you want to kick it up a notch, melt about a 1/4 cup of butter and stir the melted butter into the carnitas. Then stick the whole thing under the broiler for about five minutes to get the carnitas extra crispy and delicious.

Not a necessary step at all, but it does add a nice touch if you have the time.

I don’t think I need to tell you how to make a taco. Just pile it high and deep!

The finished deal.

I’m not sure there’s much left to say about these guys. They turned out to be a lot easier to make than I thought they would be.

If you’re in a situation where you need to feed a small army, this is a fantastic way to go.

It should be no surprise that the leftovers make really good burritos or breakfast hash.

Thank heavens for science, those scientists who could have spent their grant funding musing on the origins of Dark Matter, or observing how stem cells mutate, or calculating equations for quantum computing, but instead, dedicated their research and resources to creating the seedless watermelon. Money well spent, I think.

All the joy of that gorgeous pink fruit, none of the picking around for pips. The pure pleasure of taking great bites without having to worry about an unexpected crunch.

There’s nothing like a slice of ice cold watermelon on a hot day – and now that temperatures have hit the 90s in NYC, pretty much every day has watermelon potential.

Watermelon cubes can be frozen then blended with a splash of orange juice to make the most delicious breakfast smoothie. Or blended with a couple of ice cubes and a splash of rum to make an astonishingly pink frozen daiquiri, and honestly, usually, this is where my watermelon ends up. But it also makes a fabulous sorbet – delicious on top of a tropical fruit salad, or turned into a drink by scooping a ball into a glass and topping up with soda water and a squeeze of lemon – or even some more Campari.

The Campari tip came from my friend Hilary, who is the owner of an outré liquor cabinet. You want to drink maraschino cherry sours? She’s got them. Cointreau and Grand Marnier and Triple Sec? Check. So when she tells me she’s tested out a good range of watermelon / booze combinations and this is the best one, I’m inclined to take her at her word. And I love the sharp sour hit of Campari – usually over ice with soda, so I had it to hand, ready for experimentation. It gives the sorbet a deeper sour citrus note, and if it’s possible, makes it an even prettier pink.

For a very quick sorbet, freeze the melon cubes, then blend with a pinch of sugar and a splash of Campari – serve in a cocktail glass with a teaspoon. But for the real deal:

Making the Sorbet

• Heat 1 cup of the watermelon puree with the sugar, whisking until the sugar dissolves.
• Add the rest of the puree, the lime and the corn syrup and whisk to combine.
• Take the puree off the heat and add the Campari.
• If you have an ice cream maker, pour the mixture in and proceed according to its instructions. Otherwise, pour the mixture into a plastic container and freeze for 4 hours (or overnight).
• Let the frozen mixture stand at room temp for a few minutes to soften slightly, then process (or blend) and freeze again.

Note from Nick: Thanks very much Kate for the delicious sorbet! You can find Kate’s blog on Facebook and also follow her on Twitter!

Come on...

If I told you that I once ate an entire red onion in one sitting you would probably feel very bad for my loving wife, Betsy.

But you know what? I did it and I can’t take it back now. Nor do I want to frankly because when you slice red onions really thinly and fry them they just turn out to be these crispy little delicious strings. They have a slight spice to them that you wouldn’t get with normal onions.

And that made it impossible for me to stop eating them.

Red Onion Strings

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 large red onions, sliced thin
3 Cups buttermilk
3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon black pepper
2 quarts oil, for frying

Homemade Buttermilk Ranch:

1 Cup buttermilk
1 Cup Greek Yogurt
1/8 Teaspoon paprika
1/8 Teaspoon dried mustard
1/4 Teaspoon fresh dill (don't over-do it)
1 Teaspoon fresh parsley
1 Teaspoon fresh chives
1 Teaspoon lime (or lemon) juice
1 pinch of salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Deep Fry Thermometer

Directions:

1) Slice onions thinly and soak in buttermilk for at least 30 minutes.

2) For ranch, dice fresh herbs finely and mix together with other ingredients in a mason jar. Shake for 10 seconds to combine well. You can also whisk everything together in a bowl.

3) Set up a fry station with a thermometer. Heat oil to 350 degrees.

4) Mix flour with spices (paprika, salt, pepper).

5) Drain onions and let sit for a few seconds.

6) Dip onions in flour and coat lightly. Then transfer straight to the fryer.

7) Fry for about 5 minutes until they are golden brown. Work in batches and make sure your oil stays hot.

8) Let drain on a paper towel for a minute and serve immediately!

Prepping the Onions

These aren’t rocket science to make. You need some onions obviously. Might as well get the biggest ones you can find!

Pretty basic...

The key to these suckers is to slice them as thin as possible. If you wanted to be exact about it you could use a mandoline slicer. If I were making a bunch of them, I would. But for just a few, I think it’s easier and good practice just to slice them up with a sharp knife.

And frankly, I kind of like it when the strings are a bit irregular.

If you sliced them too thick though they would be over-powering. So keep them on the thin side. And I wasn’t going for onion RINGS really so it doesn’t matter if they are whole rings.

Nice and thin...

Let these guys soak for at least 30 minutes in some buttermilk. The buttermilk will actually pull out some of the strong onion flavor and mellow them out a bit. This is a good thing considering how strong red onions can be.

A nice soak.

The Dipping Sauce

Honestly, these are good enough to be eaten on their own. But I was in the mood to make some salad dressing and a good ranch dressing happens to be a good dipping sauce also.

If you’ve never had real buttermilk dressing before, I highly recommend it. It’s a lot different than the stuff in the store. It requires some fresh herbs and stuff, but it’s really simple to mix up assuming you have most of the ingredients.

Looks like a lot, but not bad.

Make sure to mince all your fresh herbs really finely so they mix well.

You could whisk everything together in a bowl, but I prefer the mason jar method. Just stick everything in a jar and give it a good shake!

Mason jar WIN.

After about 10 seconds of shaking you should have a really nice dressing.

This will keep in the fridge for one or two weeks without a problem and it’ll get stronger as it sits in the fridge.

Be especially careful of the dill. It can completely over-power the other flavors if you over-dill it.

REAL ranch dressing

Frying the Strings

When you’re ready to make the strings, set up your fry station. As always, I recommend using a good deep fry thermometer to make sure your temperature is correct. You’re shooting for 350 degrees.

When you’re ready to go, drain the buttermilk off the onions. I just throw mine in a colander and let them sit for a few seconds to make sure most of the buttermilk has drained off.

Then give them a quick toss in your flour and seasoning. Obviously, make sure to stir the flour and seasoning so it’s mixed well.

A light coating is all you need.

Seasoned and floured.

Then straight into the fryer!

You’ll want to work in batches to make sure the temperature of your oil doesn’t drop too much. Depending on the size of your pot, two onions will take three or four batches probably.

These are looking great though.

Perfect.

These guys will need 5 minutes to fry nicely and turn golden brown. Don’t rush them.

Use a slotted spoon or tongs to get these guys out of the hot oil and let them drain for a few seconds on a paper towel.

Eat NOW.

This probably isn’t a surprise to you, but these are best if you eat them right away!

The dipping sauce is good, but completely optional. These are delicious as-is.

Not much beats these guys with a good burger so the next time you’re grilling out, give them a shot!

This will kick you in the mouth.

Chicken sandwiches have been on the rise in the last few years. I think people believe that chicken at fast food restaurants is somehow healthier than beef which can be the case but definitely isn’t a rule. Normally, chicken at restaurants is fried (which immediately negates the health factor) or cooked into a bland rubbery cube.

Except for a few exceptions, this usually ends up to be a tasteless. In my experience, it’s rarely worth the calories or the dollars they’ll charge you.

We can do SO much better at home.

I had a few chicken breasts left over from my chicken and waffles party so I worked out a delicious chicken sandwich recipe that’s juicy and flavorful.

Chipotle Chicken Sandwich

Yield: 8 Sandwiches

Prep Time: 15 minutes + marinating time

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

4 large chicken breasts, halved and pounded to an even thickness
1/3 Cup olive oil
1 lime, juice only
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 chipotle peppers, de-seeded and minced
1 Tablespoon Adobo sauce, from chipotle container
8 hamburger buns
2 avocados, 1/4 per sandwich
Lettuce
Spicy Mayo (optional)

Directions:

1) For marinade, mix chopped chipotles, adobo sauce, lime juice, garlic, and olive oil in a small bowl.

2) Cut chicken breasts in half and lightly pound them to an even thickness between plastic wrap.

3) Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes, but you could do them the night before.

4) Grill chicken over high heat for 5 minutes per side.

5) If you're using cheese, add it to chicken in the last 2 minutes of cooking and cover grill.

6) Grill buns and serve sandwich with mayo, lettuce, and avocado.

The Mayo Business

As you might know if you’re a regular Macheesmo reader (and you should be a regular Macheesmo reader), I’ve been on a huge homemade mayo kick lately. If you want a full walk-through on how to make your own, check out my homemade mayonnaise post.

For this version, I stuck with the spicy theme and whisked in a pinch of cayenne pepper.

My fave thing to do these days...

The Chicken

Making a good chicken sandwich is pretty straightforward, but there is one step that I really recommend: pounding the chicken.

The problem with chicken breasts is that they tend to be way uneven in the thickness department. One end is really skinny and one end is two inches thick. It’s pretty inevitable that if you cook it as-is, it’s going to be either over-cooked on one end or raw on the other end.

Also, chicken breasts are typically way larger than any one sandwich needs. So I recommend chopping them in half and pounding them to an even thickness with a mallet. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap to avoid chicken splatter all over your kitchen.

Flat and even is your goal.

Next, you’re going to need a marinade.

I whipped one together with these things. Those chipotles pack a punch. I recommend two, but if you’re feeling adventurous then shoot for three or four!

Get it?

Add the marinade to the chicken patties and let this marinade for at least 30 minutes, but overnight would be just fine also.

An hour is enough.

Cooking the Patties

Once you’re ready to make some delicious chicken sandwiches, take your patties and toss them on a hot grill for about 5 minutes per side.

You should get some really nice grill marks and some of the chipotles will kind of cook on to the chicken which is oh-so-delicious.

Sizzle sizzle.

For the last two minutes of cooking, add a nice slice of cheese if you want. The sandwich is honestly pretty flavorful without the cheese, but it’s a rare day where you’ll see me pass up an opportunity to melt cheese on something.

Cover the grill and the cheese will melt perfectly in a minute or two.

Melty is the word I would use.

Dress up the burger with some mayo, lettuce, and avocado and you’re all set.

As an added touch, don’t forget to grill the bun for a few seconds.

Gotta have the 'cado.

Now, you 100% do not have to have a grill for this recipe.

If you don’t have a grill, just add a drizzle of oil to a skillet and cook the chicken over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes per side. You might want to cut into one to see if they are cooked through.

If you want to add cheese to it, you can grate the cheese or add a cover to the pan to make it melt easily.

Spicy and tasty.

I’m not entirely sure what the calorie count is on this sucker, but I am entirely sure that it’s one of the best chicken sandwiches I’ve ever had.

If you make a bunch of these, they are fine re-heated for lunch also.

Mark this down as yet another reason that fast food restaurants have nothing on the home cook!