Restaurant cheese dip at home!

Wayyyyyy back when we used to dine out, we loved going to a local Mexican restaurant for their cheese dip.  Having a major hankering, my son begged me to make some at home.  I wasn't sure exactly what they had in theirs, but it was worth a shot.  It turned out pretty good.  Here's what you need...

8oz Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded  ( real cheese, not a processed 'cheese product')
2T Butter
2T Flour
1C Milk

Melt the butter in a small sauce pot over low/medium-low heat.

Sprinkle in the flour, stir.

Cook for a couple of minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.  Stir constantly.

Slowly add in the milk.  I like to add a couple of tablespoons, stir to combine, add in a couple more, stir, and so on.  I find I don't get any lumps that way.  We're basically making a white sauce here.  I would normally be stirring constantly, but I needed my hand to take the picture.  Ya know, it's funny, my son never asks me WHY I have to take pix of the food I'm preparing, lol!  What will be weird is if he goes to a friend's house some day and asks their mom why they don't take pix of their food!  ;)

Turn the heat up to medium and the mixture will thicken.  Stir constantly so the bottom doesn't scorch.  

Turn heat back down to low.  You could even remove it from the heat at this point if you like.

Add in small handfuls of shredded cheese.  Stir to incorporate, making sure it's melted before adding more.

Continue until you have the flavor you like.  Mine took about half of the package shown above, or 8oz.   If you don't have pepper jack, you can always use mozzarella or cheddar and add in some salsa, green chiles or some diced (canned/pickled) jalapenos.

Your end product should look something like this, thick and creamy.  If it's too thick, you can always thin it down with some milk.

Serve it up with some tortilla chips

and you have a tasty snack!

Mmmmmmmmm, craving satisfied, kid approved, simple and frugal!

This whole batch of cheese dip AND the bag of chips cost me less than one order of cheese dip at the restaurant!  But my recipe made 3 times the amount of dip!  This makes about 1 1/2 cups, if I had to guess.  Yup, the boys polished it off in one sitting!

Kettle Corn!

Every fall, we go to a local pumpkin patch called Vala's and pick out a pumpkin.  We also ride the train and the horses.  There are all sorts of things to do and lots of food to eat.  In the past, we have just forgone the food because really, who wants to spend $6 on a smoked turkey leg?!  I could buy a whole turkey for that!

This last fall, my husband talked me into buying a bag of Kettle Corn.  I'd never had it before (I know, I KNOW!) and was grumbling about the exorbitant price the whole time.  Until I tasted it!  The heavens opened up and God himself seemed to whisper in my ear, "I made kettle corn. And I saw that it was good.  Taste and see..."  Or maybe I was hallucinating from my soon-to-be-sugar-induced psychosis.  Either way, dannnnnng!  It was GOOD!  It's salty, it's sweet, it's crunchy, it's buttery, it's heaven in a big long bag and a twistie!  It's even BETTER when you make it at home! Here's how:

Okay, so our cast of characters is as follows:

• 1/4C of White Sugar or Organic Maple Syrup (I've tried both...review below)
• 1/4C Coconut Oil (or other 'vegetable' oil of your choice if you like being poisoned with rancid and cancer-causing chemicals!  Oops, sorry!  Did I say that out loud?  Hmmm....by the looks of where this post is going, I do believe my pms may actually be showing!  And I don't seem to care, ha ha ha ha!)
• 1/2C Pop Corn Kernels
• Real Sea Salt
• Dutch oven or pan with lid
• Wooden Spoon
• Parchment or foil-line baking sheet

Okay, so we are going to start out by putting our pan over high heat and adding our Maple Syrup and Coconut Oil.  I would say stir to 'combine', but they never really do combine.  So, stir until melted.
If using sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves.

 Pour in your pop corn and stir to coat with oil and syrup.

After making a couple of batches of this, I decided it's best to wait until ONE kernel pops before putting on the lid?  Why?  Cuz I said so!  No, really.  If you put the lid on now, you'll get a bunch of condensation on the lid that will drip into your popcorn, making it sticky rather than caramelized and crunchy.  Avoid any flying kernels that have hot, sticky syrup on them and may poke your eye out.  Just kidding.  They start out really little like this.  Sheesh....the DANGER I put myself in to entertain and educate you people!

Using your skankiest hot pads, gently shake the pan back and forth or in a circular motion.  You just want to keep everything moving.  Heat and shake just until you don't hear any more popping. Immediately remove from heat. It burns very quickly as you might be able see on a few kernels in the next picture or two.

At first, I stirred the corn to make sure I got up any remaining caramelization from the bottom of the pan, but it was actually dry.  Apparently, the corn picks up all the melted sugar on it's way up in the air!  I found this to be true when I made it with sugar and with maple syrup.  So, skip the stirring and pour directly onto your parch-lined tray.  My (skanky) potholder is only laying on it because the parch wouldn't stay flat.  It was the end of the roll and kept curling up on me.  :)

Working quickly (it hardens FAST!), gently flatten the corn with your wooden spoon.  This is just so we have a greater surface area on which to sprinkle our Sea Salt!

Now, I am not usually a big salt fan, mostly because I've always heard it is bad for you.  An interesting side note:  When I was about 12, I recall my dad telling me that salt is not good for you.  Being a strong-willed child, I NEVER put salt on anything again until I was about 35!!!  I cooked with the necessary salt as called for in recipes, but I never salted my food, no matter how bland, LOL!  How weird is that?!  But now that I have this awesome Redmond's Real Salt, I find that I'm actually CRAVING it on things!  Must be all the trace minerals in it.  I (now) firmly believe that our bodies tell us what we need.  You crave things for a reason.  The key is knowing how to listen to what it's saying.  However, as a disclaimer, if your body is telling you that you need salt and you eat a bag of Cheetos, you might have a problem, LOL!  Anyway, I liberally salt this with Sea Salt because it makes such a great contrast to the sweet of the syrup/sugar.

I had a feeling that I'd have to break apart these hard clumps, but actually, it tends to fall apart in your hand.

If you can resist eating the whole batch in one sitting, I commend you.  My son and I dove in face first!  Through large muffled mouthfuls of kettle corn, he'd repeat, "This is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!"  We scarfed down about half of it, then thought....let's take the rest to our neighbor, Jay!  It's a good thing, too, because I firmly believe we would have eaten it all within a matter of minutes!  It's so yummy!  Let it cool completely, then store in a zip top baggie.

I didn't measure this, but if I had to guess, I'd say this makes about 8 cups of popped corn.  I'm not sure if it can be doubled without the worry of burning the bottom.  Update: I looked up online how much popped corn a 1/2 cup of kernels would make and it said 16 cups!  I refuse to believe my son and I ate 8 cups of this within two minutes, but ya never know, lol!  It was that good.

I like that it's super duper cheap and tastes great!  MUCH cheaper than the kettle corn we bought at the pumpkin patch, and even tastier!  It also doesn't have the nasty fake oils and fake butter flavor the one at the pumpkin patch uses.  The coconut oil helps to make it a little healthier as far as a sweetened snack goes.  I bet this would be REALLY good with Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, which would give it a little bit of a coconutty flavor.

Now, my review of using maple syrup as opposed to the sugar.  While both of them were very good and disappeared quite quickly,  I have to say that I really enjoyed the one made with sugar better.  Maybe it's because I didn't burn any of it.  If you decide to try it yourself, let me know what you think!

Fried Cheese Sticks...yum!

Mmmmmmm, fried cheese!  Why is it that everything that tastes so darn good is so bad for you?   Oh, well. Let's make 'em anyway!

Ingredients:
Mozzarella Cheese
Vegetable Oil
1/4C A/P Flour
Panko Bread CrumbsPaprika
Black Pepper
Salt
Parsley

Start by cutting your cheese into sticks. 

Mine are approximately one ounce each. 

Set up your breading station.  Flour in one, egg in another, panko in the last.

I added a little bit of salt, pepper and paprika into each container.  (Be careful

with the salt, depending on the cheese you choose)  I saved the parsley

for the container with the panko.  How much?  Ehhh...

as much as looks good.  I stayed away from garlic powder because I 

knew it would burn and get bitter.  Note: my containers will change order

when I bread use them. I wasn't thinking when I set up this shot.  I should

also tell you that after I mixed the panko together, I decided it was too 

chunky, so I processed it in my coffee grinder. 

Start by dipping your cheese in the flour mixture.

Then dip in your egg mixture

And lastly in your panko mixture.

Set aside and continue on with the rest.  Note:  Now would have

been a good time to throw these in the freezer for a couple of hours.

They came out okay, but as you read on, you'll see what happened.

Heat up about 1/2" of oil in a skillet (or use a deep fryer if you have one).

Toss about 4 in at a time.  Okay, don't toss them, gently lay them down.

If you look closely, you can see how my cheese is already melting.

Turn and brown on each side.  Put on paper towels to briefly drain,

saying "arrrrrggghhhh" aloud when one of your cheese sticks escapes

from it's crusty shell, darn it!

Fry up the rest and serve with some marinara, if desired.

Or, like me, throw some El Pato in the microwave, make

a mess of the little bowl, but take the picture anyway.

Thank goodness I'm not a food stylist.  I'd fail miserably!  :)

Next time, I'm freezing them for sure!  While these tasted really good, they were really falling apart as we were trying to eat them.  I just pulled what spices appealed to me, and I was really surprised at how good they were.  I would definitely make these again.  Try them yourself and let me know what you think!

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REAL FOOD OPTION : if I were to make these for my family now, I would use Non hydrogenated Lard or Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil to fry these in.  I would also probably use pork rinds that had been powdered in a coffee grinder for the coating.  Spices would be the same.

The Homemade Microwave Popcorn Experiment...

I am now going to show you an experiment I did today.  I wanted to make my own popcorn at home in the microwave, so I did!  Here's what you'll need...

Ingredients:
1/4C Popcorn Kernels
1 Brown Lunch Sack

Optional:
1T Butter
Salt to taste

Measure out 1/4C of popcorn kernels 

and toss them in your lunch sack.

Fold the sack over two times.

Place fold-side-down in your microwave.

Assuming this would be like the store-bought stuff, 

I hit 3 minutes on the microwave at full power.

(Note: this needs to be adjusted...see notes below)

Listen for the kernels to slow down popping noises. Remove 

from mic and take a very blurry pic of how much you got.

I'm guessing between two and three cups!

I just used my measuring cup and put my butter and salt

in it, then microwaved it for about a minute to melt it.

Pour on top of your popcorn, fold the

bag over and give a good shake to distribute.

Pour into a bowl and chow down!

When my hubby and son were finished, I asked to see

how many old maids were left.  I was surprised!  Almost half!

That's not good!  I'm going to have to adjust my cooking time.

Notes and things I learned:

Next time, I won't add the salt in with the butter.  I'll shake it in separately so it gets more evenly distributed.

Obviously, because of all the old maids I have left, I need to increase my microwave time significantly.  I was afraid to leave it too long, lest it burn like the store-bought pre-packaged bags.  Maybe theirs burns so easily due to the oil in there.

My husband and son said this was BETTER than the store-bought microwave popcorn!  I didn't expect them to say that, but I'm happy they did.  This whole batch (including the unpopped kernels) cost 13 CENTS before the butter was added, and that includes the price of the bag!  After the butter, it cost about 24cents!  Not too shabby!  

I was really impressed because it doesn't have that burned oil taste that we've become so accustomed to with the store bought microwave popcorn.  Try this for yourself and let me know how it comes out!

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