Lime-Cilantro Rice with Pineapple

There’s something about hot buttery rice that makes me feel warm and cozy inside, and with the addition of some of my favorite flavors, this has become a regular on our menu. It's both sweet and savory- and if adding pineapple to rice sounds weird to you, I dare you to try it. No, make that a double dog dare. I'm serious about this one.

It’s great with a lot of Polynesian style dishes, and also Latin foods. Sometimes I leave out the pineapple, and throw in a can of black beans, or use it for fajita stuffing. The other night we ate it with teriyaki chicken and that was great too. It’s a really quick side dish to toss together and a nice change from your every day white rice.

This works out especially well with Sweet and Savory Flank Steak because you can use the pineapple in the rice, and the juice in the steak marinade. I have always used pineapple tidbits when making this, but after hearing the comments I tried it with crushed pineapple and loved it. I think I'll make it with crushed from now on, but if you like it chunkier, try out the tidbits.

Like I said, you really can just make this to taste, but here’s the basics.

1 cup dry white rice, cooked in 2 C water.
2 T real butter
Juice from 1 large lime, or two smaller ones (taste as you go, I add a lot!)
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained. (You may want 2 small cans)
½ - ¾ C chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
Pineapple, Cilantro, Limes, a few pats of butter, and white rice.

Cook rice. As soon as it’s done, toss in the butter and stir to melt.
Add lime juice, pineapple, and cilantro.
Stir to combine, and then add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve immediately.

* You’ll want to serve this right away, if you don’t, the flavors tend to mellow a bit and you’ll probably need to add more lime juice because the rice kind of sucks it up. If you’re not quite ready to eat when your rice finishes cooking, just toss in the butter and keep a lid on it so it stays warm. Then right before you serve it, toss it all together.

This is especially amazing with :
--Chili-Lime Mango Chicken Skewers
--Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers
--Sweet and Savory Flank Steak
--Asian BBQ Chicken

And this may sound super strange to some of you, but I also love it with toasted slivered almonds instead of pineapple. Delish!

Homemade Dulce de Leche

Use a spoon or whisk to stir until smooth. Oh my deliciousness...

Recipe via http://www.ourbestbites.com/
You can use it in any recipe that calls for dulce de leche. If you want to simply eat it, try it as a fruit dip, spread on bread, crackers, or cookies, or on top of ice cream.

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Pour sweetened condensed milk into a shallow baking dish.
Cover tightly with foil if you don't cover it a thick skin layer will form ontop and it will not carmelize.
Place in a larger pan, such as a roasting pan.
Fill larger pan with hot water until water level reaches about half way up the baking dish.
Cook for about 60 minutes and then check.
Continue cooking if necessary.
When a medium caramel color is reached, remove from oven and let cool.
Whisk until smooth, store in fridge.  Now you can cool it and store in the fridge, where it will develop a thicker consistency, or use it warm.

Crock Pot Instructions: Place 1-3 sealed cans of sweetened condensed milk in slow cooker. Place enough water in slow cooker to completely cover cans by 1 inch. Cook on low for about 8 hours. Let cans cool completely before opening

 One of my favorite things to do is dip fresh, crisp apples in it.

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Recipe via Our Best Bites

1 18.25-oz. white cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp. almond extract
Yellow and orange Wilton food gel (about a heaping 1/2 tsp. of each)

A Double batch of Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

•  Line 2 24-cup muffin tins with white paper liners (although you may not make it to 24 cupcakes).
• Combine all ingredients except for food coloring in a large bowl and beat on low speed for 1 minute.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then beat on medium for 2 additional minutes.
• Divide batter equally into two bowls; you should have about 2 1/4-2 1/2 c. of batter in each bowl.
• Mix about 1/2 heaping tsp. of yellow coloring into one bowl of batter and 1/2 heaping tsp. of orange coloring into the other bowl.
• Divide the yellow batter evenly among the muffin tins. I used a standard cookie scoop, which measures about 1 Tbsp. I only had enough to make 20 cupcakes with the cups filled about halfway.
• Holding the edges of each pan firmly, bang the pan a few times on the counter to level out the batter.
• Repeat the process with the orange batter.
• Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes in the pan and then allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.
• When ready, frost the cupcakes and garnish with a candy corn.
• When you cut them open, they look like this

Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling

Recipe by ourbestbites.com

3 T Flour
1/2 C milk (whole milk is best, but I used non-fat when it's all I have and it's actually fine)
1/2 C real butter
1/2 C sugar (that's granulated sugar, not powdered sugar)
1 t vanilla extract, or other flavor if you wish.

Whisk together the flour and the milk.

 Heat in a small sauce pan on medium heat.

Whisk continuously until it starts to thicken. I think this is the critical point for any of you who have had problems with this recipe. I have a feeling people are under-cooking this part.

 Let it cook, while stirring, until it looks like pudding (you should be able to see the bottom of the pan when you stir it). Even though it's thick, you can still it through a mesh strainer (just whisk the mixture in the strainer to push the thick stuff through) and then let it cool completely to room temp. or chill it in the fridge. It needs to be cooled completely. If you don't let it cool completely, it will melt the butter and you'll have runny frosting.

In an electric stand mixer, beat the butter and the sugar for a minute or two until well combined and fluffy. You'll want to use the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, not the flat paddle. Then while beating, add in the thickened milk mixture and the vanilla. Beat on the highest speed you can get to without it spraying all over the place for 7 minutes. Yes, 7 whole minutes, maybe even 8 or 9. I know that seems like a long time, but that's when the magic happens!

You will be scared because it will look like a weird goopy mess at first and you'll wonder what on earth you did wrong. Keep beating and something amazing happens. It goes from that goopy mess to something thick, velvety smooth, and perfectly fluffy.

After beating

Use it to fill cupcakes or other pastries, or as a frosting on top. You can't go wrong putting this on just about anything :)

One batch makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes with BIG tops (like the one below, or larger). If you're just spreading a little on top, it will do 24.

After trouble-shooting with a lot of people, here are some helpful Notes:
1. Use real butter, and a good name-brand. Cheap butter does weird things.
2. If you beat for the 6-8 minutes and the mixture still looks strange, beat longer and at a higher speed if you can. It should come together, but it takes a little patience!
3. Store at room temperature in a sealed container. Frosting may separate in the fridge, but you can store it overnight if left at room temp and in a well sealed container.

Video tutorial - how to ice cupcakes:
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/10/tutorial-how-to-frost-cupcakes-plus.html

Green Enchilada Sauce (Kate's Knockoff Cafe Rio Recipe)

Recipe via Our Best Bites

2-3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, minced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 green peppers, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and membranes removed if desired (and I desire. Always.)
1 1/2 lb. tomatillos, husked and quartered or halved

1/2 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
4 c. chicken broth
2-3 Tbsp. sugar (optional and to taste; the sauce Cafe Rio uses seems to be slightly sweet, so if I'm using this sauce for enchilada-style burritos, I generally add a little sugar, but for everything else, I leave it out.)

In a large saucepan or stock pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until tender and fragrant.
While onions are sauteeing, combine tomatillos, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro in your blender. Process until smooth; you may have to do it in batches and/or add some chicken broth to make things blendable.
Pour the tomatillo mixture over the onions and garlic and add chicken broth, salt, pepper, and cumin. Simmer 15 minutes-1 hour, depending on the consistency you want. I usually turn the heat to high and boil it uncovered until I reach the consistency I want; it makes things go a lot faster. The sauce can also be simmered in a slow cooker all day.
Serve over tacos, as an enchilada sauce, inside burritos, or as a dip for chips.

Strawberry Sauce

Recipe via ourbestbites.com
This strawberry sauce has about a million uses, is freezer-friendly, and is so much better than that jar of Smuckers strawberry sauce that you've had sitting in your fridge since that time you made banana splits 1 1/2 years ago.

1 pint strawberries
1/3 c. white sugar
1 tsp. almond extract (my favorite) or vanilla extract

Wash strawberries and remove stems. If you're feeling ambitious, you can roughly chop the berries, but I say you're already feeling ambitious enough by making your own strawberry sauce. So don't sweat it.

Combine berries, sugar, and extract in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.

After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of large chunks of mystery fruit, so I like it smooth, but you can do it however you want.

Wanna know what to do with it?

--Make banana splits with this and Sara's hot fudge sauce

--Drizzle over plain ol' cheesecake

--Spoon some over this ice cream, with or without the cinnamon (depending on how brave you're feeling)

--I'm envisioning this sauce atop a pizzookie with sugar cookie dough and lemon ice cream

--My proudest use of strawberry sauce: mix a couple of tablespoons (depending on the size of the glass and your own personal taste) with this fresh-squeezed lemonade for strawberry lemonade. So so so so good...

--Chocolate waffles, anyone? If that's not your thing, you could put them on your favorite French toast, waffles, or pancakes. Speaking of French Toast- try this one!

--Drizzle over angel food cake and add a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

{Quick & Easy} Creamy Fruit Freeze

Recipe via Our Best Bites

This is sooooo good!!
You do not need an ice cream maker to make this! It's super easy, and a little more rich and elegant than a sorbet, but easier and lighter than an ice cream. Somewhere in the middle. The great part is that you can customize the flavor and make it with whatever you have!

I happened to have some gorgeous blackberries, and some perfectly ripe mangoes (mangoes courtesy of mango.org). So I just popped them in my food processor with some sugar to make a puree

4 C berries or roughly diced fruit
1 C sugar
1 C heavy whipping cream

Combine fruit and sugar in a food processor and process until smooth. Reserve 1 cup of the puree (store in fridge until ready to use). In a mixing bowl, whip heavy whipping cream until soft-medium peaks form.

Gently fold into the remaining puree just until combined. Make sure not to stir at this point. Folding means to gently scoop from the bottom and fold it over to the top.

Place in a freezer safe container and freeze until firm (about 2-4 hours). Scoop into bowls and serve with remaining puree and extra berries if desired. Serves 6 small servings.

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing

Recipe via Our Best Bites

I love, love, love this dressing. I totally can't resist it!

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix ~ ignore directions on the packet
1 C mayo
1/2 C milk
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*
hot sauce

Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend 'er up. Sample it and add hot sauce to taste. Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

*A note about green salsa:
There are several brands of green salsa available in most supermarkets and they have various degrees of heat. One of the most commonly seen brands is Herdez. Herdez brand is a lot spicier than any of the others I've tried. Even their medium green salsa is way too spicy for my liking. There's no way I could put the whole 1/4 C in my dressing like the recipe calls for (but then again, I'm a wuss.) I like to buy La Costena (pictured below) because their medium is actually really mild. That way I get all of the flavor of the tomatillos but I control the level of heat with the hot sauce. If you're not used to buying green salsa, make sure to sample it first before you put it in the dressing so you know what you're getting into!

I use this dressing on salads, and also as a dip for things like chicken fingers, veggies and steak fries.

Do you love Cafe Rio/Costa Vida type salads?
You've got all of the ingredients to make an Our Best Bites version right here. Start with a fresh homemade tortilla, layer on some lime-cilantro rice (pineapple optional) and black beans, then some crispy romaine lettuce. Top with either taco chicken or lime-chili steak, some fresh salsa and guacamole and fried tortilla strips for the big finish. Smother it in this salad dressing and you've got a salad ready to send you to food heaven!

Related Post: Chili-Lime Steak Salad

1 don't pick off the leaves of the cilantro, just bundle it all up and cut it stems and all. Just stop cutting when you get about 2/3 of the way down, or when you start seeing more stem than leaf....same concept with parsley

Teriyaki Sauce

Recipe via Our Best Bites
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. cold water
½ c. white sugar
½ c. soy sauce
¼ c. cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. black pepper


In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and black pepper. We've talked about ginger before and you can use either ground ginger as directed or about 1 1/4 tsp. of fresh ginger. Believe it or not, in this recipe, I actually prefer ground ginger; it has a slightly different flavor that I think infuses better in the sauce than fresh ginger. That being said, I used fresh here because I had a bunch of minced ginger in my freezer and I didn't want it to go to waste. And the sauce came out great. So whatever works for you.


ANYWAY. I'm rambling. Combine your ingredients in the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. While sauce is heating, combine cornstarch and cold water. When sauce comes to a full boil, add cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce is thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and use any way you darn well please. You can store it in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks.


What makes this even better is that you can literally make this for pennies and, not trying to be Braggy Braggerson here (because hey, let's face it, I didn't make it up myself), I think it's better than anything you can buy at the store. I also like that it's a little thick, so it works well as a glaze or dipping sauce.



One thing I love it on is chicken thighs. You don't even have to marinate the chicken first (although marinating is certainly never a bad thing). Just heat up your grill and baste every 10 minutes or so until they're done, or you can do it in an oven heated to 425. Just line a baking sheet with foil and bake for about 40 minutes, basting regularly and turning the chicken halfway through.

Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

Recipe via Our Best Bites
This is one of my favorite fun foods, especially because you can serve it as an appetizer or as a meal.  It's a twist on Teriyaki chicken. These can be grilled,or can be done in your oven.

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
About 8 oz. lean bacon, NOT thick-sliced (thick bacon is too hard to work with in this recipe)
1 large can pineapple chunks (you won't use all of them)
Homemade Teriyaki sauce (the best!) or Kikkoman Teriyaki Baste and Glaze
Kebab skewers or toothpicks

Now...the easiest way to handle the bacon situation is to remove it from the package and while it's still all stuck together, stretch it out a little (lengthwise). If you're using center-cut bacon (and the "slab" is not as wide as regular bacon), just cut it in half. Otherwise, use kitchen shears to cut the slab into thirds. Refrigerate until ready to use, partially because it's easier to work with cold bacon and partially because you don't want to kill any dinner guests with dead pig germs.

Using kitchen shears, cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. You can gauge about how many pieces you'll need by how many pieces of bacon you have; you probably won't use all the bacon, but you'll need about 8 oz. or 2/3 of a standard-sized package of bacon. So count the bacon pieces and keep that in mind when cutting up your chicken.

Drain the pineapple and set up a little work station with skewers, bacon, chicken, and a 9x13 baking dish (for big skewers) or a sturdy Ziploc bag (for toothpick skewers). Wrap a piece of bacon around a chicken piece, secure with toothpick/skewer, and top with a chunk of pineapple. Repeat twice if using large skewers.

 

For appetizer skewers*, I do one piece of meat topped with one chunk of pineapple on a toothpick. If you decide to grill these, your life will be a lot easier if you use a disposable grill pan. For meal-sized skewers, I do three chunks of pineapple alternated with three pieces of meat on the long skewers and allow two skewers per person.

 

 

No Bake Reece's Peanut Butter Bars

Our Best Bites

1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs
1 lb (3 1/2 C) powdered sugar
1 1/2 C creamy peanut butter
1 C (2 sticks) real butter, melted
1 12oz bag chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, or dark, you pick!)
2 tsp shortening


In a large mixing bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar and peanut butter and butter and beat until combined. Press into a parchment (or waxed paper or foil) lined 9x13 pan.

Place chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one, until melted and smooth. Pour chocolate over peanut butter mixture and spread out evenly. Place pan in the fridge just until chocolate is set and then cut into bars. Tip: If the bars chill until the chocolate is too hard to easily cut, use a sharp knife and score the cuts first, then gently cut through. Can be stored in the fridge or at room temp. They will stay firmer if stored in the fridge.


*Tip: Love this tip from one you readers! Instead of adding shortening to the chocolate topping, add a scoop of peanut butter. That will prevent the top from getting solid and it will taste yummy!

Honey Butter

Pizza Sauce (Our Best Bites)

Breadsticks or Pizza Dough