Cowboy Caviar

In honor of New Years fast approaching, today's recipe is for Cowboy Caviar. This eclectic dip uses one of the traditional New Years Day ingredients - black eye peas. If your idea of getting wild and crazy is getting green onion dip instead of French onion dip, then maybe this isn't for you. We, however, love trying new and different foods.

Cowboy Caviar

Ingredients:

1 can jalapeno black-eyed peas, drained
1 can jalapeno pinto beans, drained
1 can white shoe-peg corn, drained
1 small red onion, diced small
1 cup green bell pepper, diced small

1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. red pepper
1 Tblsp. water
¼ cup oil
1 cup sugar
¾ cup apple cider Vinegar


Combine top 5 ingredients into a bowl and drain again, then set aside. Put remaining 6 ingredients into a pot, stir, and bring to a boil. Remove from fire and cool. After mixture is cool, add to mixture in bowl, stirring thoroughly. Serve with scoop tortilla chips.


What the canned ingredients looked like.


What it looked like before adding the liquid.


What the sauce looked like.


The finished product.

The Verdict: James and I both really liked it. As previously mentioned, this is a different type of dip so I wouldn't make this for a picky eater! The original recipe called for a cup of chopped celery, which I forgot to add. You can do that if you want, I'm sure it will still be good. Overall, this gets the two thumbs up rating!

Blogger's Note RE: Cowboy Caviar

I just wanted to note how crazy/amazing it is that my blog gets so many hits for people looking up Cowboy Caviar. I literally get dozens of people per day! Yet, NOBODY has left a comment. Not sure if that's a good thing or not! Just funny :)

Chicken Enchiladas

I apologize before you read any further that I completely had a brain fart today and did not take pictures as I went with the chicken enchiladas. I'm afraid that's something that I have to get used to. In fact, we had already eaten when I realized I hadn't taken any at all! This is a recipe I got out of the Paula Deen magazine. So that said, here it is:

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups chopped cooked chicken (I bought the TYSON cooked chicken in chunks, by the prepackaged lunchmeat and bacon and stuff)
1 can medium enchilada sauce
1 package cream cheese, softened
½ cup chopped onions
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used the mexi cheese for both of these cheeses)
1 package 10-inch flour tortillas
1 (10.75 oz) can Campbell ’s Southwest-style pepper jack soup
1 (8 oz) jar picante sauce or your favorite salsa. (I used the On the Border brand)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13x9-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, enchilada sauce, cream cheese, and onion, stirring to combine. Add 1 cup Cheddar cheese and ½ cup Monterey Jack cheese. Spoon mixture evenly down center of each tortilla; roll up tortillas and place seam side down in prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, combine remaining cheese, soup and picante sauce. Spoon mixture evenly over tortillas. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Note: I could not find the Campbell's Southwest-style pepper jack soup so I substituted their Fiesta Cheese and it was fine.

Verdict: Another dish with the two enthusiastic thumbs up rating. It was really easy to make, didn't take much time and only dirtied two bowls and a casserole. Cleanup was easy and James liked it a lot!

First post! Mint Chocolate Cookies

Welcome to the first post of Cooking With Christen! I've always LOVED to cook and share recipes with other appreciators of yummy food so I figured this is the perfect way to do that.

Today's recipe is one I acquired while at a cookie swap with some girl friends in Baton Rouge. Thanks for the recipe, Tiffany! To me it tasted just like a Girl Scout cookie and I couldn't wait to try making it myself. She had made about a million of them for the cookie swap, so I cut her recipe in half, which is below.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant devil's food pudding mix (couldn't find it so used chocolate)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag Andes Mint chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the Andes Mint chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Edges should be golden brown. Mine made 4.5 dozen.


My oven is set to 350 degrees.


This is what my dough looked like (two dozen had already been baked by this point)


This is what they looked like before baking...


And this is what the finished product looked like!

Verdict: Absolutely delicious and pretty easy to make! Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!