Half Assed Kitchen

Salsa verde

We love salsa verde. We suck down Trader Joe's salsa verde like it's our job and would probably sip it out of a straw if it had a splash of tequila in it.

We've been wanting to try making it ourselves. So we did. And you know what? Homemade salsa verde is even better than Trader Joes. Way better. We've eaten it on corn chips, tortillas, turkey lunch meat and are planning to dump it in some pork to make our fantastic (if we do say so) pork salsa verde soon.

Tomatillos are the main ingredient in this salsa and they're very mild, so you can adjust the heat to suit your taste by adding more or less jalapeño.

Rating: Truly 1/2 assed (simple, but not ridiculously so)

Here's what you need and how you do it

6 tomatillos (they look like small green tomatoes in papery husks)

1 jalapeño (or less, to suit your taste), chopped coarsely

1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 cup cilantro, no need to chop

1/2 avocado (makes it creamy, you can skip if you'd prefer a chunkier salsa)

1/4 teaspoon sugar

3/4 medium onion, chopped into quarters

1 clove garlic, chopped into quarters

Salt to taste

Peel paper husks off tomatillos and boil for 7 minutes. Scoop out with slotted spoon and transfer to blender or food processor. Add remaining ingredients and blend a few seconds.

Serve warm or cool.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Fireworks for your mouth

I filched this recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens site. It is stupendous, I promise. So much better than bottled barbeque sauce from a grocery store. I think I'm a long, lost Texan.

Firecracker Barbeque Sauce

1/4 cup chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (in the Mexican food aisle, comes in a small can)
Nonstick cooking spray
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced (or, better yet, buy the already minced kind)
1 cup ketchup (oh yeah, ketchup is a lazy-ass's ingredient of choice)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons full-flavored molasses or sorghum (I really don't know what the hell sorghum is, so I just used molasses. EASY to find and identify).
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (makes everything better)
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Directions

For sauce, remove any stems from chipotle peppers. Place peppers and adobo sauce in a blender. Cover and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Lightly coat an unheated medium saucepan with nonstick cooking spray. Cook onion and garlic in saucepan until tender. Stir in chipotle pepper mixture, ketchup, vinegar, molasses, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened.

For a charcoal grill, grill chicken on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals for 12 to 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (170 degrees F), turning once halfway through grilling and brushing with sauce during the last 5 minutes of grilling. (For a gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium. Place chicken on grill rack over heat. Cover and grill as above.) Bring remaining sauce to boiling; pass with chicken. Makes 6 servings.