Debo's Southwestern Green Chicken Chili With Chipotle Rice

Great northern beans are the largest and most popular of the white beans. These beans often resemble and are often substituted for white kidney beans due to their kidney–like shape. 

New Year's

Civilizations around the world have been celebrating the start of each new year for at least four millennia. Today, most New Year’s festivities begin on December 31 (New Year’s Eve), the last day of the Gregorian calendar, and continue into the early hours of January 1 (New Year’s Day). Common traditions include attending parties, eating special New Year’s foods, making resolutions for the new year and watching fireworks displays. 

Debo's Mondo Nacho Grande

Chile con queso (Spanish for "chile with cheese"), usually known simply as queso, is an appetizer or side dish of melted cheese and chile pepper typically served in Tex-Mex restaurants. 

New Year's Menu 2012

Have you made plans for New Year's Eve? Are you having a get together at your home? Have you thought about your menu for New Year's Day? I have put together some of my recipes to help you put together a menu. Pick one or two of these recipes for your menu. So head to the dinner table and dig in! 

Little C's Salsa

Hi, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. I had a fantastic Christmas. I gave some folks homemade salsa for Christmas gifts this year, so I'm late posting this because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. 

Cayenne Deviled Eggs

The cayenne pepper is a member of the Capsicum family of vegetables, which are more commonly known as chili peppers. It is known botanically as Capsicum annuum. The common name "cayenne" was actually given to this pepper because of its cultivation in a town that bears the same name in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. 

Roast And Veggies

The Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays (usually in the early afternoon for lunch), consisting of roasted meat, roast potato or mashed potato, with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy. 

Spam Potato Salad

As of 2003, Spam is sold in 41 countries worldwide, sold on six continents and trademarked in over 100 different countries. 

Taco Soup

Over fifty years ago, a Nebraska-born entrepreneur settled in Santa Barbara, CA. This young Nebraskan cowboy dreamed of striking it rich. So like so many young men before him, he headed west with his high school sweetheart.

Onion Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Food historians tell us prehistoric peoples most likely consumed fungi and mushrooms. These foods were easy to forage and incorporate into meals. The Ancient Romans appreciated the taste and grew mushrooms. Modern cultivation commenced around the 16th century. Truffles, from the Perigord region in France are considered some of the most delicate and expensive specimens of this particular type of food. Portobello and Cremini are relative newcomers. 

Red Rice Dinner

Hot sauce, chili sauce or pepper sauce refers to any spicy sauce made from chili peppers and other ingredients. There are thousands of varieties of hot sauce.

Christmas

Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25–Christmas Day–has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870. 

Turkey Sausage And Two Peppers

The first patent for a non-stick cooking spray was issued in 1957. Arthur Meyerhoff, Sr. and Leon Rubin, who started PAM® Products, Inc., founded Gibralter Industries to market the new PAM All Natural Cooking Spray. PAM actually stands for a Product of Arthur Meyerhoff. 

Debo's Sausage Stuffing

Food historians tell us the practice of stuffing (aka dressing, cramming) the cavities of fowl and other animals with mixtures of breads, spices and other chopped items is ancient. The Romans and the Arabs both employed such techniques. "Dressing" and "stuffing," as we Americans know them today, descend from Medieval European (English "forcemeat" and French "farce") culinary traditions. 

Banana Nut Bread

This a very interesting food to research. Bananas have been around since the beginning of time. Sweet nut breads and cakes were eaten by the ancient Roman and Greeks. Who decided to combine these two foods? According to the food historians, banana bread is a relatively is a recent phenomenon. In the early 20th century bananas were very popular and were used in many recipes. Nut breads (also sometimes known as tea cakes, muffins) were likewise popular. The earliest banana-nut combinations recipes we find are for salads! 

Red Beans And Rice With Smoked Sausage

Bay leaf (plural bay leaves) refers to the aromatic leaf of the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis, Lauraceae). Fresh or dried bay leaves are used in cooking for their distinctive flavor and fragrance. The leaves are often used to flavor soups, stews, braises and pates in Mediterranean cuisine. The fresh leaves are very mild and do not develop their full flavor until several weeks after picking and drying. 

Salmon Burgers

Bare cast-iron vessels have been used for cooking for hundreds of years. Cast iron cauldrons and cooking pots were treasured as kitchen items for their durability and their ability to retain heat, thus improving the quality of cooking meals. Before the introduction of the kitchen stove in the middle of the 19th century, meals were cooked in the hearth or fireplace, and cooking pots and pans were designed for use in the hearth. This meant that all cooking vessels had to be designed to be suspended on, or in, a fireplace. Cast iron pots were made with handles to allow them to be hung over a fire, or with legs so that they could stand up in the fireplace. In addition to dutch ovens, which were developed with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, a commonly used cast iron cooking pan called a spider had a handle and three legs used to stand up in the coals and ashes of the fire. Cooking pots and pans with legless, flat bottoms were designed when cooking stoves became popular; this period of the late 19th century saw the introduction of the flat cast iron skillet. 

Turkey Kielbasa Reuben

Sauerkraut is made by a process of pickling called lacto-fermentation that is analogous to how traditional (not heat-treated) pickled cucumbers and kimchi are made. Fully cured sauerkraut keeps for several months in an airtight container stored at or below 15 °C (60 °F). Neither refrigeration nor pasteurization is required, although these treatments prolong storage life. 

Kitchen Chew ~ Flour 101

Flour

All Purpose Flour:

Most national brands typically have an 11% to 12% protein content which make them perfect for baking quick breads, cookies, biscuits, and cakes.  Flour can vary in protein content by brand and also regionally. All purpose flour that bleaches naturally as it ages is labeled “unbleached”, flour treated with chemical whiteners is labeled “bleached” and contains less protein. 

Self Rising Flour:

For all brands, this is a uniform blend of all purpose flour and leavening agents. A lot of bakers find self rising flour an ideal blend for biscuits.

Cake Flour:
Cake flour has a lower protein content than all purpose, from 6% to 8%.  It is chlorinated to break down the strength of the gluten and is very finely ground, yielding tender cakes with a fine, delicate texture. It measures differently than all purpose flour, 1 cup of all purpose flour is the equivalent of 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour.