Roasted Corn Salsa

This quick and easy salsa is impressive and makes a great addition to a party snack table or a mexican or latin dinner. The family who I worked for as a nanny made this often and it always makes me think of them.


2 cups corn kernels (defrosted and drained if frozen)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450.
Mix corn and minced garlic with olive oil. Spread on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until corn kernels are a dark golden brown. Watch so that garlic does not burn.

Let corn cool before stirring it with remaining ingredients. Serve with tortilla chips or as a side dish.

Soup #2: Chicken-Free Chicken Noodle

MO kept talking about this wonderful chicken soup with homemade noodles that our friend Suzanne made years ago. I figures we could try a chicken-free chicken noodle soup, so I called Suzanne for the recipe: 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 2 Tablespoons of water. It sounded easy.

So, I made a basic vegetable soup, using my homemade veggie broth. First I sauteed some finely chopped onions and garlic with thyme and sage (your typical chicken soup herbs), then I added the broth and carrots, celery, cauliflower and peas (any of your favorite soup veggies would do).

Ok, back to the noodles...
We mixed together the ingredients (MO's hands got very sticky) and rolled it out as thin as we could get it. We sliced it into strips about 1/3 inch wide and dropped the noodles into boiling water for about 10 minutes. (You can also boil the noodles directly in the soup, but I was afraid of over cooking my veggies). When the veggies were still a bit firm, we added the hot cooked noodles and let the whole thing simmer for about 5 minutes before serving. It was awesome. Who needs chicken anyway? The best part of this soup was the noodles - just a bit chewy and very slurpy and messy. Yum!

The Cake and the Storm

Well, I had grand plans to make and decorate a cake for my friend Nan's bridal shower over the weekend (ask my colleagues - I've been talking about it for weeks)...I went to Michael's and bought cake decorating supplies, I researched techniques and found a recipe, and had big plans for posting photos of my first cake decorating adventure on my blog! Then, the storm hit and we had no power for 36 hours. So, we'll all have to wait until the next big event to see how cake decorating and I get along...