Let me apologize at the outset.  This post is a bit rambling.  It covers a lot in as short a space as I can fit it into.

Many of you know that we’ll be moving to California in the near future.  As of today that move is … [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: BBQ, Family, friends, Tex-Mex, Texas, TX

Unfortunately, as far as I know I’m the first one to try these combinations as an empanda. I scoured the web and all my favorite food blogs looking for something similar or even remotely similar, but there was nothing that I could find as a jumping off point.  I was on my own, which in my case is always the best way to be in a situation like this.

I knew the combination of flavors would work.  The trick was in how much I wanted to bring the traditional flavors of cumin and chilies in with the apple.  Did I want to add some cinnamon to elevate the apple flavor? Why yes. Yes I did.  Cilantro?  Probably should… But in what amounts?  It would be very easy to take this particular combination way to far, and in the process take a great flavor pairing and ruin it completely.

Luckily, I guessed right. The apple and cinnamon pair wonderfully with the more traditional pork filling.  It actually came out tasting a little like i’d used Chinese Five-Spice powder in preparation, but I didn’t.  They were moist, succulent and savory in ways I have to revisit again. And Again.  And again. And… Well, you get the point.

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: empanadas, Mexican, Recipes, savory, Tex-Mex

If you listen to most food magazines or watch food programming on TV, ancho chili powder is becoming a required ingredient for any pantry.  Ancho chilie powder is spicy, but without the heat of a lot of packaged chili pwders, leaving you with a subtle heat and smoky flavor that’s really hard to beat.  But what if you can’t buy ancho chile powder in your local area? No problem.  Just make your own. It’s actually quite simple, though there are a few things to keep in mind while you’re in the process.

The Ancho Chilie

Ancho chili’s are just the name used for smoked, dried poblano peppers.  Poblano peppers are most often associated with chili relleno, but have many other uses as well.  Poblanos have a wonderful fruity flavor and generally have far less heat than a jalapeno, even if it’s picked young. So basically, Ancho is to poblano what chipotle is to jalapeno, and the flavor is amazing.

Finding ancho chilies should not be a problem for most people in the U.S. market.  You know that BigScaryMegaMart that lurks in the middle of town?  They’ve probably got ‘em.  You’ll find Anchos in a big clear plastic bag, usually on the Ethnic foods aisle.  They’re not real lookers, but they pack a ton of flavor and are useful for everything from sauces to stews.

Now that you’ve got anchos, making ancho chili powder is only a few steps away…

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chilie, Hispanic Cooking, Recipes, Spices, Tex-Mex

This Halloween dish may not be as whimsical as some I’ve made, but what it lacks in cuteness, it more than makes up for in flavor. The black beans are the star of the show in this one, the chorizo and shrimp merely sing harmony.  Black beans are a flavor explosion, while the chorizo tickles the taste buds and the shrimp play the finale, leaving just a hint of their passing on the back of the palate. The orange isn’t just shelf dressing, either.  As you delve down into the dish, the citrus flavor becomes more pronounced until finally it comes into its own on the very last bite.  A perfect concert of flavors that I really didn’t expect when I started.

I just loved the idea and I hope you will as well.

While the bowls in the photos are done up “Halloween” style, this would be just as wonderful in orange bowls that are sliced straight across, and it would be a lot easier to make. These took a little practice, and two oranges gave their lives needlessly in the filming of this production.  We believe it’s a Halloween curse, but there is no proof of that at this time.  Our lawyers won’t let us say any more about the matter than that.

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chorizo, Halloween, Halloween Recipes, Mexican, Shrimp, Tex-Mex

I’m a day late to my own party!  This recipe was created for the Frugal Fridays Blog Event, hosted and created by yours truly and was supposed to be posted last night, but several things conspired against me.  First there was sleep deprivation.  Our son has hit one of those stages where sleep doesn’t seem to be something he requires much of.  since Mrs. Seat of her Pants holds down a job outside the house, I’m the one who stays up with the little hellion sweet child until I can get him to nod off.  three days of that was enough to have me nodding on the couch by 7:00 pm.

Top that off with the fact that my probe thermometer is either damaged or was inserted into the wrong portion of chicken ans I can add “Kitchen Disaster” to the list of things that held me up. For once it looked like everything was going to be ready at the same time.  that’s actually a rarity, especially when you’re making things up as you go along.  Last night it all looked perfect.  Right up until the time I cut the bird…

Now I love to see a big bunch of deep red juices come pouring out of a steak or a roast, but when it happens to be coming from a chicken…  Let’s just say it doesn’t thrill me.  Especially when I’ve already poured some of the pan juices into my side dish as well!  This little revelation set me back a full 30 minutes, since everything had to be heated past 200 degrees and held there for at least five minutes…  Fun!

In the end it all turned out well, just a little dryer than I would have liked.  It’s still a dish that I would recommend to anyone, and hey.  If you’re a vegetarian, leave the chrizo and chicken stock out of the rice.  It’s a gread veggie-friendly side.  Or add another good dose of black beans and it could be a main course.  Good stuff!

But how much did all of this set me back?  let’s see.

Chicken: $3.42
Herbs – Free, I grow them myself
Rice – approximately $0.25
Black Beans: $0.85 per can
Corn: less than 1/3 of a bag of frozen corn, so $1.09 / 3 = $0.36
Chorizo: 1/2 of a $2.99 package, so roughly $1.50
Chicken stock: 16 oz. out of a 32 oz. container @ 2.09 = 1.08

Everything else was pantry staples and the garlic was leftover from my last FF, so

Grand Total: $7.46 for a meal that would easily serve four.  In fact there is still a ton of rice left over!

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chicken, Recipes, rice, roasted, spicy, Tex-Mex

I’d like to take a moment to introduce our very first guest author Ben Herrera. Ben is the author of “What’s cooking?” a blog focusing on wonderful Mexican recipes. Please give him a huge round of applause! ~ Jerry

I have to admit that I got nervous when Jerry asked me to write a guest post for this blog. I wanted to write a post that would blow his readers away. I literally sat in front of a blank page for hours trying to come up with my greatest post ever. After all, this is not just any blog, we are talking about the Cooking by the Seat of my Pants blog.

However, I am not really good at complicated things and after several attempts and a bad headache I decided to keep it simple, just like the side dish I chose for this post. I love to cook. I learned about food and cooking at my parents’ restaurant in Mexico City where I literally grew up. I would spent a couple of hours after school every day helping with anything I could, from washing dishes to prep work and waiting tables.

I learned a good deal about food and restaurant management in those years, but when I am in the kitchen making dinner for my family I like to keep things simple. Simple doesn’t have to mean boring and flavorless. Using just a few ingredients, as long as they are fresh and of good quality, I have been able to come up with delicious dishes. A lot of single ingredients contain a lot of flavor, aroma or just that special kick that can make a dish memorable.

One of those ingredients is the humble, yet delicious, Poblano pepper. Poblano is a mild pepper and one of the most popular chiles grown in Mexico and the American southwest. Their flavor is so rich that they are perfect for chiles rellenos and just about any dish they are used in, like this creamy Poblano rice:

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Guest Post, Mexican, Peppers, Recipes, rice, Tex-Mex

When I heard that my friend Susan, The Well Seasoned Cook was hosting a roundup of legume recipes because she’d seen that it was National Bean Day that morning on “Your Morning Cuppa“, I was not only honored and flattered, but I knew I just had to be a part of it.  I thought about making several different things, from a 5 bean soup, to several varieties of bean-based salads and even a relish, but in the end, there are really two ways I think of beans most commonly.  The first is my mother’s recipe for beans and bacon, the second is frijoles refritos, what americans have incorrectly dubbed Refried Beans.  Since I’ve already made the first variety from my mother’s own recipe, I had no choice but to make the latter, and as a Texan, I was bound and determined to do it right!

This recipe is the culmination of several hours worth of searching the web.  It seems there are as many ways to create frijoles refritos as there are to make pancakes, which shouldn’t surprise me, as this simple dish is a staple in Latin, Latin American and Southwestern homes, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation.  In the end, I took what I liked from several recipes, and left out what I didn’t.  The result was a pretty good batch of beans, if I do say so myself!  So here you have it, my Entry for The Well Seasoned Cook’s Legume Love Affair Roundup, the humble refried bean.

(Note: Refried beans are not refried at all.  They are boiled or stewed enough to soften the beans, and fried once. Technically, they should be called “well Fried Beans” as the term refrito is an emphasized version of the Mexican frito, or fried. Refrito simply means “Well Fried” or “Very Fried”.  We just got it wrong in translation.)

… [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cumin, Mexican, pinto beans, Recipes, Tex-Mex

I was trolling my usual food blog haunts the other day when I stumbled across a post about cast iron pans and cornbread at The Homesick Texan. I realized two things very quickly. One, she has as much dislike for sweet cornbread as I do. Two, I hadn’t made cornbread in quite a while.

For those of you from the northern climbs; In Texoma we make our cornbread for dinner. It’s not a dessert item and therefore has no sugar. (I know she would disagree and say all of Texas, but I’ve been served sweet cornbread more than once since I moved here. and since I’ve never visited Southern Texas, I can’t speak for them.) … [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: comfort foods, cornbread, Southern Cooking, Tex-Mex