Mar

15

La Cocina De Kalin: M&M Pretzel Thingies!

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I received some recent criticism from someone who shall remain anonymous but may have just given birth in regards to La Cocina De Kalin. Or rather, the food that is featured in La Cocina De Kalin. This person expressed some concerns because I’m included in a group of chefs who will be preparing food for this person and her family.

So the last post was not completely (or at all) appetizing. I’m making that up to you now with these super easy, super tasty little morsels:


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INGREDIENTS
Waffle/criss cross pretzels
Hershey’s Kisses (in whatever flavor you like)
M&M’s

PROCEDURE
1) Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, preheat oven to about 300 degrees.
2) Lay out pretzels in a single layer on the parchment paper. Try to use the full pretzels, not the chipped ones.
3) Unwrap all the kisses and put one in the center of each pretzel.
4) Pop in the over for a few minutes, keeping an eye on the chocolate the whole time. I like to mush them with a knife a little to see if they’re soft enough. They have to be melted enough to smoosh out when you press the M&M into the center, but not so melted as to get overcooked.
5) Pull out the cookie sheet, press an M&M into the center of each kiss.
6) Let cool completely in the fridge (or cold back porch, if you have one).

I made these at Christmas time with the candy cane kisses (white chocolate and peppermint bits) and red and green M&M’s. They were delish and super cute to boot. This time I used caramel kisses and regular M&M’s.

The salty & sweet combo is hard to beat. They make great gifts and are quick and easy to make.

Oct

28

La Cocina De Kalin

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This evening I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything all day and a quick scan of the pantry showed that I had some things I wanted to get rid of. I decided that I desperately wanted nachos.

This necessitated a trip to Wal Mart, wherein I spent approximately a fortnight searching for Velveeta because
1) I’ve never bought Velveeta in my life,
2) I’m pretty sure no one I know has ever bought Velveeta in my presence,
3) Ok, I get that it isn’t ACTUALLY cheese, but could we just pretend it is and put it with the rest of the cheese instead of sticking it over by the rice cakes? Honestly.

This recipe is neither original nor particularly innovative, but hey, it’s tasty.

Here’s what you need:
Tortilla chips,
Cheese (Velveeta if you’ve never really had it and are dying to try it, something better if you are wise.)
Ground beef,
Banana Peppers you’ve had in the fridge for a long time,
Chili beans that have been in the cupboard since you started renting the apartment, along with the…
Diced tomatoes

Not Pictured:
Taco Sauce and seasonings

1) Put the ground beef in a pan and brown it, adding several dashes of taco sauce, black pepper, red pepper and garlic salt. The taco sauce and pepper was added because both my banana peppers and my chili beans were of the mild variety (hence why I haven’t used the, no doubt). The garlic salt was added because, given my bloodlines, I don’t think I’m physically capable of cooking without using garlic salt.
2) Add some more taco sauce just in case.
3) When the beef is sufficiently browned, drain the grease and throw in the tomatoes and chili beans, stirring it all up.
4) When an arbitrary about of time has passed, put about half the container of Velveeta in. More if you want it cheesier, less if you want it less cheesy (are you following my logic? I know it’s tricky and all, but try to keep up.)

When everything looks like it’s mixed up, take it off the heat. Spoon it onto the chips while hot if you like soggy ships (like I do), or wait until it cools down if you want crispy chips. It will thicken as it cools (like custard! Delicious cheesey bean custard).

Doesn’t that look good? No? Ok, I know, it actually looks kind of terrible. But it was delicious.

But then again, I was hungry enough at that point that I would have sauteed up a weasel in some butter and garlic salt.

Hey, that gives me an idea for the next edition of…

La Cocina De Kalin