Fast & Fresh: Blueberry Butter

Take advantage of summer's tastiest berry, and start your day off right!

Make some Blueberry Butter.  This is a fast & fresh way to use the end of summer berries and would be perfect on breakfast breads, muffins, crackers, or bagels.

This is really easy to make, and would lend itself to other berries as well.

Hope you enjoy this great little treat!  Let me know what you think.

Blueberry Butter

Ingredients:

½ c butter, softened
3 ½ T blueberries, chopped

Directions:

Mix softened butter with chopped blueberries until well incorporated.  Don’t mix to roughly or you will break down the blueberries and end up with purple butter.

Take a piece of waxed paper and place the butter mixture on it.  Shape butter in to a log.  Wrap up tightly in the waxed paper.  Twist each end like a candy wrapper and push both ends toward the middle to get a good condensed roll.  Chill until firm.

Slice into round discs and serve.

Sweet Onion Salsa

Salsa is fat-free, fresh-tasting, and so flavorful. 

 I'm addicted.

So when I ventured into making fresh homemade salsa I couldn't believe I hadn't made it before!  I have been making my Salsa Roja almost every week!!!  I told you I'm addicted.

So I thought I would change up the flavors a bit and bring out some onion flavor.  So I decided to make a sweet onion salsa.  This is a smaller batch than my other recipe, but you can adjust it to make more if you like.  This makes around 3 cups or so.  It packs a great onion punch, leaving out the garlic so it doesn't compete with the flavors.  I also added more jalapeno to this recipe to zip up the spice factor.  You can always adjust the chili to you level of heat you like.

Another thing about salsa is the versatility it lends to other dishes.  Here are a few ideas:

• Add to scrambled eggs
• Add to rice
• Use as a burger topping
• Top a baked potato
• Use as a sauce for cooking salsa chicken
• Add to ground beef and use for taco or nachos
• Mix with ranch dressing to make a zesty salad dressing
• Mix to sour cream and mayo for a great dip
• Mix with guacamole to zip of the flavor.

So here's my recipe for Sweet Onion Salsa.  I hope you enjoy it!

For my Salsa Rosa recipe click here.

Sweet Onion Salsa

 

Ingredients:

1 14 oz can of whole or diced tomatoes

½ of a sweet onion such as Vidalia or Walla Walla

1 jalapeno, chopped (add less for a milder taste, remove membranes and seeds as well for less heat)

¼ of a bunch of cilantro – roughly 1 good sized handful

Juice from ½ a fresh lime

1/4 t kosher salt  

A pinch of sugar

1/3 t cumin

Directions:

 
Add all ingredients to a 10 cup capacity food processor.  Pulse until you get your desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Place in a large container and chill to blend flavors.  Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator up to three to four days. Makes about 3 cups.

Salsa Roja

What's America's favorite condiment?  Salsa!!!

Salsa Roja or "red sauce" is a common and wonderful blend of tomatoes, chili peppers, onion, garlic, and fresh cilantro.  

It's your basic or "restaurant style" salsa. 

I love relaxing with chips & salsa (plus a margarita!) and usually always have it on hand in the house.  Living in California we've grown up loving Mexican food and salsa is one of those items on the top of the list!  Some times we eat so much chips & salsa we're too full to eat our dinner!!!  Have you ever done that?

You are going to be soooo surprised how easy this is to put together.  And the FLAVORS, the FRESHNESS! Oh MY!!!  Once you try this you will never want to go back to jarred salsa again. Trust me...plus, the cost savings to making your own is tremendous.

Later on we will also explore a variety of dishes that utilize salsa so you get more bang for your buck!!  Stay tuned for those recipes.

So let's make salsa!!!

Add a 28 oz. can of whole or diced tomatoes to a large food processor.  Make sure to use at least a 10 cup capacity...this make a lot! (Party size!!)  Oh, and you can use 5-6 whole, fresh tomatoes instead of the canned if you prefer!

Add the onion, cilantro, a jalapeno (membrane and seeds removed if you want less heat), lime juice, salt, pinch of sugar, and cumin.

Turn on your processor or pulse and blend until smooth.  Or you can leave it slightly chunky if that's your thing...

Ole!  You have salsa!!  I told you it was simple....Now I put mine in the refrigerator for about 30 min- 1 hour to blend the flavors, but you can use it right away if you like.

Now go make some....go on!  It's oh soooo good!

Salsa Roja

Yield:  A little over 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 28 oz can of whole or diced tomatoes
½ of a yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno, chopped (add less for a milder taste, remove membranes and seeds as well for less heat)
¼ of a bunch of cilantro – roughly 1 good sized handful
Juice from ½ a fresh lime
½ t kosher salt 

A pinch of sugar
½ t cumin

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a 10 cup capacity food processor.  Pulse until you get your desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Place in a large container and chill to blend flavors.  When serving bring to room temperature if desired.  Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator up to three days.