In the Kitchen

SuzerSauce

SuzerSauce is a custom condiment that uses basic ingredients for great taste.

Every good food establishment has it’s special sauce.

Some go as far as to call them “secret” which sounds even more special, but in truth, most of the mainstream ones (or the one’s with cult followings) have their recipes appear in copycat versions on various websites.

Until recently, I’ve been pretty content to put bottled barbecue sauce on my veggie burgers. Mr SuzerSpace is a fan of Worcestershire.

But a few weeks ago, Mr. SuzerSpace and I were browsing in a high end kitchen store and stumbled upon an “artisan” hamburger condiment. They wanted $14.95 for 8 ounces, and the ingredient list was right on the back (has to – it’s the law). There was nothing special in the list.

After laughing ourselves to tears in the aisle, Mr. SuzerSpace remembered a burger place he really enjoyed in Wisconsin, known for it’s secret sauce recipe.

And I recalled a totally different burger place from my high school years in Texas, which sadly appears to have closed this past January.

And then we went home to make dinner. After all the story telling, it had to be burgers. And we definitely needed our own sauce.

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SuzerSauce

Prep Time 2 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 Heaping Tablespoons Mayonnaise
  • 2 Tablespoons Ketchup
  • 4-5 sliced pickled Jalapeños, diced
  • 1/4 tablespoon pickle relish
  • Splash of Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl (preferably one with a lid) combine all ingredients.
  2. Spread on bun for hamburger, or use as a spread for sandwiches
  3. Leftovers keep refrigerated for weeks - stir before using.

 

April 27, 2017 by In the Kitchen

Foolproof rice

Foolproof rice cooking technique | suzerspace.com

I’m not sure if this is a recipe or a teeny tiny tip, so I’ll categorize it as both.

Making rice always seems more difficult than it should be. There’s that magic formula of water vs. rice and cooking time with the lid on that generally didn’t really work out that well for me. So I bought a rice cooker, and for about 10 years never gave rice a second thought.

Then last summer, a co-worker gifted me a box from one of the meal subscription services, and it contained a stuffed pepper recipe that featured a new-to-me method of rice cooking. And I’ve never gone back to the rice cooker – in fact, it has moved from the kitchen to the basement, along with other one-trick appliances that aren’t earning their keep.

The technique is ridiculously simple – you just prepare rice as if it were pasta.

Cook rice like pasta for a foolproof dish

Bring a pot of water to boil, add rice, continue to boil uncovered until the rice is cooked to your desired finish. Drain and serve.

Never too crunchy or too soggy. The only caveat on this method is to make sure the holes in your colander are small enough to catch the rice and not let it all go down the drain.

Foolproof Rice

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup uncooked rice

Directions

  1. Bring a medium to large pot of water to a rolling boil.
  2. Add rice to pot, reduce heat slightly so it doesn’t boil over and stir.
  3. Keep rice cooking at a boil, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
  4. Test occasionally beginning at about the 15 minute mark (longer if you are using brown rice).
  5. Remove from heat when rice is cooked to your desired finish. Drain and serve. Don’t forget to freeze the leftovers.

April 20, 2017 by I made this In the Kitchen

Teeny Tiny Tip: Microwave Splatter Shield

An old food storage container lid makes an excellent microwave splatter shield

I’m a big fan of kitchen gadget stores. I love to browse the catalogs, websites and the actual aisles, looking at tools, appliances and decorator items.

But I rarely buy anything. I like to be resourceful and use what I have. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

Take microwave splatter shields. Really good idea. I hate, hate, hate to clean the microwave (true fact: more than once I’ve thought about just buying a new one instead of scrubbing something off the ceiling of the existing one). But they seem really expensive for what they are.

Last winter, in a fit of organizing, I threw away or gave away all my mismatched plastic food storage containers and switched over to glass. At the last second, I snatched two very sturdy lids back from the pile.

Why? Because they were the perfect size to use as splatter shields for my  bowls. They cover almost all of the top of the bowl, but let a little space exist on the corners for steam to escape.

And they are sturdy enough to use as a placemat/trivet for the hot item to be carried from the microwave to the coffee table.

You do eat all your meals on your coffee table, right? 🙂

April 18, 2017 by I made this In the Kitchen Links and Things To Remember

Salad Nachos

Salad Nachos take a snack off the guilt list. | suzerspace.com

Lunch on Sundays at SuzerSpace is just about always nachos. Good on rainy days, good on sunny days. They pair well with sports, or crafts, or even chores.

You can’t really go wrong with melty cheese and chips, and anything else you add is bonus.

Because I top these with arugula and southwestern salad dressing, I call them “Salad Nachos” and then I feel less guilty about them. Although as long as you keep the fatty items off, and be tight on portion control, nachos don’t necessarily have to be on the bad list anyway.

A quick word about my feature photo – this isn’t a food blog, so I’m showing them exactly how we eat them. I lift them off the baking sheet by the foil, and then wrap that foil around the serving plate.

Classy? Not really. Easy cleanup? You betcha 🙂

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Salad Nachos

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 2

Ingredients

  • Tortilla Chips
  • 1/4 cup Shredded Cheese
  • 1/4 - 1/2 cup Black Beans rinsed and drained
  • Salsa
  • Arugula
  • Southwestern Style Ranch Salad Dressing

Instructions

  1. Line a small baking pan with foil
  2. Place a single layer of chips on the foil, keeping them close together so very little foil shows through.
  3. Add a light layer of black beans, and top that with salsa.
  4. Sprinkle with shredded cheese evenly so everything gets a little.
  5. Place this dish in a cold oven, and turn oven to Bake, 350 degrees. *See first note below
  6. Bake until oven hits preheated temperature, switch to broil. *See second note below.
  7. Remove from oven when cheese and chips are browned and crispy.
  8. Top generously with arugula, sparingly with Southwestern style ranch dressing.

Recipe Notes

  1. I call this cooking method "Two-Stage" cooking, which is I'm using the pre-heating of the oven to warm all the ingredients and then switching over to broil to blast them at the last second. I find if I just broil the nachos, the tops are good, but the beans are cold.
  2. When the nachos are in the first stage of cooking, you've got freedom to do something else, since the oven will beep (or in our case play a song) when it's at 350 degrees. However, when you switch to broil, DO NOT LEAVE the oven, not even for a second. These go from "almost there" to carbon in as long as it takes you to look up that just one more thing on the computer.

 

April 13, 2017 by In the Kitchen

Black and Bleu Wrap

Layers of flavor make this Black and Bleu Wrap sandwich stand out. | suzerspace.com

The trick to eating with a focus on good nutrition and a tight budget is to think like a restaurant.

Besides frying everything, and using a lot of salt to make everything taste good, restaurants know that layers of flavor are the key to a good dish.

If you take a flatbread wrap, throw on some cheese and black beans and nuke it in the microwave, it’s a little bit soggy and sad.

But if you heat the beans first, and then layer the wrap with cheese, the beans, arugula and top with chunks of bleu cheese, suddenly you have something special.

Print

Black Beans and Bleu Cheese Wrap

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 minute
Total Time 6 minutes
Servings 1

Ingredients

  • 1 Flatbread (we use low-carb)
  • 1/8 cup Shredded Cheese
  • 1/4 cup Black Beans Rinsed and Drained
  • Arugula Washed and Patted Dry
  • Bleu Cheese Chunks* (see note)

Instructions

  1. In a microwave safe bowl, heat beans in the microwave for about 30 seconds, until really warm but not dried out.

  2. On flatbread, sprinkle cheese in center

  3. Layer on black beans, arugula and black beans. Add salsa on top if desired.

  4. Roll and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

*Note: I don't actually like Bleu Cheese - Mr. SuzerSpace does. I make my version with Feta, but we still call them Black and Bleu Wraps. Sounds fancier that way 🙂

 

April 6, 2017 by In the Kitchen
I'm a Pre-Press Super Hero by Day. A mild-mannered nerd at night. The SuzerSpace is my place to showcase all that I enjoy and want to share.

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