Susan's Kickin' Habanero Salsa & Susan's Pineapple Salsa

Another late night craving led to another late night fiesta-in-our-mouths! We found that jalapeno peppers just weren't cutting it anymore, and that the flavor in a habanero pepper is a perfect change. Ryan, being the Texan in the relationship, likes his salsa with some kick. Susan's Michigan tastebuds are working overtime and adjusting, but they still prefer the milder Pineapple version more. Thank you to Kellie Russell, Ryan's mom for turning us onto habanero with our memorable cream-corn experience last Christmas!

8 roma tomatoes
1/2 medium to large sweet onion
3 limes
1/4 to 1/3 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 small to medium habanero pepper

For Susan's Kickin' Habanero salsa:

Chop up all ingredients to desired size for chunky salsa, and mix well. For finer salsa, puree inredients in a blender. Be sure that when cuttung the habanero you cover your hands with plastic bags or the like to avoid touching the juice. It will definitely burn if you don't. Dice the habanero pepper well so that no one bite has a large chunk of the pepper.

For Susan's Pineapple Salsa:

All ingredients listed above
1 can crushed pineapple in it's own juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Prepare salsa as normal. Mix 1 part salsa with 1 part crushed pineapple. Add sugar to sweeten a little.


Enjoy!

Susan's Bruschetta (MY BRUSCHETTA!!!)

This one, I (Susan) have been making for a couple of years. I got inspired when a good friend gave me a ton of basil (and I mean a ton). It's all about tasting it as you go to make sure you like it, but here's how it goes for me:





4-6 Roma Tomatoes, chopped pretty finely, but not quite diced
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
3-4 cloves of fresh garlic, diced
3 or so tablespoons of fresh chopped basil (or you can do dried, and will probably need just about the same b/c it's more compact and will turn out to be a little more than if you measure fresh cut).
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dried)
freshly shredded parmesean cheese

Mix all ingredients except the cheese together and adjust to your liking by adding more or less of any ingredient. More garlic or basil can add quite a bit of bite, whereas more tomatoes/olive oil can help to calm down the flavor. Also, I sometimes will add a dash of mixed herbs and spices. Usually something like the Italian pizza and pasta mix grinder you can get at Aldi. Add the cheese at the end before serving, or hold it out entirely, and only sprinkle over bruschetta once atop your italian bread of choice.

Speaking of bread, I like to use the pre-cut slices of Italian bread that come in a bag for a couple of bucks at the Green Hills Kroger (yep, the only Kroger I've found them at). You can of course use any toasted bread you'd like. It's easy to toast the little Italian slices in the oven. Just set the oven to 350 and let the slices toast for a few minutes on either side. This bread is also a great option because it's bite size, making it easy for finger food.

Enjoy!!

Butterbeer Floats!

Madam Rosmerta would be proud. :) For our first experiment, we present to you Butterbeer Floats straight from Hogsmeade Village. This one is simple...

Ingredients:
1 part Butterscotch Schnapps Liqueur (Yes, this drink is slightly alcoholic ~ 1.7% by my calculations)
10 parts Cream Soda (A&W was our soda of choice)
1 Scoop of Vanilla ice cream

Not a whole lot of direction needed on this one. It helps if the cream soda is chilled, and add the ice cream last for a nice foam. Pouring over the ice cream results in a little too much foam and not enough beer. :( Throw them all together in your favorite stein, and enjoy!

Finally Here

Hello!

This is it! Finally...our food blog:) Recipe tweakers to the core, we've decided to post them all so we never forget what we've done, and so that when you all are curious to find out what we did, it's right here on Russell Up Some Grub! Of course, sprinkled in with our recipes will be funny stories and such, so hope you enjoy!!

Susan (Singin' In The Rain) & Ryan (Look Out Below)