Death to Tastebuds and other tidbits

The culinary happenings have been ramped up around here lately. Sam started it a few weeks ago by making his own salsa. He doesn't really like jalapenos, so he opted for habaneros and cayenne peppers. He got it all blended up (he doesn't like chunky) and then offered it to me. I ate some and it had a good flavor, heavy on the cilantro, then the fiery inferno hit. Now, I'm all for spicy. I love spicy. I do NOT love so-hot-your-taste-buds-were-brutally-murdered-in-the-process spicy! Milk was not even an option to tame the heat. This was a case of having to keep eating it 'til your mouth is numb. Yeah. So, anyway, he rather enjoyed that batch.

Then I began a slow journey of getting back into baking and made up a loaf of banana-pumpkin bread and a cobbler, then a box cake or two. After a couple of weeks of slow, I now have cookie dough balls from two batches of dough in the freezer awaiting being made into bouquets, eaten straight out of the freezer or in actual baked form. I also made up a couple of loaves of pumpkin bread, an apple pie, a German Chocolate Pie, made a double batch of fruit bars (which have vanished completely) and I made up a new batch of Amish Friendship Bread starter. Let the good times roll!!!! I was going to make up some brownies, but then I remembered that the chocolate-chocolate chip version of the friendship bread has brownies beat, hands down. Seriously! So, that is why I had to begin the starter again....4 more days til I can make some! Woo-hoo.

In dinner world, I've been making as many things in the crock pot as possible. I made pasta sauce from scratch for the first time ever in the crock pot and it turned out really good! Wanna know a secret that I learned from someone else? Put a can of rotel in it. It gives it a bit of a kick and its soooo goood! Don't think I'm going to be buying jarred sauce anymore....well, as long as I can get my act together and get the sauce into the crock pot in time! I also made chicken spaghetti in the crock pot and took it to our church pot luck and was asked for the recipe. Now, if only I can remember what all I put in it! Haha! Pot roast and chili followed, all successful. What was not successful and needs to be revamped and reconsidered was my not-at-all-yummy attempt at homemade hamburger helper. :( I will try it again, but will do things a bit differently next time. BTW - I cannot even begin to praise our amazing God enough for how well I feel now!!!! Thank you, dear, precious Lord!

I also have a few recipes waiting in the wings and will direct you to them here (Kristina, I know you will "thank" me for this later, mmwwaahahahaha!;):

Buckeyes - found over at SmittenKitchen (her photo, too;)

That's a whole lot of peanutbuttery-choclate-y goodness going on there. Must. Make. Some. ...and then probably some more.:)

Death by German Chocolate Brownie Cookie

Yeah.

Coffee Bites - over at Chickens in the Road

Sam's interest was piqued when he spied these, so you know I have to make some for him!

Oh and probably within the next day or two, I'm going to make some banana pudding from scratch. Got some ripe bananas in the kitchen calling my name. I might even make my own vanilla wafers. Been meaning to do that for a while now, anyway....

THEN....Sam made some more salsa. He put even more habaneros in it. MORE! He brought some in and was eating it and was saying that it was definitely hotter than the last batch and how his mouth was on FIRE! He was having a hard time describing it to me between gasps of breath. Then, he asked me if I would like to try it. Um NO! Nopers! Definitely UH-UH! He was all like why not? And I was all like because I don't want my mouth to burn completely off of my face. So, I didn't try it. The next day he came home and got the salsa and chips out and came in and said in what sounded like a boy's voice when he hits puberty starting out with a low tone and ending with a high, "I think this stuff got hotter since yesterday!!!!!!!!" I told him before he was even able to ask, "Well, I'm certainly not going to try it now!!!"

He still has some in the fridge he works on a session at a time every day.....and I still stay away from it. The end...for now.:)