Appetizers For Football Parties!

This past Thursday was the opening game for the NFL season with Packers beating the Bears. With this sport comes a lot of parties and snacks! With so many chances to entertain; I have three recipes that I tested out for you guys that will be awesome to serve at your next NFL party! (Or just whenever you want an awesome snack!)

All three of these recipes are super simple and you don’t need loads of ingredients. Surprisingly only one utilizes a cheese from the Vineyard Market, the others use potato chips and some hot sauces we carry. Now onto our first recipe:

Broccoli Muffin Bites*

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups of broccoli, cooked and chopped
• 1 cup of Westminster Rustic Red shredded
• 12 – 14 Elki crackers, crumbled
• 1 egg

How to do it:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray
3. cook your broccoli (I used a steam in bag frozen one for simplicity)
4. once broccoli is cooked combine with cheese, crackers, and the egg and mix until well combined (you can use a food processor if you’d like)
5. spoon mixture into greased muffin tins about 3/4 full (they do not rise much so you want them pretty full)
6. top with additional crackers if desired
7. bake for 12-15 minutes until crackers are browned and mixture is fully cooked
8. serve and dig in!

• 

• 

• 

I made some macaroni and cheese for dinner last night and used the broccoli muffin bites as a fancy topper.

Broccoli Bite Atop Garlic Chipotle Mac & Cheese

The next recipe I tested out is so simple and I can’t believe I never thought of it before. Football usually goes with buffalo wings, and everyone loves fries, so why not combine the flavours together!

Buffalo Ranch Fries*

What you’ll need:

• a bag of frozen fries (I used waffle, but use whatever you want or have on hand)
• 1/3 cup Dales Pale Ale Buffalo Sauce
• 1 packet of ranch seasoning mix
• ranch dressing for dipping (optional)
• green onions for garnish (optional)

How to do it:

1. preheat oven to whatever the frozen bag of fries says to usually 400 to 450
2. toss frozen fries with ranch packet and buffalo sauce
3. spray baking sheet with nonstick spray
4. spread in an even layer on baking sheet
5. bake 18 to 20 minutes or until fries get desired crispiness
6. serve with ranch dressing

For my third recipe, I breaded chicken with Kettle Brand potato chips. It was super delicious. Best part is you can create a different combination by using a different flavour of Kettle chip. I used the Chili Lime and Sea Salt flavour in my chicken recipe.

Popcorn Chicken Bites*

What you’ll need:

• 3 cups of Kettle Brand potato chips, (I used like a bag and a half)
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk (or half and half)
• 1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
• salt and pepper to taste
• cayenne or cajun seasoning (in case you want more flavour than the chips)

How to do it:

1. preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. crush potato chips using a food processor until fine crumbs form (I used a plastic bag and a rolling pin and my hands so it was a little chunkier for the crumbs) add 1 cup of flour and any cayenne or cajun seasoning, mix till blended, add to shallow dish
3. place remaining flour in a shallow dish
4. whisk eggs and milk together in a shallow dish
5. rub a baking sheet with olive oil or spray with nonstick spray
6. bread your chicken in this order, flour, egg mixture, kettle chip mixture
7. make sure you press down so the chicken gets coated
8. place on baking sheet
9. bake chicken for 6 minutes, flip and bake on other side for 6 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the potato chips have slightly browned
10. serve with dipping sauce of your choice!

Let me know if you guys try out these recipes. I think they will all be a hit at any get together, not necessarily just football related! Oh and for those of you interested here is a photo of the cheeses I used in my mac and cheese dinner. It’s also super simple, just a bechamel sauce with these two grated cheeses added.

Happy eating! =)

*Original Recipes From: Broccoli Bites, Buffalo Ranch Waffle Fries, Spicy Popcorn Chicken Bites

Spice up Your Flautas (with Tia Lupita)

I know it took me a little longer than expected—but I think you’ll agree that it was worth the wait.

I tried a few different recipes over the last couple weeks to see what I wanted to feature here as a great pairing for some of the Tia Lupita hot sauces, and I think I’ve finally found the one. This recipe for Spicy Sweet Corn Flautas is one of my favorites from one of my favorite cookbooks, Thug Kitchen.

Flautas are basically like a larger taquito but made with flour tortillas instead of corn—essentially a filling rolled into flour tortillas and then baked until crispy. The original version of this recipe is incredible and delicious all on its own—but you know me, and I’m a firm believer that everything is better spicy.I altered this recipe just a tad, using fresh (or jarred works) roasted red bell peppers instead of canned mild green chiles to give it that extra depth of savory-smoky flavor. I also added in a good helping of Tia Lupita’s Chipotle Hot Sauce to the flauta filling to give it more smokiness and, of course, spicy heat.

You can leave it here and call it a day; roll up your tortillas, bake ’em, and dunk ’em in some fresh guacamole or salsa—OR you can be crazy like me and top them with Tia Lupita’s Salsa Verde. I say crazy because this definitely takes the spice to another level, but if you can handle the heat, I think it’s absolutely worth the taste.

I served these up to a couple friends and my boyfriend, and suffice it to say that I will definitely be making these again.

---

Spicy Sweet Corn Flautas

What you’ll need:

• cooking spray
• ~1 tsp. Olive or Avocado Oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow or white onion (~1/2 onion)
• 2 tsp Chili powder
• 3/4 tsp Cumin
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 4 to 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 cups cooked Pinto beans (or two 15oz. cans)
• ~4 freshly roasted red bell peppers (or used jarred), chopped
• 1 to 3 Tbsp Tia Lupita’s Chipotle Hot Sauce (more or less for heat)
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 cup sweet corn kernels (fresh when possible)
• 12 flour tortillas

Optional Toppings:

• Tia Lupita’s Salsa Verde
• Guacamole
• freshly sliced jalapenos
• salsa
• pico de gallo

How to do it:

• Preheat oven to 400F and lightly spray one or two baking sheets with cooking spray.
• Heat your oil in a saute pan over medium heat and add the onion. Cook until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes.
• Add chili powder, cumin, salt, and garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
• In a large bowl, mash together pinto beans, peppers, Tia Lupita’s Chipotle Hot Sauce, and lime juice with a fork or masher until a paste forms. Leave some beans unmashed for desired texture.
• Fold in corn and sauteed onion mixture.
• Using your oven or the microwave, heat the flour tortillas until warmed and pliable, about 15 seconds.
• Scoop about 2 Tbsp of bean filling into each tortilla in a line toward the edge of the left side of one of the tortillas from top to bottom.
• Tightly roll the tortilla from left to right and place the flauta seam-side-down on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining mixture and tortillas.
• Bake for about 10 minutes, until tops start browning. Flip and cook for another 5-7 minutes until golden and crispy on both sides.
• Serve with a drizzle of Tia Lupita’s Salsa Verde for an extra refreshing spicy kick, or your favorite toppings.
  

*Original recipe from Thug Kitchen Cookbook.

Tia Lupita Hot Sauce

Is it just me, or can everybody see that Fall is just around the corner?

I swear it was just last week that it was 95 degrees outside! And now it’s 70 and we also had a few nights where it was 50… I just don’t know if I’m ready for this weather yet, folks…

I do have some good news though. If you’re like me and you’re already feeling the chills of the colder seasons, I’ve got just the thing to warm you up: a new hot sauce.

Yes.

For any new readers out there: Hi, my name is Amber, and I’m obsessed with all things spicy—especially hot sauce. Each year when I attend the Summer Fancy Food Show, hot sauces are one of the items I look forward to tasting the most since there is just so much room for variety. So when some of the folks working with Tia Lupita sent me samples of each of their hot sauces, I was unbelievably excited.

Let me rewind for one second. This year I was able to bring my boyfriend to the Summer Fancy Food Show, and I distinctly remember a moment where he ran over to me and said, “Oh my gosh, Amber, you have to try this hot sauce.” He pulled me over to a booth where I had a little taste of Tia Lupita’s Original Hot Sauce, and we spent a minute or two raving about how delicious it was. He even asked me about this hot sauce a couple months later and whether or not we could get it into our Vineyard Market—I swear, I can’t make this stuff up. You can imagine the look on my boyfriend’s face when I brought home the samples I was sent.

And the story behind this brand makes it all the better.

Growing up in Northern Mexico, Hector Salvidar, along with close friends and family, was blessed with batches of his mother’s incredible hot sauce. Affectionately known as Tia Lupita (Aunt Lupita in Spanish), Hector’s mother made just enough hot sauce for those she loved—no matter how many requests she got to make extra or to bottle and sell it. Well-known and sought after, Lupita’s hot sauce is made from a simple recipe that’s been passed down through the generations of women in the Salvidar family. Using only seven all-natural ingredients, it’s all about quality ingredients and technique to develop the incredible flavor.

When Hector moved to California to work for a start-up company, Tia Lupita couldn’t let her son be without their coveted hot sauce, so she would send over jars of it to make sure Hector never ran out. Friends of Hector’s here tried the sauce and loved it just as much as his friends and family back in Mexico. It wasn’t too much longer after that Hector finally got his mother’s blessing—and recipe—to bottle and sell her famous sauces, paying homage with an adorable caricature of Tia Lupita on the label of each bottle.

Manufactured in Portland, Oregon using local produce from the Bay Area, you can truly taste each individual ingredient within a bottle of Tia Lupita’s Hot Sauce: earthy cumin and oregano, spicy aromatic garlic, bright and tangy vinegar, a dash of salt and pepper, and, of course, ripe red chili peppers.

These hot sauces have really become some of my favorites over the last couple of weeks. I almost feel like the Frank’s Red Hot lady because I truly put Tia Lupita’s on everything! It’s incredible mixed into taco meat or flauta stuffing, as a topping on just about any Mexican dish—but don’t just think Mexico. One of my favorite ways to use it is on top of my pizza; it’s also great with eggs, mixed into hummus or your favorite bean dip, on burgers, in chili—like I said, everything.

I’m so excited about these new hot sauces you guys, so please stay tuned for some special posts over the next few weeks featuring some of my favorite ways to use each variety of Tia Lupita’s hot sauce: Original, Verde, and Chipotle.