fresh frooters: fresh fruit shooters (with a kick!)

September in the south is always right on the cusp of fall with cool days and humid hot ones. On a steamy September day that leaves you thinking summer is still in high gear, try this deliciously fresh, fruity bite! This bite is inspired by Mexican lollipops that are fruity (watermelon, pineapple, ect.) but have a spicy chili powder center or have the chili powder mixed in with the lollipop. Those were some of my favorite candies as a kid. Fresh watermelon, cantaloupe, and mango are tossed with a spicy sweet dressing made with candied jalapeños, agave syrup and cilantro for this bite. If the heat is really getting to you, try freezing the fruit and then tossing it! Oh yeah, and this is a three step recipe that will take a total of 15 minutes!

Ingredients: (8-10 small shooters)
2 cups cubed mango
2 cups cubed watermelon
2 cups cubed cantaloupe
4 tbl sp candied jalapeño syrup
1 tsp dill pickle juice
1 tbl sp agave syrup
2 candied jalapeños
2 dill pickles
2 pinches cayenne pepper (to taste)
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 key lime


Step one: cube all of the fruit.
Step two: put all of the ingredients that are not fruit or cilantro into the blender. Mix ingredients in the blender making sure that the pickles and jalapeños are finely ground into the mixture. Add cilantro and blend for a few seconds until the cilantro is finely chopped.
Step three: mix all of the fruit in a large bowl, toss with the dressing, and squeeze some lime in there if you want! Put into shooter glasses and serve!

As always, please let me know how this turned out if you tried this recipe! Happy eating!

green onion grit frits with chipotle black bean salsa

I brought this appetizer to a potluck dinner the other night, and when I left none of these left with me! These are corn, grit, green onion and cheese fritters with a chipotle black bean, orange bell pepper, tomato, fresh cilantro and mango salsa on top of a creamy sour cream and mayo spread. The fritters right off of the skillet were warm, crispy on the outside, and just slightly sweet from the corn. So I totally recommend serving them soon off the skillet if you can! And the sweetness in the corn paired so well with the sweet mango in the salsa. I love foods that have a rich side and then a more playful, fun and light side, and this appetizer is just that! You could bring this to a dinner party, enjoy these by the pool, or serve them with a fish, chicken or steak. They're really versatile! First I'll explain how you can make these just like in the picture, then explain how you can cut down on prep!

So first off, I want to say this is a hybrid sort of from two other recipes I found one of which was on pinterest and one was on epicurious.com. The first recipe I saw was a sweet potato cake with a black bean salsa and sour cream topping. I liked the salsa and sour cream combo, but I'm not a big fan of sweet potato. So I thought a fried corn cake could be a good substitute. But I had no idea how to make a fried corn cake! I looked on the internet and found this recipe: www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/fried-corn-cakes-with-green-onions-5182 But I wanted to change and make it just the way I wanted and I thought grits would be such a good way to make it a little different. If you don't like grits, you can use the above recipe! So that being said, here are the ingredients you'll need for the grit frits I came up with:

(makes about 12 2 inch radius frits)

1/2 cup cooked grits

1/2 cup flour (not instant!)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 and a splash milk

1 egg

1/2 cup kernels canned, fresh, or frozen corn (I used canned)

2 tsp creamed corn

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 table spoon white vinegar

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 tablespoon sugar

Salsa:

1 tomato, diced

half bell pepper, diced

half mango, diced

1/4 cup cilantro chopped

1 cup whole canned black beans

half lime

1 tablespoon chipotle tobasco

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Sour cream spread:

4 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons mayo

Start off by making the grits. I used a regular on-the-stove type grits and made the one serving option. It makes about a cup of grits and then you'll use half of that. I also used milk in the grits instead of water. This makes the grits much more rich and flavorful. However, doing it this way requires you to constantly stir the milk until it comes to a boil so the milk doesn't burn. It takes a little extra time, but if you have that extra time it's really worth it!

After the grits have cooked measure out a 1/2 cup full and set in the freezer. The grits need to be pretty cool because you'll be mixing them with egg later and you don't want the egg to cook with the right off the stove grits! You can also make the grits the night before or earlier in the day if you have time so you don't have to put them in the freezer.

While the grits are in the freezer, start chopping up all of the vegetables, mango and cilantro for the salsa and set those aside. Rinse the black beans in a strainer and separate them so that you have two half cup measurements. Mash one of those half cup measurements up with a spoon. Mix the Chipotle Tabasco and chili powder together in a separate bowl. Set all aside in the fridge. I do it this way because I want the salsa to taste and look as fresh as possible. The longer the salsa sits together the more the colors start to fade and the cilantro wilts, so it's best to mix it all together last.

Now it's time to make the grit frits. If you know you're not going to be able to serve these right away you have two options: first, set the oven to 275 degrees to place the fritters in after you've cooked them. Second, cover a plate in a clean dish towel and prepare to put the fritters under the dish towel to stay warm. Both work well.

Start off by heating the skillet on medium heat with two tablespoons of oil. I used vegetable oil. Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in one bowl. Mix together the cooled grits, egg, milk, creamed corn, and cheddar cheese in another. Then add these together in one bowl. Add the green onions and corn in next. After doing this the skillet should be adequately warmed. Ladle out a little less than a 1/4 cup mixture into the pan.

Let the frits sit in the skillet for a couple of minutes until you see the sides on the bottom start to brown and bubbles start to form on the top. Then flip them like a pancake! when flipped the frits should be golden brown.

While a few are cooking, start to mix together the mayo and sour cream and mix together the salsa. Squeeze half a lime in the salsa when you are done mixing. Once they're cooked add a dallop of sourcream spread and a spoonful of salsa. Then sprinkle with cilantro and cheese and enjoy!

I will say, these fritters are exactly quick to make. They're a bit of a time investment for sure as the total time to make it just how I explained is about 40 minutes. However, it's really worth it in the end because they're so delicious!

If you don't have a lot of time though, here are some tips to cut down on prep time. First of all you can make the grits ahead of time. While it's still the same overall time, it at least breaks it up. You can also make the salsa ahead of time too, because it keeps very well. The lime helps that. You can also just make the grits with water and start chopping and making the salsa and getting the dry ingredients ready for the frits. That way you're not stirring milk for 10 minutes over the stove. Voila! 10 minutes back! If you just want a quick appetizer at the last minute you could also scrap the grit frits completely and use tortilla chips instead!

If you have good suggestions for a shorter prep time, share them here! And don't forget to share your stories and "bites," too! Happy eating!

bango bites!

Yay, first post ever! Kicking it off with bango bites! (bacon and mango bites). My hope for this blog is to post fun, cute, really unique and tasty "bites" that aren't super hard or take a super long time to make. My other hope is that my posts will inspire you to come up with your own interesting food creations and food "bites" too! These "bites" are created by me but inspired by friends, family, pinterest and tons of other stuff.

These bango bites are SO easy to make! Don't let the picture fool you. And I had so much fun making them! They are a great treat when you're relaxing on a summer day out by the pool. The mango feels fresh and light and the bacon says, but you won't be starving in five minutes because I'm a bit more substantial. I'm first going to explain how to make the bango bites exactly as they are in the picture, and then I will give you some suggestions on how you can speed up the prep time or make it a little healthier.

Ingredients for about 15-20 bangos:
1/2 big mango, 1 small mango  
cilantro (for garnish)
2 tbl sp. vinegar (white, not dark)
half of small lime
2 cups water
1 tsp oil (I used coconut)
4 strips of bacon
10 pc. of french batard bread (or some sort of thinnly sliced bread)
2 tsp half and half
1 tsp mayo
1 tsp sour cream
cracked black pepper

So, start off by warming your bacon pan on medium heat. In a sauce pan mix together 2 cups of water, 2 tbl sp vinegar (I used pear vinegar), a dash of salt, half lime, and oil. If you don't have coconut oil butter works really well here, and olive oil is another good choice, too. This will eventually work up to a boil. In the meantime, cut the mango in half leaving the skin on. Make small slices in the mango meat, making sure not to cut through the skin. Make slices perpendicular to the slices you made previously so that the cuts make small squares in the the meat. Take out a soup spoon and scoop out the mango so that the mango is cubed.

Now, put those cubes into the water mixture and put the bacon on to cook. The mangos only need to stew in the water for 7-10 minutes.  
While this is all cooking you can make the sauce! Mix in a small bowl the 2 tsp half and half, 1 tsp mayo, and 1 tsp sour cream. Now would also be a good time to finely chop the cilantro.

It's about time to take off the mangos. Take them out, drain them, and then put them in a small bowl. They should now look like this:

If they are not looking like that, cause for concern. Now, with a fork mash them gently so that there are still some relatively big chunks of mango in there. The mangos should be pretty tender. Take the bacon off too and let it de-grease on some paper towel. (I also do the bacon pat down, because I'm not a fan of bacon grease). Now, cut each piece of bread in half. This is the kind of bread I used:

But you by no means have to use this exact bread. In fact, I think it would be really good with rye or pumpernickel, if it's sliced thinly. By the way, I didn't mention this before, but these pieces of bread are only about 3 1/2 inches long. So keep that in mind, too. After you have cut each piece of bread, toast them lightly.

When the bread is done toasting spread a light layer of mayo on the top. Then break each strip of bacon up into about 3-5 pieces. Place the bacon on the bread, then add a dallop of the mango mash, and drizzle with the white sauce. After this garnish with cilantro and add black pepper. Prep time is about 15 min. And that's it! Eat and enjoy!

If you are really, really short on time let me give you some tricks to shorten your prep time. First of all, instead of cooking bacon you can used a cured pork called procuitto. It's a really good option too. If you are having a hard time finding procuitto, a salami will also work. If you are really, really, really short on time you can get an apricot preserve and mix it with a little vinegar in place of the mango mash. Since I actually haven't tried making that I don't know what the vinegar to preserve ratio would be. Try it and let me know!
If you are thinking eeehhh, I want something I'd feel better about health-wise, try substituting turkey bacon for the regular, use lowfat mayo, olive oil for the oil, and lowfat half and half and sour cream.


I didn't mention this earlier, but I am not a certified chef and I made up this recipe myself! The vinegar trick I learned from my mom.

Hope these tips helped! Happy eating! Let me know about your cooking experience and what you think! And please share your "bites" too!