Samosas!

I decided to attempt to make Indian food and I succeeded! Kind of. I made a simpler April version of samosas. I didn't have time to make the dough so I used puff pastry sheets instead. The filling is a traditional meat & potato mix but the flakey pastry outside is a little twist. I think puff pastry is the perfect substitute when you are in a hurry or when you want to make things a little simpler. The samosas taste amazing, even if they aren't exactly what you are used to.

Sliders :)

I like sliders more than regular burgers because you can eat so many different kinds without getting too full. I used lean angus meat, montreal seasoning, cheese, mayo & indian ketchup for this burger. My George Foreman came in handy because it drained most of the fat from the meat.
I decided to dress the second slider up a bit and added bone marrow butter, bone marrow & caramelized onions as toppings.Aren't they adorable?

Black Bean Patties and Marinara Sauce

The black bean patty was easy, because I made it before (and blogged about it before) but this time I made it a little differently- without a recipe.  Long story short, I mashed two cans of black beans (after rinsing them of course) and mixed in some corn, orange and yellow bell pepper, onion, Thai chili sauce, two eggs, two slices of bread (crumbled up), cooked rice, Santa-Fe style salsa, and garlic salt.  Mmmmm it tasted so good.

I winged the marinara sauce, as well.  This one was a little harder though, because 1. I made it completely from scratch and 2. I've only made it once before, a long long time ago.  I started out by caramelizing two large white onions, which took about 25 minutes, give or take.  After I took the onions off the heat (because I'm terrible at multitasking), I peeled 9 tomatoes using the ol' boiling water technique, quartered and seeded them, and threw them in a pot with orange and yellow bell pepper (I was out of green), the caramelized onion, about two tablespoons of dried basil, a few pinches of dried thyme, three cloves of garlic, and a liberal smattering of salt.  I then covered it and let it simmer for the next three hours and voila!  Instant marinara!

Crab Dip & Tri tip

So this dip is easy, cheesy and perfect for a night with the girls. First mix lump crab, cream cheese, mozzarella, crab bisque, and scallions. Next add a dash of Worcestershire, Soy sauce & lemon juice and bake for 10 minutes. Serve it with fresh fried tortilla chips. If you really want it to taste good, make some cocktails too.

Tri Tip Roast! Marinated with herbs and spices and cooked in the oven for about an hour. Tender, juicy, and a little rare. This dish ranks mega high on the instant pleasure list.