The Only Caramel Snack Mix You'll Ever Need

For the past few years, I've been throwing together some kind of snack mix for my friends' annual Halloween party. My thinking is that it's always good to have something to snack on before the drinking begins. I've tried a variety of different mixes and coatings, but I think I've finally tried the last recipe I'll ever need. Is there proof for this? Well, the bowl was completely empty by the end of the night (which has never happened before), so I'm pretty sure this one's a keeper.

As with most snack mixes, feel free to play with the ingredients. This year I opted for popcorn, corn Chex, Fritos, and (after the baking) M&Ms. You could easily add nuts (pre-baking), other cereals (pre-baking), dried fruit (pre- or post-baking), tortilla or potato chips (pre-baking), pretzels (pre-baking), or any other kind of candy (post-baking). You can also vary the amount you add - I like all my ingredients to get some of the caramel, but not to be drenched, but if you prefer a more uniform covering of caramel, use 2-4 cups less of ingredients.

The Only Caramel Snack Mix You'll Ever Need
12 cups salted popcorn
6 cups rice or corn Chex
3 cups Fritos
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup M&Ms

Preheat oven to 250°. Combine popcorn, Chex, and Fritos (or whatever other ingredients you are using that will not melt) in one or two roasting pans.

In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Stir occasionally until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep the temperature as low as possible, as the caramel can burn easily. Once it starts to boil, this may be a very low temperature - you just want to keep it at that state.

After 5 minutes of boiling, remove the caramel from the heat. Stir in the vanilla, then stir in the baking soda. This will cause the caramel to expand.

Pour the caramel over the popcorn mix, and toss the mix to make sure the caramel gets on everything.

Bake for about 20 minutes, stirring everything and scraping up the extra caramel halfway through.

Remove from pan(s) into a large bowl to cool. You may need to break apart some of the pieces as they cool. Once the mix is not warm to the touch, add in any candies and toss to distribute.

If there's any left after you serve it (and there won't be), store it in an air-tight container.

The Reading Mouse: The Goldfinch

The author of my absolute-favorite book (The Secret History) has a new book out, titled The Goldfinch. Could it possibly live up to the book I love so much?

It's NaBloPoMo time!

Hello? Anyone here?

The frequency of my posting has been absolutely abysmal, so I thought another round of National Blog  Posting Month was just what the doctor ordered. 

You've been forewarned.

Dip and Sip Challenge, featuring BLT Guacamole

I could eat avocado every day. Every. Day. Of course, I don't, because they're always rock hard when I buy them, and then they all get ripe and soft at the exact same time ten days later.

I don't often declare my love of avocados out loud, so I was a bit surprised when I was invited to create a recipe for the Dip and Sip Challenge, sponsored by Piedra Azul Tequila, to celebrate National Guacamole Day (September 16th). I happily joined 9 other bloggers on the task, and I got to work.

Piedra Azul sent me a wonderful bottle of their blanco tequila, as well as a copy of Gaby Dalkin's new cookbook, Absolutely Avocados, for inspiration. I pored over the book, wanting to lick the pages, and marveling over some of the uses of avocado (hello, avocado-coconut ice cream!). Gaby includes tons of tips and tricks for buying and using avocados, including a whole section on different varieties of avocados that us poor folks in the northeast will NEVER see.

My friends and I eat guacamole at pretty much every gathering, to the point where even the folks who don't really cook know what the steps are and how to chop everything just right. For National Guacamole Day, however, I wanted something a little more unusual, and once I got the idea for BLT guacamole in my head, I just couldn't shake it.

The tomato part was easy; I always add tomato to my guacamole. Not much different there. Bacon - well, bacon can be added to anything. Definitely not a challenge. But lettuce? When I get guacamole at a Mexican restaurant, it always comes on a sad pile of shredded lettuce that I do my best to avoid. Even leafy, bright lettuce turns watery when chopped and mixed too much. And then, the answer came in the shape of my CSA share - kale!

Kale, pureed with some jalapeno, turned into the perfect lettuce-substitute. It gave the guacamole enough leafy green taste without changing the texture, (and hey, I hid half a bunch of kale in plain sight!). I added a little more kale, sliced into tiny threads, along with more tomato and bacon for garnish. I put the whole shebang into my molcajete (ok, it's a marble mortar) to serve.

BLT Guacamole

3-4 ripe Haas avocados, halved and pits removed

juice of 1 lime

1/2 to 1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed (if you want less kick)

6 large leaves of kale, ribs removed, 1 leaf reserved

1 large tomato, or about 12-15 cherry tomatoes, seeds removed

3 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

salt and pepper

In a large bowl, mash avocado together with lime juice. Just break up the chunks; as you stir in the other ingredients, the avocado will become creamier.

In a food processor, mince the jalapeno (decide how spicy you'd like your finished product) and 5 kale leaves together. It won't quite puree, but you want it as smooth as possible. Add to the avocado and stir to combine.

Finely chop the tomato, reserving a tablespoon or so for garnish. Mix the rest into the avocado.

Add most of the crumbled bacon and combine. Salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, top the guacamole with finely julienned kale, chopped tomato, and a sprinkle of bacon.

And what goes better with guacamole than a margarita? (If you said tortilla chips, you can just shut up. You've clearly never eaten guacamole with a spoon.) I didn't love margaritas for a long time because I always thought of them as syrupy sweet and bright green. But when I realized they were easy to make at home, I was a much happier camper. A traditional margarita is usually 3 parts tequila, 2 parts orange liqueur, and 1 part lime (sometimes 2 parts lime, 1 part orange liqueur instead). I occasionally find that even a little too sweet, wanting just to savor the acidic bite of the citrus alongside the tequila. Combining multiple kinds of citrus adds more sweetness without getting too cloying. And while mixing all those juices together doesn't produce the prettiest drink, it does provide a mixer that doesn't overshadow the tequila, so you want to use a better tequila, like Piedra Azul.

Mixed Citrus Margaritas
This isn't so much a recipe as a set of guidelines.

Combine the juice of whatever citrus you'd like - I like one grapefruit, 1 tangerine (or blood orange, when in season), 1 lemon, and 2 or 3 limes. This much citrus makes enough juice for 6-8 drinks.

Combine 1/4 cup tequila with 1/4 cup of citrus juice. Serve over ice, with or without a salted rim on the glass.

Szechuan's Dumpling, Arlington

I will preface any post about Chinese food with this: I don't know much about Chinese food, other than what my rather Americanized palate enjoys. I don't know how any particular restaurant compares to "the real stuff" (whatever that may be), but I know what's tasty to me. And I only add this preface because there are a lot of people out there who do know about this, and they often speak down (write down?) to those of us who don't know what the names of all the dishes mean. That being said...

Szechuan's Dumpling is a new-ish Chinese restaurant in Arlington Heights; they've been open since around February. I had read some good things about it online, but I didn't visit until my friend Dave arranged for a few of us to try it out a few months ago. I have visited about once a week since then, and there are at least 3 other Chinese take-out spots between my house and Arlington Heights, so that should give you an idea of how good this place is.

No order is complete without their Pork Mini Juicy Dumplings (aka soup dumplings) and their pan-fried Pork and Chive Dumplings (above). I especially love the crispy sear that the pan-fried dumplings get, and the juxtaposition with the chewy dough and salty meat.

My absolute favorite dish at Szechuan's Dumplings, though, is the Eggplant with Basil Leaves. I will eat eggplant (especially the long, thin ones) in just about any presentation, but this one is sweet and salty and just a little spicy and absurdly addictive. I often find myself picking off the last few pieces and then mixing some rice into whatever sauce is left on the plate because it's just too good to leave behind.

There are many other tasty items on the menu (the Crispy Chicken with Basil Leaves and the Salt and Pepper Shrimp jump out at me), but I am so enamored by the dumplings and the eggplant that I have a hard time ordering anything else. We try to sneak in a new dish every time we eat at the restaurant itself, but it's hard when I've already established favorites!

New England Summer in a Bowl

There is nothing more evocative of a New England summer than corn, tomatoes, and lobster. A summer is not complete without a meal containing all three (luckily, I have never had a summer go by without a meal like that).

However, I'm not a huge fan of eating a whole lobster as a meal. It's too messy, and the tail gets cold while I'm working on the claws (or vice versa), and what do you do with the plateful of water that comes pouring out of the body?! Add to that a trip to the sink to rinse the gunk out of the tail meat, and you don't have the most pleasant of meals.

This recipe came about precisely because of this. It's the best way to combine those summer flavors into one dish. It's so simple, in fact, that this is really an un-recipe. I've spread it around to friends and family, and each person makes it their own. So consider this less of  something to follow and more of a jumping-off point.

This recipe naturally doubles or triples very easily, and it's a wonderful dish to serve a party (plus, you're serving lobster! But you only have to buy 4 or so to feed a crowd!).

Lobster, Corn, and Tomato Hash
2 Tbsp butter
3-4 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, the smaller the better (you can use big tomatoes too, like I did above, but the result is a little more watery)
2 1-lb(ish) lobsters, cleaned, and meat roughly chopped
Handful of basil, torn into small pieces
Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add corn and tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes begin to burst. Add lobster and basil and cook until lobster is warmed through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Caprese Dip

And so we've reached that point in the summer where we are required by Mother Nature to eat tomatoes with everything. This is not a complaint, not by a long shot. Tomatoes are one of the few things I could eat by themselves daily while they're in season (and then not touch again for another 10 months). But variety is still a good thing.

While this dip is not a true Caprese (missing the mozzarella cheese), the Greek yogurt that actually turns it into a dip gives it enough dairy creaminess that the missing cheese should be excused. Once the tomatoes and basil are in there, you'll hardly be missing the cheese.

I used a mixture of fresh and dried basil because I didn't have enough fresh to give the dip the right amount of flavor. Feel free to use all fresh or all dried, but I quite liked the combination of using both.

Caprese Dip

1 cup Greek yogurt (fat-free is fine)

1 cup diced tomatoes (seeds removed or it'll get too watery)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (or 2 Tbsp dried basil)

Mix ingredients together, then salt and pepper to taste. Allow to chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.