Life & Real Estate In & Around Athens GA.

If you have ever had the Indian sauce raita, sometimes known as pachadi, this chilled salad is similar without some of the seasoning spices. My wife and I like to have it with BBQ or burgers instead of potato salad or cole slaw. It is both quick and easy to perpare and can easily be prepared ahead of time.

Ingredients:

1 cucumber

1 medium tomato

1/2 medium red onion

2 TBSP yogurt

2 TBSP mayonaise

1 TBSP vinegar

1 TBSP buttermilk (or milk)

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Salt

Peel, quarter and slice the cucumber. Dice the tomato. Peel and dice the red onion. Place all the sliced and diced vegetables into a bowl.

In a mixing cup or small bowl add the yogurt, mayonaise, vinegar and buttermilk. Blend. Add pepper, salt and garlic powder to taste. Stir. Pour  dressing over the sliced vegetables. Refrigerate and chill until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Queso Fundido

I may have mentioned that my wife and I really enjoy Mexican food. Here is another recipe that, if you like Mexican cheese dip, you might like to try. It is a variation on a dish called Queso Fundido.

Ingredients:

16 oz. Mexican melting cheese              

8 oz. Chorizo

¼ cup chopped red or green onions

¼ cup chopped cilantro

¼ cup chopped pickled jalapeno peppers (more or less, according to how "hot" you like it).

Directions:

Crumble the chorizo into a frying pan. If the chorizo is in sausage form, remove it from the casing and discard the casing. Fry the chorizo completely and then drain and squeeze as much of the grease from it as possible.

Preheat your oven to 300°. Put the Mexican melting cheese in a baking dish along with the cooked and drained chorizo and the jalapenos. Stir the ingredients together. Bake this mixture in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted.

Remove the casserole from the oven and place the dish on the table using a trivet or hot pad. Serve it with corn chips or on small tortillas, as an appetizer or, if you like, as your main course.

We like to serve this dish alongside build-your-own tacos, our fresh ingredient guacamole, and, of course, margaritas or a cold Negro Modelo. Very tasty, we hope you enjoy.

My wife and I love Mexican food. Our favorite Mexican restaurant in the Athens area is Agua Linda. I did a blog post about it for localism. One of our favorite appectizers is their chunky guacamole. I have tried to duplicate the recipe at home and have come very close. I do mash the avocado and blend it rather than leave everything in chunks. But we both beleive it is very tasty. So, if you are ever in Athens and crave good Mexican food, go to Agua Linda. If you like good guacamole at home, try this recipe.

1 Avocado - coarsely mashed or chopped

1 medium tomato (a Roma does well) - diced

or about 6 - 8 cherry or grape tomatoes - diced

1 slice red onion - chopped

2 green onions -sliced

5 - 6 sprigs fresh cilantro - chopped

Juice of 1 key lime

fresh Jalapeno pepper - chopped

a dash of fresh crushed garlic

Blend all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Adjust the amount of jalapeno pepper according to how hot you like your guacamole. I do about 4 slices, chopped. You can cool the jalapeno a little by removing the seeds. If you don't want to cut a fresh jalapeno, you can get by with about 4 slices of canned or pickled jalapeno, chopped. All other ingredients should be fresh. Refrigate until ready to serve.

Serves 2. We use this as a dressing to make quacamole salad, as a dip for chips and to put on top of our chimi's, quesadillas, empinadas, taquitos, etc. 

We hope that you will try it and enjoy it also.