Peach Lemonade

This is my favorite lemonade!  Not too sour, or too sweet, and the perfect peach flavor!  And it's made from scratch with fresh fruits.  Serve it with lemon slices and peach wedges to make it even more fun and add a little more freshness.

First you need to make the peach juice.  You made want to do this the night before you want the lemonade, because it needs to chill for at least 3 hours.  Combine your water, chopped peaches, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes.  Then remove it from the heat and let it stand for 20 minutes to start to cool.

Next, place the peaches and the water in the blender (in batches if needed).  Secure the lid on the blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a large bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

After the peach mixture has refrigerated for at least 3 hours, you need to strain it.  Press the peach mixture through a sieve into a pitcher, reserving the liquids and discarding the solids.  I made a double batch, and used a cleaned out gallon-size bottle from orange juice instead of a pitcher, but you can use whatever pitcher you have.

As you can see above, a double batch of this peach mixture was a half a gallon of juice.

Next juice your lemons.  You need a cup of lemon juice.  Mix it into your peach mixture.  Serve over ice with one or two peach wedges and one or two lemon slices if desired.

Peach Lemonade
Ingredients:
4 cups water
2 cups coarsely chopped peaches (about 2 peaches)
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
4 cups ice
1 peach, cut into wedges (optional)
1 lemon, cut into slices (optional)

Steps:
1.  Combine water, chopped peaches, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.  Remove heat and let it stand for 20 minutes.
2.  Pour peach mixture into a blender and secure lid on blender.  Blend until smooth.  Pour into a large bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
3.  Press peach mixture through a sieve over a pitcher, reserving the liquids and discarding solids.
4.  Juice lemons and mix lemon juice into peach juice.
5.  Serve over ice with peach wedges and lemon slices if desired.

Breakfast Sandwich Pockets

These breakfast sandwich pockets are easy to make and great for on the go.

First, prepare your ingredients.  Unroll 2 packs of crescent rolls, keeping them as rectangles, not triangles.  This will leave you with 8 rectangles.

Cook your scrambled eggs and ground sausage.

 Measure out your shredded hash browns.  It ended up being about half the bag, so I cooked the rest of the hash browns to eat on the side.

Next, assemble your sandwiches.  Put a small amount of each item (sausage, hash browns, eggs, shredded cheese) on one side of the crescent rectangles.

Fold in half and press open edges closed with fingertips.  Place each pocket on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

You can also freeze these sandwiches to eat at a future time.  I placed each of mine in a sandwich-size Ziploc bag and then put all of them in a gallon-sized bag to freeze.  To eat after frozen, placed desired number of sandwiches on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 5-10 minutes or until warmed through.

Breakfast Sandwich Pockets

Ingredients:

2 packs crescent rolls

6 eggs, scrambled

1/2 lb. ground sausage, cooked

1.5 cups frozen hash browns, thawed

1/2 cup shredded cheese

Steps:

1.  Unroll crescent rolls and separate into rectangles (should have 8 rectangles).

2.  Cook eggs and sausage separately.

3.  Put a small amount of sausage, hash browns, eggs, and cheese on each crescent rectangle.

4.  Fold in half and press open edges closed.

5.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

6.  TO FREEZE:  Place each sandwich pocket into a sandwich-size Ziploc bag, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap.  Store all in a gallon-size Ziploc bag in freezer until ready to eat.  TO EAT AFTER FROZEN:  Cook desired number of sandwich pockets on greased baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes at 375 degrees or until warmed through.

Tres Leches Cake

D. loves Tres Leches Cake and I found a way to make a Tres Leches Cake at home, almost from scratch (I use a cake mix rather than making the cake itself from scratch).  This is his typical request if I ask him what he would like for dessert.

First make the cake by mixing together cake mix, water, oil, vanilla, and eggs.  Bake according to the directions on the box at 350 degrees in a greased 9x13" pan.

Once the cake is done, let it cool for 5 minutes before using a fork and poking the top of the cake about every 1/2", wiping the fork clean as needed to reduce sticking.

Then mix together your three milks (sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream).  Slowly pour over the cake, allowing it to absorb into the cake.

When serving, place each piece of cake on a plate and top with whipped cream.

Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1 Tbsp. oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Redi-Whip Whipping Cream

Steps:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray bottom and sides of 9x13" pan.
2.  In large bowl, combine cake mix, water, oil, vanilla, and eggs.  Mix until fully combined.  Pour into greased pan.
3.  Bake as directed on the box for a 9x13" pan.  
4.  After removing from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes.  Then poke the top of the hot cake about every 1/2 inch with a fork, wiping the fork as needed to reduce sticking.
5.  In a large bowl, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream.  Carefully pour this milk mixture over the top of the cake, allowing time for some to soak in before you pour more.
6.  Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour or until the mixture is completely absorbed into the cake.
7.  When serving, top each piece of cake with whipped cream.

Carne Asada Fries

Like I mentioned, when we go up to Orlando, we love going to a restaurant called Beto's Mexican Restaurant.  We don't go because it's the best location and best place to sit and people watch.  In fact, we only go through the drive through.  It's not the best part of town, that's for sure.  If you don't know this by driving through town, you probably know it when you drive up to the drive-thru window and see:

Yes, that's right.  They have bars on their drive-thru windows.  You've got to be safe in that part of town.  And the crazy part is I lived about 3 streets down before I got married.  Anyways, we constantly go to Beto's despite the location because their food is amazing.  Our favorite dish there is their Carne Asada Fries.  Here's a picture of these fries when gotten through the drive-thru.

We decided one day, after not going up to Orlando for a while, that we wanted carne asada fries, so I made our own version.  Theirs is still much better, but I'm sharing my version with you because it's comparable and if you're not able to get to Beto's, you might as well still try the awesome thing that is Carne Asada Fries.

First, I make my french fries.  I make them from scratch, using the recipe found in yesterday's post (http://alwaystrynewthings.blogspot.com/2014/02/baked-french-fries.html), but you can also buy frozen fries from the grocery store and use those instead.

Then I cooked my meat.  I used beef steaks, like you buy for cheese steaks.  They end up like small pieces of steak, which the Carne Asada on the fries from Beto's are small pieces.  I just followed the instructions on the box, cooking a few minutes on one side, flipping and breaking it up into pieces.

Then I made my cheese sauce, with the recipe found in Wednesday's post (http://alwaystrynewthings.blogspot.com/2014/02/cheese-sauce.html).

Then I assembled our carne asada fries.  First I put some fries on the plate.  Then I put some meat on top of the fries, followed by cheese sauce, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

Carne Asada Fries
Ingredients:
Fries (see previous post - potatoes, salt, water, oil)
Cheese Sauce (see previous post - shredded cheddar cheese, cornstarch, evaporated milk)
Angus Beef Steaks 
Salsa
Guacamole
Sour Cream

Steps:
1.  Cook fries, meat, and cheese sauce.
2.  Assemble Carne Asada Fries by layering fries, meat, cheese sauce, salsa, sour cream and guacamole.

Baked French Fries

I must be crazy.  I said this week was Hispanic recipes, but then I give a recipe for cheese sauce yesterday, and french fries today?!  That's right.  Once again, this recipe is needed to make tomorrow's main dish, but you can also enjoy eating fries in the meantime.

If desired, you can peel your potatoes before starting, but I like having a little bit of skin on my fries, I think it makes them taste a little better.  Cut your potatoes into sticks that are about 1/2" x 1/2" and long.

Boil the potatoes in water with about a teaspoon of salt for about 1 or 2 minutes.  

Drain the potatoes and then toss in a large bowl with some oil and salt.

Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until crispy on the outside and golden brown.

Baked French Fries

Ingredients:

2 potatoes

water

salt

oil

Instructions:

1.  Cut potatoes into sticks 1/2" x 1/2".  Peel if desired before cutting.

2.  Boil potato sticks for 1-2 minutes to start them softening.

3.  Drain potato sticks and toss in a bowl with some oil and extra salt if desired.

4.  Spread potato sticks on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until crispy and golden brown.

Cheese Sauce

Now this recipe may not seem like a Hispanic recipe, but it is needed to make the main dish which will be shared on Friday.  In the meantime, you can practice making this recipe by making it for some nachos, veggies, or fries.

Mix together 8 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a large bowl and then transfer into a medium saucepan.  Add 1 cup evaporated milk and 2 teaspoons hot sauce.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk until melted and thickened.  It took me about 5 minutes from start to finish.

 After a minute or so, the mixture looked a little grainy, as shown in the following picture, but it came together right with more heating.

 If desired, you can add more evaporated milk to make the sauce a little thinner.

Cheese Sauce
Ingredients:
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
12 oz. can evaporated milk

Steps:
1.  Mix together cheese and cornstarch in a large bowl.  Transfer to medium saucepan.
2.  Add evaporated milk, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until melted and thick and creamy.  Can add more evaporated milk if desired to make thinner.