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Posted on by Hailey Matesic Posted in Side Dish
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Simple Black Bean Salad for an Easy Side Dish

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Whenever we’re hosting friends or family, I am always super focused on the side dishes. I think it’s what makes the meal really interesting, both visually and flavor-wise, and to be honest, surround me with 5 different salads and I’m a happy camper.

So I’m sharing this with you, but it’s definitely a non-recipe recipe. Measure with your heart, flavor it to your liking! It’s a really lovely salad and makes the table so colorful!

I grilled the corn inside over medium heat and then just sliced the charred kernels off. Added two cans of black beans, a bunch of quartered grape tomatoes, red onion, pickled red onion, cojita, cilantro, lime juice, elote seasoning and scallions, with a dash of red wine vinegar and olive oil and lots of salt. Avocado would be another great addition!

Non-Recipe Recipe for Black Bean Salad

We're measuring with our hearts and flavoring with taste buds on this one!
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Equipment

  • grill or grill pan

Ingredients
  

  • 2 ears of corn, charred
  • 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1-2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
  • 2 scallions, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 c cojita, crumbled
  • 1/8 c sliced pickled onions
  • 1/8 c diced red onion
  • 1/8 c cilantro (leave it out if you don't like it!)
  • 2 limes, juiced
  • 1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp elote seasoning
  • salt, pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Combine all ingredients and taste for seasoning and lime juice; adjust accordingly.
  • Garnish with more charred corn, cojita, pickled onions and cilantro (if using).
Posted on by Hailey Matesic Posted in Appetizer
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How to Upgrade Store Bought Guacamole

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Store bought is always fine! But sometimes, we can make it a little better. Guacamole is definitely one of those, especially when you can’t get your hands on enough ripe avocados to make it all from scratch yourself.

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First, you’ll start with your store bought base; then you’ll mash up some just ripe avocados (also fully ripe, totally fine). To that, you add salt, chopped tomatoes, red onion, cilantro (if you like it, if you don’t just skip it), and lime juice. Stir it all together and then add that to your store bought guac. Mix it all together!

And then we dress it up! I added some chopped onion, pickled onion, cilantro, charred corn and cojita to the top. It was SUCH a hit!

How to Dress Up Store Bought Guacamole

Print Recipe
Course Appetizer

Ingredients
  

  • 2 just ripe or ripe avocados
  • 1/4 c chopped tomatoes
  • 1/8 c chopped red onion
  • 1/8 c chopped cilantro leave it out if you don't like it!
  • 1/2 lime, juiced
  • salt, to taste
  • 1 container of store bought guacamole
  • for optional garnish: chopped tomatoes, cilantro, pickled onions, cojita, charred corn, more salt

Instructions
 

  • Combine all your ingredients in a medium bowl with your store bought guacamole. Adjust for salt and lime juice.
  • Add optional garnishes and serve!
Posted on by Hailey Matesic Posted in Appetizer
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Pan Con Tomate for a Quick and Easy Appetizer Idea

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Of all the things I put together for our little cinco de mayo dinner party this weekend, the pan con tomate was one of the favorites! For good reason – the bread is perfectly crunchy without hurting your mouth, the tomatoes are bringing in tomato season, and salty, savory, the olive oil is velvety. Highly recommend. We may or may not have had these two days in a row!

It’s pretty simple to make. I recommend making the tomato mixture ahead and letting it hang out in the fridge for a few hours. Bring it to room temp before serving. You can also make it and enjoy right away, but those flavors really do develop after a bit of time.

I always laugh when Ina says “use the good olive oil!” – like, why are we contemplating anything other than good olive oil? But truly in a simple dish like this, a good quality olive oil is important. I’m a big fan of Graza Drizzle finishing oil – the price is solid and the quality is really wonderful – very flavorful. I get mine at Whole Foods!

Pan con Tomate

Perfect idea for a quick and easy appetizer or side dish.
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Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Appetizer
Servings 12 toasts

Ingredients
  

Toasts

  • 12 slices ciabatta bread, about 1" thick
  • 6 tbsp butter (or more based on your preference)
  • salt, to taste

Tomato Mixture

  • 1 large beefsteak tomato
  • 1 large clove of garlic
  • 1-2 tbsp salt, or more, to taste
  • 1 pinch pepper, or more, to taste
  • 1 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish (optional)
  • finishing salt, like maldon, for garnish, optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with foil and oil spray.
  • Slice ciabatta and spread 1/2 tbsp of butter on each side (or more. to be honest, I just eyeballed it all).
  • Pop bread into the oven for about 20 minutes, or until bread reaches desired color (I wanted to get that rich, golden color throughout the whole toast).
  • While the bread is in the oven, slice the bottom of your tomato and grate it against a box grater into a bowl.
  • Once done, microplane one large garlic clove into the mixture.
  • Add the olive oil, salt, pepper and stir well to combine. Taste for salt and pepper.
  • Top each piece of bread with about a tbsp of the tomato mixture, top with some crunchy salt and a little more olive oil for garnish.
  • See notes about making this ahead.

Notes

If you want to make this ahead, assemble the tomato mixture the day or a few hours before and cover and place in the fridge. The tomato mixture gets more flavorful the longer it sits. 
You’ll want your tomato mixture to be room temperature, so remove from the fridge when you start heating up the bread. Once the bread is done, top with your now room-temp tomato mixture and a dash more olive oil. Enjoy! 
Posted on by Hailey Matesic Posted in Entertaining, Recipes
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Light, Refreshing and Skinny Grapefruit Margarita

Okay, if you are a mixologist, you might just want to leave now. I’m calling this drink a margarita because there’s tequila involved and it pairs so nicely with my fish tacos I’m dishing out for our cinco de mayo party this weekend.

The grapefruits were so fragrant at the market, I couldn’t resist. As soon as I caught the scent walking past them I knew they would be perfect with some tequila and seltzer. Is this an actual margarita? To me it just needs tequila to be called as such!

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Posted on by Hailey Matesic Posted in Recipes
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Homemade Flour Tortilla Recipe for a Cinco de Mayo Dinner Party

A good taco recipe can be elevated to a great taco with a homemade, from scratch, worth every second of effort, tortilla recipe!

This easy tortilla recipe comes together with just a few ingredients, and following just a few steps that I promise anyone can do, you’ll have fresh tortillas in about 15 minutes.

A stand mixer is all you need – but it will also work if you mix by hand! I swear, just a little scoop of guacamole is really all you need. They’re so soft, and fresh, and just all around heavenly. It takes you from taco night to TACO PARTY!

 

Fresh Homemade Flour Tortilla Recipe

Yield: About 16 tortillas | Time: ~30 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups unbleached flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup olive oil/vegetable oil

 

Directions

  1. Combine dry ingredients in stand mixer fitted with dough hook.
  2. Put stand mixer on low speed to mix dry ingredients together briefly.
  3. While the stand mixer is on a low speed, slowly add water and oil. Increase the speed to a medium-to-high setting.
  4. Once the dough turns into a ball, slow the speed until most of the dough is a ball on the dough hook.
  5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface.
  6. Roll the tortilla dough out to about .75  inch thick.
  7. Cut dough into 16 even pieces.
  8. Roll the dough into balls (like a meatball!); place onto a tray or cookie sheet and gently press down. Do this with all of the 16 pieces of dough.
  9. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rest for at least 15 minutes, or up to 2 hours.
  10. Heat a skillet until it is very very hot – you want the tortillas to cook up quickly!
  11. Roll each tortilla ball until it is very thin, or use a tortilla press!
  12. Heat each side of each rolled out tortilla for about 10-15 seconds.
  13. Cover the tortillas in a stack as they come off the skillet!
  14. Enjoy with your favorite tacos!

Stay tuned the rest of the week for the perfect taco and margarita pairings for cinco de mayo!