Homemade Chips and Salsa

One of our favorite snacks in the Boroff house is chips and salsa. Recently, I started making my own salsas and baked tortilla chips. Not only are they both easy to make, they are so much healthier and cheaper than store bought goodies. I thought I'd share the recipes. Enjoy!

Roasted Salsa

15 Roma Tomatoes, cut in thirds ( or however many you have on hand- I never count)

1 Jalapeno, cut off stem

1 Pasilla Pepper, cut off stem

1 Sweet Onion (I like Hawaiian Sweet or Vidalia), quartered

4 cloves of Garlic

1 bunch Cilantro, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Olive Oil

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place tomatoes, Jalapeno (whole), Pasilla Pepper (whole), Garlic cloves and onions on a foil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with a drizzle of olive oil. Roast in the oven for about 25 minutes **I am horrible about setting a timer. I usually just keep checking them until they're "done", which is when the veggies have slightly browned and the tomatoes have "popped".

After roasting, take the veggies out and let them cool for about 10 minutes. Then pop everything into a blender, add chopped cilantro sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper, and add a tbsp. of Olive Oil. Puree in blender until the salsa is at the desired consistency. Pour into a new container, and chill for several hours.

This is the basic recipe. You can adjust the peppers to meet your heat preference ( I like my salsa spicy). I love working with different peppers, and luckily my local grocery stores have a wide variety for me to choose from. You can also add roasted red and green bell peppers, corn and black beans to the salsa to jazz it up a little bit. So easy and so delicious!

Baked Tortilla Chips

small round corn tortillas (use as many as you like), cut into strips

Canola Oil Spray

Salt and Pepper

Turn on your oven to the broil setting. Spray a foil lined baking sheet with Canola Oil. Spread the tortilla strips on the sheet, then spray with with more Canola Oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place the baking sheet into the oven an broil for several minutes on each side. Remove them from the oven when they have browned on the edges. Season with a little more salt and pepper (garlic salt is also tasty, as well as chili powder for an added kick)

***As I said before, I never time ANYTHING. Just keep an eye on the chips because depending on your broiler, the tortillas can go from golden to burnt very quickly.

ENJOY!!!

Our 5th Anniversary Trip

On July 24th, Jerome and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that it has already been 5 years since we said "I do"! To commemorate the special day, we took our annual vacation to the Four Seasons Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona. We spent 3 nights there, soaking up the sun, visiting new places, enjoying delicious food and drinks, and relaxing together. It was a wonderful getaway, and we're already looking forward to next year's trip. Here is a recap in photos of the trip:

After an easy 6 hour drive, we made it to our destination! This is by far our favorite hotel, and we were eager to start our vacation of relaxation!

Here we are, finally in the pool! We were pretty much the only people there, besides a couple small families, including the lovely little girl in the background of our picture. The weather was perfect for swimming and laying out! We couldn't have asked for better!

Jerome spent most of the next 3 days in this exact spot. His idea of heaven!

One of our favorite things about the Four Seasons is there chips and salsa. It is absolutely some of the best salsa we have ever had. I would buy it in bulk if they sold it in jars. We also had some delicious drinks, including my new favorite: the "Los Angeles", which was a mix of Absolut L.A Vodka (I'd never even heard of this vodka before), muddled blueberries, soda and a lime. It was amazing! It was light and refreshing, and you couldn't taste the alcohol!

The Four Seasons sent us house made truffles and a bottle of champagne to toast our 5th anniversary! Yet another reason why their service is second to none!

We always see and array of lizards on the resort property, but this time we were graced with the presence of frogs. They were so cool!

I get really hot at night when I sleep. At home, I must have a fan blowing directly on me at all times, otherwise I just cant seem to sleep. To combat this problem, Jerome and I moved the hotel bed so it would be directly under the ceiling fan and in direct view of the a/c vent.

It worked wonders!

On our actual anniversary, we spent took a day trip to Prescott and Jerome, Arizona. Prescott was only a little over an hour away. The ride was very picturesque, despite the giant crack in my wind shield that resulted from a combination of a rock that hit the window on the freeway and the 100+ degree heat, which caused the little chip to turn into a giant crack. We didn't really know what to expect in Prescott, but I'm happy to report it was a cute little town with lots of antique shops and a cute town square. It was definitely right up Jerome's parent's alley (they love antique shopping).

Here is a picture of Jerome in front of a statue in the town square.

Here is me in front of the courthouse in Prescott.

Another hour down the road, we made it to the town of Jerome. As a kid, Jerome and his family had come here when his Grandmother Hannon was living in nearby Chino Valley. We had been planning to come check it out on every trip we've made to Arizona, but never did. This trip, we decided we would go ahead and make the journey. The town of Jerome is actually an old mining town on the side of Mingus Mountain. It is literally "falling" off the side of the mountain. There isn't much to see there, but we enjoyed the spectacle of everything being named Jerome, especially since it's a name you don't often see!

Here's Jerome in front of the post office.

This sign definitely sums both Jerome's (the town and the Boroff).

Here we are on our patio, about to head out on our anniversary date.

We're enjoying our delicious dinner at Fleming's Prime Steak House. We go there every year, but this year the service and food was by far the best! We had a fabulous time!

Here I am, enjoying the summer sun! Pure bliss!

The summer monsoon season has begun! Although the skies looked ominous at times, we barely got any storms during our stay. This is nothing compared to last year's "storm of the century" we encountered. Never the less, it makes for a beautiful sky!

A gorgeous sunset on our last night! We love the views and look forward to seeing them again soon!

We're back online!

Sorry for the absence of blogs over the past few weeks. Our beloved, yet dated (we got it when Jerome graduated from CSULB back in '03), mac computer crashed a few weeks ago, leaving us without proper computer access. I'm happy to report that we got our new system last night: a 24 inch liquid crystal monitor , 2.66 GHZ, 4 GB hard drive Mac. It's beautiful!!!!!!! The screen is so clear, it's unbelievable, and the system is so fast. I can't believe we didn't get a new one sooner! Besides the fact that Jerome only works on a Mac for his designing, MAC also offers an excellent discount program for teachers. It saved us a ton of money! They even offered me a free ipod touch or printer (you buy them and then get the rebate), but we did not need either one. If anyone out there does need either of those things, let me know and I can get them for you. I have up to 14 days to get the offer.

Our new computer!

During these past it became clear how much you rely on the computer. I am always researching things (shopping, restaurants, trips, news stories, new music, recipes, etc), especially during the summer when I have plenty of time on my hands. Although we have Internet access on my Blackberry and Jerome's iphone, nothing beats the good ole' computer!! Now that we've got our new system going, I promise to update the blog. We've had lots going on, so I hope you enjoy the recaps.