More than Salt and Pepper has moved

Hi everyone,

For some strange reason Blogger sent out notification of an old post of mine to my subscriber list. I apologize if you received it. It's an old post from a few years ago and is now irrelevant. I am working with them to address the issue as I suspect it is probably some glitch. 

On another note, I'd like to let my subscribers know that as of now "this" More than Salt and Pepper blog is going to be deactivated soon. However, it's not going away because, as I have been mentioning for some time now, it is getting a much needed update. If you'd like to follow along, (I'd love that very much) you can now visit my new website at

www.CamilaSalgado.com  

On the menu bar, you will find More Than Salt and Pepper Blog. I hope that you come by and see other creative work that I'm working on. More than Salt and pepper will continue to evolve and I'd love to continue to share it with you. 

Have a lovely week!

-Camila Salgado

Coffee, the sequel: Macchiato with Caramel Sauce

This iced macchiato looks delicious, creamy, and refreshing doesn't it? If it makes you want to reach into the screen and grab it, then my mission is accomplished. Do you remember that coffee concentrate that I showed you how to make on my last post about iced cafe au lait? If not, Click Here. This stuff is awesome. 

Goodbye Summer and hello Fall! It's still a little warm out there so it's okay to have iced coffee. As a farewell to summer and as promised, I'm going to share how I prepare my favorite coffee drink; the iced macchiato. I try to always have a bottle of this coffee concentrate in my refrigerator so that I can have iced coffee any time that I want. For cafe au laits I use French Market or Café Du Monde coffee because those coffees have chicory, but for macchiatos I use Italian or espresso roast coffee. Feel free to experiment with your favorite coffee and see what you like the best. 

Okay let me get right to it. You will need ice, coffee concentrate, cold milk, and caramel sauce. This is how you prepare it...

Put some ice in a cup



Pour some milk (about two thirds of the glass).

Slowly pour the coffee gently over the ice (about one third of the glass).

Isn't it a beautiful thing? I love how the coffee just swirls above the milk slowly staining it in caramel hues honoring its name, "macchiato", which means "marked" or "stained" in Italian. Now, all you have to do is drizzle some of your favorite caramel sauce on top.

Stir...

and enjoy

Easy isn't it? Please, I insist: Try this at home. 
Well, I'm off to some new adventures. Drop a line with any comments or feedback. It's much appreciated. Enjoy the rest of the week! 

:)

Coffee: Iced Café au lait

If I love coffee so much, why haven't I posted anything about coffee yet? Well, let me take care of that right now. I love almost anything with coffee in it. I drink coffee in all kinds of ways, but my favorite way to drink coffee is iced. Maybe I like a cold glass of java because the Houston weather is almost always cold drink-friendly. However, I have been the weirdo sipping on an iced drink on a chilly day. 

While my sweetheart and I were on the road, every square inch of our car was packed with suitcases, pots, pans, bird cage, and all so I was limited to what I could bring along. I'm probably going to raise a few eyebrows but I have a gold status Starbucks card. Yes, that's like racking up frequent flyer miles but the currency here is caffeine. Practically all of the places we were traveling to were off the beaten path so there weren't any coffee houses nearby, much less a Starbucks. I had to get creative so I came up with a way to steer our homesickness away and get our iced coffee fix without the need for any special gadgets. Yes, that was all possible with a little help from a mason jar.

The first thing I do, is prepare a cold coffee concentrate. To make this, you will need some ground coffee of your choice. In this case since I'm making an iced New Orleans style café au lait, I'm going to use some French Market coffee, or some Cafe Du Monde coffee if you have it. You will also need some cone coffee filters, a tablespoon, and a large mason jar. This one is a 16 oz jar.

Place three generous tablespoons of coffee grounds into each coffee filter. You can add more if you'd like a stronger coffee, but limit 4 spoonfuls per filter because I found that if I put too much coffee in a single filter the grounds slip out into the liquid. 

Once you have 3 or 4 spoonfuls in a filter, begin folding the top left corner and continue to make folds overlapping over the last. Repeat until you've created a sort of envelope. 

Prepare two or three coffee envelopes. Place them in the jar. Fill it with clean filtered water to the top. Twist on the cap and let it sit on your kitchen counter overnight or for about 12 hours.  

After that time has passed, it will look like this. Isn't it a dark beauty? Pull out the coffee filters and you will have a delicious coffee concentrate. Place it in the refrigerator to chill or use it right away.

Now comes the fun part. 

Get a nice cup, some ice, and pour some of that delicious coffee elixir...or concentrate. 

Then splash in some milk or half and half. 
If you want to sweeten it, you can stir in some sugar, coffee sweetener, or simple syrup.

Stir. Sip. Enjoy. 

Simple right? Now, go on and try this at home and let me know what you think. 

Want to know how I prepare an iced macchiato? I'll show you how on my next post. In the meantime, leave a comment, like, and share. 

Have a fantastic weekend!

Coffee and Beignets

Let me share something with you. I don't "like" coffee. I LOVE coffee and anything with coffee in it I have to try. The moment I started to pack my bags before heading out to New Orleans, I was already thinking of getting my hands on a cup of their famous Café au lait and a beignet. I've always heard about "Cafe Du Monde" so as soon as we reached New Orleans, we pulled into the first Cafe Du Monde drive-thru that we saw. Yep, the drive-thru and I'm not even sorry. There are several Cafe Du Monde coffee houses with drive-thrus speckled around New Orleans and Metairie. Isn't that awesome? It was a nippy morning so my piping hot cup of café au lait was like a warm hug. As for the beignets...wow! Pillowy, doughy, soft and tender on the inside. It was a divine breakfast and we had powder sugar mustaches.

The iconic Cafe Du Monde location in the French Quarter is almost always packed with long lines of people waiting to be seated. It's not necessarily a bad thing but quite the contrary. 

We wanted to spend our free time taking in the sights so Instead we opted to try something that wasn't a big touristy attraction (and I say that respectfully). I heard about "Cafe Beignet". It's a little spot in a quiet corner on the French Quarter. 

When we got there we were disappointed at first because just as we walked up to their doors they were locking up early in the evening. Luckily there was a flyer attached to their window directing visitors to their second location that stays open later on weekend nights. I'm so glad that we decided to go there because it turned out to be one memorable experience.

The last minutes of daylight were dissolving into a delicious evening. Just as we were walking in the band began to play, "When the saints go marching in". It immediately got us very excited. That was the moment that I fully savored that unique flavor that makes New Orleans so enchanting. 

We found a little bistro table for two and sat down ready to take in the festive ambiance of the young evening. While we waited for our cafe au lait and fresh beignets a pigeon hurried across the paved brick patio floor pecking at any crumbs that were left behind.

We could barely hear each other speak over the lively music but our smiles said it all. Strings of old patio lights hung above us outshining the barely visible stars. I observed grassy weeds that clung between the cracks of the aging brick facade. Far from being undesirable, they added to the charm of the place. There was a warm gentle breeze that evening that carried the robust fragrance of chicory coffee, sweet beignet dough frying inside and diffused into that distinct aroma of the old streets of New Orleans. The melody, the smells, the crowd cheering, the twinkle of lights, and sitting next to my sweetheart is a vivid image that will stay in my heart until the next time we return.

I can't say that the cafe au lait and beingets are better at one place or the other. Each has their own delicious characteristic. The beignets at Cafe Du Monde were pillowy and tender while the ones from Cafe Beignet were a little bit larger and had a little crunch to it. Both equally dusted with about a pound of white snowy sugar but equally delightful. The cafe au lait was wonderful at both places but I enjoyed the one from Cafe Du Monde much more. I found it to be richer, creamier and fuller. I couldn't decide on only one place over the other. I would have to go to both places when I return. That evening at Cafe Beignet was an unforgettable one. By the way, Cafe Beignet serves much more than coffee and beinets. They have a variety of items on their menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

With all that said, take this post as a prelude to my ode to coffee. While I was on the road I found a way to make my own iced cafe au lait on the go without any special equipment. Be on the lookout for my next post coming up soon!

Have a fantastic week everyone!

Watercress

I fondly remember the times when we would visit my maternal grandparents. They live in a heavenly place deep in the wooded hills in Mexico away from the city. My grandparents lovingly care for a bountiful orchard consisting vastly of pears, quinces, apples, peaches, plumbs, and corn among many other seasonal crops. They have few animals including cows that provide the most delicious milk and a couple of hens for eggs. I always loved staying with them for days at a time. My grandparents always knew how to make me feel safe when I was a child and they made the best out of anything. I remember being scared of the dark and it would take a bit of time to get used to not being able flip a light switch or watch television in the evenings but a wood fire would soothe my fears away. I loved being surrounded by giant pine trees and all of the beauty of mother nature in its purest form. I'm sure that's how I want to retire one day...but I'll make sure that we have wifi.

Watercress has a very special place in my heart. When I was a little girl, my grandmother would send my cousin and I to go get handfuls of watercress to make a salad. We would eagerly run to the creek nearby where wild watercress would naturally grow abundantly in the water. It was fun to hop along while trying to avoid getting our shoes wet. She taught us how to pick fresh bunches of watercress and how to rinse it in the running water in the creek to wash the soil off of the leaves. We would help her prepare it by pinching off the tender leaves into a bowl and throwing out the the tougher stems. She would mix in fresh diced tomatoes, onions, a finely minced serrano pepper before seasoning it with lime juice and a sprinkle of salt. These simple ingredients are what my memories are made of. This is the way she would prepare it. 

First, rinse the watercress and pat it dry.  Then pinch off and keep only the leaves and the tender younger stems with the tiny leaves attached to them. Those are okay to eat. Throw out the tougher, longer stems. 

Place your prepared watercress into a bowl. Then add a diced tomato,

some diced onion

...and if you like a little extra spice, (I mean, aside from the little "pepperiness" that watercress already has), add a finely diced serrano pepper, or half depending on the heat level that you like. The serrano pepper will accentuate that pleasant little bite that watercress has. 

Toss all of the ingredients to mix well and squeeze some lime juice and season with kosher salt or ground sea salt (adjust amount to your taste). The way we would serve this salad was wrapped up in a warm, tortilla...aka, a "taco".

Yes, watercress tacos. These are really, really good! Especially if you're craving a little something refreshing and light. This salad can be served as a side to compliment or top any dish but there are no rules. Do as you wish. 
I make this often because I like to scoop it up with thin tortilla chips when I'm craving a little snack (if you decide to do that, roughly chop the watercress if the leaves are too big) I love this more than guacamole. Did I just say that? 

This hydroponically grown watercress doesn't compare to that one that grew naturally in that running creek at my grandparents ranch but it's the closest thing to it. I hope that you give these a try and if you're up to it, leave a comment or send me a message and let me know what you think. Have a beautiful week!


Print Recipe: Watercress Salad

Just thinking

When I started working on this blog I never planned for it to become a food blog. I have creative bursts of energy and during those moments I need to work with my hands. It could be molding something out of clay, painting on canvas, drawing with a graphite pencil on a sketchbook, photography, 3D modeling, or working on digital graphics for hours in front of the monitor. I can't make up my mind sometimes about which one of those things I enjoy the most. Cooking is another artistic medium that luckily for my husband, it's edible art. He loves to eat the end product. 

French Macarons

Some foods trigger seasons of memories. Those of us who are privileged to have turkey during Thanksgiving, eggnog during Christmas, or champagne on anniversaries can understand how we can associate a food, a flavor, or a delicious smell to a fond memory. 

I have been mentioning that I've been experiencing a lot of changes within the last few months. I've been traveling and adjusting...mainly packing and unpacking. Hopefully before the end of this year I will be able to make an exciting announcement! It's huge for me and that would mean that I would reach a large milestone in my life. In the meantime, I wish everyone a fantastic rest of the week and look forward to my next post.

Camila  =)

From New Orleans, With Love

My sweetheart and I have contemplated a search for our next place and also about taking time to do some traveling for a while now. Well, Finally the time to bid farewell to our first little love nest is here...but before we stick the "For Sale" sign on our front lawn we have given ourselves the opportunity to hit the road and do a little traveling. It has been bittersweet and after weeks of carefully (and lovingly) packing 10 years of our life into boxes that are now stacked up high in a 10 x 10 unit, we bid farewell to our first home, our garden, our first kitchen, my dear peach tree, my lemongrass...

During the last weeks of packing, I suddenly realized that our current present would soon become part of our memories. I might or might not have teared up just a little bit, but I won't openly admit it. We haven't officially started the hunt for our next home so we decided to pack our bags and freely hit the road. His job brought us back to good ol' New Orleans where we will be for a couple of months. We came to New Orleans a little over a year ago and we were so taken by its charm and left in the hopes of a prompt return and here we are...

Well, with that said and to summarize a lot of things; "We're not in Kansas anymore"...I mean, Houston.  We're living a out of a suitcase like a couple of vagabonds in love, except we're not in Paris yet.  I have always toyed with the romantic fantasy of backpacking through Europe. Just my sweetheart and I, a light bag, and my paint tubes and brushes walking through the streets of Paris and getting lost among the Parisian street artists...((sigh)) I know. I do daydream a lot. However, in my defense, I do have quite an imagination and without it I couldn't call myself an artist. Right?