All Whisked Up! {Choripán Recipe}

 {Choripán}

Our fave (1)This week’s post is extra special!

Also a little longer than normal (bear with me)….let me explain!

Recently I became a member of a blogging group called Wisconsin Whisk. It’s a group of food bloggers in the great state of Wisconsin. The main goal is to connect bloggers in Wisconsin together with each other as well as with local producers, sponsors, advertisers to really nuture a community of support. As of right now, there are close to 40 blogs that are members! The majority are located around the Madison, Wisconsin area but there is certainly an impressive footprint of Wisconsin covered, from Eau Claire all the way down to Milwaukee and everywhere in between. Here is a list of members. Check them out! And if YOU are a food blog located in Wisconsin, consider joining!cropped-banny3_1A month or so ago, we had a first sort of ‘meet and greet’ event where some of us close to Madison got together to meet each other face to face and briefly cover what the goals of Whisk are and brainstorm ideas and discuss what members wanted to see Whisk help them accomplish.

One of the things we discussed was a sort of secret santa recipe swap if you will. The idea would be that if you wanted to participate you could put your name in a virtual bucket and you would be then be assigned another blog to go and research and find a recipe of theirs you wanted to try. You would make the recipe and document and photograph in your own style. Then those participating would unveil their “secret” recipes at the same date and time! We decided to call the event, All Whisked Up!

None of us know who is assigned our blog until posts are published (that’s today!).

My ‘assignment’ was to check out Kristin over at Everyday Celebrations.

Kristin describes herself as : “A former teacher turned wife, mom of 5, and author of Everyday Celebrations. She shares recipes and tips for celebrating life’s memorable moments and everyday celebrations. Some days celebrate a certain food, idea, or activity. Sometimes a day is set aside to remember or to increase awareness of a need. Each and every day should be celebrated by spending time with family and friends enjoying whatever time we are given”

Personally I absolutely love the positivity and gratitude that is practiced through finding the good in every day and having little celebrations all the time! Not to mention my admiration for a mom of 5 finding time to blog!

While looking through Kristin’s blog one of her posts and recipes really stood out to me. Kristin had a post highlighting when she made Choripan and I couldn’t help but try to make it myself.

What the hellllllz is choripan you ask? Ohhhh, sit tight, you’re gonna want to pay attention.

Super high level: Choripan is a type of sandwich that is incredibly popular in South America, most notably Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, and a ton of others!

It’s name comes from a combination of it’s ingredients chorizo (chori) and bread (pan). It’s basically an fancy adult version of the american hot dog. Chorizo sausage grilled to perfection, split down the middle and served on crusty bread with chimichurri and pickled onions (that’s the most popular method).

Through my research I found that while most recipes you will see call for Chorizo, not all chorizo is the same. Normally when someone says Chorizo you think of mexican chorizo which has that classic red color needs to be removed from it’s casing and ends up as ground meat. But there are many different kinds of chorizo. Spanish chorizo even has many version all depending on the locale. But most notably, Brazilian and Argentinian Chorizo is made with pork sausage which is very closely related to italian sausage and has similar flavors with more heat and less fennel flavors.

I looked at every.single.type. of chorizo that was available at my grocery store and tried to pick the one that was like what’s described above. I decided to give two of them try for comparison. Both were actually very good but I would pick the Usingers brand over Klements. Probably just personal preference but I like the consistancy (less crumbly, more sturdy) and the taste (more robust) better than the other. Both were great and totally tasty though!
Our fave

flag_of_brazil_heart_sticker-rd0816af7c62d425787003e4c3b1597b1_v9w0n_8byvr_1024I have a special place in my heart for Brazil (Brasíl  ❤ ) from my travels there when I was in high school. And actually had choripan while I was there! This brought back memories for me and the chimichurri was like a walk down memory lane for my taste buds. This post and recipe was fun to make and even more fun and delicious to eat.

Kristin is keeping her recipe for her chimichurri on lock down 🙂 so we made our own version but stayed true to her vision. So without further adieu, here is our take on choripán!
20151004_164217444444 ALWAYSSUMMER (1)I pan fried my sausages
20151004_162423and made the chimichurri
20151004_163058and the pickled onions & tomatoes
20151004_163226it was such a beautiful spread I couldn’t help but snap more photos!
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20151004_162912Then you put it all together!

I slathered both sides of the bread with chimichurri and then placed the sausage on top, garnished with pickled onions and tomatoes and squished together.
20151004_16393722222And take a big bite
20151004_16432533333My favorite part was definitely the chimichurri. I actually used the leftovers a few days later on a baked chicken. Just stuffed some under the skin of the chicken and rubbed it down all over. It seriously tasted so good. You might will have some left over of this so experiment, have fun, and find another use!20151004_162630Whew! Done with pictures 🙂 This was really super delicious and Jake loved it, I loved it, so unique and flavorful. You should definitely give this recipe a try.

Also make sure to check out all the other blogs and member of Wisconsin Whisk! You can click on the little blue frog link down at the bottom to see all the other members who are participating in the recipe swap!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

xoxo

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To view all the other All Whisked Up recipes, click here:

 

*Here is the inspiration post from everydaycelebrations

Fresh 5 Minute Salsa

Fresh 5 Minute Salsa

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ohhh helllooo my fraaands.

Did anyone else have tomato overload at the end of the season? Like I ate cherry tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for about 2 weeks straight. I loved it, but just explaining the depth of my tomato haul.

After eating so many that I get a belly ache, canning and freezing…one of my favorite things to do is make SALSA!

My hubs and I eat ungodly amounts of salsa. Seriously I put it on eggs, rice, chips (duh) and way too many other things.

This salsa recipe is one of the easiest things a person can make. Cooking skill required on a scale from 1-10…

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I only say that because you need to be able to identify ingredients, other than that….easiest. thing. ever.

You need to try this out. Even if you don’t have your own tomatoes or aren’t drowning in any you need to try it.

It’s so good.

Like you know when you go to Mexican restaurants and they give you the house chips and salsa and you eat your body weight in them and then your meal comes and you can’t even look at it?

oh what? Don’t lie…you do it too.

Well this salsa is that good. So I’ll stop talking now and lets get to the good stuff!

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ALWAYSSUMMER (1)
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*drooool*

Hope you enjoy! Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend!

xoxo

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Super Simple Refrigerator Pickles

Simple Refrigerator Pickles

3HEYOOOO. It’s the weekend! This week I am sharing with you one of my FAVORITE things in the entire world.

Refrigerator pickles.

These babies are so good and fresh and crisp and all around, better than your average pickle!

1I know it’s a little late and past prime cucumber season but if you have some stragglers laying around or even save this for next year, you have to try this recipe!!

It’s a great first timer canning recipe because it really eases you into the process (i.e. you aren’t 100% true canning as these need to be refrigerated buttttt it’s a good start for newbies).
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See how easy it is?!?! And they’re so good.
I may orrrr may not have eaten an entire jar by myself over the course of a week. You’ll be hooked.
2You can cut the cucumber however you want. I’ve done all cut the long way, all cut into little rounds, and this year a mix of both!!!
4Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! We are off to a wedding today. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous!! (78 and sunny!) and then tomorrow depending how much we indulge tonight ( 😉 ) we’ll hopefully get outside and enjoy the last of this beautiful late summer weather!!
xoxo
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Arugula & Steak Salad w/ Pears, Pecans, and Gorgonzola

ARUGULA SKIRT STEAK SALAD WITH CARAMELIZED PEARS, PECANS, AND GORGONZOLA

2Holy. Moly.

This was so good. I love steak. And I love salad. Put the two together and my taste buds explode.

I love salads and a lot of time people have a notion they’re boring or flavorless.

So not the case!!! Salads are a blank canvas for you to be creative and make so many flavor combinations!

One of my favorite things is a thai steak salad. Something about it. I just love the flavor combos. I came across this idea for a completely different steak salad ans since we had just had a thai soup the week last week, it was perfect to feed my steak salad craving!

I feel like this is a well known fact by now, but Arugula is also called Rocket(Roquette) outside of the US. (WHY do we always have to be different than everyone else?)

Also if you couldn’t tell by pictures, I like my steak on the rare side. Buttttt you can make your steak however you heart desires. Steak Salad RecipeThe pears caramelizing 3The final product:
1Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog! Also check out our new weekly feature on our Instagram page called ‘Follow Friday’ where we’ll highlight a fellow blogger or creative friend who inspires us! This week is Simply Maggie Made  who makes seriously the cutest purses, bags, clutches (and other things too!) that you’ll want to buy stat. Go check her out!

Have a wonderful weekend!! And it’s that wonderful time of year where I end my posts with, GO PACK GO!

xoxo

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Thai Curry Zoodle Soup

Thai Curry Zoodle Soup

Thai-Chicken-Zoodle-Soup-5You’re probably thinking, wow that’s such a gorgeous picture! You’ve gotten so good at taking crisp, clean, beautiful pictures of your recipes!

But in full disclosure I didn’t take these pics.

Nope.

I wish. I’m working on getting better at staging my food and having more white space in my pictures, but I’m not there yet.

Carolyn at All Day I Dream About Food posted this recipe and I knew I had to make my own version of her soup. But we ate it so quick I didn’t even get to snap a picture! haha. Kidding

I made this soup and made a few small tweaks. I’m sure it wasn’t bad to begin with but I seem to be incapable of following a recipe line for line without putting my own spin on things.  🙂

This is the perfect healthy and delicious soup. I LOVE thai flavors and this is a healthy, low salt, and low sugar way to get it in my mouth PRONTO. And will Fall setting in around us, you gotta try this!

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ALWAYSSUMMER (5)So easy right? I really don’t know why I didn’t think about putting zoodles in soup before…? And with just putting the hot broth over the zoodles, they cook perfectly and you don’t end up with a mushy mess.Thai-Chicken-Zoodle-SoupAs stated before. I adapted this recipe from All Day I Dream About Food. You need to go and take a look at her website! Carolyn posts some really great stuff. Like today, she has a new post on Caramelized Onion Pizza. UMMM yes please, I can get into that.

Anyway, to ease some of my guilt on  being lazy and not taking my own pictures for this post, please go take a peak at the great work she’s doing over at her blog!

Thank you all for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I’ll “see” you next week!

xoxoxoxo

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