By: Joe Scrizzi

Welcome to Week 2 of Fusion & Flavors! With the upcoming Super Bowl Weekend, a lot of foods will be served around the LV, in restaurants and homes.

As I delve into combining fresh herbs, citrus’ and more into foods, I’ve been reflecting to the days when there were more family gatherings and friends hanging out. This past weekend a memory popped up in my thoughts of a very good friend: Chris Baer. Chris & I have been friends since late teens and when he got his first apartment (20 odd years ago), I was over there a lot. He & I would go to many of the local festivals around the LV and try all sorts of things. There were a few times where we tried something, like a sauce or topping on chili, tacos, etc. and asked if I could duplicate it (remember we are pre-internet kids, haha). I was always up for the challenge. This one time he had a taco with a Chili Lime Sauce drizzled on top and he liked how the flavors melded together with seasoned chicken and other toppings.

Grabbed some sour cream, fresh limes, chili powder, cumin and started to work on a new sauce. Always separate in smaller bowls as if it doesn’t work out, the whole container is not lost. Started with 3 heaping tablespoons of sour cream, 2 teaspoons chili powder, fresh limes juice from 2 lime wedges and a dash of cumin. Mixed it all up and the consistency was a bit runny, so I added more sour cream to make it squeezable. After some experimenting, this is what I came up with.

Chili Lime Crema

½ C sour cream (full fat)

1 T chili powder

Cumin, 2 dashes

Juice of ½ of a Lime

Grated Lime Zest

Mix all ingredients together and taste. If consistency is too thick add more lime juice or if it’s too tart for your liking, add little water. Dollop on top of chili, squeeze over tacos & fajita’s, slather on pulled pork sandwich, drizzle over eggs, baked potatoes, French fries & more!

Tips: If using LF or FF sour cream, it may be thin to begin with, and you will need to adjust the lime juice. Incorporating any type of acid into a creamy mixture, will break it down. So always add in small amounts and go from there until you find the consistency and taste you desire.

I used to be an avid snow skier, however for the last 5 years I haven’t been out to enjoy it. Every year around late Feb/early March the group I was part of had an end of season celebration called a Champagne Brunch in one of the parking lots (Breakfast Tailgate). Couple of my cousins were always in attendance and they were avid hunters, and always had some unique items to share. This one particular year I made a Smoked Salmon Pizza and it received accolades. The idea came to me from a brunch I was at where they served bagels, cream cheese, diced onion & tomatoes, capers and smoked salmon. Now, I’m not a huge fan of bagels, so I picked up some naan bread for my base. I diced my red onions, tomatoes and folded them directly into the cream cheese so the flavors would blend (when working outside in the cold, save as much time as you can, haha). All my prep was done ahead of time. I slathered the naan bread slices with the cream cheese, added thin slices of salmon and dotted each piece with capers. Over the years I perfected this item and created a Cream Cheese Board, where people can serve themselves. This idea quickly grew. Here are a couple of recipes that I have been making over the Holidays. Made a Cream Cheese Board for a small family gathering.

Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Board

½ block softened cream cheese

2T red onion, finely minced

1 Roma tomato, fine dice

¼ C smoked salmon, flaked/small pieces

1 T capers, non-pareil, drained

Parsley, finely chopped, garnish

Serve with mini bagels, crackers, cucumber slices, celery sticks. Can easily be doubled for full block of cream cheese.

Apple Caramel Cream Cheese Board

½ block softened cream cheese

½ Red delicious apple, seeded, small dice, coated with lemon juice to keep from browning

1 T cinnamon sugar

Orange zest, grated

Caramel/Butterscotch syrup, warmed up for drizzling

Serve with mini bagels, graham crackers, animal crackers, butter crackers (like Ritz). Can easily be doubled using full block of cream cheese.

Tips:

These cream cheese blends can be folded into a ball or served in a bowl as a spread. Just mix everything together once prepped. For the sweet version, do not add the caramel syrup until the end as a garnish. Let your mind be creative and try new things, like lemon zest as a garnish for the salmon and/or for the sweet variety.

Bon Appetite!