‘Tis the season for travel, family, and food…and so begins my next two months. Every year I split the holidays between Ohio and Texas, the two states in which my family has landed. Texas weather is predictably warm during Thanksgiving (in mid-Western terms) so I typically choose Texas for my turkey-day destination. However, turkey-day it is NOT, which is secretly why I enjoy visiting on this foodie holiday.

Now, don’t get me wrong; every couple of years I will spend Thanksgiving in Ohio where my mother makes a turkey (slow-cooked over night) with all the fancy side-dishes dripping in butter and gravy. Heaven!  Yet, every other year, the rebel inside me yearns for unconventional food on this very conventional holiday and Texas is where to find it.

During my visit, I will gorge on beef brisket, beef barbecue, and Mexican food; the latter being one of my favorite. The diversity of Mexican restaurants is endless and we will undoubtedly visit most of them. However, since Thanksgiving is about family as well as food, my sister and I will spend the holiday in the kitchen making our own Mexican recipes. Yes, our Thanksgiving menu is an array of Mexican delights providing me the excuse to drink margaritas instead of wine. Really…does it get any better?

Given my limited Mexican recipe collection, I asked Amy Lasley, owner of Rocky Mountain Salsa, to help me. Amy provided this delicious recipe which I will no doubt be whipping up for my family:

Creamy Cheese Burritos with Rocky Mountain Salsa

• 4 chicken breasts, fat removed, sliced or diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 Tb butter
• 1 8oz block of low fat or fat free cream cheese Mix well over low heat.
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp fresh basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ¾ cup of fresh cilantro, destemmed and diced
• 1 ¾ cup of Rocky Mountain Salsa, mild or spicy
• 1 cup shredded blend of cheese
• 4 – 6 flour tortillas

1. Sauté onions until nearly translucent
2. Add chicken. Cook stirring often until chicken is done
3. If using precooked chicken just add to the cooked onions. Reduce heat
4. Add cream cheese, spices, ¼ – ½ cup Rocky Mountain Salsa ,½ cup of cheese(s) & ¼ cup cilantro. Mix well over low heat
5. Scoop mixture onto tortillas (fill to desired amount), roll up and place in a 9×13 glass baking dish
6. Cover with remaining cheddar cheese
7. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese starting to brown approx 12-15 minutes
8. Serve smothered in Rocky Mountain Salsa and sprinkled with remaining cilantro
9. Amounts of cheddar cheese, salsa & cilantro is as desired with this recipe

Happy holidays…and happy cooking to everyone. Salud!

If you’re in the market for gluten-free sauces, you’ll love Mamita Lupita’s authentic salsa!

Mamita Lupita’s Fast Facts

“Dip it, pour it, enjoy it!”

Owner: Linda Black

Selling Since: 2009

Home Base: Mission Viejo, California

Why did you start Mamita Lupita’s? How did you do it?

My background is in interior design, and in 2009 because of the economy being what it was, I decided I’ve got to do something. I had been told for a long time that our family’s salsa should be bottled. So I decided I would just give it a shot and see how far along I could get with it.

So in about March of 2009 I started working on making contact with somebody that could actually take my recipe and make it into a volume recipe. And it just so happened my son’s friend owned a company that did just that. So he kind of took me under his wing. He showed me the process, and made my recipe into a 100-gallon recipe. So that was the beginning of it.

From that point I started thinking of what we were going to call the company, and it just so happened that my daughter was taking a marketing class at Cal State Fullerton and one of their projects for that semester was going to be to establish a business, come up with all the marketing program for it, the name, do the demographics search on it, focus groups, and all of that. So they took my salsa, and within that semester came up with the name, which was Mamita Lupita’s. So I kept it. I thought it was a great name for the company because originally this recipe comes from my great-grandmother, and her name is Lupe. So they came up with Mamita Lupita.

So that just kind of got this whole thing really moving forward fast.

I came up with the logo using my mother’s picture. It’s from when she was 27, so since it was so faded we came up with an illustration for it.

Then we just started doing more research and eventually pulled the trigger in October of 2009. And that’s the beginning of Mamita Lupita’s. Now we’re in about 20 locations.

Wow, so I guess people really liked your salsa then?

Yes, and the thing about our product is in New Mexico, salsa is not like salsa is in California. California salsa is chunky, and it’s got onion and tomatoes. In New Mexico, salsa which means sauce, is more of a sauce. So one of my struggles initially was really knowing what to name this because the color looks like hot sauce. So one of the things that we had to do, even though we’re in so many stores, is just to educate the public on it because this is salsa. It’s a dipping sauce, and it’s also great to marinate pork and chicken in. So by doing that we’ve been able to be pretty successful educating people on it. And now we’re doing very well with it.

Since it’s more of a sauce, do you use salsa from New Mexico differently?

Well, they use it the same way. They dip it whether it’s with a chip or in tacos. It looks more like a hot sauce because it’s not chunky. But the use is the same.

Tell me a little more about the salsa.

The salsa is a very simple recipe basically. It’s an all-natural recipe. There are no preservatives in it. It’s made with no onion, which typically in a salsa there is onion, your typical seasonings like cumin, coriander, garlic, tomatoes, and there are two secret ingredients, but I don’t really want to tell you what they are! They are unusual ingredients for a salsa.

But it’s very simple recipe, and it’s gluten-free. There’s no oil in it. It’s all-natural, and it’s basically the same recipe my great-grandmother came up with. Some of the competitors put thickeners, artificial ingredients, and preservatives in their salsas, but we haven’t done that with our product at all. We don’t need to. The only thing we have to do is cook it. When you cook salsa to 220 degrees, it becomes a shelf stable product. That’s all we needed.

What is Fooducopia?

Our mission is simple — we connect food entrepreneurs and local farmers to customers across the country. If you’d like to discover more artisan foods filled with the heart and soul of people like Linda Black, Fooducopia is a place we think you’ll love.

Gregg and Amy Lasley know how to keep it spicy ~ with salsa, which has been a mainstay throughout their relationship.

When the couple was engaged and living in Florida, they found a local restaurant with incredible chips and salsa.   And, just like that – they were hooked!  Their love of salsa stayed with them when they moved back to Fort Collins, Colorado.  In fact, they found salsa they loved and began buying it by the gallon.  But, after a while, they were burned out and the salsa began to taste bland.

“I thought that it couldn’t be that hard to make; I was wrong,” said Amy.  She worked to perfect her recipe for about a year, with Gregg as her primary taster.  Amy and Gregg also had parties, where guests were invited to taste and vote on a variety of salsas.  After all the votes were in, they choose a winner and Amy Lasley’s low sodium salsa company, Rocky Mountain Salsa, was born.

When Amy began her business in 1991, she was more than a decade ahead of most artisan food producers. “It was easier back then, in some respects. There were fewer places to sell your product, but you were received with open arms,” recollects Amy. “There were also fewer regulations, but, the public did not understand buying local yet.”   Since she began her business in 1991, Amy has also seen an increased awareness from customers.  Customers now know that they want all-natural and gluten free salsa.

Gregg labeling salsa in Rocky Mountain Salsa's kitchen.