Mexican Beef Chilli

This is a very meaty chili that is guaranteed to stick to your ribs and warm up any cold day.  It's not too spicy, but still full of Mexican flavor.  To keep with the Mexican theme, serve it with a cheese quesadilla.

Ingredients:

Chilli

3 Tablespoons olive oil
12 oz steak (something similar to a rump steak), cut into bite-size pieces
1/2-1 onion, minced
4 garlic cloves (if you don't LOVE garlic, try using 2-3), crushed
1 can mild chopped green chiles
2 Tablespoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 1/2 + cups beef stock
2 cans mixed beans (pinto, red kidney beans, and black beans), drained and rinsed
salt and black pepper, to taste
tortilla chips or strips for garnish
Monterey Jack or another Mexican melting cheese, shredded for garnish
Corn starch (optional)

Quesadilla

flour tortilla, 1 per quesadilla
shredded cheese
oil and/or nonstick cooking spray


1.  Heat the oil in a large pan over a high heat and cook the meat until golden brown.  Remove from pan with slotted spoon.

2.  Reduce heat and add onions, garlic, and chillis.  Cook 4-5 minutes, until softened.

3.  Add chilli powder and ground cumin and cook for 2 minutes.  Return meat to the pan and stir in bay leaves, tomato paste, and beef stock.  Bring to a boil.

4.  Reduce heat, cover pan, and simmer until the meat is tender.  

5.  Put a quarter of the beats into a bowl and mash them with a pastry cutter, fork, or potato masher.  Stir these beans into soup to thicken it.  Add remaining beans and simmer 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  If chilli is not thick enough by this time, then stir in a small
amount of cornstarch that has been mixed with a small amount of water.

Serve chilli in bowls, garnished with crushed tortilla chips/strips and cheese.  

If you'd like to serve it with a quesadilla, put small amounth of oil and/or cooking spray into frying pan over medium low heat.  Put flour tortilla in pan.  Next, put shredded cheese on one half of tortilla and fold the other half over, pressing down with a spatula. Flip once golden brown on one side and cook the other side until golden brown.  Remove to place and cut into triangles with scissors to serve.   

  

Chicken Pot Pie

I have one thing to say about this: Goodness GRAVY!

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

4 cups cold chicken broth

6 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup flour

2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast, cooked and cubed

1 cup frozen peas

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or pinch of dried

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 egg, beaten

pie dough for one double-crusted pie

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large saucepan, saute the onions in olive oil over medium heat until golden.  Add carrots, celery, and 2 cups of the chicken broth.  Bring to a boil.  Then, reduce to low and simmer until the vegetables are almost tender.

2.  Melt the butter in another large saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in  the flour and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes, until the flour is a light tan color.  Slowly whisk in the other 2 cups of the chicken broth.  Simmer over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and reserve.

3.  Add the vegetables and broth from the other pan and stir to combine.  Add the chicken, peas, thyme, salt and pepper.  Bring back to a simmer and cook while stirring for 5 minutes. Set aside.

4. Place one pie crust on the bottom of the pie pan.  Poor the filling onto the crust, being careful not to overfill (I had extra filling).

5.  Place the 2nd pie crust on top of the filling and crimp the edges.  Using a knife, cut a few small slits in the pie crust to vent. Brush the top with beaten egg.  Bake until crust is golden brown.  

 

Creepy Halloween Finger Cookies

Yes, I promise they're cookies.  These creepy fingers are really sugar cookies dusted with cocoa powder with almond slivers for nails. Prepare to freak some people out!

Tip:  To make your own vanilla extract, make a slit into a couple of vanilla beans and put them in a regular sized mason jar filled with vodka. All of your recipes will taste noticeably better if you use real vanilla extract instead of the artificial stuff. 

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1 large egg

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 1/2 cups flour

almond halves for nails

red frosting

cocoa powder

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until it's fluffy.  Add egg, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon and mix until just blended.

2.  Add baking powder and flour and mix dough until you can form the dough into a smooth ball without it sticking to your fingers. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.  

3.   Now, It's time to shape the dough into fingers.  Roll the dough in your hands into a long, rounded shape and gently form the knuckles by pushing the middle of the long shape together so that the knuckles are slightly bigger  Just do whatever you think makes dough look finger-shaped.  Create the knuckle scores using a toothpick or a skewer.  Then, press an almond half to the end of the finger for the nail.  

4.  Bake the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper until they are firm and you can just start to see a little bit of golden color on the bottoms of the cookies.  Cool Completely on a cooling rack.

5.  Using a small paintbrush (the kind that might be used for watercolors), lightly dust the cookies with cocoa powder to make them appear dirty and realistic.

6.  Finally, spread some red frosting onto the end of the finger cookies to make it look as if they were severed.

Time to eat....If you dare!

Shrimp Alfredo

 

 

I made this one day when my Mom didn't want to cook.  I didn't feel like frozen pizza, but didn't necessarily want to spend my whole evening in the kitchen either.  It's days like that when I find myself grateful that I wasn't too proud to put the store-bought Buitoni Alfredo sauce into the grocery cart. There is a special place in my heart for this creamy, CHEESY goodness.  I don't feel guilty one bit about using it because I can pronounce all of its ingredients, unlike the jarred stuff...SEE? 

 

  INGREDIENTS: CREAM, WATER, SKIM MILK, BUTTER (CREAM, SALT), ROMANO CHEESE ([MADE FROM COW'S MILK], CULTURED MILK, ENZYMES, SALT), PARMESAN CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), 2% OR LESS OF CORNSTARCH, RICE STARCH, SALT, SPICES.

 

 

Ingredients

 

Linguine Pasta

Shrimp, peeled and deveined

Baby Kale (you can use fresh baby spinach if you don't have kale)

Alfredo Sauce, store-bought or homemade

1+ Tablespoons minced garlic (I used the jarred stuff)

1-2 Tablespoons butter

Cayenne Pepper

Black Pepper

Dash of Olive Oil

Fresh Lemon Thyme (If you don't have lemon thyme, a squeeze of lemon juice will suffice)

Parmesan cheese, grated (Optional)

 

 

1.  Cook and strain the pasta and toss with a dash of Olive Oil to keep the noodles from sticking together.

 

2.  Heat Alfredo sauce in small saucepan on low heat and add a little cayenne, black pepper, and lemon thyme. 

    

    A little note about the lemon thyme: You don't want to be eating that woody sprig, so wash it and then remove the little leaves.



3.  In a separate skillet or saucepan, melt the butter with the garlic on medium low heat. 

 

4.  Add the shrimp and kale and season the shrimp with cayenne andlemon thyme, salting to taste.  Sautee until the shrimp are cooked.  It's easy to over cook them, so once they are no longer translucent and start to get that pretty pinkish color, take the pan off of the heat.

 

5.  Then, add the heated Alfredo sauce to the skillet with the shrimp and kale. 

 

6. Serve over the linguine and top with grated parmesan cheese (optional). 

 

 

Afterthoughts: I used a little too much cayenne for my liking, so be mindful of how much you are adding.     

 



 



Meatlover's Stromboli

Talk about an impressive presentation!  This is a recipe that won't fail your eyes nor your taste buds. Stromboli will save the day!  

Now I'm all for making bread from scratch, but this is one of the few recipes that I would recommend using store-bought frozen bread dough.  It will be so good that no one will know unless you admit it. 

You can stuff stromboli with pretty much whatever you like, but having ingredients of different sizes (ex. both sliced meats and chunks of sausage) seems to help.  Otherwise, it can seem like there's too much bread.

To save time, I recommend cooking/prepping the ingredients the day before you plan on making the stromboli. 

Ingredients
1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed and risen according to package instructions
Ranch dressing and/or marinara sauce for dipping
1 egg
provolone cheese, deli sliced
mozzarella cheese, shredded
sliced pepperonis
pancetta, deli sliced
bacon, cooked and broken into large pieces
bulk Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled
ham, deli sliced
chicken breast-marinated, pounded thin, sauteed, and then sliced

               marinade: garlic, Italian-herbed olive oil, splash of white wine, salt, pepper, oregano


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a large piece of tinfoil and place on baking sheet. The piece of foil should be long enough to fold both sides over the middle to form a tent later.

2. Place the bread dough onto the baking sheet and roll into a large rectangle.  

3. Place the toppings down the center of the dough, leaving room on the ends and sides. I usually begin with the sliced provolone and end with the shredded mozzarella.  

4. Use scissors to cut strips in the dough, as the dashed lines in the diagram indicate.  Then fold the strips over to "braid" into a loaf.  If there are any significant gaps, you can pin them with toothpicks, but be sure to remove them before you eat.

5.  Crack the egg into a bowl and gently whisk to break the yolk. Brush it onto the loaf.  This will give the stromboli a nice shine to compliment the golden color. Fold in the sides of the foil to make a tent around the stromboli and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. 

6. Open the foil and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

7. Slice and serve with ranch and/or marinara for dipping.

Hearty and Flavorful Lentil Soup

This recipe came about after I attended a German festival and had the best lentil soup I've ever had in my life.  Until then, I don't think lentil soup is something that would have come to my mind when thinking of a soup that would knock my socks off.  Maybe I'm just overly zealous about soup, but it was so delicious that I had a second bowl instead of one of those scrumptious German pastries.  If that doesn't tell you how good it was, then I don't know what will.  This is my attempt at recreating that soup and I think I got pretty darn close to the original.  The only thing that could use some tweaking is the amount of liquid in the soup because it thickens up so fast.  However, that is an easy problem to fix by just adding more stock or water whenever you notice it thickening too much.  

Note to fellow Catholics and those of you that are vegetarian-

Yes, I realize I took a dish that's both Lenten and vegetarian friendly and put both sausage and bacon in it, but that's where so much of the flavor comes from!  If you should choose to do so, you can easily accommodate your needs by leaving out the sausage and bacon (and adding more vegetables) and using olive oil instead of bacon grease.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon bacon grease (save from cooking bacon)
2 small onions, diced or minced (about 1 cup)
1 lb dry brown lentils, washed and drained
1 teaspoon dried marjoram (This is a spice that's worth buying for this recipe if you don't already have some)
6-7 + cups chicken, turkey, or veggie stock
2 stalks celery, diced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup carrots, peeled and chopped
bacon, cooked and chopped (no less than 1/2 package)
smoked sausage, sliced into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste


1. Cook the bacon in a skillet and then set aside, saving the grease.  

2. Brown the onions in 1 tablespoon of grease (use extra olive oil if you don't have enough grease).

3. Add lentils and dried marjoram to onions and cook 1 minute.

4. Add 6-7 cups of stock and bring to a slow boil.  Cook 25 minutes.

5. Add potatoes, carrots, celery and cook 35 minutes, or until potatoes and carrots are tender.

6. Add the sausage, bacon, salt and pepper and cook until sausage is heated through. Add more stock or water if the soup is too thick.

Enjoy!

 

4 Layer Lemon Cake with Raspberry Filling and White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I don't like to admit it, but I was a little intimidated when I decided to bake a cake from scratch for the first time.  Now, I realize that I shouldn't have been.  Although it took a little more time and effort, the taste of both the cake and the frosting was well worth making it from scratch.  This cake is something special.

Cake Ingredients

2 1/4 cups cake flour, plus extra for the pans
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
6 eggs whites, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract (When I make this cake again, I plan on making it more lemony by using another teaspoon of lemon extract in place of the vanilla extract)
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened

Frosting and Filling Ingredients

Enough raspberry jelly or preserves for 3 layers

6 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
4 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted


1.  When you begin the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans and line them with parchment paper.  This will keep the cake from sticking to the bottom of the pan, giving you a flat surface for stacking and frosting the cake. 

2.  Whisk the milk, egg whites, and extract(s) together in a small bowl.  Then, in a standing mixer, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds.  Increase the speed to medium-low and beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time, about 30 seconds.  Continue to beat the mixture until it resembles moist crumbs, about 1 minute.

3.  Beat in all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture, then increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth, light, and fluffy, about 1 minute.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly beat in the remaining 1/2 cup milk mixture until the batter looks slightly curdled, about 15 seconds.

4.  Give the batter another stir to make sure it's thoroughly combined and then scrape it into the pans, smoothing the tops.  Tap the pans on the counter to get the air bubbles out (If you have a different method to get the air bubble out, that's fine.  I usually end up giving the pans a small drop and a spin).

5.  Bake the cakes about 20-25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs attached.  Cool the cakes in the pans for about 10 minutes and then run a knife around the edge of the cakes before flipping them out onto a cooling rack.  Peel the parchment paper.

6.  Once the cakes have cooled completely, cut each cake in half with a serrated knife, so that you have four layers.  Spread a layer of raspberry jelly/preserves on top of one layer.  Be sure not to spread all the way to the edge because when you put another layer on top, the jelly will be pushed out to the edges. Place another layer on top and repeat the process until you have your cake completely stacked. DON'T PUT RASPBERRY JELLY ON THE TOP OF THE LAST LAYER! 

7.  Now you're ready to make the frosting and frost the cake.  Put the white chocolate in a small saucepan and melt over low heat, 4 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove the pan from the heat and let the chocolate cool.

8.  Put the cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined, 30 seconds.  Stop the mixer and add the melted chocolate and blend on low speed for 30 seconds.  Add the vanilla and confectioners' sugar and blend on low speed for 30 seconds more.  Then, increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 1 minute.

9. Frost the top and sides of the cake and finish with white chocolate shavings (Put the bar of white chocolate in the microwave for a few seconds to make it easier to shave.)I used a potato peeler.
 
The second time I used this recipe, I cut the cake recipe in half and made 12 cupcakes instead of a single cake.  I filled the cupcakes with raspberry filling and topped them off with the white chocolate cream cheese frosting and a dusting of pink sugar crystals. The consistency of the frosting was perfect for piping onto the cupcakes.