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!