Cowboy Pot Roast

No need to plan a dude ranch vacation to get a taste of good old country, cowboy cooking y'all.  I love my Cowgirl Cuisine cookbook, which is where I got this recipe and only tweaked it a bit to take some of the spice out for my boyfriend with the bland palate! This is a great dish to prepare when you are working outside all day, or you have no clue when your significant other will be home, which was the case when I made this. Sure I will be home for dinner...9:00 at night and after he already ate pizza while he was out... this dish was still amazingly delicious and tender.

What you need:

4 lb bone in chuck roast- I used a boneless roast and it worked just fine!
1 TBS salt plus another 1tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 TBS Cumin
2 TBS chopped Thyme
2 TBS chopped Rosemary
2 Large onions
1 head of garlic trimmed and peeled (15ish)
1-4 Serrano Chiles.. I used 2 and it was still too hot for J so I would go with 1 or none at all
2 cups beef broth
2 TBS instant espresso powder
1 tsp paprika
2 TBS Olive Oil
2 cups canned tomatoes with juice
1/2 cup whisky
2 fresh bay leaves- I used dried
1 lb carrots sliced to approx 4 inches
1 lb fingerling potatoes

Preheat oven to 325

Let meat sit out of the fridge for about an hour before cooking.

1. Combine the salt, pepper, cumin, thyme, and rosemary in a small bowl. Massage the mixture over the
    roast
2. While the meat comes to room temp, slice onion into 8 wedges, peel and crush garlic, slice serrano chiles
     from stem to the tip, keeping one side intact .
3. Whisk together beef broth, instant espresso powder and paprika until blended
4. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven over med-high heat. When hot, add roast and brown each side until
    crusty and a deep brown on each side.
5. Remove meat, lower to medium and add onions, garlic and chiles. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring often
    until coated with beef fat and onions start to break down.
6. Add beef broth mixture, tomatoes, whiskey and bay leaes. Stir up any browned bits. Return roast to pan
    and nestle into the liquid.
7. Cover and place dutch oven in the oven. Roast for 1 hour, turn the roast and spoon liquid over the top.
     Return to the oven for another hour.
8. Add carrots and potatoes around the meat. Try to cover in as much juice as possible. And cook in the
    oven for the final hour.
9. Remove from oven and let sit uncovered for 30 minutes.
10. Remove bay leaves and serve.

I made buttermilk biscuits to go with this which was a great pairing and good for egg sandwiches the next morning!

Taken from: Cowgirl Cuisine

Cheeseburger Egg-rolls

A few years ago my brother worked at a pizza restaurant so we had pizza for dinner quite often. Some of his concoctions were fairly tame, consisting of the basic pizza toppings of pepperoni, olives, sausage etc.I'm pretty sure I drove with him to try to accomplish some last minute Marine details with the promise of him taking me to dinner when I was introduced to my favorite pizza...What does this have to do with egg-rolls you might ask... Well after coming back from washing my hands, he tells me that he ordered cheeseburger pizza.. I was less than thrilled, especially after he told me what was on it..mayo, mustard and ketchup...pickles,onions, cheese and hamburger...eww gross! I was persuaded into trying a bite and oh my goodness, I think cheeseburger pizza changed my life! It was amazing, now my favorite kind of pizza! So when I saw a recipe for cheeseburger egg-rolls in Cuisine at Home I was hoping for the same phenomenon... While I had some glitches making these for the first time they turned out amazing! Let me share that Egg-rolls are not easy to assemble and I had never fried anything in oil before, but hey I have watched Paula Dean do it plenty of times so how hard could it be? I think I even told J that this making these Egg-Rolls was not fun! But man were they delish!

• If you do make this recipe DO NOT forgo the sauce, it really makes a difference! 
• I started using 2 egg-roll wrappers instead of one, to have a longer area to roll and could add more filling.

What you need:

A large bottle of Canola Oil
1 Lb ground sirloin
1Tbs Olive Oil
1 bag shredded iceberg lettuce- I shredded my own
1/2 cup dill pickle- diced
1/2 cup onion-diced
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
2 Tbs water
15 slices American cheese
15+ egg-roll wraps

Heat Canola Oil in a large pot to 375 at medium high heat
Brown Sirloin in olive oil in a large saute pan 5 min
OFF HEAT: stir in lettuce, pickle, and onion, season with salt and pepper and stir until lettuce wilts and drain
Whisk together water and eff
Lay 2 egg roll wrappers slightly overlapping on a flat surface
I egg wash these two together before I fill
Put 1 slice of cheese in the center and spoon in 1/4 cup cheeseburger mixture
Roll and fold in the ends
Egg wash the roll to keep together
Place in batches of 3 or 4 in oil until golden brown and crispy

For the Sauce

Whisk together:
1 cup mayo
1/4 cup ketchup
3 Tbs Yellow Mustard
1/4 cup diced dill pickle
Salt/pepper to taste

If I were to make these again, I would lay them on a towel to absorb some of the extra oil and make them less greasy...also if you reheat do so in the oven. J didn't like the sogginess of microwaving them the next day!

Go To Easter Pleaser

If you are going to a holiday with my family, one thing you need to have is a great go to dish. One that you can throw together while you are doing a million other tasks at the same time. For example, this weekend I cleaned out the fridge and washed it from the inside out, cleaned the shower, vacuumed, did two loads of laundry, baked a batch of cookies and made dinner for us and our dinner and a movie guest, and got the flower beds ready for planting. The last thing I wanted to do was make a time consuming holiday dish. Pretzel Salad was something I hadn't made for a few years and I had to go find a new recipe since mine was long gone. Even though the recipe I got did not include all of the ingredients I recalled, I tried it anyways and would only make a few modifications for next time. This dish is a combination of sweet and salty and even though J thought it would be a dessert, we served it with the meal.

What you need:

 2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cups melted butter
3 TBS white sugar
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 (8 oz) container  thawed Cool Whip
2 (10oz) packages frozen strawberries
2 (3 oz) packs strawberry Jell-O
2 cups Boiling water

Crust:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Stir together crushed pretzels, 3/4 cups melted butter and 3 TBS sugar:
Press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and backe 8-10 minutes
Let cool

Filling:
In a large bowl, cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar
Fold in Cool Whip
Spread evenly into COOLED crust

Topping:
Dissolve Jello in boiling water
Stir in frozen strawberries
Let set for a few minutes until the consistency of egg whites (about 5 min)
Spread over cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until set.

 I made an extra cup of the crust to cover my dish. I would have made double both the filling and Jello Topping if I had the time to go back out to the store. A thicker layer of both would have been great. But everyone loved it, many had seconds and I have some left in the fridge for dessert tonight!

New England Native

Being a native New Englander, the only chowder I make is the hearty white New England style. I made this at the end of the summer and twice since. J requests this soup in a bread bowl for Friday dinner when he has had an especially tough week. I have tried a few variations of this recipe, and a few types of bread bowls. The recipe that I find to be the winner hands down is from the Big Y weekly magazine that they put in the bottom of the shopping baskets. I also recommend sourdough bread-bowls., or good crust italian bread.

What You Need: 

2 slices of bacon ( I use more like 4)
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 celery stalks ( I don't use because J hates celery)
2 TBS flor
1 cup clam juice ( I use reserve from the clam cans)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced small
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 cup fresh clams- I used about 4 cans of the chopped NOT DICED clams
1 cup Light Cream
1 cup water
4 drops hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste.
Bread bowls per person

• Place Bacon in a large stockpot- (I used my dutch oven) and cook over medium heat until crisp
• Add onion and celery and saute over medium low (about 5 min)
• Add flour and stir to make a paste
• Add clam juice, water, potatoes and thyme
• Increase heat and bring to a boil
• Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
• Add clams and stir in cream
• Simmer for 5 minutes, until thick and creamy
• Stir in salt, pepper and hot sauce.
• Serve in hollowed bread bowls!

Tenderizing Therapy

Today was one of those days where all went well until you walk in the door days. Let's just say that after a day of teaching fifth graders wearing gym attire because I was supposed to be the PE teacher, the news I came home to did not do much to perk me up (although the coffee coolatta that J brought me helped). Today has brought my attention back to the fact that there is no way you can please everyone, and that the only person you can make happy is yourself. But, when I set out to make chicken cordon bleu..as requested for the nights meal, had not yet found this inner piece of wisdom. So I whipped out the "meat hammer" and went to town on my poor chicken breasts! This chicken demolition was indeed gratifying and ranked right up there with a good hour at the gym. I did go too far with one chicken breast, accidentally smashing it to a pulp..oops. But after the flattened chicken was stuffed with ham and cheese, dredeged in flour, egg wash and panko bread crumbs, and after a few curses when my eggwash bowl upended and poured the sticky mixture onto the kicthen floor, I walked away from the oven (preheated to 350) for 20-30 minutes feeling much better. Another example of how a good bout in the kitchen is the best therapy I know!

 

After making this, I would make a few changes, first of all, it took longer that 30...more like 40 minutes to cook through. Also, J requested more Swiss cheese! Very tasty! But in all of my tenderizing therapy, it was pointed out to me that I forgot a vegetable..oops

Portuguese Shrimp

I tried out this recipe for New Years Eve, and again a few weeks ago. I first had this dish on Christmas Eve at the my boyfriend's aunts. Nearing 11 or 12 at night, after we were all stuffed from dinner and desserts, had played games and were almost talked out, a giant pot of spicy shrimp was put in front of us along with chunks of bread. I wasn't sure I could manage more food, but was convinced that this was "the best thing ever". Now I had already been impressed by all of these new Portuguese dishes his family had laid out, but this is by far one of the best things I have EVER eaten! A week or so later, I was looking for something special for New Years Eve, and I made a call to the head cook of his family who gave me the following recipe...

(technically called Shrimp Mozambique)

2 Lbs shrimp Raw with the shell on- very important

1 can beer ( I used Bud)

2 sticks butter

2T paprika

1 tsp salt and pepper

juice from 1/2 of a lemon

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1/2 T garlic

Tabasco to taste

4 small packages Goya seasoning (conazafern- the orange one with shrimp on the package)

In a skillet, melt 2 sticks of butter

 add the can of beer.

Place shrimp in skillet

Add all other ingredients

Cook on Medium heat for about 15 min

Turn off heat

Let shrimp sit in sauce for 1 hour to absorb.

I serve this in a deep bowl, with a side bowl for the shrimp shells and Portuguese bread which I get at the bakery in Ludlow MA. Your fingers will be orange by the end but the sauce is THE BEST part!

My Kitchen Introduction

I have loved cooking since my teen years. I was always asking to cook for my family, wanted to have dinner parties and probably drove my family crazy with the mess I always left in my wake. After moving out on my own, I found cooking to be therapeutic. I could forget my loneliness, the bad day at work, the fight I had with whomever and just focus on making something complicated and delicious. Of course cooking for yourself is not quite as rewarding as cooking for others. I made endless bowls of pastas, vegetables and always felt guilty when all I could produce was spaghetti and meatballs with those frozen meatballs I had to pull out from behind some forgotten pint of ice cream.

I then met a man and that seemed to change everything. I had someone to cook for! He loves to tell the story of how I said I loved to cook, and  then the first meal I made for him turned out to be the " worst ribs on the face of the earth. " I challenge myself not to repeat meals for him, and I must say I have done fairly well, repeating only those which he requests again. I think I made up for the ribs! Now about to enter my late twenties (ech) I find that I would rather grocery shop, plant an herb garden and create dishes in his sunny yellow kitchen than go out on the town. 

I have been inspired by a grad class in which I had to create a blog, and I began reading blogs of friends and strangers alike...stealing recipes and ideas. I wavered about making my own but  here goes nothing...