Ropa Vieja - Cuban Beef Stew

I got the original recipe from Epicurious but I altered some of the cooking times based on another recipe. I liked the idea of simmering things longer to get more flavor.



You'll start with braising the beef, which you can do the day before you plan to eat it all.

For braising beef:
3 pounds skirt or flank steak, trimmed
2 quarts water
2 carrots, chopped coarse
1 large onion, chopped coarse
2 celery ribs, chopped coarse
1 bay leaf (I just have dried pieces in a jar)
3 garlic cloves, crushed lightly (okay I used 6)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns (I just used my pepper grinder)

I couldn't find skirt or flank steak at the store, so I settled on some other thinly cut steak.


You can cut everything up coarsely, it's going to get discarded later.


Seasonings!


In a 5-quart kettle combine all braising ingredients and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until beef is tender.


Remove kettle from heat and cool meat in liquid 30 minutes.


Transfer meat to a platter. Strain braising liquid through a colander, into a bowl. Discard the solids. Return braising liquid to kettle and boil until reduced to 3 cups, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, using two forks, pull apart your meat into little pieces. All of this can be done a day ahead (which is what I did). Cool braising liquid completely and chill it and the beef separately, covered.

Now for the rest of the stew ingredients...

*2 green bell peppers, cut into 1/4-inch strips
*1 red onion, cut into 1/4-inch strips
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups braising liquid plus additional if desired
a 14- to 16-ounce can of whole tomatoes with juice, chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 garlic cloves, minced (okay, probably 6 again)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
*2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/4 inch strips
*2 yellow bell peppers, cut into 1/4 inch strips

*I am not a fan of eating bell peppers or onions, but I do understand their necessity as ingredients in preparing food. I used only 1 (instead of 2) of the green, red, and yellow bellpeppers. And in all cases of "cut into 1/4-inch strips" I actually ran them through my mini food chopper until they were super tiny, so I could avoid ever having to bite into a chunk. You obviously may chop the pieces as big or as small as you please.

SUPER TINY "MARY APPROVED" PIECES


Day 2:
Heat a pot with the oil, and add your green bell peppers, garlic, and onion and saute until softened (about 5 minutes or so).


Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, and simmer for about 8 - 10 minutes. (again, I ran my tomatoes through my mini-chopper).


Now add your meat, 2 cups braising liquid, cumin, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste and simmer, covered, for about an hour.


Add the red and yellow bell peppers, and simmer another 30 minutes. (If you want your stew to be soupier, you can add more braising liquid).

Serve over yellow saffron rice.


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Potato, Cheese, and Ale Soup

The original recipe comes from Bitchin Camaro, brought to my attention by Crepes of Wrath.



1 tbsp. olive oil (I used bacon grease muhahahaha)
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 5)
2 large Idaho potato, diced (I left the skin on…fiber!)
1 cup chicken stock
1 12. oz Ale-style beer (I used Sam Adams Summer Ale)
3/4 cup shredded cheese, plus 1/2 cup for garnish (I used cheddar and jack)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
optional garnishes:
bacon (and to use the grease)
pretzels
sour cream

The original recipe is meant to serve 2...Since I wanted more than 2 servings, I added another potato. But I guess my potatoes were extra large, because it made a huge amount. I used a little extra of each other ingredient to accommodate, but still needed to add more liquid (to keep it creamy) so I added milk as well.

Yay, making soup!


Set a large pot over medium-high heat and add the olive oil/bacon grease. Saute the onions for 5 – 7 minutes, or until soft, then add the garlic and saute for another couple of minutes.

Add the potatoes and brown them a bit.


After 8 to 10 minutes, add the stock and beer and reduce the heat to medium. Let simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or so, or until the potatoes are tender.


Use an immersion blender, regular blender or food processor to puree the soup until smooth. (Because my extra potato made so much, I had to do this in two batches). Return to the pot and reduce the heat to low.


Stir in the cheese, salt, paprika and vinegar until well-combined. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.


Ladle into bowls and garnish with your choice...my choice was bacon, sour cream, and more cheese.


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Chocolate Chip Muffins

I had a craving chocolate chip cookies, but not all the ingredients. I had also used several pans at dinner, which I didn't feel like cleaning. So instead of chocolate chip cookies, I opted for chocolate chip muffins.

Choosing muffins really only solved my limited pan problem...it didn't change my "missing ingredients" problem. But I didn't let that stop me.

I found this recipe online, from McCormick:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ cup unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Some of the ingredients


I didn't have baking powder, but I figured it would be fine with just the baking soda. I also didn't have any milk, because I don't drink milk, and therefore do not stock it. But I did have a packet of condensed milk! I understand that is not meant to be a replacement for regular milk, but I really didn't care, so I used it anyway. And why is everyone so into "semi-sweet" morsels? Why would you want semi-sweet anything? I used milk chocolate morsels because I'm an "all-in" kinda girl. We don't half-ass chocolate in this house.

Other than that I pretty much followed the same directions as the original recipe.

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease or line 12 muffins cups (or 2 mini muffin pans).

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.


In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in melted butter, milk, and vanilla.


Add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.


Here come the morsels!


Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.




Bake for 12-15 minutes (20-22 minutes for regular sized muffins), or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.




Enjoy! Preferably warm.


I don't think the lack of baking powder or use of condensed milk made the recipe any better or worse. I would probably use regular milk if I had it.

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Homemade Potato Chips

I saw a post about making homemade potato chips and decided I wanted to try it too. But I didn't feel like making the mess of frying so I decided to go the baking route. I'd had some success with baking zucchini and squash slices, so I figured it would work for potatoes too.

Really I was just excited for the opportunity to use my mandoline slicer.



It has 3 sizes! So I made slices of all three sizes.

Laid mine out on a baking rack, and sprinkled them with Tony's. (too much actually)


It occurred to me after I flipped them to spray them with olive oil. I wish I had thought of that before I flipped them, because they ended up sticking to the baking rack.


I pulled them out after about 20 minutes and managed to get most of them unstuck and flipped over with very few casualties.


Put them back in for another 5 or so minutes. They crisped up REALLY well actually. Well, the thin ones did. The thicker ones probably would need to go longer. But in the future, I'll just make the thin ones.


And like I said, a bit too much Tony's. Ended up overly peppery.


But honestly pretty impressed with the end result. Going to have to do this more often.



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Mini King Cakes

So for the unfamiliar...King Cakes are a Mardi Gras tradition. They symbolize a number of things that I'm not going to bother getting into. But the physical idea is essentially a ring of cinnamon roll with colored icing. Sometimes they have filling (cream cheese, praline, or fruit-filled are most popular). They have purple, gold, and green icing (a lot of places do the colored sugar crystals too, but I'm not a fan). There's a plastic baby inside somewhere (or these days, it's sitting on the side and you put it in yourself...to avoid lawsuits). Whoever gets the piece with the baby has to bring the next King Cake.

A king cake is just going to be cut into pieces, right? So why not just start out with individual cakes?



I start with a can of cinnamon rolls, usually it's an 8 pack (and if I've got a crowd, I start with two cans). You'll also need a can of vanilla frosting, and some food coloring.

I split each roll in two, so there are more servings...or you could argue it makes it easier to eat more of them. Just bake as directed, and then remove from the pan when they are done.


Use the tiny white icing packs that come with them, trying to divide it up evenly. (Why do they think this is enough icing?)


Take your can of frosting and divide it into three bowls. Use your food coloring to make green, yellow, and purple icing (red + blue make purple!).

You'll want to melt the icing for a few seconds in the microwave (keep an eye on it, this will take less than 30 seconds). You don't want to turn it into liquid, you just want to make it a little runnier, so you can pour it all over your cinnamon rolls. It's very easy to do this if you have a measuring cup with a pour spout.


Then take them to school/work/party and prepare to become everyone's favorite person.


If you have a little plastic baby, feel free to shove it into the bottom of one. If not, just put a sign that says they're vegetarian :D

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Pasta for Dummies - Pesto Alfredo

If you have an aversion to using pre-packaged sauces in jars, you may skip to another post.

If you want a super yummy meal that is also super easy, and did I mention super yummy? Then stay right here.

And you too can have some of this Pesto-Alfredo Chicken pasta for yourself.


An online acquaintance posted the recipe and said "make this, it'll taste like you spent hours in the kitchen".

Original recipe:
*dry pasta, any kind
*1 cup store bought pesto sauce
*1 ½ cup Alfredo sauce
*sun-dried tomatoes
*fresh cilantro
*1 cup cooked, chopped chicken breast

1. Cook pasta according to instructions.
2. Combined Alfredo sauce, pesto sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, cilantro, chicken breast. Heat and serve.

Simple enough, right? But wait, it gets better. I made it EASIER.

I omitted the sun-dried tomatoes (I'm not really into tomatoes) and the cilantro (because I didn't go to the store). I didn't even measure my sauces, I just used a jar of alfredo sauce and about 3/4 of a jar of pesto because the amounts in them were about right. (Pesto is strong, so you may decide 1/2 the jar is enough for you).

My alfredo was actually the "roasted garlic" flavor, which may have possibly improved upon this almost un-improvable meal.

OH MY GOD ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?!?! YOU EMPTY TWO JARS INTO A POT AND YOU HEAT THEM UP. HOW MUCH BETTER CAN THIS GET??

I happened to have chicken already marinating in vidalia onion dressing. I almost always have random ziplocs of chicken marinating...I keep them in the freezer, and then take them out a day or two before I want to eat them. my usual marinade is italian salad dressing, but vidalia onion sometimes wins out. So I just grilled the chicken on my George Foreman and it was AMAZING (I'm sure cooking it in a pan would have been great too).

And I cooked some penne. And then I put it all together and I ate it. Sooooo gooooooood.


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Corn Chowder

This recipe is from the February 2008 issue of Real Simple. the article is "Fast Freezer Meals" and is talking about some frozen foods you can have around to make a quick dinner. The frozen food in this case being corn.

8 oz sliced bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped (although I actually used 6 :D )
½ teaspoon smoked paprika (not sure mine was actually smoked)
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 ten oz packages frozen corn
3 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup half-and-half
salt and pepper
sliced scallions, optional (they're for decoration, I didn't use them)



Start by cooking the bacon


Isn't this the most gorgeous thing ever?


Here's the chopped onion cooking down in 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease (5-7 minutes)


Paprika, garlic, and red pepper flakes added (stir for 2 minutes)


Half and half, chicken broth, and corn added (bring to boil)


Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes


Then you transfer the soup to a blender to puree. The recipe says only transfer half, but I went ahead and pureed all of it because I have texture issues. Then return to pot and add salt and pepper (it says 1½ teaspoons, but I just used a few twists of the grinders). Serve and top with bacon (and scallions if you want).

Corn chowder weeeeee


If you're feeling more adventurous, you could try the shrimp and corn bisque.

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