Cowboy Candy

A favorite of brother Don's fishing buddies, I have to make an entire batch for them to enjoy at the lake cabin and enough to take back home to Chicago. This is a hot/sweet treat, if you aren't a fan of jalapeno's heat, you may not like these.  If you are, they are a refreshing addition to potato and macaroni salad, hamburgers, and lunch meat sandwiches. Be creative!  Try them wherever a splash of heat might be good.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. sliced jalapenos (1/8"-1/4" depending on preference)

3 cups apple cider vinegar

6 cups white sugar

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

3 teaspoons granulated garlic

1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

 

Directions:

Get your water bath running and sterilize 8 pint jars. Put your lids in a separate shallow water bath to simmer. Prepare your work space for canning (trivets, funnel, metal ladle, clean towels). I leave the empty jars in the water bath while I prepare the rest.  The water should top your jars by at least 2". 

Wash jalapenos. Put on gloves. Remove the stem  and cut the jalapenos into 1/8" to 1/4" slices. Do not remove seeds or white membrane. Set aside.

Dissolve sugar, tumeric, celery seed, garlic, and cayenne pepper in the apple cider vinegar and in large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

While the syrup is heating, remove the sterilized jars from the water bath and make sure your work station is ready for loading.  

Add jalapenos to the pot and return to a boil. Boil for 4 minute
s. Remove from the heat and load peppers into sterilized canning jars.  I prefer pint jars. Really pack them in. 

Ladle hot syrup into the loaded jars to within 1/4" of the rim.  Using a metal chop stick or knife, push down on the peppers to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rim of the jar with a slightly moistened paper towel to remove any syrup on the rim. 

Place a can sealing lid atop each jar and tighten the bands finger tight. 

Put them back in your water bath and bring to a boil.  Process at a full boil for 10 minutes. Remove from the water bath and place on either a thick towel or a cooling tray. Allow to "cure" for about a week.  They'll develop their best color and flavor in that time.  They are however, good to eat immediately.  They may just not be as hot. 

Easy Homemade Taco Seasoning and Daktari's American Tacos

You know the drill.  Taco Tuesdays and you're half way through browning the meat when you realize you don't have any taco seasoning.  If there is anything I've learned since turning 50 it is that I am absolutely certain I have the ingredients in my spice cabinet to make any seasoning mix that can be bought in the store.

Have you SEEN my spice shelf?  5 tiers of awesome Penzey's goodness.

So with a little internet investigation, I pieced together a recipe that I think is just right for my homemade tacos.  A couple of notes before we begin.  This recipe calls for sea salt.  Sea salt does not equal granulated table salt.  So if you intend to use granulated salt, I'd use about half the listed amount.  The dominant flavor profile here is going to be chili powder.  If you prefer your tacos to taste a little more like cumin, you might tweak those amounts.  The crushed red pepper gives it a bite, but I usually use VERY HOT crushed red pepper from Penzeys.  Again, try it and if you want more of a kick, toss in a few more flakes.

I hope you like this.  I found it quick, easy, and a lot cheaper and easier than a special trip to the store for taco seasoning mix.

Very Easy Homemade Taco Seasoning

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 beef bullion cube (or 1 teaspoon beef bullion crystals)
1.5 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon sea salt (or 0.5 teaspoon granulated salt)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
0.5 teaspoon paprika
0.25 teaspoon oregano
0.25 teaspoon garlic powder
0.25 teaspoon onion powder
0.25 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons masa

Mix thoroughly. This can be made up ahead of time. When I do it, I leave out the bullion cube and the masa and add those in as I cook.

Liz's American Tacos

1.5 lb ground beef
1 onion (small dice)
1/2 can of your favorite refried beans
Taco Seasoning mix (all of the portion made above)
1/2 cup water
Your favorite salsa (or this restaurant-style salsa)
diced onions
diced tomatoes
sliced pickled jalapenos
cheddar or pepper jack cheese
sour cream
cilantro (for garnish)

To make tacos using this seasoning mix, add 1/2 teaspoon olive oil to a skillet with 1 finely diced onion.

Crumble ground beef over onions and heat until browned.  Drain fat.  Return meat and onion mixture to pan.  Add seasoning and 1/2 cup of water.  Mix thoroughly.  Stir constantly until liquid has turned thick.

Purists can stop here and plate up your tacos.  But for a little something something, add 1/2 can of refried beans to the meat mixture.

You can add a small amount of water here to facilitate mixing, but it is not necessary.  Simmer over very low heat until beans have incorporated.

Heat your favorite taco shells.  (I prefer El Milagro corn tortillas.)

Place one scoop of taco filling into a heated corn tortilla.  Top with your favorite taco toppings.  I prefer a salad mix that is primarily cabbage and homemade salsa, tomatoes, fresh onion, pickled jalapenos, and garnished with cilantro. The lactose tolerant might also enjoy cheese and sour cream.

Let me know what you think!

Venison Chili

I was gifted 3 lbs of ground venison from a student.  Turns out that we were having a chili cook off in my wing of the building, so what better way to spread the love of game meats?  Knowing that venison hasn't a lot of fat in it, I knew pork would have to be added.  Other than that, this is entirely a riff I made up on the fly.  If early tastes are any indication, this one is going to make them sweat.

Here we go.

Ingredients:

6 strips of bacon, fat rendered, bacon removed

2 lbs. ground venison

0.5 lbs. ground pork sausage

1 large yellow onion, diced

3+ tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1/2 bottle Schalfly's coffee stout

2 cans (small) Rotel tomatoes and peppers (Original) 10 oz?

1 large can Brook's chili beans (mild) 29 oz.?

16 oz. Hunt's tomato sauce

Directions:

In a large cast iron skillet, cook the bacon over low heat until crisp.  Retain fat, remove bacon and set aside.  Saute onion in bacon fat until translucent, about 3 mins.  Brown venison and pork with onion until brown.  Do not drain.  Add chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and mix well.  Move mixture to slow cooker.  Add 1/2 bottle of beer, Rotel, chili beans, and tomato sauce.  Cook over low for 8-10 hours.

Cowboy Kick in the Spurs

I don't know about your garden, but the weather has been awfully kind to my peppers this year.  I've got a bumper crop of banana peppers and jalapenos, which is to be expected, but I also have for the first time ever...plentiful bell peppers, pasillas, cayennes, Peter peppers, seranos and Thai red chilis.  The only peppers that aren't doing tremendously are the pepperocinis and I think that's because they get shaded for about 4 hours during the day.  Otherwise, it's been a super year for peppers. 

Just what do you do with all of them?  I put up 4 pints of pickled banana peppers, and I'm trading some, but I am still overrun with jalapenos.  So I decided to amke some of that delicious hot jalapeno jam that warms things up during the cold winter months ahead.  This jame will not set to a jelly-like consistency, but is meant to be pourable and served as a condiment.  If you want your mam more firmly set, add more pectin.  This is delicious over a brick of cream cheese and served with crackers or crudites.

Ingredients:

1 lb green or red bell peppers, washed and seeded

3/4 lb jalapenos, washed, stems removed

6 cups sugar

1 1/4 c apple cider vinegar

1/4 c lemon juice

1 t kosher salt

3 oz. liquid pectin

Directions:

Wash and remove seeds from bell peppers.  Wash and remove stems from jalapenos.  Put both in a food processor and pulse into a fine dice.  Place in a large, non-reactive pot and combine with sugar, vinegar, lemon juice and salt.   Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Return to a boil and add the liquid pectin.  Bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute.  Ladle into sterilized pint jars.  Wipe down the rims with a clean cloth dipped in boiling water.  Place prepared lids and bands on the jars and process in a boiling water bath 10 minutes.  Remove from water bath and allow to cool on the counter for 24 hours.  Turn jars periodically to ensure that peppers are distributed throughout the jam as it cools.  If, after 24 hours, any lids have not sealed, put them in the refrigerator and use them promptly.  

Amount of jam will depend on the water content of your peppers.  This recipe should make about 8 pints of jam.  Mine made 9.  I just put the ninth in a clean jar and straight into the fridge for immediate use.  Looking forward to this.

Beef Bourguignon

Wow. This was a lot of work. But the sauce is so worth it. I followed the recipe published by Macheesmo. Since I've given you the link, I'm not going to the trouble of re-posting the recipe myself. I did make some modifications as I couldn't find pearl onions despite trying three different grocery stores. Not frozen. Not canned. Not fresh. I also used a rump roast instead of a chuck roast, but beware. I'll clue you in on why you might not want to do that.

I started the meat on to braise and while things were heating up in the pan over by the stove, I got to chopping. All in all, not too much prep involved in that. What we have here is onions, carrot, garlic, and parsley.




The meat had to brown on four sides.

Then you just dump it in your dutch oven.

Now you get the aromatics going in all that fat and butter. Add a little tomato sauce and it really starts to smell wonderful.

Deglaze the pan with a half cup of brandy and add that to the beef in the pot.

Then you add the better part of a bottle of wine and just enough beef broth to cover the meat. Throw in your parsley, some thyme, a few cloves of, well, cloves, couple of bay leaves and let it simmer for an hour.

After an hour, it starts to look like this.


You add some chunks of carrot and let it simmer for another hour. At this point, I sauteed some button mushrooms and because I couldn't find any pearl onions, I skipped that part.


And here it is. This sauce is beyond wonderful. It is every thing that was promised in a 3-hour sauce and then some. Only there was one problem. The beef was dry. Not just a little dry. Like, holy moly, did my mother cook this thing? In any event, I think it was the cut of meat. I had a rump roast and I think I should have used a chuck roast, a cheaper piece of meat. I think cooking some pieces of meat that long works and with others it just dries them out. The rump roast I used was one of the latter.

So I'm thinking I'll just save this sauce--maybe freeze it-- and when summer comes and I have a taste for a steak, I'm ready to go. Or maybe I'll just warm this sauce up in the microwave and drink it from a coffee mug to warm me up.

Really. It's that good.

Oh, Weight Watchers PointsPlus:  14 per cup.  Don't even think about it.

Senegalese Peanut Stew (Vegetarian)

OMG. Stop what you are doing right now and go to the grocery if you have to because you have GOT to have this chowder and like NOW.

Fat-free Curry Salad Dressing

Yes Olivia, this is the recipe.

Hands down, my favorite salad dressing. Unlike store-bought dressings, this doesn't languish in the door of my fridge until well past its expiration date. No, this has to be made fresh a LOT because once made, I suddenly have an irrepressible urge to have lots and lots of salad.

*Shamelessly stolen from an Allrecipes post, but in my defense, I have adopted this to many more uses than just topping salads.

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Salt, pepper to taste

This is terrific on romaine, spinach, or Boston bibb. My favorite use of this salad dressing is as a base for a curry chicken pizza.

Serving size: 1 tablespoon
Number of servings:  I'm going to say about 8?
KCal:  81
Fat: 1g  Saturated fat: 0g
Carbs: 18g  Dietary fiber: 2g (not sure I believe this)
Protein: 1g (or this!)
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 2