December 24, 2011: New Mexican Chalupas Recipe

Here’s another perfect winter dish that feeds a lot of people and fills them up quickly. The best part about this recipe is that you can throw the ingredients together in the morning and let it cook all day long, until the meat and beans are melt-in-your-mouth tender. Served with a salad and flour tortillas, it’s a complete meal with little fuss and muss.

Chalupas

One 3-pound pork roast (any variety; even tough cuts become tender)

1 T. vegetable oil

1 small white or yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t. oregano

1 T. ground cumin

1 t. salt

1 16-ounce can tomatoes

2 14-ounce cans chicken broth

2 small cans green chiles (or 1 cup fresh/frozen chiles, diced)

1 pound dry pinto beans, rinsed

¼ t. powdered red chile

6 quarts water

Shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, chopped green onions, black olives and salsa for garnish (any or all optional)

Trim and discard excess fat from pork. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven to medium; add pork and brown on all sides. Add onion and garlic and sauté for a couple minutes. Add remaining ingredients (up to garnishes). Bring to a boil then cover, reduce heat and simmer for 3 to 6 hours, stirring often (you can also placed the covered pot in a low oven for the same amount of time).

Before serving, remove pork roast and shred into bite-size pieces. Return to pot. Spoon pork mixture onto tostada shells and top with garnishes, or serve with flour tortillas or corn chips on the side.

Serves 12 – 16

December 14, 2011: Beef Stew 2 Recipe

During the winter months, soups and stews are some of our favorite family meals. Not only are they economical and easy to prepare, they’re hot and hearty and perfect for a cold winter night, along with fresh-from-the-oven biscuits or rolls.

This is a variation on the beef stew recipe I shared earlier this year that uses Lipton onion soup mix. The spices are different and it has a very unique flavor – but one I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

Spicy Beef Stew

1 T. vegetable oil

1 pound beef for stew (try a tough steak, such as top sirloin), cut into chunks

1 small white onion, cut into chunks

1 cup baby carrots, cut into thick, diagonal slices

1 cup chopped celery (use the heart and bottom half of the stalks thinly sliced)

2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

¼ cup ketchup

1 14-ounce can beef broth

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup dry red wine

1 bay leaf

1 cardamom pod

¼ t. ground cinnamon

½ t. thyme

½ t. freshly ground black pepper

1 t. sea salt

In a Dutch oven, heat the oil to medium. Add the chunks of beef and brown on all sides. Add vegetables and cook five more minutes; turn off heat. Add remaining ingredients. Cover Dutch oven and transfer to a low (225 degrees) oven. Bake for 4 – 5 hours, until vegetables are tender and sauce thickens. Remove bay leaf and cardamom pod before serving.

Serves 4

November 6, 2011: Oriental Garlic Roasted Chicken Recipe

I know I’ve included a lot of chicken recipes on this blog, but can you really ever have too many? Chicken is, and continues to be, one of the favorite meal mainstays of the typical American diet and with today’s exorbitant beef prices, it’s no wonder. And with the cooler weather, it warms up the kitchen to roast a meal in the oven.

For this recipe, you’ll use the spice packet from a package of ramen noodles, so you might want to make a ramen side dish to go along with it. If not, just remember to save the spice packets when you use ramen noodles for a recipe at a different time.

Oriental Garlic Chicken served with easy fried rice, roasted onions and snow peas.

Oriental Garlic Roasted Chicken

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. soy sauce

2 t. vegetable oil

1 ½ t. minced ginger

½ cup + 1 t. chicken broth

1 seasoning packet from ramen noodles, chicken or Oriental flavor

1 medium yellow or white onion, cut into thick chunks

 1 3 – 4 pound chicken, skin-on and cut into pieces

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Wash chicken and pat dry. Combine garlic, soy sauce, oil, ginger, 1 t. chicken broth, and seasoning packet. Gently separate skin from meat on each piece of chicken. Using your fingers, rub garlic mixture under and over skin.

Spray a roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place the onion slices in the bottom. Place roasting rack on top; arrange chicken pieces on rack. Pour remaining half cup of chicken broth in bottom of pan.

Roast in oven approximately one hour, or until all juices run clear. If desired, thicken sauce in bottom of pan. To serve, pour pan juices over chicken.

Serves 4

Note: Feel free to add another vegetable to the onions in the bottom of the roasting pan. I added snow peas during the last 15 minutes of cooking.

October 31, 2011: Canadian Cheese Soup Recipe

Happy Halloween! Are you dressing up this year? Do you have kids you’ll be taking out trick or treating tonight? Stay safe and have fun!

If you’re planning a special menu for the ghouls and goblins in your life and want a black and orange food theme, try making this soup which fulfills the orange part of your menu. You might want to serve it with black olives and black grapes (which are on sale at Safeway today).

Canadian Cheese Soup

2 T. butter

½ cup finely chopped carrots

¼ cup finely chopped celery

¼ cup finely chopped onion

¼ cup flour

2 cups milk

1 ½ cups chicken broth

Dash paprika

Salt and pepper

1 ½ cups shredded American cheese

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add vegetables and sauté until tender. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute to ensure it’s well incorporated. Slowly stir in milk and chicken broth. Add paprika and salt and pepper to taste. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Stir in the cheese and continue stirring until melted. Do not boil.

Serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a main dish.

October 30, 2011: Dinner in a Pumpkin Recipe

I’m in Mesa visiting my grandson and his family this weekend while they host a Halloween party. As their occasional “resident chef” I wanted to make something that would be truly memorable. I found this recipe online and with a few little Candy tweaks, found it to be the perfect dish for a potluck party. It would also be a great presentation for a Thanksgiving dinner. Try it and let me know what you think!

Dinner in a Pumpkin

1 large pumpkin (measure your oven if you want to double this recipe and use a really big pumpkin), top cut straight off and seeds scooped out

2 T. brown sugar

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

1 ½ lb. ground beef

1 lb. bulk pork sausage

1 yellow onion, finely minced (optional)

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

2 cans beef stock

1 package long grain and wild rice (such as Uncle Ben’s)

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 small cans mushrooms stems and pieces (optional)

2 cans French cut green beans

Mix together brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice; rub on inside of pumpkin.

Cook meat over medium heat in large skillet, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in chicken stock and rice. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until rice is done.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix remaining ingredients with meat/rice mixture. Spoon into prepared pumpkin, replace top. Place pumpkin on a baking sheet and bake at least 2 hours, until pumpkin is tender. To serve, scoop out filling along with pieces of pumpkin.

October 28, 2011: Macaroni Timbales Recipe

Have you ever had a timbale? This is a recipe I got from an old cookbook that belong to the mother of one of my friends from college. It was old back in the early 80s so… Never mind, no need to say how old I am!

Anyway, the cookbook contained a lot of pasta recipes but none like I’d ever encountered before. One of those was for timbales, which turned out to be pretty yummy. According to an online dictionary, a timbale is defined as “A custardlike dish of cheese, chicken, fish, or vegetables baked in a drum-shaped pastry mold.” This recipe doesn’t require a special baking dish but is made of small, individual timbales. Try this unusual pasta presentation for a very unique side dish.

Macaroni Timbales served on top of freshly made Copper Pennies.

Macaroni Timbales

6 ounces macaroni noodles

2 eggs

2 ounces grated cheese (Parmesan, cheddar, Swiss – any hard or semi-hard cheese will work just fine)

Salt and pepper to taste

4 ounces cooked mushrooms

1 T. grated onion (you can mince the onion very finely or use dehydrated)

Bread crumbs

Prepared spaghetti sauce

Boil macaroni as directed on package until tender; drain well. Stir in cheese, one beaten egg, and seasonings. Generously butter the cups of a 6-cup muffin pan. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs in the bottom of each. Fill with macaroni mixture. Make a hollow in each cup. Mix the chopped, cooked mushrooms with the remaining beaten egg and use this to fill the hollow in each cup.

Bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Let stand for three minutes before removing from pan. Serve with hot spaghetti sauce poured over the top.

Note: As is, this recipe is rather bland. Feel free to add some fresh herbs, such as basil or oregano, and my old favorite standby, garlic salt.

October 27, 2011: Quick and Easy Mushroom Wild Rice Soup Recipe

This recipe is one I concocted to use a can of soup I’d gotten for mere pennies via extreme couponing and leftovers from a chicken dinner. When put all together, they made a delicious, hearty soup perfect for a cold weekday night. It’s a snap to throw together and doesn’t take long at all to cook.

“Semi-Homemade” Mushroom Wild Rice Soup

2 t. olive oil

¼ cup finely minced onion

1 small carrot, peeled and shredded

1 clove garlic, minced

1 t. dried parsley flakes

1 can cream of mushroom soup (not condensed; I used Progresso)

1 cup cooked, shredded chicken

1 cup cooked long grain and wild rice

1/3 cup chicken broth

Heat olive oil over medium heat in saucepan. Add onions, carrot and garlic. Saute until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and heat through on low, about 15 additional minutes.

Serves 2 as a main dish, 4 as a side dish.