Category: Beef/Pork

corned beef and hash

Lauren2 Comments

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Phew! What a whirlwind last month was! I hope everyone survived the holidays and at least made it out the other side mostly unscathed. Even if you haven’t thoroughly recovered (financially or mentally).

Justin and I spent Christmas with his family. We totally enjoy doing the one by one gift opening and seeing what everyone gets (though it does take all morning, I love it). After eating a big turkey dinner, we played Hallmark bingo.

For those not familiar with the game, you fill the spaces with things that would happen in a Hallmark movie instead of numbers. You watch a Hallmark (or a facsimile thereof) movie, and as things happen in the movie; you fill in the spaces. The spaces can say things like “Interrupted kiss” or Making cookies” or someone saying “Just like mom!” I got the idea from a co-worker. We originally anticipated someone having a bingo every 15-30 minutes, but that turned into an hour and a half before anyone got a bingo. Everyone liked the game so much that I think it’s going to become part of our Christmas tradition. There was so much laughter and rooting for specific things to happen in the movie, like “a family sits in front of an Xmas tree.”

I must have been good this year, because I got some great thoughtful Christmas gifts. One of my favorite gifts was an oil diffuser. Though I haven’t quite figured out which essential oils complement each other. I first used Eucalyptus, but by itself, it smells like Vicks! So my living room smelled like a sick room for about an hour before I mixed in other oils to help dilute it (Haha!). I did look up some inspiration for what oils to mix and am now loving the spa-like scents, much to Justin’s dismay (though I think he secretly likes it, because he is always in the living room when the diffuser is on).

So, you may have noticed that I have started posting every other week instead of every week. It was after much thought and discussion with friends and family, that while I love blogging, cooking, and writing, I find that it’s hard to post every week with all my other engagements: writing club, volunteering, work, family commitments. However, that being said, I’m excited about my upcoming posts! And I have a little something special planned for Valentine’s Day.

Ok, so Justin and I were asked to bring brunch for Christmas morning, and decided that corned beef hash and blueberry ricotta pancakes would be good options has one is savory and the other sweet. Justin made the corned beef hash while I made pancakes, and it turned out that the hash was way better and more popular than the pancakes. I mean, wow. The Irish really got this soul food thing down. Continue reading “corned beef and hash” →

slow cooker sauerkraut soup

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With Christmas just around the corner, we’ve been cooking up a storm! For this year’s Christmas menu, I thought why not feature cuisine from one of the Christmas capitals of the world: Germany.  For inspiration, I conducted “research” by eating lots of German food at the Bavarian Inn in Eureka Springs, Arkansas over Thanksgiving. There, I was introduced to the unique sauerkraut soup—I admit I was skeptical at first, but my skepticism quickly faded after the first slurp. The soup was almost like a German version of French onion soup. The broth is clear and full of sauteed onions.  I thought having sauerkraut in the soup would make it taste pickled, but to my surprise, it didn’t taste pickled at all. If anything, the sauerkraut added sodium and texture to the dish. The dish is so popular at the restaurant, they make it seven days a week!

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Back in my Texas kitchen, I set to work at re-creating the soup. The recipe I found online was much heartier than the dish I’d had in Arkansas as an appetizer. The recipe I used called for bratwurst and potatoes, making the dish a meal in itself. It is a spectacular dish that even sauerkraut haters will enjoy! Prost!

Sauerkraut Soup  from The Bavarian Inn (pictured below)

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The Bavarian Plate from The Bavarian Inn (pictured below). This dish has bratwurst, smoked pork slices, and sauerkraut and is served with herbed potato pancakes.

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pasta e fagioli soup

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I hope everyone had a great, fun-filled Thanksgiving. If you’re anything like my family, you ate and then ate some more! And now you need to detox from all the eating. Look no further. This hearty soup is the cure. (Don’t ask me how eating more food cures holiday overeating, but in my humble opinion, soup cures pretty much everything.) One of my foodie co-workers introduced me to this soup, and I am so grateful he did. Now it’s hard for me to imagine my life without this dish in it. It’s so good with its medley of flavorful herbs, beans, pasta, and last, but not least, cheese!

There are a couple things to note with this soup. One, do not, I repeat, do not add the pasta until right before you are ready to serve the soup. In fact, you may want to add the pasta to the individual bowls right before serving. The ditalini pasta will absorb the liquid and become soggy. And two, my foodie co-worker suggested substituting Italian sausage for the ground beef, which I am going to try next time I make this. I used ground beef because I already had some on hand, but I think the Italian sausage would turn a delicious soup into an out-of-this-world, where-have-you-been-all-my-life kind of soup. But really, whichever kind of meat you go with, you can’t lose making this dish. Buon appetito!

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justin’s slow cooker chili

Lauren2 Comments

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Y’all are in for a treat! I didn’t have to be the cook this week since Justin decided the weather had gotten cool enough for chili. Since this has become a staple of cool/cold weather in our house, I asked him to take pictures and document what he was doing (we really work on measuring and not over seasoning over here!).

A few weeks back, a discussion was started on a favored social media site about chili versus stew, what the difference is, and, of course, the usual banter about the “right” way to do it. One of Justin’s friends at work, Scott Bibbee, makes some fantastic worldly meals, regularly posts photos of his creations (we already have our favorites), and he is one of those people who can tell what the ingredients of something are just by tasting it (so jealous!). I asked if he would write something up about the different ways chili is made around the U.S. Here’s what he said,

Many folks, mostly Yankees, believe strongly that they can add whatever they want to a chili and still call it “chili”. Never mind that “chili” is short for “chili con carne”, that it originated in San Antonio, TX more than 150 years ago, and certainly did not contain frijoles or any other additions when it was invented. The addition of anything other than meat, chiles, and spices is a culinary appropriation of a regional specialty with a long, well documented, and distinct history. Here’s the simple fact – all chili is stew, but not all stew is chili.

There are many reasons that people debase, taint, and dilute this dish. The most reasonable explanation Continue reading “justin’s slow cooker chili” →

slow cooker barbacoa tacos (or nachos)

Lauren1 Comment

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Up until recently, I just assumed everyone loved leftovers. I mean, it’s already prepared food you just have to reheat or assemble. It saves so much time and prep especially on weeknights when you’re tired from the day and don’t feel like cooking. I know some people don’t want to eat the same food two meals or days in a row. Other people think that leftovers aren’t as good the second day, and for a lot of foods like salads with dressing, I wholeheartedly agree. The lettuce becomes soggy and it affects the integrity of the salad. But there are other foods like pasta that I believe are better the second day because the flavors have had time to sit and coalesce.

In fact, liking leftovers is one of the first things that first attracted me to Justin. We were on an early date at a cocktail bar that served artisan pizza, and while trying to decide whether we should split a pizza or I should get one of my own, Justin said, “Why don’t you get your own so you have leftovers?” And I thought, Hey, this might work out!

These barbacoa tacos are easy, tasty, and make for great leftovers! The original recipe called for the roast to be cooked in an instant pot, which we don’t have, so we repurposed the recipe for the crock pot to great results. We literally dropped all ingredients up through the bay leaves into the crock pot and let it cook for 6 hours on high. The chipotle chile in adobe gives the barbacoa a spicy and smoky flavor, which is awesome! We added salsa and pico de gallo, as well as the cotija cheese, which is tangy! It makes for one delicious taco!

Update: The second night, we tried the the barbacoa on nachos, and we actually liked it even better than the tacos. We liked the crispy, salty chips with the spicy barbacoa. Give it a try!

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beef sliders with pepper jack, bacon, guacamole, and the hottest d*@# poblano peppers i’ve ever had

Lauren2 Comments

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I learn something new nearly every time I cook, and this week, I learned that poblano peppers can be extremely hot. And that when you handle hot poblano peppers and touch your eye, your eye will begin to burn. And when you get in the shower to rinse your eye, the water can transfer the burn to the lower part of your face. It was an eventful evening. There I was with one hand holding an ice pack to my eye and the other snapping photos of food on the grill. Am I a dedicated blogger or what? See, I go through all the trials and tribulations and fall into all the cooking pitfalls so you don’t have to. You’re welcome. 🙂

I wonder if other bloggers undergo these trials…

The pain in my eye subsided after a couple hours, but the burning in my hand burned well into the night. At midnight, I finally plunged my hand into a bowl of cold milk, which helped immensely. I had never had hot poblano peppers in my life—these were jalapeno-level spicy.  I love spicy food, but there’s spicy food and then there’s just pain. And when your mouth is in pain, the pain definitely overwhelms any taste there might be in my humble opinion.

Other than the near-ER visit, everything else went smoothly, and the beef sliders were tasty though very messy. If there’s a trick to eating a burger without all the toppings falling off, I have yet to learn it. This slider has all my favorite foods: creamy tangy guacamole, crispy BACON, a sliver of crunchy poblano pepper (I’m still bitter!), and pepper jack cheese atop a ground beef burger with spicy and creamy chipotle mayo. We utilized our grill for the bacon, peppers, and beef patties, which gave them a delectably smoky flavor. This is a slider recipe to keep! Enjoy! Oh, and if anyone wants to take these poblano peppers off my hands, you’re welcome to them! Just be sure you have some milk in the house.

So, we made the sliders with grilled corn with butter, chili powder, and salt (recipe), pasta salad with marinated tomatoes (recipe), and iced peach tea with mint (recipe). The pasta salad and iced tea recipes you can make ahead of time. Since the corn is also cooked on the grill and takes a little longer to cook than the beef patties, I would start with the corn and then move to the slider recipe. This gets you nice hot burgers.

Happy grilling!

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steak and chicken dinner with the neighbors

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In the year and a half that Justin and I have lived in our  house, we have only gotten to know two of our neighbors. I think this is partly due to the garages being in the back of the houses instead of the front.  The only time we really see our neighbors is when they are getting their mail or mowing their yard. The couple across the street are fun and enjoy good food and drink so we invited them over for dinner. Continue reading “steak and chicken dinner with the neighbors” →

ulapalakua beef and shrimp kabobs

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Early on in the Hawaiian trip, we went to Merriman’s for happy hour on the northern side of the island. They are a gourmet restaurant that specializes in Hawaiian food. While we were there, I bought their cookbook. This recipe is called Ulapalakua Beef and Shrimp Kabobs, and if you have a grill, you should make this! And while restaurants on the island use a lot of local ingredients in their dishes, for the most part, we can get everything here on the mainland and it will be just as good! We only added a couple of pineapple slices to our kabobs as we’re not big pineapple people, but we thought this dish was good with and without pineapple. Enjoy!  Continue reading “ulapalakua beef and shrimp kabobs” →