Ropa Vieja...Old Clothes

Sitting in bed at 10pm watching Food Network is never good.  I try to make a habit of only watching it early in the day because it makes me want to eat...and cook!  Last night we came across an episode that featured Cuban cuisine and I was inspired.  Like I thought about it all day.  Like I went out of my way to go the meat market just to get flank steak.  Then went to the grocery store for the rest of the ingredients.  I just HAD to make this tonight.  And I might add...turned out fantastic.  This recipe is easily a Paleo recipe without the rice and beans as well!!

Ingredients

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2lbs flank steak

Salt & Pepper

Garlic powder

2 Tbsp butter

2 onions, roughly chopped

1 green pepper, roughly chopped

3 Tbsp chopped garlic

1 cup beef broth

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 cup tomato paste

3 tsp cumin

1 tsp white vinegar (or white wine)

Salt & Pepper, to taste

3 Tbsp Cilantro, roughly chopped

Add vegetable oil to large pan or dutch oven.  Season flank steak with salt, pepper and garlic powder...generously.  I cut my flank steak in half, as it would not fit in my dutch oven in one piece.

Drop flank steak into oiled pan and let cook for at least 4 minutes on each side.  Remove flank steak and set aside.  Add butter, onions and green peppers and saute.

Let vegetables cook down for about 5 minutes and add garlic.  After 2 more minutes, add beef broth and stir well.  Next add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, seasonings, vinegar and cilantro.

Add meat back into vegetables and let stew on low for at least 3 hours.  Stir every 30 minutes.

  Serve with white rice and black beans.  This is delicious!!!

ENJOY!!!!!

P.S. Ropa Vieja means old clothes in spanish.  And I said it to my husband about a hundred times today.  In a thick-overly-done accent!

Candy Cookie Bars

Had the pleasure of going to a BBQ with friends last night, which turned out to be a great night.  Plus it gave me an excuse to try a new dessert to share.  I will admit....I have never made cookie bars before, but these turned out to be so easy and delicious.  They are great to bring to summer BBQs and picnics.

Ingredients

2 sticks of unsalted butter, melted

2 eggs

2 cups brown sugar

2 1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour

24 Oreos, roughly crushed

1 cup of Reese's Pieces (I used the smaller baking ones)

1 cup of pretzels, roughly crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 baking pan with foil and spray with non-stick spray....like so.

Melt butter and let cool slightly.  In a stand up mixer, blend eggs, brown sugar and vanilla.  Add melted butter. and blend until smooth.

Slowly add flour.  Then add about half of the chopped Oreos and mix just until combined.  DO NOT over mix.  Remove the bowl and fold in the remaining Oreos.  

Add mixture to your foil line pan and level out the batter with the back of a rubber spatula.  Evenly spread the Reese's Pieces and chopped pretzels to the top of your batter and gently press down.  

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let cool and cut into small bars.  Yum. Yum. Yum.  Enjoy!!

Notes: You can easily change out the Reese's Pieces with your favorite candy...try Reese's Cups, Snickers, Butterfinger, M&Ms, etc.

Chopped Salad!

Shout out to the great city of Chicago and one of the most famous restaurants there....Portillos!.  If you get a chance to travel to the Chicagoland area, this is a MUST stop.  Plus they have expanded to Arizona and California now too!  My favorite thing on their menu is by far the beef n cheddar croissant with cheese fries.  Sinfully bad and amazingly good!

Looks good, doesn't it?  Certainly.  But I have no intentions of recreating this masterpiece.  I will however give you my take on the Portillo's Chopped Salad.  

Ingredients

1 lb bacon

1/2 lb ditalini pasta

4-5 cups of romaine lettuce,chopped

1/2 head purple cabbage, chopped

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

1 cup tomatoes, chopped

1/2 head of iceburg lettuce, chopped

3 oz gorgonzola cheese chopped

Cook bacon until crispy.  I cook bacon in my dutch oven, of course :)  Set aside to cool.  Cook your pasta per the instructions on the box and let cool completely.  You could definitely cook the pasta in advance.   After the bacon and pasta are cooled, you can start combining the ingredients gently.  Super simple.  SUPER delicious.  Pick your favorite dressing.  This is our dressing of choice:

This goes fabulous with this salad!  

Enjoy friends.

Strawberry Cream Pie

Really....5 months since I've posted?  Slack.  The sad thing is as I'm typing this, I have pages and pages of recipes to post.  I "should" take a picture of my notepad.  There's tons.  I'm just slack.  But back on track.  I should also inform y'all that I got a new phone last week so my photos will be MUCH better quality after this post.  Or I could just finally buy better light bulbs for the kitchen so everything doesn't look so yellow all the time.  In any case, we're moving on up.

Since November we have hosted plenty of get togethers.  I have cooked and baked my way into the hearts of our friends and family.  And most recently, I experimented a new dessert for my dear friend and fellow blogger.  And hey-check this out-she just posted her take on my amazing chopped salad recipe today (to be posted soon!).  I am a proud lil chef :)  Anyways this is a great recipe for your summer gatherings.  And I've been dying to make a Golden Oreo crust.  Have you tried Golden Oreos---amazing!  And so not healthy.  Too bad.

Strawberry Cream Pie

For the crust:

25 golden Oreos

4 Tbsp melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Pulse Oreos in your food processor until crumbly.  Add melted butter and sugar and pulse until well combined.  Put mixture in a 9 inch pie pan and press down to cover bottom and most of the way up the sides.  If you use an 8 inch pan, you will easily be able to cover the bottom in crust.  Bake for about 7 minutes.  Make sure you don't burn those delectable Oreos!  Let crust cool completely.

For the filling:

1 1/2lbs fresh strawberries, sliced

1 cup sugar

1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

2/3 cup water

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla extract

Take half of your sliced strawberries and line them up neatly on the crust.

  Take the rest of the strawberries and puree them in your food processor.  Add to a saucepan with sugar and lemon juice.  Bring to a gentle boil.  In a separate bowl, whisk the water and cornstarch together.  Next add the cornstarch mixture to your pureed strawberry mixture.  Cook for several minutes until it thickens.  I'd say it should be the thickness of oatmeal (but not as lumpy of course). 

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. 

Pour mixture over your sliced strawberries and crust.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

For the cream topping:

6oz cream cheese

2 Tbsp sugar

1 8oz tub of whipped topping, thawed

Let your cream cheese get to room temperature.  It MUST be soft or this will not work.  In your stand mixer, blend the cream cheese and sugar.  Gently blend in the whipped topping.  Cover the top of your strawberry pie with this whipped cream cheese topping.  Garnish with fresh strawberries, chocolate, more Golden Oreos, or whatever makes you happy.

Enjoy friends.

Pumpkin Tiramisu

So Tiramisu is my favorite dessert of all time.  FAVORITE!  This isn't quite like a true tiramisu, except the fact that it is layered.  Its just a name, deal with it.  There is no baking in this dessert, how easy can this be?  This is my fall go to dessert, although I've only made it a few times.  I can't believe I'm giving up the secret recipe.   But in the spirit of the upcoming holidays, I hope you will share this with your family.

Ingredients
1lb of pound/loaf cake, cut into slices (you will need about 9 slices)
2 shots of espresso
2 Tbsp Crown Royal Maple Whiskey (or any whiskey)
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup 100% pure pumpkin puree (get it in a can, much easier)
1 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a small bowl, mix together the espresso, whiskey, and maple syrup. Set aside.   In a separate bowl, whip up the heavy whipping cream with sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.  See below:

GENTLY fold in your pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon.  Now let's prepare the pan.  Take a loaf pan and line with cling wrap, allowing it to generously hang over all sides.

Start the layering process.  Add a layer of pound cake.  My pan took 3 slices of cake.

Using a pastry brush, brush your espresso/whiskey/syrup mixture over the cake.  There will be three layers, so figure you will use about 1/3 of your espresso mixture.  Next add a layer of your pumpkin cream.  Again use 1/3 of the mixture.

Keep it smooth.  Add another layer of cake, then brush with espresso mixture.  Add another layer of pumpkin cream.  Repeat one more time.  Your final layer will end with the pumpkin cream.  Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.  Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight. 

 

When serving, you should be able to just pull this out of the pan, holding onto the cling wrap and then folding down the sides. 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Beef & Cabbage Stew

Well I decided I want to try to work with new veggies.  I chose cabbage.  What to do with cabbage?  Make cabbage rolls, make cole slaw...or make a hearty fall stew!  This recipe is easy and delicious.  Start cooking it in the early afternoon and let it simmer until dinner time!

Ingredients
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp EVOO
2 medium yellow onions diced
2 cups diced celery
2 cups diced carrots
2lbs beef stew meat
2 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 cup red wine
48oz beef broth
1 large can diced tomatoes
Fresh thyme (I used about 6+ sprigs, taking off the stem)
1 tsp rosemary
2-3 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1/2 head cabbage, cut into small pieces

Heat your DUTCH OVEN and add your butter and EVOO.  Add your diced onions and celery and cook until translucent.  This will take several minutes.

Add your diced carrots.  Cook for another few minutes. Add your red wine.  I used a pinot noir.  It tasted wonderful.   

Next add your stew meat, diced tomatoes, broth, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil then cover and simmer on low for at least 2 hours.  Give it a stir every once in a while as well.  After a few hours give it a taste, add more salt, pepper, or thyme as needed  Then add your diced cabbage. 

Cover and simmer for another 30 minutes or so.  Don't forget to remove your bay leafs!  This recipe makes a good amount of stew.  Like for real...it will probably feed at least 6 people, maybe 8.

Enjoy!!!

 

 

Spicy Tomato Cream Pasta

So I've been slack, its been a while.  I actually made this recipe weeks ago and haven't uploaded it.  The inspiration for this....my husband and I loved this small Italian restaurant back home in this farm town.  Well it was fabulous and it went out of business unfortunately.  But he always ordered this pasta called "Rigatoni de madeira", or something like that.  I'm not Italian, I just look it, so I cannot translate this for you.  But like almost everything I see on a menu, I try to recreate it.  And plus I love my husband so I just strive to make his belly happy.  This makes his belly happy :)

Ingredients:
Extra virgin olive oil
8oz diced pancetta
2 medium yellow onions
3 links of Italian sausage, cut into pieces
3Tbsp garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
1 2.25oz can sliced black olives
1 1/2tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp diced dried basil
1 tsp crushed black pepper
Handful of fresh chopped basil
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 box Rigatoni
Freshly grated parmesan cheese
Fresh flat leaf Italian parsley

I doubled my recipe (see picture) since we were having company, so do not copy that picture ;)

Get out the trusty ole dutch oven!!  I'm telling ya-I use the heck out of my dutch oven!  Add a few tablespoons of EVOO to the bottom of the pan.  Add the diced pancetta and onions and sauté until the pancetta is slightly crispy and the onions are translucent.  Add the Italian sausage and cook thoroughly.

Next add the garlic and black olives and cook for just a minute or two.  Add your diced tomatoes, crushed red peppers, diced dried basil, crushed black pepper, and fresh basil and simmer.

  In the meantime get your water boiling for your pasta.  Don't forget to salt the water!  Follow the cooking instructions for your rigatoni.  I like mine al dente, but cook to your preference.  When your pasta is close to being done, add the heavy cream to your sauce.  Let this simmer for a few more minutes until heated throughout.

Serve your delicious sauce on your rigatoni.  Top with freshly grated parm and fresh flat leaf parsley!  Don't forget your garlic bread and garden salad too.  I had some happy tasters: