Tex-Mex Pot Roast

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This is a delicious version of pot roast, and made super easy by using a taco seasoning mix.  I like McCormicks.

2 carrots, sliced
1 green pepper, chopped into large chunks
1 onion, chopped into large chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp tapioca
2 1/2 lb chuck roast
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 can Mexican-style diced tomatoes
1 medium-sized jar of salsa

Mix veggies, and tapioca in a crock pot. Add beef and sprinkle with taco seasoning. Mix tomatoes and salsa and pour over everything.

Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours, or high heat for 4-5 hours.

Chokecherry Jelly

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Choke_Cherry_01Chokecherries grow wild in Nebraska, sprouting a spike of white flowers in the spring and deep purple/black berries in the fall. They are blisteringly sour, but make delicious jelly or wine.

In 2011, Maya and I were driving along the main road at Niobrara State Park, and saw a large shrub/tree bobbing and swaying in a dozen different directions.

Slightly freaked out, we slowed down and realized that there were actually a flock of wild baby turkeys (poults) on a chokecherry feeding frenzy.

Since we love chokecherry jelly, we stopped at the park office and asked if it was okay to pick chokecherries. Reassured, we headed back into town and picked up sugar, pectin,  mason jars and an empty box to hold our berries at Farnik’s Market.

We found a chokecherry bush that was loaded with berries and started picking.  Just as we were finishing, calamity!  Maya slid down the hill, badly scraping her arm on the way.  We took our berries back to the cabin and washed and bandaged the worst of her scrapes.  Poor kid! She was a real trouper (as always) and still pitched in.

3 lbs. chokecherries to yield 3 1/2 cups of juice
4 cups sugar
1 box powdered Sure-Jell
1 cup mason jars (7 or 8) washed in hot soapy water, and rinsed with boiling water. (Leave the jars in the hot water until you’re ready to fill them.)

In a large pot, wash and remove berries from stems. Drain well. Add a cup of water to the berries, and cook on medium/low heat, stirring to break the berries open.

Lay a piece of thin fabric (we improvised with a cotton bandanna) in a colander with a bowl underneath and pour the berries in. Tie the corners together and let the juice drip out for a couple of hours. Then gently squeeze the berries to get out any remaining juice.

Add the juice and Sure-jell to a pot and bring to a boil. Add sugar and bring back to the boil for one more minute. Pour into mason jars, cover and lower them into a gently boiling pot of water. Keep the water simmering for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Baby Kale & Carrot Salad with Citrus Dressing

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baby kale and carrot saladThis one hasn’t made it into the book yet, but I’m skipping that since it was so good. Le Quartier Bakery in Omaha sells sandwiches and a side salad with Kale and carrots in a citrus dressing. I’ve been hungry for that salad for days, and bought some baby kale, and a bottle of fresh orange juice to concoct something similar.

I was thinking of making it for supper tonight. And I started to pull it together, when the usual happened. Someone drank the orange juice and I can’t really remember what else was in the salad. No matter, I googled Citrus Salad Dressing and found Ree Drummond’s recipe. I punted and made something similar and it was amazing!!!  We have had this three nights in a row, since we had lots of leftover dressing.

1 box baby kale
1 carrot, grated

Salad Dressing:

In a mason jar, add

1/8 cup water
1 1/2 Tbsp marmalade (I used Orange-Apricot Marmalade)
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 clove of garlic, grated
Splash of white wine vinegar. (Cider vinegar would be fine, too.)
2 Tbsp sour cream.

Close with a lid and shake well (violently, according to Ree.) 🙂

Dump baby kale into a nice bowl, add the grated carrot on top, and add some of the salad dressing. It was actually amazing. We practically licked the bowl!

Jeane’s Praline Apple Bread

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Just stop what you’re doing and make this right now. I am serious. My T.T.T. sister Jeane made this for a meeting one Saturday morning and it is the very best quick bread I have ever had. I’ve made it lots of times and the response is always the same.  Make it.  Now.  You won’t regret it.

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, divided
8 oz. sour cream
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp Vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups copped apples
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

Take 1/2 cup pecans and bake them for 6 minutes at 350.

Mix the sour cream, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Gently blend the flour mix to the sour cream mix – just until blended. Do not overmix. Fold in the apples and toasted pecans.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle remaining chopped pecans on top and bake the bread at 350 for one hour. Cool for 10 minutes, and turn out onto a serving platter.

In a saucepan, bring the butter and brown sugar to the boil and boil it for one minute stirring constantly. Pour over the bread. Let the bread cool and keep it covered.

It’s apple praline paradise.

Quick & Yummy Pasta Bake

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Tammy made a version of this for us the first time in Niobrara and for Kumy it was love at first bite. It’s perfect for cooking at a cabin, because it literally only takes one pot.  For a vegetarian version, just leave out the sausage.  (You may want to add a pinch of red pepper flakes if you leave out the sausage.)

1 1/4 lb. spicy bulk Italian sausage
1 24 oz. jar good spaghetti sauce
hot water

1 package rotini
1/2 cup parmesan
2 cups mozzarella

Brown meat in a dutch oven or large pot.

Add spaghetti sauce. Fill the spaghetti sauce jar with hot water, and add to the pot, along with the rotini and parmesan. Stir well, cover and bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, sprinkle Mozzarella on top, and return to oven for 10 more minutes without a cover.

Spanish Tortilla with Bell Pepper

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First made this on March 27, 2010 and noted that it was great for a Sunday brunch.

1/3 package of turkey or real bacon, sliced into 1″ pieces
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 onions
1 lb. yukon gold potatoes
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp tabasco or other hot sauce
8 eggs
2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Slice pepper, onion and potatoes into 1/2″ thick slices.

Heat oil in a large oven proof frying pan. Add bacon, peppers and onion and saute for several minutes until the bacon is cooked and the onions are soft and translucent. Add potatoes,cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring every now and then. Remove from heat.

Beat eggs with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Pour eggs over potatoes and sprinkle with parsley. Bake 15 minutes and serve warm. Delish.

Easy Fajitas

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1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs, cut thin

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper powder (can use more if you like it spicier)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp olive oil

4 red, yellow or green peppers, thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, cut into thin strips
1 red onion, cut into thin strips

Tortillas
Sour Cream
Salsa
Fresh Limes
Guacamole

Mix all spices, cornstarch and water in a medium bowl. Add in chicken, peppers and onions and stir to coat thoroughly. (You can use any kind of pepper or onion – it’s just fun to use different colors.)

Heat more olive oil in a large frying pan. Add everything and saute on pretty high heat for several minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the peppers and onions are soft and starting to brown a bit. You can grill it – which is more traditional, but the chipotle pepper lends a nice smokey flavor even if you just pan fry it.

Serve it with warm tortillas, with fresh lime juice squeezed over it. Top with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.

Kumy’s Hindu Aloo (Potatoes)

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This is a wonderful, tangy, spicy golden potato dish with fresh cilantro and jalapenos. Really quick and amazingly good – one of Kumy’s specialties.

Kumy’s auntie, Shirin Auntie was an especially good cook, and such a lovely person. So was her husband, Chotu Uncle, and I miss them. (Story about them below.)  She taught Kumy how to make this dish.

When I asked him about the name, he said Shirin Auntie grew up in Bombay and learned this vegan dish from  a Hindu neighbor.  Aloo means potato, and anyone who has had these potatoes says they are “Kamal!”  (Amazing!)

4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cubed in 1″ cubes (we like Yukon Gold)
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
fresh ginger, peeled with a spoon and sliced very thinly (about 1.5 tsp)
3/4 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1 jalapeno, sliced in half, seeds removed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 lemons, juiced
4 jalapenos, held by stem, and cut twice from bottom
1 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Boil potatoes in salted water until they are soft. Drain and squeeze lemon juice over them. Heat oil in a frying pan, and add garlic, ginger and mustard seed, frying for 2 minutes. Add cumin seed, 1 sliced jalapeno, turmeric and salt and saute for just a few moments. Add the boiled potatoes and lemon juice and stir gently. You want to blend everything nicely without crushing the potatoes. Take the 4 jalapenos which have been partially cut and gently push them into the potatoes. Garnish with the cilantro. Serve with extra lemon juice.

Chotu Uncle and Shirin Auntie lived in a house with a beautiful garden – filled with beautiful plants in enormous sizes, and they loved cats and kept one as a pet, which was quite unusual. I always loved visiting them and seeing their garden.  

Later, they moved into a very nice apartment in the Royal Apartments.  One of my favorite memories was when they’d left the laundry room window open one day, and a mother bird began to build her nest just inside the window.  

They were so enchanted that they let her build the nest and raise her babies there – watching the progress with bated breathed, and tip-toeing in and out so as not to disturb them.  How could you not love someone like that?

Rachael Ray’s Spaghetti

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This is a great recipe for spaghetti, with sausage and lots of peppers and onions  You cook the sausage in the oven, which adds its own great flavor and pan juices.  This is also a good party dish – I’ve made it for our office holiday party at home.  If you really love bell peppers and onions, you can double them. (I always do.)

You’ll be doing three separate parts to this recipe – but you can pretty much do them all at the same time. Preheat oven to 425, start a large pot of water boiling, and heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan.

Step 1:

2 1/2 lbs. hot Italian Sausage
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Put sausages on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 425 for 15-20 minutes.

Step 2:

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 or 2 red peppers cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1 or 2 green peppers, cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1 or 2 onions, cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1/4 cup spaghetti sauce
1 tsp salt
1/4 – 1/2 tsp black pepper

Add garlic, peppers and onions to hot frying pan with olive oil, and saute for five minutes. Add spaghetti sauce, salt and black pepper.

Step 3:

1 lb. spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup good Parmesan cheese (plus a little extra for garnishing)
2 cups good spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup water saved from the boiled spaghetti
Pan drippings from sausage when the sausage is done.

Cook pasta in salted water, saving 1/2 cup water when you drain it. Add back the saved 1/2 cup water and everything else to the pan and blend gently.

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
extra parmesan

Put spaghetti mix on a large platter. Next layer on the onion/pepper mix, and finally lay the sausages on top. Garnish with fresh parsley and extra parmesan. Yum-oh!

Spanish-Style Garlic Shrimp

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Made this for Christmas 2009 and it was quick and surprisingly good.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp hot paprika
1 lb. raw, good-sized shrimp, washed and patted dry (I like the easy peel ones.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 lemon, juiced
handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Saute onion for 5-7 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and paprika and saute another minute or two, until the garlic smells cooked. (One of my favorite instructions in a Pakistani recipe was “to cook until a cooked aroma evolves.” No guesswork in that one, no sir!)

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the shrimp, tossing to coat.

Saute shrimp for a couple of minutes, until it turns nice and pink. Add Parsley and lemon juice.  Check seasonings and serve.  This is heaven with smashed potatoes, or serve it with crusty bread to soak it all up.