Tag: Food

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Recent Yummy Things

We’ve made a number of yummy things recently.

We made pretzel dogs following this recipe: http://joythebaker.com/2012/01/mini-pretzel-dogs/

We harvested a couple of buckets of citrus fruit off the tree in our back yard, and squeezed them for juice for mimosas.  We think they’re Satsuma Mandarins, and they made delicious mimosas.

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And we made a batch of bread dough we can keep in the fridge and bake parts of whenever we want.  We’ve had lots of success with this in the past, and so we started it back up again.

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Beef Stew

TriTip

 

Inspired by a delicious beef stew my aunt made for us over Christmas and the tri tip we’ve had in the freezer for a couple of months, we made a beef stew this week.  We prepared everything on Tuesday night, then Matt threw it in the crock pot Wednesday morning.

First, I cut up some onions, carrots, and potatoes and bagged them up for refrigeration.

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Next, I cut up the tri tip, and put it in a big bowl.  I then tossed the meat with half a cup of flour and bagged it too.

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Finally, I prepped a “flavoring” mix.  I chopped up some garlic, and threw that and the following things into a pyrex bowl: ketchup, beef “better than bullion (~1Tbsp), worcestershire, soy sauce, red pepper, chipotle hot sauce, bay leaves, paprika, pepper, and salt.

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The seasoning bowl, the bag of veggies, and the bag of meat all went into the fridge.  On Wednesday morning, Matt threw it all in the crockpot with some water.  When he came home, he also added some “pork chop” seasoning mix, cumin, cayenne, more salt, red pepper, chipotle hot sauce, and worcestershire.

I didn’t take any pictures of the completed product, but it was delicious.  Some of the beef and potatoes fell apart, and helped the flour thicken the mix.  We ate it with some good rosemary olive oil bread.  This was definitely a successful recipe, and we got at least three meals for both of us plus one for just me out of it.

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Kale and Cornbread Dinner

Tonight, we did kind of a Southern dinner and made cornbread and sauteed greens.

For the cornbread, we used a Joy of Cooking recipe.   We substituted almond milk for cow’s milk, because my stomach doesn’t get along with cow’s milk.

For the greens, the basic recipe is below.  I used two kinds of kale from my garden.  I didn’t actually measure the vinegar, I just glugged.  Next time, I’ll definitely use less.

  • 4 strips bacon, cut in half
  • 2 cloves garlic, diced
  • 1 Large bunch greens
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

Cook the bacon till just crispy on medium heat.

While your bacon is cooking, chop the greens.  For large leaves, fold in half and remove the stem by cutting parallel to the stem, between the stem and leaf.  Then, stack your leaves, cut down the middle the long way.  Stack the halves, and cut down the middle again.  Then, chop up the greens across the short  side.  For smaller leaves, you don’t need the second cut down the middle.

Once the bacon is crispy, remove from the pan, lower the heat and add the garlic to the hot bacon fat.  Cook the garlic for a couple of minutes, until just soft and you start to smell lots of yummy garlic.

Once the garlic is ready, add the stock and greens.  Stir everything up until most of your greens are coated in liquid.  Turn the heat to high,

cover, and let sit for about 5 minutes.  Chop up your bacon.  Once your greens are g

ood and wilty, remove the lid and season with salt and pepper.  Stir occasionally until all liquid has evaporated.  Add the vinegar and bacon, and mix everything up.  Serve hot.

Freshly washed kale from my garden