Crock Pot Chili

Is it ironic that when the weather gets cold, you can warm up with something called chili?

Anyway... here's another great Crock Pot classic that has dinner hot and ready as soon as you get home from a long day in the salt mines. And lemme tell you, there's something special about pulling into your garage and being able to smell your slow-cooked dinner wafting all the way from the kitchen.

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef or 2 cans Mexican/chili seasoned diced or stewed tomatoes (based on your preference)
1 can chili beans (heat level to your preference)
1 can black beans
1 can light red kidney beans
1 can dark red kidney beans
Cumin
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Red pepper
Cayenne pepper

Directions
Brown the meat in a skillet. While it cooks, turn on the Crock Pot, and drain all the cans of beans EXCEPT the chili beans. Dump all the beans and tomatoes in the Crock Pot, and add the spices to your preference. (I find that cumin, though, is key in getting a good, earthy flavor in my Mexican cooking, including chili) Stir the mixture. When the meat is browned, drain off the fat and stir the meat into the tomato and bean mixture. Put the lid on and let it cook.

Remember, if you're planning to let it cook all day, turn the Crock Pot on low. If you only have about four hours, use high.

We like to serve this up with hot corn bread or some crackers and shredded cheese. I add hot sauce. The wife likes sour cream. Add whatever you want.

Crock Pot Classic: Beef Stew

Fall has arrived, and the weather is starting to turn cool. That means it's time to break out the Crock Pot, which may be the single greatest kitchen gadget around.

If you have a Crock Pot (or slow cooker), and rarely use, I will teach you its versatility. If you don't have one, go get one. Seriously. I'll wait. You can get one for $15 or $20 at most stores, and it's worth every penny without a doubt. So go ahead.

OK. Now that we all have a Crock Pot, we'll start with a little education on what it is. Your slow cooker should have two main parts (though I have heard tell of a bizarre one-piece version that's a pain to clean, so stay away from that). First there's the base, which features a plug, a heating element and a knob. Some slow cookers have timers and various settings. Mine has a single knob that switches between Off, Low and High. Second there's the crock itself, which is a ceramic pot that sits inside the base. Of course, there is also the lid, which is very important, as I'll explain.

By the way, don't worry about what your Crock Pot looks like. Nowadays you can get them in all sorts of colors, but as you can see, mine looks like your Grandma's. It cooks just the same.

So the key to Crock Pot cooking is low and slow. The heating element in the base heats the crock evenly at a low temperature, which then allows the food to cook evenly, usually with the help of some liquid inside.

Now, you can make just about anything with a Crock Pot. I use it mainly for mains, but I've also made a great cheese dip for parties, I've seen it used to keep apple cider warm and there are even recipes for breakfasts and desserts.

As we start with Crock Pot cooking, I'll begin with a family favorite. If you asked me about a comfort food my Mom made when I was a kid, I would immediately think of her beef stew. It would have to be my favorite thing she made regularly, in part because when she did it in the Crock Pot, it would cook all day and fill the house with a delicious smell by the time you got home from school.

Beef stew is very simple, as you only need a few ingredients. First, of course, is the beef. I like to wait until the super market has stew beef on sale and buy a couple of packets at 1-1.5 pounds each. By the way, this recipe works for pot roast, too, with some slight derivations I'll explain later. You're just using a hunk of meat instead of the bite-sized pieces of stew meat.

Now, my Mom always browned the beef in a skillet, so that's what I do. While that cooks, I turn on the Crock Pot and add the vegetables to the Crock Pot. Now there are three must-have veggies for a good beef stew: potatoes, carrots and onions. A little celery is also good to add a little flavor. Now, at some grocery stores, though not the ones I shop at here in NC, you can sometimes find a frozen Stew Mix, which has all these essentials. If you can't, just buy each frozen or fresh. My Mom often uses or adds canned potatoes. I've used the frozen mix and then added a couple more fresh, peeled potatoes, which helps thicken the stew. When I made it most recently, I used fresh potatoes (halved), baby carrots and an onion cut into eight pieces, then added some frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, green beans, corn, peas) just to get some more veggies.

OK, so your veggies are in, and your beef is browned. Drain the fat from the meat and put the meat in the Crock Pot on top of the veggies. Now it's time to add a little flavor. Take an envelope of onion soup mix and add it to a cup of water. Pour it over the meat and veggies. Now put the lid on the Crock Pot. Remember, I said the lid is key. You have to make sure the lid is on well and not letting any steam out, as this will cause the Crock Pot to lose heat, which will hurt the cooking process.

You'll notice I didn't say what setting to put the Crock Pot on. Well, that's because it all depends how long you plan to cook. If you only have four hours or so, put it on high. If you have longer, put it on low. I typically, just as my Mom did, put this all together before I leave for work. I put it on low, and let it cook all day, so it's ready to eat when we get home, and the house smells so deliciously wonderful!

Believe me, this is a wonderfully simple and tasty dish that will not disappoint.

Now I mentioned that there are a few differences if you're making pot roast. I made some the other night with a kit I bought at the store. The directions on that did NOT call for browning the meat first, but it did call for putting the raw meat in the Crock Pot first, then topping it with the veggies and water. That's all. Talk about simple. When it's done, don't bother setting the table with knives, unless you need them to put butter on some bread, because everything else is fork tender!

In the coming days, I will share some more Crock Pot recipes, to prove what a wonderful tool it is, especially for busy families.

Cranberry Ranch Chicken

Now that we're closing in on fall, it's time for some yummy and easy comfort food!

When my friend Marcy first told me about this recipe six year ago, I thought it sounded kinda gross, but the Mrs. (who wasn't yet the Mrs.) thought it sounded good, so I made it. She was right, and this one-pot dish has become a staple of our dinner table, especially in the fall and winter.

This is one of those recipes anyone can make, because all it requires is dumping four ingredients in a dish, stirring and cooking. One tip, though, the better the quality of Ranch dressing you use, the better. When Marcy gave me the recipe she said to use the jarred Ranch you find in the refrigerated area of the produce section of the grocery store, like Marzetti or Marianne's. I've used regular bottled Ranch, and I've found the cheap store brand leaves things a little oily. Name brand (e.g. Kraft, Hidden Valley) work fine.

Ingredients
1 lb chicken cut into bite-size pieces
8-10 oz Ranch dressing (see note above)
1 can WHOLE BERRY cranberry sauce (NOT the jelly kind)
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 lb egg noodles (cooked as directed)


Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray (makes clean-up a little easier). Mix the chicken, Ranch, cranberry sauce and onion soup mix in the casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Serve over egg noodles. For a little more balance and color, serve with a green veggie. I've found steamed broccoli is the perfect pairing.

Give this recipe a try. I'm pretty sure you and your family will like it as much as we do!

Chicken & Vegetables in White Wine Sauce

Here's another easy and tasty recipe that's sure to please. As is often the case with my recipes, feel free to change the ingredients to suit your taste.

Before you get started, there's an important tip about cooking with wine. In the grocery store you can find what's called cooking wine. DO NOT BUY IT! Any chef will tell you this simple rule: If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it. That does not mean you have to be a wine connoisseur. Just use what you like. If you're not a wine drinker, just ask a friend or someone at the store. I used Barefoot Chardonnay with this. And of course, if you use a wine you like to drink, it makes it very easy to find the right wine to pair with the meal!

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pound chicken cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 gloves garlic chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 cup white wine
2 cups cooked rice (I used Jasmine rice, which adds a nice aromatic flavor, but use whatever you have/like)

Directions
Cook rice according to directions.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Brown chicken until almost done. Add carrots, onions and garlic and cook until veggies start to soften. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two. Slowly add wine and scrape bits off bottom of pan. Stir in onion soup mix. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer 5-10 minutes. Serve over rice.

As you can see, I served it with a side of broccoli to add a little more color to the dish. The kids should love it, too!

Veggie & Turkey Sausage Lasagna

I know, I've been very slack lately posting recipes, but I'm gonna try to do better with several in the can, as we say in TV.

This recipe is another lesson in Italian cooking, as I long ago promised, but an intermediary step. It is lasagna, but not traditional in a couple of senses. One way is the ingredient. The other is a short-cut in the cooking.

This is something I came up with kind of on the fly. We were looking for a big family dinner with leftovers that had some nutritional value. So I lasagna took care of the first part. Vegetables took care of the second. This is also another of those recipes you can tweak for whatever your taste.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil1 lb turkey sausage (removed from casings and crumbled)
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup broccoli florets
1 zucchini sliced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
Handful fresh basil
2 jars tomato sauce (whatever kind or kinds you like)
1 box no-cook lasagna noodles
1 lb ricotta
1 lb shredded cheese (I believe I used one bag of Italian recipe and one Taco blend)

Directions
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or wok (a wok is actually ideal for later). Brown sausage. When it's about done, add onion, garlic, carrots and broccoli, and cook until they start to get soft. Add zucchini, mushrooms and basil, and cook until they start to get soft. Add a little sauce and the ricotta. Cook until the whole mixture is well mixed and starts to get a little bubbly.

Spread some sauce in bottom of a large roasting pan (aka lasagna pan). Place a third of the lasagna noodles (no need to cook these) on top of the sauce. Spread some more sauce on top of noodles. Spread half of the sausage/veggie/cheese mixture, and sprinkle with some of a third of the shredded cheese. Top with another third of noodles, then more sauce, then the rest of the mixture, a third of the shredded cheese, last of noodles, more sauce, last of shredded cheese. Sprinkle some Italian herbs on top if you'd like, and yes, I like!

Cover pan with foil and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes until the whole thing is bubbly and melty. Yes, those are technical culinary terms.

Congratulations. You have made lasagna. Eventually we'll get to the real deal, but like I said at the top, this is a great intermediary step to learn some of the basics.

Serve this up with salad, garlic bread and the rest of the sauce heated.

We fed four adults and a child, and still had about half to put in the freezer for another day plus a couple servings for lunch at work the next day. I originally planned to make it with much less of the sausage, but I'm glad I used it all. It added a great flavor! You could make it without meat at all, but again, I think you'd lose a lot of flavor.

Gold Medal Meals: Beef Stroganoff

OK. I admit it. I dropped the ball. An out-of-town weekend trip and the busyness of life with two kids kept me from continuing my plan of a meal from a different nation each night of the Olympics. So on this night where London extinguished its cauldron, I decided to make one more Gold Medal Meal.

One of the traditions of the Closing Ceremonies at the Olympics is the hand-off to the next host city. In this case, London passes off to Rio De Jeneiro, Brazil, for the next summer games, but the next host is Sochi, Russia, home of the XXII Olympic Winter Games. So in honor of Russia, I decided to make Beef Stronganoff (or Stronganov).

As I often do, I searched for an easy recipe for the dish, and then added a few touches of my own. In addition to getting me back to the Olympic theme, this unlike many of the other Gold Medal Meals, fits with the theme of simplicity in cooking this blog targets.

Ingredients
12-16 oz package egg noodles
1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup (low or reduced fat preferably)
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
In large pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to directions.

In large skillet over medium-high heat, brown ground beef. Just before it's all done, drain the grease. Stir in the onion, and cook two more minutes. Stir in garlic and mushrooms. Cook two more minutes, or until mushrooms are tender. Stir in soup, salt and pepper, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 8-10 minutes. Stir in sour cream, simmer two more minutes. Serve over noodles.

It's not the most photogenic dish, but it's pretty tasty, even if our little guy wasn't willing to give it a chance. My wife and I talked about how it would be an easy dish to hide some veggies, like diced carrots, by adding them in with the meat and other veggies.

Gold Medal Meals: El Cubano

 Earlier this week I told you how my German Pork Roast was a set up for another dish. That dish was tonight's dinner.

I guess I fell in love with the Cuban Pork Sandwich when I lived in Florida. They were pretty common fare down there, and usually pretty good. Since then I've figured they're a great way to use leftover pork, too. And they're easy to make.

Ingredients
1 loaf soft, crusty bread (If you can find a Cuban loaf, go with that, as that's the traditional bread. I found what I think the local grocery store called a French loaf, which was long, wide and not very high. You can certainly scale this down. I went with the big loaf, because I was making it as a family dinner with leftovers for lunch)
Roasted pork sliced (I used one of the two I made with the German Roast Pork)
Ham
Swiss cheese
Mustard (I used deli mustard)
Pickles

Directions
Slice the bread in half and spread the mustard on the top half. Layer the bottom with the slices of pork. Top with a layer of sliced deli ham, Swiss cheese and plenty of pickles. Top with the other half of the loaf.

Of course, the key to a Cuban sandwich is heating and pressing it. Traditionally, it's done with hot bricks. Seriously. But if you're like me, you probably don't have a lot of hot bricks sitting around. I do, though, have a George Foreman Grill that also doubles as a sandwich (panini) press. So I heated that up, cut the sandwich in half so it would fit and grilled each half for several minutes. You want to add some pressure to flatten it as much as possible, and may even need to rotate the sandwich along the way to get it even. It's done when the bread is nice and toasty and the cheese inside is good and melted. That's it! This sandwich will not disappoint.

To add to the Cuban flavor, I served it with black beans, (Spanish) rice and, of course, fried plantains. Unfortunately, I learned the trick to plantains too late. Turns out you need really (over)ripe ones. A lot of the stuff I read said the blacker the better, as you want a high sugar content, so buy them several days ahead and put them in a paper bag to try to ripen them. At any rate, peel the plantains and cut them into 3/4-inch pieces. In 350-degree oil, fry them for about three minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Standing the pieces on their end, smash them flat with a spatula. Put them back in the hot oil for a minute or so until they are golden brown. Remove, drain and sprinkle with salt.

 

I'm gonna take a few days break in posting recipes. We're having Chicken Lombardi tomorrow for a taste of Italy. Then we're going out of town for a few days for a wedding. I promise more recipes next week. If you have any ideas, feel free to share!