If there ever was a food that screams "Super Bowl Sunday!" to me, it's Taco Dip. Otherwise known as Seven Layer Dip, it's just one of those foods you'd only ever eat at a party, and only ever when you're being very very bad. I'll tell you right now I have no desire to know the calorie count on this dip. Given I have it once a year, I think that's okay.

It's a definite crowd pleaser, for sure. You'll want to serve it with tortilla chips (love me some Tostito's Scoops) and Doritos. DO NOT SKIP THE DORITOS. Something about the spicy flavor of the doritos and the creaminess of the sour cream and guac, well, it's a party food epiphany right there in your mouth.

The greatest thing about making Taco Dip? No cooking. Not a single thing in this dip requires you to light the stove or dirty a pan.

There are three things I absolutely adore about Vermont.

1. Views like this:



2. You can get Country music on the radio.

3. Green Mountain Coffee.

A couple of years ago, James insisted we move from our 12-cup standard coffee maker to a Keurig brewer. This ingenious little machine takes a vacuum packed "K-cup", and brews one perfect cup of coffee for you. At about 30 cents a cup, it's more than a standard coffee maker, but far far less than your average venti-mocha-half-caff-demi-whipped whatchimacallit from the local Starbucks. And I'm here to tell you that 9 times out of 10, I'd prefer the coffee from my Keurig (that 10th cup is most likely to be a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, but honestly, can you blame me?).


Image courtesy of GreenMountainCoffee.com

You guys know me. If I dig a product, I'm going to tell everyone I know just how much I love it. Or I'm going to buy it for you. That's how my best friend, my sister, and my mother all ended up with Keurigs for Christmas this year. Not that I personally bought all three, but I certainly did some heavy campaigning for each of them to join the coffee revolution that is Keurig and Green Mountain Coffee in tandem.

Here's what I love about having a Keurig. If James wants a cup of decaf Hazelnut, but I want a cup of full caff Pumpkin Spice, there's no deliberation, extra mess, or wasted coffee. We can each have what we want, in about 30 seconds flat - the time it takes to swap out the used k-cup for a new one. Instant gratification: it's a beautiful thing. It's also given me an appreciation for supporting small business, and the awesomeness that is Fair Trade.

If you follow me on twitter, you know that I tweet about my morning cup of java all the time. I'm forever tweeting to @GreenMtnCoffee about the latest flavor we've had through the post. This is how I got to know the voice behind their tweets, Kristen.

I could wax on poetic for hours about Green Mountain Coffee: they make amazing coffee flavors. They support local communities and fair trade. They encourage their employees to volunteer. They reward loyalty by sending you little surprises once in a while in your recurring order. Most importantly, they appreciate their customer base. They have what I would consider the perfect recipe of Vermont living: friendly, honest, hardworking, and GREEN ideals. Kristen termed it Vermontitude. What a perfect word to describe their way of doing business.

I surprised my darling dearest husband for Christmas by arranging a quick trip to Vermont over this first weekend of 2010. He's been dying to try his hand (or feet?) at skiing, so I arranged some lessons for him. But I myself, well.. let's just say I already know that skiing would be a disaster from start to finish where I'm concerned. So after I dropped him off this morning for his full day of falling in the snow, I met Kristen at the Green Mountain Coffee visitor center and coffee shop in Waterbury, VT. An active train station, this gorgeous old building also houses a wonderful interactive museum about coffee, and how Green Mountain works with fair trade growers. Kristen was kind enough to buy me a cup of coffee - Wicked Winter Blend, which is, indeed, Wicked. We had a lovely conversation, and I'm an even bigger fan now than I was before this morning.




As you can probably tell, Pumpkin Spice is one of my favorite coffee flavors. I love it year round. So starting today, I'm on a campaign to get Green Mountain Coffee to offer Pumpkin Spice ALL THE TIME, not just in Autumn. You listening, @GreenMtnCoffee? I mean business. Serious BIDNESS.



p.s. I should make it clear: I haven't gained anything from Green Mountain Coffee for this entry, nor was I asked to do it. I simply love their products, and think you will too.

Believe it or not, a lot of the time, I don't use recipes. I let the ingredients guide me. Case in point: the delicious creation you're feasting your eyes on just above these words. After a trip to Trader Joe's, I had a new bottle of Marsala wine. I'd never really cooked with it, though I always enjoy eating food created with it. Armed with Marsala inspiration, I thought I would start with the bog standard, Chicken Marsala. But a grocery miscalculation left me with no suitable chicken in the house. What I did have was a whole heck of a lot of pork loin chops, and some button mushrooms.

Enter the crock pot. I know, I know, I've been cooking a lot with this thing lately! But honestly, if you're not already on the slow-cooker train, you should be. It helps you to avoid the Ramen Blues. My favorite thing about slow cooking is just how little preparation it takes to make something truly masterful.

Like I said, this meal wasn't really "planned". Basically, I threw the protein, veg, wine, and stock into the slow cooker and let it fly. And fly it did. When the pork was so tender it fell apart, I removed it from the slow cooker, and then added a bit of cream and sour cream to the stock and mushrooms, and thickened it with a roux. Everything went "back into the hot tub", as Rachael Ray likes to say, after the pork had been pulled. And then it was all layered on top of spiral pasta, and accompanied by simple crisp steamed green beans.

James and I both loved it, hoovering this all-new comfort food in like it was going out of style. But I can always tell if a recipe should make it here to the blog based on James's "Coworker Envy" meter. You see, a lot of them don't cook, or have partners who cook. So whenever James goes in with leftovers, he gets the once over. Sometimes the twice over. And if it smells really REALLY good, he gets the "Hey... what IS that?". With this meal? One coworker said "You should marry her." He said, "I already did!", and the coworker said, "I know. Do it again.". Hah.

Pulled Pork Marsala Stroganoff
serves 2-4

4 pork loin chops
1 package of button mushrooms
3 cups beef broth
1 cup Marsala wine
1 chopped onion
4-6 smashed garlic cloves
Kosher Salt & Pepper to taste

For sauce:
1/4 c. heavy cream or half and half
1 cup sour cream
butter and flour for roux

Throw all ingredients except cream and sour cream into slow cooker, leave on low for 4-6 hours. When pork is tender enough that it falls apart when you spear it with a fork, remove from crock pot and allow it to rest for a few minutes. Using two forks, pull at the pork so that it comes apart in shreds.

Pour broth-wine mixture and mushrooms from crock pot into a large skillet on the stove, medium heat. Add cream and sour cream, stirring to combine. Make a roux by melting approximately 4 table spoons of butter in a separate skillet, and then adding approximately 1 tablespoon of flour. Using a flat whisk, stir the roux until it creates a slight bubbly paste. Pour this into the Stroganoff sauce, increasing the heat and stirring until thickened. Add pork and continue stirring.

In a separate pot, boil enough pasta for the number of people eating. Highly recommend egg noodles, spiral or bowtie pasta - something chunkier. Even penne would work. When pasta is done, drain and plate. Cover with Pork Marsala Stroganoff, and add parsley for color and flavor.

Reheats beautifully.

Whoa Mama. Can I tell you how excited I was when these babies first came out of the oven? Never in my life have I baked something that looked identical to what I would find in the neighborhood bakery, or even a Starbucks (I mean, come on, have you seen their quality control?).

A while ago, James and I found Andes baking chips on one of our shopping jaunts. He was all about the regular Andes chips. But me? I was giddy with the red and white peppermint chips. How festive can you get?

When I spotted this recipe over on my friend Annie's blog, With Sprinkles On Top, I knew exactly how I wanted to use those Andes peppermint chips.

But you don't know my husband and his chocolate. So first we had to do a milk chocolate/regular Andes chip version. Then I got to make mine, with white chocolate chips, and peppermint chips. People, they did NOT disappoint. I've given them out as Christmas presents already, and I'll be making more before the big day is here. They're super duper easy, and gorgeous, especially if you use an ice cream scoop so that you end up with saucer sized cookies that even Starbucks would be proud to sell.

Dark Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
18 to 36 cookies, depending on size of scoop

1 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups white chocolate chips
½ cup Peppermint Andes chips

When I made these, I used 1 cup white chocolate chips, and 1 cup Peppermint chips. But I found that if I got a cookie with a lot of peppermint chips in it, the peppermint became a little overwhelming, especially if you were enjoying the cookie with a cup of hot coffee (and who wouldn't be?). So I've dialed that ratio back a bit here. It should also be noted that the chips I'm talking about from Andes are basically white chocolate chips, with peppermint flavoring.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the batter until the mixture is well-blended.
Mix in the two different chips. Drop using cookie or ice cream scoop onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes for smaller scooped cookies, or 12-14 for larger scooped cookies, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from here.

Oh boy. You know, I shouldn't work on this blog when I haven't eaten breakfast. It doesn't bode well for my eating choices for the rest of the day. For example, I have more of these meatballs in the fridge right now. Suitable breakfast? Maybe not. Suitably delicious? You bet.

This recipe was very generously shared with me by my sister's mother-in-law, Angie. Angie is probably one of the nicest mother-in-laws you could ever meet, and my sister is damn lucky to count her as her own. Plus, I think maybe she's an angel here on earth. After all, she made it through my bro-in-law's teen years. And that had to take the patience of at least a saint, if not an angel!

When my sister and brother-in-law were married nearly a decade ago, we were all quite young and poor, and they decided that a family-catered reception in my grandmother's backyard (mind you, it's huge, and filled with beautiful gardens) would be the best way to go. Immediately, out came the family recipes for every hors d'oeuvre under the sun. There were dips and breads, crudites and chips. And then there were these meatballs. Made by Angie's own hand for the reception (when she had nothing else going on, you know!), everyone there couldn't stop talking about them!

You'll notice in the photo that I've topped mashed potatoes with them. This isn't their typical presentation, but was certainly quite delicious. Typically, just keep them heated in a crock pot or chafing dish, and provide a slotted spoon and toothpicks for eating. They're a great protein option for holiday parties, be they Christmas, New Year's, or Super Bowl Sunday. Especially Super Bowl Sunday. Mmm. The one day a year when I don't give a flying monkey's whether I eat junk food all day or not.

Without further ado, let's make these meatballs!

You know it must be cold when all you want to eat are oatmeal, soups, stews, and pies. Autumn is really feeling more like Winter to me right now. Maybe because New Jersey's version of Autumn is what we call Winter in San Antonio. You'd think I'd be used to that by now, but not so much.

The other day, my friend Amanda over at What We're Eating and Food Porn Daily posted her recipe for Red Wine Braised Short Rib Beef Stew and ever since then, I've had beef stew on the brain.

Unfortunately, we're not red wine drinkers, so I didn't have any handy. But I did remember making this beef stew a while ago, and sure enough, the recipe came together in the crock pot in an absolute snap, and then tormented me the rest of the day with the delicious smells wafting through my house.

The nice thing about this stew is you probably have all the ingredients in your house right now. You can make it on the stovetop if you have an hour to an hour and a half, or you can make it in a crock pot in the morning, (or even the night before), and it'll be ready to go when you get home from work.

I think the reason it's called Cowboy beef stew is that it marries coffee and beef stock to make the rich, meaty broth. You can add red wine if you have it, but honestly, it was amazing with just coffee. For a thicker stew, make a roux of butter and flour, and add to the pot about 20 minutes before serving. You'll want to stir the pot frequently for it to thicken.


Cowboy Beef Stew
serves 2-4

1.5 lbs. beef - round steak, sirloin, or stew meat, chopped into bitesize pieces
2-4 carrots, chopped small
2 celery stalks, chopped small
1 onion, chopped small
3-4 small-medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup frozen peas, reserved.
1 8 oz. cup of coffee - I used Green Mountain Coffee 100% Columbian via K-cup from my Keurig brewer. It did not disappoint.
1 32 oz. box of beef stock (I recommend using organic free range)
Kosher salt and Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon Season-All
1 tablespoon Savory spices (thyme, oregano, sage, etc)
1 bay leaf (I didn't have one, so you can leave it out if you don't either)


Chop the onion, carrot, potato and celery, and place in a pot or slow cooker. Add the broth and the coffee. Ala Julia Child, cut the beef into pieces, and make sure to dry them with a paper towel. Heat some oil in a skillet, and brown the chunks of meat. Drain, and add to the pot or slow cooker. Add salt, pepper, and spices to taste.

Allow to cook for 4-8 hours (high or low) in crock pot, or 1-2 hours in stock pot. About 20 minutes before serving, add frozen peas.

I highly suggest serving this with warm rolls, chunky baguette, or cheese straws.