We love pork in this house. And beer. Two of the few things a Texan and a Brit might have in common from the very start, wouldn’t you say? A couple of weeks ago, James came home with a six pack of Sam Adam’s Octoberfest beer.

Now, I’m not a beer drinker. But I loooooove to cook with beer. I love the earthy, deep, and rich tones it adds to everything from bread to cupcakes, but I especially love it in stew and pie applications.

Guinness is great in a steak pie. And Sam Adam’s Octoberfest beer is great in a quick skillet stew.
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Read the rest of Pork and Beer Skillet Stew & a Le Creuset Giveaway (1,133 words)

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Post tags: beer, dinner, Le Creuset, one dish dinners, pork, quick and easy, stew

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When I was a kid, many a weeknight dinner started with a jar of, as many of us Southerners term it, “Spaghetti Sauce”.

It wasn’t until I moved to the East Coast that I learned a few things about my beloved Spaghetti Sauce. (Or as Davey and Ava like to call it, “Basketti Sauce”.)

‘Round here, it’s just “sauce” or “gravy”. And people sorta judge you if your sauce comes from a store-bought jar.

Well, I’m here to say that while I’m fully capable of making my own “gravy”, there are just some nights when it is not going to happen.

Sometimes you’ve got to choose between giving into a drive-thru, or pulling a jar out of the pantry. I guarantee you, pulling the jar out of the pantry will result in less calories every time.
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Read the rest of Turkey Burger Soup (624 words)

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Post tags: quick and easy, soup, stew, turkey, Vegetable

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Everyone has their favorite chicken and dumplings recipe. I’ve even blogged about what I thought was mine.

But the other night, come 5:30, I was struggling with dinner ideas when an intense craving for chicken and dumplings hit me. With the nearest Cracker Barrel over an hour away, waiting for The Brit to get home and then making that trek was just not an option.

But that craving would not abate – so I started simple and quick, with organic chicken stock in a box. Then, I simply let my hands, and my gut, take over.
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Read the rest of Easy Chicken and Dumplings (388 words)

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Post tags: chicken, dinner, dumplings, easy, easy dinner recipes, quick, quick & easy, soup, stew

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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.

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Post tags: beef, crockpot, stew

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You know by now that I love me some tortillas. With butter. With beans and cheese. With eggs and bacon. With.. carnitas!

What are carnitas, you ask? Well, traditionally, it’s roasted or sauted pork. A lot of times, I’ve had it as ‘pulled’ pork. In fact, Qdoba, a popular burrito chain, does their carnitas burrito this way.

My version of carnitas is Carne G inspired with a desperate need to use up a bunch of pork loin to make room in the freezer. But don’t let that deter you. OMG was it tasty.

I made this last night for some friends, and it went down really well. Unfortunately, I have no photos because the camera is dead. One of the hazards of moving and not entirely unpacking – I’ve got no clue where the darn charger is. Luckily, the method is pretty much the same as Carne G, so you could happily follow those step by step photos.

Let me know how you like it!

This meal was a complete experiment, so the recipe is approximate. Feel free to adjust to fit your family. I fed 5 adults, with enough left over for approximately 2 more meals for 2 people at 2 tacos each.

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Post tags: carnitas, pork, stew, tacos

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Carne Guisada (car-ney gee-sada) is a thick Mexican beef stew, typically served in flour tortillas, which, by definition, makes a taco. For future reference – food inside tortilla = taco, regardless of the variable fillings.

You can have it on its own, or topped with cheddar cheese and sour cream. Where I come from, it’s a perfectly acceptable breakfast, lunch, or dinner food. Many a San Antonian will tell you its an excellent hangover cure. So will my British husband!

I’ve had Carne Guisada from many a Mexican or Barbecue restaurant in Texas, but this particular recipe comes to you from the SAFD, the honorable San Antonio Fire Department. J.J., my brother-in-law, is a fireman down there in Texas, and this is a recipe that frequents the firehouse table.

I stayed at my sister and brother-in-law’s house when I was recovering from surgery, and secret sweetheart that he is, J.J. made this recipe for me. He says we’re not allowed to call it Carne Guisada, because it is such a bastardized recipe that most Mexican citizens would go blech! when they see the recipe. So instead, we call it Carne G.

But I promise you, it tastes the same. And it looks the same.

And it’s downright sinfully delicious.

It’s also one of these recipes that is very loosey-goosey. It’s going to be difficult for me to give you absolutes on the spice measurements, because honestly, it’s all to taste. When you make it, you can make it as spicy as you want, or as smokey as you want with the cumin, or, you can do incredibly strange things like my friend Maggy that came to dinner, and request POLLO G – yes, that’s right, this recipe made with chicken. It was a first for me, but definitely pretty tasty. I still maintain Maggy is a weird-o. Good thing I love her anyway.
Ready?

The Players: Beef, Golden Mushroom Soup, Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chile, Red Pepper, Onion, Cumin, and Garlic Salt

A few words about the ingredients before we go any further:

1) It doesn’t matter what cut of beef you use, other than don’t use hamburger. Sirloin to stew meat, the world is your beef oyster.

2) If you live somewhere that you can’t find Golden Mushroom Soup, that’s okay. Guess what makes it “golden”? Beef Broth. So just get regular cream of mushroom soup, and mix in about a cup of beef broth.

3) If you live somewhere where you can’t find Rotel, get a can of Diced Petite Tomatoes and one single jalapeno. Cut open, de-seed, and chop the jalapeno.

4) I used chopped frozen onion, only because I forgot to get a whole one. Use 1 whole onion for this recipe.

5) Spices – Cumin and Garlic Salt are important, but if you want to kick things up, feel free to add chili powder, black pepper, etc.

Now, back to what we were doing..

First, chop your beef into bite size (about 1×1 inch) pieces. And if you’re a weirdo called Maggy, do the same for your chicken.

Now, on a different cutting board (cross contamination is bad, mmmkay?), slice your pepper into strips, and chop your onion (or you know, pour them from the bag).

(Upon reflection, cutting red pepper on a red cutting board doesn’t transfer well to photo. Whoops.)

Here, a better shot where you can see them.

Before we get started cooking this, a quick note on procedure. If you’re in a hurry, brown the meat as I’m going to show you and throw into a stew pot on medium heat. If you’re not, and you have a slow cooker, just throw it all in and leave it for a few hours. If you’re in between, like I was, you’ll brown the meat, AND use a slow cooker.

Pour about a tablespoon of oil in a heated frying pan. I used Olive Oil, but you can use vegetable oil, it doesn’t matter. When the oil is nice and hot, add in your beef to brown.

Now take that garlic salt..

And give the meat a liberal sprinkling. This is entirely to taste. But if I had to take a guess, I’d say it was about a teaspoon, maybe two.

Now add in your chopped onion.

And stir occasionally to ensure even browning.

Now add in your red pepper strips and repeat the process of stirring so that they too can cook through.

(Ignore that rogue pepper under the pan. Slippery little sucker!)

In either your separate stew pot, or your slow cooker, start adding in your cans of soup. For 4 lbs of beef, I used 3 cans of Cream of Golden Mushroom soup. If you can’t find this soup, like I said earlier, add about a cup of beef broth at the same time.

Then add to your soup your can of Rotel, or your can of petite diced tomatoes and jalapeno.

And then stir it all together.

Next, we’re going to add the KEY ingredient to Carne G’s flavor: Cumin. Cumin is also known as Camino. It has a smoky flavor, and can be added to lots of different dishes to give them a unique flavor.

I added about a palmful, which, according to Rachel Ray, is roughly a tablespoon. Again, this is to taste, so if you loooove Cumin, add more. Entirely up to you.

At the same time, add more garlic salt, directly to this mixture. Again to taste, but I’d say roughly 2-3 teaspoons.

At this time, you can also add chili pepper, dried red pepper, black pepper, or any other seasoning you might fancy.

Stir.

Now add in your meat, onion, and red pepper mix, and stir.

Whoa baby.

Now, you want to let this baby simmer. We left it in the slow cooker for about 2 hours on high. If you added the meat, onion, and peppers directly to the mixture without browning first, you probably want to let it cook for at least 4 hours. On the stovetop, you’re probably looking at half an hour. It’s all about how quickly you want your food done. If you want to start this first thing in the morning on low, by dinner time, you’re going to have melt in your mouth Carne G. It’s just all in your patience level.

If at any point you feel the stew is a little thin, feel free to add flour to thicken.

It should be said that these tacos are a messy affair, but you don’t want thin gravy here.

When it’s ready, heat up some tortillas in the microwave, or my preferred method, wrapped in foil and in the oven. Add a spoonful of Carne G to the tortilla, and fold.

We paired our tacos with refried beans, and you could also side them with a salad. They’re also good just on their own.

And do like Maggy does, adding some sour cream, alongside an ice cold beer.

Oh yeah, it was good food, people.

Let me know your results!

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Post tags: beef, Jeremy, mexican, Rotel, stew, tacos

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