Well Done Rib Roast

Delicious Well Done Rib Roast
Delicious Well Done Rib Roast

With any Holiday coming up, you will want to cook a special meal. This rib roast is a real treat and will not disappoint your guests. The herbs form a crust on the roast and it is slightly crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. It will be especially loved by people that don’t want pink in the center of their meat. I have cooked this a number of times and it has always disappeared quickly, so you may have to cook a large one.

Ingredients

  • 3-4 lb Rib Roast
  • 4 tbsp Cracked Black pepper
  • 4 tbsp kosher salt or coarse sea salt
  • 3 tbsp Basil
  • 2 tbsp Rosemary
  • 2 tbsp thyme
  • 2 tbsp granulated garlic

Directions

Thaw rib roast completely and store in fridge till ready to cook. Take out of the fridge sprinkle and massage each ingredient one at a time in and then let set for at least 1 hour at room temp. Preheat oven to 450 and then put in roast and brown uncovered for 20 to 30 mins till outside browned. Turn oven temp  down to 300 and cook for 2.5 hours, then start checking internal temp every 30 mins till it is 140 degrees. Then Remove from oven and tent foil over pan and allow to cool for 30-45 mins, then serve.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Sometimes the simple and easy things to make can taste really good and even be good for you. This cold, rich, creamy pick me up, is a way to get some of the daily fruit intake your body needs. I use a convenient little blender that I can put the ingredients in blend, then drink out of the same cup (Nutra Bullet) which makes it really handy and with very little cleanup. Before I got this, I rarely made smoothies because I had to get the blender out, make the smoothie, then clean up the blender and put it all away again. Now I just leave it on the counter make my smoothie rinse off and it is ready to go again. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

  • 5 strawberries stems removed (less if large).
  • 1 banana peeled
  • 2 or 3 ice cubes. (The smoothie maker above is powerful enough to use whole ice cubes)
  • 1 small container of yogurt (I used strawberry yoplait)
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup of milk
  • Any Nutritional Supplements you want, if any. (i.e. Protein powder, bee pollen, ginseng powder, etc)

Directions

Add the above ingredients and blend till smooth. It will come out thick and rich and taste awesome.

From Scratch Spaghetti Sauce

Rich From Scratch Spaghetti Sauce
Rich From Scratch Spaghetti Sauce

If you have the time to make this, you will really be in for a treat, and triple the batch size below, because you will want to have some for later. You can put the extra in a ziploc bag and freeze it or put it in the bottle and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Ingredients:

  • 10 roma (plum) tomatoes – peeled, seeded and crushed
  • 1/2 small onion finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 pinch cinnamon
  • 1 good pinch of sugar

Directions:

Put tomatoes, onion, garlic, and olive oil, oregano, basil, pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, sugar, and cinnamon into a slow cooker. Cover, and cook 10 to 15 hours on low. For great taste cook it for 10 hours and it will improve up to 15 hours. You don’t want to go much over 15 hours since the flavor will begin to dull.

Homemade Lemonade

Fresh Made Lemonade
Fresh Made Lemonade

Lemons have been in season for a while and now is a good time to make fresh Lemonade. It is very easy to make drink and tastes so much better when you make it fresh.

Ingredients

  • 1 to 2 lemons, depending on the size and juiciness.
  • 1/4 cup of sugar
  • 28 oz of water.
  • Lot of ice

Directions

Juice the lemons. I used 1 1/2 lemons since the lemons I had were very juicy. The lemons will become more juicy as they get more ripe, so when purchasing lemons it is better to get ones that are a little soft if you are planning to use them right away. I use a Mexican style juicer (Chef’s Star Lemon Squeezer , Lime Juicer & Citrus Press) since these are very easy to use and they extract all the juice very quickly. Add the juice, sugar and water to a pitcher. The water should be room temperature so that the sugar dissolves. Stir till the sugar is dissolved, then add the ice and stir again to cool the lemonade. Serve and enjoy you fresh home made lemonade.

 

Chipolte Black Bean Soup

BackBeanSoup
Chipolte Black Bean Soup

This is a quick, easy to make, Healthy meal. Everyone that has tried it likes it. It can be made to be vegetarian or vegan also.

Ingredients

  • 1 can black beans
  • 2 chipolte peppers chopped finely (from canned chipolte w/adobo sauce)
  • 1/2 onion finely chopped in food processor
  • 1 carrot finely chopped in food processor
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • sour cream (optional)

Directions

Add olive oil to sauce pan and over medium heat fry the garlic, onion, and carrot for about 5-7 minutes until soft. Add in chicken or vegetable stock and black beans and chipolte peppers  and simmer for about 30 minutes. Using a stick blender blend the mixture until smooth. Spoon into a serving bowl and put a small dollop of sour cream on top.

Jalapeno Wing Sauce

 

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I like buffalo wing sauce, but I tried the jalapeno wing sauce at Native Grill and I like it as much or better. You can’t buy this in the store and I had a fairly good idea of what the ingredients were from the flavor so I set out to make it myself. Here is what I came up with.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup of finely minced onion
  • 2 tbsp pickled jalapeno slices finely minced
  • 2/3 stick of butter
  • 1 whole raw jalapeno, stem removed, finely minced.
  • 4 cloves of garlic finely minced
  • 5 tbsp of the liquid from the jalapeno slices jar

Directions

Put the onion, garlic, and jalapeno into a food processor and chop until finely minced. On medium heat melt the butter and gently fry the  jalapenos, the onoin, and the garlic cloves for 10 minutes in butter, then add jalapeno pickling water. Use this as a wing dipping sauce or toss wings in it. You can also use it as a dipping sauce for anything else you like also.

Silky Delicate Creme Brulee

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This is one of my favorite desserts. The crunchy caramelized sugar top with the silky creme custard under it is a great way to finish any meal. It is the right size and richness so you feel satisfied but you don’t feel like you shouldn’t have eaten it. I adjusted the sweetness of the creme custard so it shifts more toward the creamy side and not too sweet. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

  • 6 large egg yokes
  • 2 1/2 cups of heavy cream
  • 3 1/2 tblsp of sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Extra sugar to create the crunchy caramel top (about 1 tsp ea).

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a mixing bowl mix, mix the egg y0lks, the 3 1/2 tblsp sugar, and the vanilla extract until the sugar is incorporated. Heat water in a pan to use with a double boiler later. In a sauce pan, heat the heavy cream up until it is frothy, almost boiling. You can heat on med high at first but when it starts to get warm lower the temp to med low and stir constantly. When the cream is hot and frothy, take a little bit and pour it in the bowl with the egg mixture while stirring with a whisk being careful not to add the cream too quickly (tempering the egg mixture) then continue to add a little bit at a time while stirring till it is all incorporated. Then add into a double boiler over the pan of boiling water stirring constantly until you can dip a spoon in the mixture and it fully coats the back of the spoon (I heated the cream to that point in only a minute and I also just used the glass mixing bowl over the pan the I mixed the egg mixture in to act as a double boiler). Then pour the mixture evenly into six ramekins. Take the boiling water used to in the pan for the double boiler and pour into a baking pan till it comes up almost 1 inch in the baking pan and then set the ramekins in the pan with the water to control the temperature and add humidity while baking. Put into the pre-heated oven and bake for 30 mins. Then take out of the oven and remove from the pan with the water and let cool on the counter for about 20 mins. Now cover and put int he refrigerator for a least 45 minutes to an hour till cool. You can keep in the fridge covered for several days if you’d like. Now when ready to serve heat up the oven broiler till red hot, then coat the top of the creme custard so it is just covered with sugar, no more than 1/8 inch and can be less. Then put under broiler till sugar turns slightly brown, watching carefully since it will go to black very quickly. You can also use a torch for this if you have one. Now put in the freezer for about 5 minutes to cool the sugar and ramekin before serving. Enjoy.

 

Green Chili Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada

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This is a very popular dish. I tend to make it a little spicy since I am from the Southwest, however you can tone it down by adding less of the green chilis. It does depend on the tub of chilis though, some are hotter than others.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken boiled for 2-3 hours meat removed/shreded
  • 2 cans cream of chicken soup
  • 1 tub of Frozen Baca green Chili. (If you want it hotter add 1 4 oz can of diced jalapenos additionally)
  • 2 cups of onion chopped
  • 1 cup of sour cream
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 16 oz of shredded chedar cheese
  • 50 corn totillas

Directions

Add cream of chicken soup, sour cream, thawed green Chili, chili powder, onion into a bowl and mix to make the sauce. Taste the sauce to see if you want to add the can of jalapenos. Take about 1/3 of this and add it to the meat. Spray each tortilla with a little bit of cooking oil and lightly fry till it just starts to brown. Coat the bottom of the baking pan with a little of the sauce mixture.  Take 1 large tablespoon of the meat and roll inside of the tortilla and add to the baking pan. Repeat until all the meat is gone and the pans are full. Then take the remaining sauce mixture and pour over the rolled tortillas. Top with cheese. You can make a layered enchilada to save time. Just take a little of the meat about 1/4 and spread on the bottom across all the pans. Spread some sauce over this. Sprinkle some of the cheese over it and add a layer of tortilla. Repeat this one or two times more. Then spread some sauce over the top and sprinkle some cheese. Bake at 350 degrees covered with foil for the first 15 minutes and then remove foil and finish baking till the cheese is melted in the center. If you want to garnish chop some green onions and sprinkle over the top.  Serve and enjoy.

 

East Hot Fluffy Dinner Rolls w/Cinnamon Butter

Hot Fluffy Dinner Roll
Hot Fluffy Dinner Roll

I love the fluffy, soft dinner rolls they serve at Texas Roadhouse restaurant but didn’t want to spend a lot of time making them. I searched around for a recipe that was easy and tasted a lot like the ones at Texas Roadhouse. I tried this one which uses a bread maker for the dough which allows you to load up the bread maker and  come back in a couple of hours, remove the dough and bake it. When served with the cinnamon butter, they taste a lot like the ones they have at the restaurant. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Rolls

  • ¼ cup lukewarm water
  • 1 cup lukewarm milk (Vegan option, use plain soy milk)
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter, room temperature (Vegan option, use margarine)
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 envelope (.25 oz) active dry yeast
  • ¼ cup melted butter for basting rolls

Cinnamon Butter

  • 4 tblsp of Butter (Vegan option, use margarine)
  • 1 tblsp Sugar
  • 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Directions

Pour all liquid dinner roll ingredients into the bread maker. Add the dry ingredients (except the yeast) to a bowl and mix then add to the bread maker. Now add the yeast on top of the dry ingredients so it is not in the liquid. Start your bread maker on the dough setting (you can also put on delay setting if you are want it to be ready later). When the dough cycle is complete, remove and roll out on a floured cutting board into a sheet and using a pizza cutter cut into 16 even squares. Put these on a baking sheet. You can use parchment paper on it if you’d like. Then put the baking sheets into a oven with a bowl of hot steaming water to rise until doubled or tripled. Then bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes until slightly browned. To make sure the outside stays soft when putting them into the oven throw 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the hot oven to add moisture. Coat with butter when removed from the oven and serve.

Luscious Green Corn Tamales

tamale

Living in the Southwest I have tasted some of the best green corn tamales but I want to have a supply on hand when I get a craving for one, so I make these and devour as many as possible and freeze the rest for the next time I get an urge for these.

Masa

  • 2 cups instant masa harina flour
  • 2 cups corn, fresh roasted and cut off the ear
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup Vegetable Shortening & butter(softened butter or vegan substitute)
  • 1/4 cup evap milk
  • 1 3/4 cup of water
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable broth powder

Filling

  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 2 roasted/peeled/seeded jalapenos
  • 2 roasted/peeled/seeded publano chili
  • 1.5 – 2 cups of Mixed Chedar & Pepper Jack (Or Vegan cheese substitute)
  • 1 – 1.5 cups of corn
  • 1 teaspoons cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

Directions

Mix Masa ingredients together and make Masa. Roasting corn and Jalapeno and Publano chilles. Seed and peal chili peppers and chop. Mix all filling ingredients together. Coat inside of a corn husk with masa and add a good tablespoon of filling. Roll this up so masa surrounds filling and steam for 30 minutes.