Cook-off Chili

I scoured chili recipes, since I don't have a tried and true one that I use. I admit it that I usually open a can of chili when I want to make chili dogs, chili fries, or well...chili.
This is what I came up with. I am not a spicy-hot kinda girl, so this is nice and mild with lots of flavor. Enjoy it and you may come in second at the church chili cook-off too.
I did get lots of compliments, and even was asked if this was Wendy's Restaurant chili from the drive-thru...That is a compliment too, right!?!

1 pound ground beef (mine was mix of beef and lamb)
1 large white onion, finely diced
1 large green pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 TBS garlic, finely minced
salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste or 2 tsp of Crazy Salt
1 envelope mild chili seasoning
1/4 tsp ground oregano powder, found in the Mexican spice aisle
1 46-oz can of vegetable juice (Like V-8)
2 15-oz can dark kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can light kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can red beans or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 4-oz can diced green chilies, mild
1 20-oz can crushed tomatoes in juice
2 bay leaves, whole
2 TBS to 1/4 cup sugar, this takes the acid bitter taste out of the tomatoes
More salt or pepper to adjust the taste. Mine needed about 1/2 tsp of salt for balance.

In a large skillet brown the meat, onions, and peppers until the meat is brown and the peppers and onions are softened. Add garlic and seasonings. I didn't drain my meat, it wasn't very fatty and the onions, peppers, and garlic needed some oil to cook in. I also added no water to the chili seasoning.

While meat and vegetables are browning, add to your crock pot add the juice, beans, chilies, tomatoes, sugar (start with only 2 TBS and add more if needed), and bay leaves. Set on high

You could add at this point black beans, canned/fresh/frozen corn, jalapeno pepper, what ever you want to make it your own. But I just went with the recipe as written above.

Add meat/veggies to the crock pot, stir well. Cover for one hour on high.
Turn the heat down to low for 3-4 more hours, or keep on high for 1-2 more hours.
Check for seasoning, add more sugar, salt or pepper as needed. I added more salt.

Serve with grated cheese, sour cream, and corn chips if desired.

Let me know if you try and and win your next chili cook-off!

Yellow Butter Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Butter Cream Frosting

Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour 24 muffin cups or line with paper baking cups
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside
Beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla for 30 seconds on high, until well combined
Add each egg one at a time and beat for 1 minute after each egg
Alternate between the milk and dry ingredients, beat on med-low speed until just combined
Scrape bowl between
Fill each cup 1/2 full with batter and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean
Cool on a wire rack
Make frosting

Frosting
1 stick (8 TBS) butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2-4 TBS heavy cream

Blend together the butter and cream cheese
Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, and beat for one minute after each cup
Add vanilla and 2 TBS cream, beat for 1 more minute
Add additional cream ONLY if needed for spreading consistancy
Frost cooled cupcakes
Store leftover frosting in fridge (yeah, like you are going to have any leftover ;)

Broccoli Beef

Broccoli Beef

• 1 pound flank or sirloin, sliced thinly across the grain (I chilled mine in the freezer for an hour before slicing)
• 2 pounds broccoli florets
• 2 large carrots, peeled, and cut into coins on the bias
• 1 cup white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 pound mushrooms, cleaned (do NOT rinse with water), and cut into large pieces
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 cloves garlic, very finely minced
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
• hot cooked rice

For the beef marinade

• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce

• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

Marinate the beef: Stir together the beef marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the beef slices and stir until coated. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Prepare the sauce: Stir together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

Steam the broccoli and carrots microwave safe dish. Add veggies with some water and a pinch of salt, cover and set microwave on high for 5-8 minutes until tender-crisp. Drain thoroughly.

Heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the beef and immediately spread the beef out all over the surface of the wok or pan in a single layer (preferably not touching). Let the beef fry undisturbed for 1 minute. Flip the beef slices over, add the garlic, onions and mushrooms to the pan and fry for an additional 1 minute until the beef is no longer pink.

Pour in the sauce, add the steamed veggies and bring to a boil, let boil for 3-4 minutes, stir to coat well.

Pour in the dissolved cornstarch and cook, stirring, until the sauce boils and thickens, 30 seconds.

Serve with hot cooked rice.

Polynesian Pasta Salad

I just celebrated 3200+ on the Facebook support page  with a Pasta Salad Party. 
I have been wanting to make a good old fashioned Polynesian pasta salad for the longest time.

SO I set out to make one, I looked up TONS of recipes and put together the bits and pieces that I wanted to have in my salad, and that sounded good to me. Here ya go...
.
I served mine with Kalua Pork , and good sticky white rice.

2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
5 ounces baby peas, thawed
3/4 c mayonnaise
1 TBS vinegar
1 TBS white sugar
1 TBS milk
1/2 tsp salt (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 med carrot, peel and shredded
4 green onions, thinly sliced

Cook macaroni for 10 minutes in salty, boiling water, drain, and rinse with cold water.
While pasta is boiling combine the rest of the ingredients in a salad bowl.
Add pasta and toss well. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour to over night be for stirring and serving.
Check to see if seasonings need to be adjusted. I added a little more salt and pepper.

Kahula Pork Roast

4 to 5-pound pork butt OR pork shoulder roast
2 1/2 tablespoons Hawaiian salt OR 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
2 tablespoons liquid smoke

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Place roast in a roaster pan.

Generously rub with salt, and sprinkle with liquid smoke.

Place lid on roaster pan, or cover tightly with foil and place in oven for 5-6 hours, or until meat is tender and shreds easily.

Remove pan from oven and let meat "rest" for 20-30 minutes. Then carve in thin slices, or shred well with two forks.

Ladle some of the meat drippings over the meat before serving to keep meat moist.

Pasta Salad Party

Thanks to all who came by to help celebrate over 3200 people who follow the MyRecipeRoundUp support page on Facebook with your amazing pasta salad recipes!

Savory Experiments

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Food Done Light 

Low Fat Macaroni Salad

A New York Foodie

Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Grilled Vegetables 

 

Let Them Eat Healthy 

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La Cucina Prima Donna 

 Fusilli with Sausage, Ramps and White Wine

 

MJ and Hungryman 

 

Zucchini Basil Pesto

FoodThoughtsOfaChefWannabe

Italian Macaroni Salad

Sherry K-Jazzy Gourmet

Rainbow Chicken Salad

A Calculated Whisk

Cilantro & Avocado Pesto Pasta Salad

Mom's Test Kitchen 

Peppered Bacon & Sweet Balsamic Pasta Salad 

The Baking Beauties 

Caprese Pasta Salad

My Turn for us

Pasta Primavera

Crumbs in my Mustachio

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What A Girl Eats

Summer Pasta Salad

Life Currents

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With A Spin

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The Fountain Avenue Kitchen 

Strawberry Pesto Pasta Salad

Berkshire Kitchen

Garlic Scape Pesto 

Nibbles by Nic 

Mozzarella, Basil & Tomato Pasta Salad

Red White and Blueberries 

Quinoa Pasta Salad

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Pasta Salad

Life Tastes Good

Salad Stuffed Shells

The Cookin' Chicks

Mom's Pasta Salad

Ortensia Blu

Orzo Salad

Curious Cuisiniere 

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Flavor Mosaic 

 

Antipasto Pasta Salad for Summer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creamy Baked Chicken

Jennifer S.

This is "kinda" like Chicken Cordon Bleu.

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
thin sliced ham, enough to cover each breast with 2-3 slices
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
plain bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
garlic salt
paprika

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a baking pan with foil.
Lay chicken breasts in pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Cover chicken with ham slices.
Top each breast with a large dollop of soup and spread to cover the top of each piece.
Combine about 1/2 cup of EACH of the bread crumbs and cheese, add some salt, pepper, and garlic salt to the mixture. Sprinkle over each chicken breast.
Sprinkle the tops of each with some paprika for color.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until juices run clear. 

Watermelon Sugar Cookies

Jennifer S.

Sugar Cookie Dough
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
You will also need:
Red and green food coloring
chocolate chips (two per cookie of the "standard" size chips or more if using mini-chips)

Make dough according to directions:
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together.

Divide dough into half, then divide one of the halves into half. You should have 3 batches of dough now. Your largest batch of dough needs to be colored with red food coloring. I used 8-10 drops of liquid food coloring to get the color that I wanted. With one of the smaller batches of dough color it green. I used 8 drops of green to get the color I wanted. Leave the third batch plain (white).

Roll the red dough into a log, and set aside. Roll out the white dough into a large rectangle, it needs to only be long and wide enough to cover the outside of the red dough. Roll up the red log of dough in the white dough. Now roll out the green dough into a large rectangle to roll up the red/white dough.
**Note you may need to use a little flour along the way to keep your dough from sticking to the counter and rolling pin. I used on of those flexible cutting boards to help me wrap mine around the rest of the dough.

You should now have a large log of dough with the red on the inside, covered with the white then covered with the green dough. Wrap the entire thing up in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 1-3 hours on a cookie sheet.

When ready to bake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Remove plastic wrap from sugar cookie dough log. Slice the dough into 1/4" slices and place 2" apart on an unprepared cookie sheet. Place two chocolate chips "point side" down into the dough (see picture) so that the smooth bottoms are facing up. These are your seeds.
Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on cookie sheets then cool on wire racks.

Citrus-Rosemary Grilled Chicken

Jennifer S.

This recipe came about because I didn't have enough of any one kind of citrus to make my recipe (which I was modeling off of Recipe.com)

Marinade:
1 tsp. orange zest, finely grated
juice from orange
enough lime juice to bring orange juice up to 1/2 cup
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 TBS rosemary. I used dried, but you can use fresh also, just remove the leaves from the stems.
2 TBS brown sugar
1 TBS garlic, finely minced
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2lbs total)


Combine marinade ingredients in a blender jar or food processor and blend well.
Pour marinade over chicken (in a zipper bag) and refrigerate for a 3-6 hours to over night. Move bag around occasionally.
Discard marinade.
Grill on a medium heat for 8-10 minutes a side, or until no longer pink and juices run clear. 
Enjoy!

Creamsicle Cake

Jennifer S.

Do you just love the creamy taste of Orange Creamsicles? Then this cake is for you!!

There really isn't anything "homemade" in this cake. But is sure was good!! And my kids have all requested that I make it again.

1 white or yellow cake mix, plus the egg whites, water, and oil needed to make cake
1 3-oz package of orange jello
1 6-oz package of French vanilla pudding
1 8-oz container of whipped topping, thawed
1 4-oz can of mandarin oranges, drained. Reserve the juice to add to the jello.

Make cake according to box directions. I made mine in 2 9-inch pie pans, because I was keeping one and giving the other to a friend.
Allow cake to cool for 5-10 minutes.
Use a fork and poke all kinds of "holes" into the top of the cake, be careful not to tear up the cake.
Add 1 cup of boiling water and 3/4 cup of the reserved juice from the mandarin oranges to the jello and stir until dissolved, evenly pour the mixture over the top of the cakes. Refrigerate for an hour (or more).
While cakes are in the fridge, make the pudding according to box directions for the PIE (using less milk).
Spread pudding on top of cakes.
Spread whipped topping on top of pudding.
Place mandarin oranges on top (see pictures)
Chill cake to set all the layers (and to make it easier when serving).
Enjoy!