Beef Taco Casserole

We like tacos around here. However, the assemble your own variety can get old.  I like this every once in a while.  I have stopped using taco seasoning mix altogether.  I have found you can get the same great taste without all that unnecessary sodium and preservatives.  I always use this meat mixture now instead of the packet.  It's much healthier and super easy.

Beef Taco Casserole

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 (14.5 ounce) can or box of diced tomatoes with green chile peppers (I like Rotel)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

8 ounces shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese

1 (18 ounce) package corn tortilla chips, lightly crushed

Sour Cream to garnish

Lettuce (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef and drain fat. 

Add the diced tomatoes with green chile peppers and spices. Simmer 10-15 minutes or until beef is cooked through and no pink remains.

In the bottom of a 9 x 13" baking dish, place a layer of tortilla chips. Cover with a layer of the meat mixture then a layer of cheese. Repeat this process two more times, ending with cheese on top.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly.

Garnish with sour cream and serve on a bed of lettuce (if you like).

Mrs. Nathan's Pot Roast

This is my pal Melissa Nathan's recipe. She used to be my assistant a long time ago and she is a pretty rockin' Stage Manager. She calls it Mom's Pot Roast but I couldn't do that as my mom uses a very different recipe and she might kill me!

Mrs. Nathan's Pot Roast

1 onion, sliced

lg pot roast

garlic, minced

1 cup water with 1 tsp bouillon dissolved

1 - 8 oz can tomato sauce

2 Tbs brown sugar

1/4 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp mustard

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup vinegar

Preheat oven 350. Slice onion in bottom of pan. Spread garlic over meat; pour broth over. Mix rest of ingredients and pour over meat, cover and cook about 3 hrs. Turn after every hr.

"Delicious! My mom's recipe. Makes it for the jewish holidays." -Melissa

Bacon and Cheddar Meatloaf

Ingredients

• 2 pieces bacon, diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound ground beef chuck
• 8 ounces ground pork
• 8 ounces ground turkey
• 8 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded (2 1/3 cups)
• 1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Glaze Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 4 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cook bacon in a skillet over medium-low heat, until crispy and fat renders, about 10 minutes.

Remove bacon, reserving renderings in the skillet. Cook the onions and garlic in the pan drippings until brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk the eggs, mustard, hot sauce, Worcestershire, cream, salt, and pepper. Add the meat, cheese, parsley, and cooked onion. Chop and add the bacon. Mix with a fork until evenly blended. Whisk the glaze ingredients together in a bowl.

Dampen hands with water and on broiling pan, pat mixture into a loaf shape. I use the broiling pan because then all the grease drips off the meatloaf and into the bottom, trust me - if you don't your meatloaf will be sitting in about an inch of grease. YUCK! Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers 155 degrees F, about 1 1/2 hours. Spread the glaze onto the meatloaf in the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Let loaf rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

I like to serve with potato wedges and a green salad.  I also like to put BBQ sauce on the top of this instead of the glaze, but that's just me!

Hope you like it.

Corned Beef and Cabbage in the crock pot

You know how I love my slow cooker. This is one of those meals that looks really time consuming and difficult but in reality is simple and easy!







Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: approx. 10 hours

Ingredients:
* 6 carrots, cut into chunks
* 4 potatoes, cut in half
* 2 stalks of celery, chopped
* 2 onions, sliced
* 2-3 lb. corned beef brisket with seasoning packet
* 12 oz. can Guinness beer
* 2 Tbsp. spicy brown mustard
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 cup water
* 8 wedges cabbage

Preparation: In 6 quart crockpot, combine celery and onions. Rinse corned beef under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Place in crockpot. In small bowl mix brown sugar with water and beer and pour over brisket. Spread mustard on brisket and sprinkle seasoning packet on top. Cover crockpot and cook on low setting for 6-8 hours.
Add potatoes and carrots and cook an additional 2 hours.

Remove corned beef from crockpot and cover with foil to keep warm. Add cabbage wedges to vegetables and liquid in crockpot. Cover crockpot and cook on high for additional 30-40 minutes or until cabbage is crisp tender. To serve, cut beef across grain into thin slices. Remove vegetables from slow cooker with slotted spoon and serve with beef. Serve cooking juices over the meal, if desired. Offer additional mustard on the side.

8 servings

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

Awesome Meatballs

This recipe is so good and so easy! A long time ago I used to have Italian Night when I worked for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. One night some of the crew delivered 10 lbs. of ground beef and 10 lbs. Italian sausage and asked me to make as make meatballs as I could. I was up to the challenge and this is the recipe I created.

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. Italian sausage (mild or hot)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups Italian breadcrumbs

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup Romano cheese, grated

1 tablespoon fresh chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil

1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano

1/2 cup warm water

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine meats in a large bowl. Add eggs, garlic, cheese and spices; mix well. Add in breadcrumbs and mix again. Add water and mix a final time. The mixture will be a little gloppy from the water, but it will make the final product so tender!

Form into balls. This will make 16 meatballs. (Less if you make them bigger.) Spray a broiler pan with non-stick cooking spray and place meatballs. I use this type of pan so the grease drains.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Your time may vary. You are looking for a nicely browned meatball. If you don't put them in sauce, you need to make sure the internal temp comes up to 160 degrees before eating!

Or...Drop meatballs in your sauce and cook an additional 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti alla Bolognese aka Spaghetti Sauce like Grandma used to make

My Grandma made spaghetti sauce differently than the other families I know. Sauce at my "Gramma's" didn't have a lot of sauce, but sure did have a lot of stuff in it. When I started cooking on my own I investigated tomato sauce based stuff and found I didn't like it as much. I also discovered that Gramma didn't make Marinara or Ragù. She made Bolognese. Yum! I am currently out of town and living in a hotel so I will probably not have any photos for a while but I will do my best to keep posting until I get on the ship.

1 lb. ground italian sausage
1/4 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 6 oz. can of tomato paste
2 15 oz. cans of diced tomatoes.
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon Oregano (or 2 tablespoons fresh)
1 tablespoon Basil (or 2 tablespoons fresh)
1/2 tablespoon Fresh ground Black Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dry red wine (I like a merlot)

Fry up your meats on medium heat. They can go in together. Drain any excess grease.
Next add in your onion, carrot and celery and garlic and fry until soft.
Add the wine and let it come to a simmer before moving on. By "simmer" I mean lightly bubbling. This will let the wine flavor marry with the other ingredients.
Then add in your diced tomatoes, all the dry seasonings and mix well.
Add the tomato paste. Fill the empty can with water two times and add it too.
Mix it all around and let it come back to a simmer.
Turn your heat down to low and cover your pan.

If you are going to do this right, let it simmer for 3-5 hours. Keep an eye on it or it will burn. Just stir every 20 minutes or so.

Truthfully, it is ready to eat about 20 minutes after you add the tomato paste. But it will taste OH SO MUCH better if you let all the ingredients sit together for as long as you can stand. You may find you need to add another can of water if you simmer it the full time.

Serve over spaghetti. Not angel hair, not thin spaghetti. REAL spaghetti. Thick and filling.
Add a nice green salad and some garlic bread and you have a delicious and cheap meal.

This should serve 6 with no leftovers.

YUM!

Cooper's Tail Waggin' Good Chili

For those of you who don't know... Cooper is our pup. He's really cute and loves to hang around the kitchen while I cook.

1 lb. stew meat, cut into 1/4" pieces (trim off as much fat as you can)
4 hot Italian sausage links, taken out of the casings
1 lb. ground turkey

1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 medium white onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
4 jalapenos, diced (keep the seeds of only 2 peppers)

2 tablespoons Cayenne
2 tablespoons Chili Powder
2 tablespoons Cumin
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 tablespoons Chipotle chili fakes
1 teaspoon Salt

2 6 oz cans of tomato paste
2 14 1/2 oz. cans of diced tomatoes

2 15 oz. cans of spicy chili beans
1 15 oz. can of dark red kidney beans

1 12 oz. unibroue beer (or whatever you like - a medium ale)

Fry the sausage and turkey together in a large, heavy bottomed pot.
Remove and drain the meat in a colander.
Sear the stew meat in the same pot.
Remove the stew meat to the colander.
Pour just enough of the beer into the pot to deglaze. Scrape all the brown bits off the bottom.
Add a tiny bit of olive oil and saute the onions, green and red peppers, jalapenos and garlic.
All all the meat back into the pot.
Add the rest of the beer.
Add all of the dry spices.
Add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes.
Simmer for about 20 minutes.
Add the beans.
Simmer for another 30 minutes or so.

Serve with sour cream and shredded cheddar.

This is not a "burn you face off right away" chili, it is a slow burn - make you sweat type of heat.

YUM!

London Broil

Times are tough, here is a cheap and easy recipe.

Technically London Broil is a way to prepare meat, not a cut of meat but lots of supermarkets sell a cut of top round and call it London Broil.

London Broil

Ingredients:

2 lb. piece of Top Round or Flank Steak

1 container of fresh mushrooms (as many or few as you like)

Marinade:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 olive oil

1/2 tablespoon garlic, crushed

1/2 tablespoon fresh ground pepper

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Combine all marinade items in a zip top bag. Close the bag and shake it a few times to mix all ingredients.

Add your meat to the bag.

Squish out all the air and leave to marinate overnight in fridge*, turning once.

*If you are cool like me, you can put this in your FoodSaver Marinator and marinate this in about an hour.

The meat should come out of the fridge an hour before cooking. It can just sit on your counter and come to room temperature. (Thank you, Alton Brown, for that little gem.)

Preheat oven on your Broil setting.

Broil your meat about 4 inches from the coils for about 5 minutes on each side. This is my best advice because all ovens are different. If you have ever done fillets in the oven, it's about that long. You want it to come out medium rare. Any more done will result in a TOUGH, DRY piece of shoe leather.

I put the mushrooms in an oven proof container on a lower shelf in the left over marinade. The marinade then becomes the sauce. (Make sure the marinade comes to a boil.)

Let the meat rest on your cutting board for 10 minutes before cutting. Then thinly slice it at a 45 degree angle across the grain.

Serve this with baked potato and a nice green salad. (or whatever you like!)

YUM!