Taco Soup

I’ve seen a few recipes for taco soup on different sites recently and finally decided to make a batch. I adapted my recipe from a few others and this was delicious. I think I might like it better than chili. Plus, it made plenty extra to freeze for later or have for lunches during the week. This can also be made on either the stovetop or the slow cooker.

As I was eating it I was thinking about my vegetarian sister-in-law and how this could be adapted for her. I think you could either just add extra beans or use the fake meat/soy crumbles, plus using water in lieu of any chicken broth. For us non-vegetarians, I think you could easily substitute cooked shredded chicken too and it would be yummy.

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef (or ground turkey)
• 1 onion, diced
• Green onions, chopped
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 1 can chicken broth
• 2 cups (approximately) water
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 packet dry ranch dip/salad dressing mix
• Toppings to garnish – cheese, sour cream, corn chips, green onion, jalapenos, etc – anything you want!

Directions:

• In large pot, brown beef with onion. OR – if you want to use crockpot just brown beef/onion in a skillet and then add all the remaining ingredients to crockpot.
• Once beef is cooked and drained/rinsed of fat, return to pot. Add in all remaining ingredients, stirring to combine.
• Cook over medium to medium low heat (keep it simmering) until liquid reduces some – about an hour.
• If using crockpot, cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
• Serve and enjoy!

Christmas Custard

This beverage is a Christmas tradition in our family and it sort of resembles drinking melted vanilla ice cream. I’m not sure how many generations it spans, but each year my grandmother would make a batch and bring it over to our house. My mom took over the tradition, making a version in the microwave that was good but not quite the same. Last year I decided I would try my grandmothers recipe and it turned out great. Now I have taken over the tradition and am glad we can still have this favorite treat.

My brother has to follow a sugar free diet and so this year I made an experimental batch using splenda and he proclaimed it to be good. So…if you are looking to cut some calories substitute splenda…but it is still best with real sugar.

Custard

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Gallon Milk – I use either 2% or whole
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup extra (or Splenda)
• 2 T flour
• 2 T vanilla extract
• Extra milk – about 1/2 cup

Prep work before getting started:

• Separate eggs, putting yolks in a small bowl and the whites in either the bowl of a stand mixer or a larger mixing bowl where you can beat them.
• Add about a tablespoon of cold milk to the egg yolks and whisk. Set aside.
• In another small bowl, mix together 1 cup sugar and 2 T flour. Add in some cold milk (1/4 cup to 1/2 cup) and stir until sugar dissolves and there are no lumps.
• Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Mix in 1/4 cup sugar.

Directions:

• In a large pot (make sure it is a big one as this could boil over if you aren’t careful), heat milk until it boils. Whisk constantly because the milk will burn on the bottom of the pan. You could microwave the milk until boiling to avoid the risk of burning and then add it to the stovetop.
• Once milk comes to a boil, add some of the hot milk to your egg yolks to temper them to hopefully prevent the eggs from scrambling. Add tempered yolks to the milk and bring back to a boil, whisking constantly.
• After it returns to a boil, add in the sugar/flour mixture. Allow mixture to return to a boil again and keep stirring to prevent burning.
• Now remove the pot from the heat and take 2 cups of the hot milk and beat it into the eggs whites. This will make them runny. Add the egg whites to the pot and return it to heat – medium or so. Whisk to combine well and cook a few minutes more to make sure eggs are cooked. My grandmother said to just end after adding the egg whites, but I feel as if they should be cooked a little.
• Stir in vanilla extract and allow custard to cool in pot.
• Funnel into milk jug or a fancy pitcher if you like. If you think there are some lumps, just strain through a sieve when you are pouring it into the containers. I don’t think we have ever had a lump free batch, but you just get used to them and reminisce about your grandmothers lumpy custard.
• Refrigerate and enjoy once chilled, shaking carton before serving.

Here are the before and after pics in the pan – it is hard to photograph a drink! See how it doubles in size and nearly tops my pan…that is the importance of a large pot! It will deflate a little during the cooling process.

 

 

 

Baby Shower and Mini Boston Cream Pies

Last weekend we had a baby shower for my soon to be niece, Morgan! It was a lot of fun and my sister-in-law got some great goodies for the baby.

I had planned to make little cream puffs for one of the desserts, but that morning I failed at making them. Not sure what I did but they were crumbly and not edible. Since I had already made the pastry cream filling, I baked a vanilla sheet cake in order to make mini cakes, cutting circles with a biscuit cutter and layering them with pastry cream and then chocolate. If you have enough champagne or martini glasses you could serve these as individual trifles too. This now makes me want to figure out how to make a sponge cake to make a true Boston Cream Pie, as I love anything that incorporates pastry cream/pudding and chocolate.

Here are my pastry cream and chocolate glaze recipes, which I got from Baking Illustrated.

Pastry Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups half and half
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 5 large egg yolks
• 3 T cornstarch
• 4 T unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
• 1 1/2 t vanilla extract

Directions:

• Heat the half-and-half, 6 tablespoons of the sugar, and the salt in a saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
• While that heats, whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl until combined. Add in remaining 2 T sugar and whisk until creamy (15 seconds or so). Whisk in cornstarch until egg yolks become pale and creamy, about 30 seconds.
• When the half and half mixture reaches a simmer, slowly pour into the yolks while whisking in order to temper the yolks.
• Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat. Whisk constantly until a few big bubbles appear and the mixture is thick and glossy. Should only take about a minute or two for this.
• Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla.
• Over the storage bowl, strain the pastry cream in a sieve to insure there are no lumps or bumps. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it down on the surface of the cream so a skin does not form.
• Refrigerate at least 3 hours, or up to 2 days.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream (I used half and half)
• 8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (I ended up using a full bag of chocolate chips)
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 t vanilla extract

Directions:

• Bring the cream and corn syrup to a full simmer over medium heat in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; cover and let stand for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, stir the chocolate. If the chocolate has not completely melted, return the saucepan to low heat and stir constantly until melted.
• Add the vanilla; stir very gently until the mixture is smooth. Cool until tepid so that a spoonful drizzled back into the pan mounds slightly. (The glaze can be refrigerated to speed up to the cooling process, stirring every few minutes to ensure even cooling.)

Here was my dessert table – I also made mini chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and decorated baby onesie cookies. Everything was purple but looks more blue in the picture.

Pumpkin Gooey Cake

With Thanksgiving approaching I wanted to share this recipe with you. I have posted before about chocolate and yellow cake/vanilla Gooey Butter cakes before, but I recently made a pumpkin version which was very delicious! I am a pumpkin pie lover and I think this gooey cake trumps the pie. Bold statement I know but give this a try. It is a super easy semi-homemade recipe and just don’t think about the fact you are adding 2 sticks of butter! When you share it with others it is not that bad for you, and it is Thanksgiving after all.

Sorry for the bad pic…I never grabbed the camera once it was cut.

Pumpkin Gooey Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
• 1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
• 1 box (1lb) powdered sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t nutmeg

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13×9 baking pan.
• Mix together cake mix, 1 egg, and 1 stick of melted butter. Press into the bottom of pan.
• In large bowl, cream the pumpkin and cream cheese together until smooth. Beat in eggs, butter and vanilla.
• Mix in powdered sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and continue mixing until fully incorporated.
• Pour mixture over the cake mix crust.
• Bake for 40 to 50 minutes (start checking at 35 or 40 to make sure you don’t overbake). The center will still jiggle slightly when done. Allow to cool before serving.
• Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Guilt-Free Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup

Soup weather is here and I have been craving delicious creamy restaurant style soups. I wanted to attempt chicken and rice but without the guilt. I didn’t really find any great recipes online so just tried to merge a few ideas together. This hit the spot for me and I hope you will enjoy it too. It is definitely not as creamy/silky as other soups, but then again I didn’t add any fats or cream.

In addition to being healthy, I’m excited as I was able to make this soup without heading to the grocery store for ingredients! I’m trying to make an effort to use what I have in the pantry and freezer. I always try to keep diced onions and celery bagged up in the freezer to throw into recipes when needed, as well as shredded cooked chicken. My one missing ingredient was carrots, and I do think they would make this soup even better.

Guilt-Free Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 carrot, diced
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/4 t minced garlic
• 1 chicken breast, cooked and diced or shredded
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup rice (I used long-grain white, but next time might try arborio)
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 3 T flour
• Pepper (even I didn’t salt this as there is enough salt in the broth)

Directions:

• Saute onion, carrots, and celery in stock pot. I don’t add any oil/butter and just let them cook, but feel free to add some if you must. Once they are tender, add in garlic and cook for a minute.
• Stir in broth and rice and bring to a boil. Add any seasonings now like pepper or additional flavors you may like.
• Reduce heat, cover and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes until rice is done.
• In a small bowl, whisk together milk and flour so there are no lumps. Stir into soup and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for a few minutes until the soup thickens.
• Add in the chicken and allow to heat throughout. Serve and enjoy!

Next time I may experiment with adding in a mashed baked potato for extra thickness…that would require cooking a potato so it was too much effort for me today.

Cinnamon Rolls

I have wanted to make cinnamon rolls for a long time and I was even more anxious to do so after watching a Top Secret Recipe on Cinnabon. I took the dough recipe from The Pioneer Woman (as it seemed to the be the easiest) and the frosting from the top secret show. I think I still need to experiment a few more recipes and perfect my technique on making them, but overall they turned out pretty well. Thank goodness I made them for when we had company so I wasn’t tempted to eat ALL of them myself!

Note: I halved the dough recipe as I did not need 8 pans of rolls or however many it would produce, but the recipe below is the full version.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

• 1 quart Whole Milk
• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 packages Active Dry Yeast, 0.25 Ounce Packets
• 8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
• Plenty Of Melted Butter
• 2 cups Sugar (I added in some brown sugar too to one of my pans)
• Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

Directions:

• Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a large pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but not hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.
• After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).
• When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon (this is where I added in some brown sugar too).
• Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.
• Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.
• Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees (see note below) until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

Frosting (Cinnabon copycat recipe)

Note: Double if making the full recipe of dough, if not one batch is more than enough.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 6 oz unsalted butter, softened
• 6 oz powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt (I used salted butter so didn’t add in the extra salt)
• 2 drops lemon extract

Directions:

• Whip butter, cream cheese, vanilla, salt and lemon extract with electric mixer on high for 10 minutes until fluffy.
• Add powdered sugar and mix slowly at first and then on high speed for 30 seconds.
• Spread on rolls when warm.

Apple Cake

I recently made this cake for my father-in-law as it is his birthday, he was in town, and he and Kris both share a love of all things apple. I forgot to take pictures of the cake after removing it from pan…sorry! The cake got great reviews, but I didn’t try it as I saved my calories for other junk food options. This cake could be a regular cake served with ice cream or even viewed as a breakfast cake so give it a try.

This cake pan was one of my recent garage sale purchases…it was only $0.25!! I figure I just got my money’s worth right?

Apple Cake (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

Apple Filing

• 6 apples – I used Golden Delicious but McIntosh were recommended
• 1 T cinnamon
• 5 T sugar

Cake

• Sift flour, then measure out 3 cups
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup orange juice – I used apple juice as that’s all I had
• 2 1/2 t vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional and I omitted)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350. Grease a tube pan.
• Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Mix with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
• In large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, juice, sugar and vanilla.
• Mix wet ingredients into the dry, then add in eggs one at a time. Batter will be sort of thick.
• Pour half of the batter into prepared pan. Top with half of the apples. Pour and spread remaining batter on top of apples and then top with remaining apples. (or more simply the order is batter, apples, batter, apples)
• Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until tester comes out clean.

Chocolate Panel Bars

I made these last week to take to a wine and knit night I’ve been attending in an attempt to make friends. These bars were certainly a hit! It is a recipe I’ve had for a long time now but I never remember to make them. It is the closest thing I’ve made to my favorite Potbelly Dream Bar too! Next time I change up the filling and add in some caramel to make it more dream bar like. I also made these thick in a 13×9 pan, but think I might try a sheet pan next in order to make them a little thinner. Hope you try these soon!

Chocolate Panel Bars

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 2½ cups flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 3 cups quick oatmeal

Filling:

• 12 oz. Chocolate chips
• 2 T butter
• 1 cup walnuts (I left out)
• ½ t salt
• 15 oz can sweetened condensed milk (I had the fat free on hand and it worked just fine – not that it makes much of a difference with this recipe!)
• 2 t vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, sift flour, soda, and salt together. Add in oatmeal.
• Mix dry ingredients into creamed butter/sugar and combine.
• Filling: Combine chocolate chips, milk, butter, and salt in double boiler until melted. When chocolate mixture is smooth, add nuts and vanilla
• Spread 2/3 oat mixture in greased 13×9 pan or sheet pan
• Cover with chocolate mixture
• Dot with remaining oatmeal mixture – I also pressed it down a little to make sure it would be flatter but I doubt it matters.
• Bake 25 to 30 minutes (I did 25 and they were perfect)

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

I have been on a pork kick ever since we went to Key West this spring and had some delicious cuban pork. While I haven’t figured out yet how to recreate the cuban pork, I did make a delicious pork shoulder in the crockpot this weekend. I think I read every pork shoulder recipe on the internet and combined a few different methods.

You need to make sure to have your meat a day before you plan to cook it as it requires overnight salting! Many recipes called for brines, but this was easier and turned out great – plus it is what America’s Test Kitchen said to do and I trust them. I also didn’t really measure my rub ingredients..just eyeballed them but here’s a good guess at the amounts.

Everything I read called for cooking the shoulder with the fat side up whether it was in the oven or the crockpot. I did trim a little excess fat from other parts, but the top layer pulled right off when done cooking.

Ingredients:

• 1 boneless pork shoulder (or can be called a butt) – mine was 4 lbs
• 1/3 cup kosher salt
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1/2 t paprika or chili powder (most recipes call for paprika but I didn’t have any so subbed in chili powder)
• 1 t Lawry’s seasoning salt
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 chicken bouillon cube (or 1 cup chicken broth)
• 1 cup water

Directions:

• The night before you plan to cook the roast, rinse and pat dry. Cut slits into the fat on top and then rub the kosher salt all over (I only did it on the top…not the bottom too). Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight.
• The next morning, combine sugar, paprika/chili powder, and seasoning salt. Remove pork from fridge and rub the top with the dry rub mix.
• Dissolve chicken bouillon cube into 1 cup of water and pour into crockpot (sub 1 cup chicken broth if you don’t have bouillon). Add in 2 whole garlic cloves and then place pork in the water.
• I cooked on the 6 hour high option. When time is up, pork will be falling apart.
• Remove from crockpot and shred with forks, removing all fatty parts. Discard remaining liquid.
• Return shredded pork to the crockpot and I  let it cook on “warm” for a little bit longer. You could also add in bbq sauce at this point but I left mine plain as I love the flavor of the pork by itself.
• Serve and enjoy!
• **Note you could do this in the oven too if you don’t have a slow cooker – just roast on a low heat like 300 until the meat reaches 200 to 220 degrees internally – about 3 to 4 hours maybe. You want the internal temp to be higher than when normally making pork so that it is pull apart ready, not a sliceable roast.

Here’s how it looked pre-cooking with the rub on. If you don’t want to use a rub that will be fine as I’m pretty sure all the flavor came from the overnight salting.

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

I wanted to try something different than our usual potato optionsand ended up with this casserole. This summer my cousin Denise made us a cold loaded baked potato salad that I really enjoyed, and this is basically her potato salad served warm. This could also be done as twice baked potatoes…just save the potato skins to refill them. This would also be a great way to use up leftover baked potatoes.

Ingredients: (All of these ingredients will depend on how many potatoes you use so just mix up to your liking)

• Russet/Idaho potatoes
• 1 cup light sour cream
• Butter (I omitted but bet it would make this even better)
• Bacon – cooked and crumbled
• Cheddar cheese, shredded – about 1 1/2 cups
• Green onions, chopped
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

• Bake potatoes in a 400 degree oven for an hour or until done.
• Cut hot potatoes in half and allow to cool a few minutes. Scoop into a large mixing bowl.
• Mix in sour cream, cheddar cheese (reserving some for top), bacon, onions, salt and pepper. Use a potato masher if you want or just stir it all together if you like it lumpy. Taste and add any more of each ingredient you feel is needed. I just made sure the potatoes had a decent amount of sour cream so they weren’t dry.
• Scoop mixture into a casserole dish, or back into potato skins. Top with remaining cheddar cheese.
• Bake at 350 until cheese is melted on top and heated through – about 20 minutes for casserole.

**For Denise’s potato salad I think she said she mixed sour cream and mayo together, but it is basically the same and then chilled instead of baked. Give it a try!