Carne Guisada

This one is not an old family favorite, but it IS a new family favorite! I found this recipe in a Facebook group and tweaked it each time we made it until we dialed it in to what we have here.

This is one of those meals that has made it into the lineup as a comfort dish. I love to prepare it when the weather turns cold or just on days when I'm stressed and tired. And since it is a set-it-and-forget-it crock pot meal that takes days to eat up, it's one I turn to when I know a busy week is on the schedule.


Crock Pot Carne Guisada

Stuff You Need:

• 3 lbs chuck roast, cut into bit sized chunks (a bit smaller than stew meat chunks)
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper and/or jalapeño, diced
• 1 - 8oz can El Pato hot tomato sauce
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• .5 tsp black pepper
• 3 Tbs AP flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• .5 tsp oregano

What To Do:

1. In large pan, brown stew meat in olive oil, in small batches. Set in crock pot after browned.
2. In meat drippings, saute onions and peppers.
3. Add tomato sauce, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. Stir well.
4. Add chicken stock and mix well.
5. Sprinkle beef with flour, toss to coat well.
6. Pour in tomato sauce over meat. Stir to make sure beef is well coated.
7. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
8. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Serve with flour tortillas and/or rice.

Marengo Cavour (Italian Meringue Torte)

The name may be unusual, but this meringue torte filled with chocolate and liqueur-laced whipped cream is a truly decadent treat! We only make for special occasions like our anniversary or as extra special treat during the holidays. It is light and sweet and always a crowd pleaser!

There isn't enough of the coffee liqueur to be a problem, but I would still classify this as an adult dessert.


Marengo Cavour (Italian Meringue Torte)

Stuff You Need:

• 4 egg whites
• 1½ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp instant coffee powder
• 4 Tbs coffee liqueur - NOTE: if you do not have or prefer not to use liqueur, you can substitute for the same amount of brewed or instant coffee (the stronger, the better)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 large milk chocolate bar (~7 oz), chilled and coursely chopped

What To Do:

1. Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl and beat on high speed until frothy.
2. Continue beating while adding sugar, 1 tsp per minute, sprinkling gradually over the mixing egg whites.
3. Once all the sugar is incorporated, add the vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. The egg whites should be very stiff.
4. Grease 2 parchment-lined baking sheets and dust with flour or spray with something like Baker's Joy. Trace an 8" circle on each sheet.
5. Spread half of the merenge onto one of the baking sheets, making a plain, smooth disk. Repeat on the other sheet with the remaining merenge.
6. Bake both disks at 250F for 90 minutes, then leave in the oven as it cools for 2-3 hours (or over night if possible).
7. To prepare the cream filling, start by blending the instant coffee and liqueur until the coffee has dissolved.
8. Next, in the stand mixer, whip heavy cream until stiff.
9. Fold in the coffee mixture and most of the chocolate. Reserve some for garnish.
10. Spread half of the cream mixture on the bottom merenge and top with the other merenge.
11. Spread the remaining cream mixture on the top merenge and sprinkle remaining chocolate shavings on top.
12. Chill until ready to serve.

NOTE: Typically, I will make the merenges the night before I need the dessert. They can cool in the oven for up to 2 days if necessary. Everything comes together very quickly once the merengues have had time to cool.

Cocoa-Crusted Slow Cooker Pot Roast

When I started this project, I asked almost every member of my family the same questions: What were your favorite meals growing up? What do you remember eating on a regular basis as a kid? What dishes do you remember from family gatherings back in the day? What do you look forward to eating during the holidays?

I have gotten a mixed bunch of answers. But one family member who takes a bit of abuse when it comes to cooking is my paternal grandmother, Mary Jane Martinez. I simply knew her as Granny and she was such an integral part of my childhood.

My Martinez grandparents lived just outside of Huntsville, Texas on a couple of acres we all referred to as "the Hill." And on that hill lived my grandparents, my Great-Grandmother Kyle, and several aunts/uncles/cousins! We all lived within sight of one another and that meant there was always someone to keep you company, to find some adventure with, or to cook up some trouble for our precious Granny to deal with. Granny never withered under the pressure of wrangling a wild brood of grandkids. She was well practiced after so many years as a school teacher and of course, from bringing up the first generation of the Grass-bur Hill Bunch (our parents)!

I've strayed a bit from my original focus ... when I asked all of those questions about my Granny, some of my cousins couldn't resist giving Granny a bit of a hard time. While I don't recall Granny being a 4 star chef, my memories do not include anything particularly bad either. I remember us always having food. And I recall looking forward to most meals, not dreading them. But a few of my cousins remember things differently. They're older than I am, so maybe Granny picked up some skills before I came into the picture.

But no matter what you remember, I guess you can say Granny was kind of a "meat and potatoes" kind of cook. And along those lines, a dish she often prepared was an oven roasted pot roast. I remember the house smelling so nice as the roast would simmer away in its oven bag, accompanied by a handful of red potatoes, carrots, and onions.

The recipe I'm sharing here is not Granny's recipe, but it IS a favorite enjoyed in our home. We prepare it in a crock pot because it is easy, but it could easily be put into an oven bag like Granny always did.

Cocoa-Crusted Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Stuff You Need:

• 3 lb chuck roast
• 2 Tbs cocoa powder
• 1 Tbs sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp habanero chili powder
• ½ dried oregano
• 1 Tbs grape seed oil (or olive oil)
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 large onion, quartered

What To Do:

1. Combine the dry seasonings in a small bowl.
2. Rub the spice mixture over your roast and refrigerate for 30 minutes (over night is great, if you think about it before hand).
3. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan (I use a cast iron skillet) over medium hat.
4. Once the oil is hot (when it starts to shimmer, but before it begins to smoke) add your onions to the pan and let them cook until slightly browned.
5. Separate the onions and line the bottom of your slow cooker with them.
6. Add the broth and set aside.
7. Brown your roast on each side, until you have a nice crust, 2-3 minutes per side.
8. Transfer the roast to your slow cooker, place on top of the onions, and cook on low for 8 hours.

This comes out of the crock pot ready to fall right apart for you! It's juicy and tender and full of flavor.

We like to serve it with a side of taro root fries, snappy apple slaw, or just a fresh green salad.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as we have!

Crock Pot Carnitas

There are a lot of reasons I wanted to include this recipe. First off, they are definitely in Logan's top 3 favorite foods. They are also an essential part of our tamale preparations (coming soon!). But mostly, they are just super easy and always pleasing!

Yet another nice aspect of these is that they are so versatile! We serve these on all sorts of tortillas, they're great in a lettuce wrap, they work well with a side of rice, and they are spectacularly useful for rounding out a pot of posole or borrocho beans.

And since they are prepared in a crock pot, these are one of the easiest dishes you can fix for your family on any given day!


Crock Pot Carnitas

Stuff You Need:

• 4 lb boneless pork shoulder roast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp chipotle chile powder
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups chicken broth
• black pepper and salt to taste
• 1 Tbs olive oil (or other oil of your choice)

What To Do:

1. Mix together salt, garlic powder, cumin, chile powder, oregano, coriander, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
2. Cut pork roast into 3" - 4" chunks, coat with the spice mixture, and place in the crock pot.
3. Pour the chicken broth around the sides, being careful not to rinse off any of the spice mixture with the broth.
4. Cook on low for 6 or 7 hours or until the pork can be easily shredded with a fork.
5. Before serving, put the oil in a large skillet and heat until it starts to shimmer.
6. Remove shredded meat from the juice and place in the skillet with the hot oil.
7. Stir until evenly browned and you can see a light crisp on your pork.

Logan has always been kind of ... selective ... in his menu choices, but this is one of a handful of dishes that I can count on to always satisfy his appetite! We typically make this at least once a month and I try to make enough to freeze some and put away for those nights when I don't plan in advance for dinner.

Crustless Cranberry Pie

This tasty treat has been a favorite at family gatherings for at least 5 years now. A very talented baker at work prepared this pie for an office pot luck and we pestered her until she divulged the recipe!

I'm so glad she was willing to share as this is often requested for holiday gatherings. In fact, it quickly became one of my dad's favorites. It pleased me to no end to have at least one dish I had introduced to him become a favorite.


Crustless Cranberry Pie

Ingredients:

1 - cup all purpose flour

1 - cup sugar

.25 - tsp salt

2 - cups cranberries (frozen or fresh)

.5 - cups chopped almonds

.5 - cup unsalted butter, melted

2 - eggs, beaten

1 - tsp almond extract

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease one 9-inch pie pan and set aside.
2. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in large bowl.
3. Stir in the cranberries and almonds and toss to coat.
4. Stir in the butter, beaten eggs, and almond extract.
5. Note: if you are using frozen cranberries, the mixture will be very thick. I prefer to mis with my hands in this case.
6. Spread the batter into the prepared pie pan and bake at 350F for 40 minutes or until a wooden tooth pick inserted near the center comes out clean.
7. Serve warm with whipped cream of ice cream!

The original recipe called for walnuts, but we all prefer it with the almonds. If you choose to use walnuts, use the same amount (.5 cups, chopped) as the almonds.

I love the splash of color provided by the cranberries. It makes the holiday table feel more festive.

The original recipe suggested whipped cream or ice cream as a topping, but we love it all on its own.

Memaw's Potato Soup

I don't have a photo for this one yet, but this dish has been on my mind so I wanted to share the recipe now. I'll add photos as I get them taken.



I've always been a fan of potatoes. I love them baked, fried, mashed, and especially in a thick creamy soup topped with crispy bacon bits. It's the latter version that is featured here. When I was a kid, as soon as the first cold front would hit, my mom would make a huge batch of this soup. She would keep it in a big tupperware tub in the fridge and she and I would serve it up 3 meals a day for as long as it lasted.

When I left home for college, this meal was among those that I missed the most. When I came home for Thanksgiving, my mom made a special batch for me so that I could take it back with me to my little dorm room. And for as long as I can remember, each time I got sick or had a rough day, I would call my mom and petition for a special delivery of a bowl of my favorite comfort food.

Memaw's Potato Soup

Ingredients:

3 - cups peeled, chopped potatoes

1 - small onion, chopped

1.5 - cups whole milk

1 - Tbs all purpose flour

1 - cup water

Salt and pepper to taste

cooked crumbled bacon (optional)

Instructions:
1. Boil potatoes and onions in water under tender (about 20 minutes).
2. Add flour to milk, mixing until well blended.
3. Add milk mixture to potato/onion mixture
4. cook on low heat until thickened, stirring constantly.
5. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. Spoon into soup bowls and garnish with shredded cheese and crumbled bacon, if desired.

It wasn't until I had moved off to college that my mom shared that this recipe had been handed down from her mom. I shouldn't have been surprised. I think my Memaw served potatoes at almost every meal. I remember well fighting with my cousin, Sharon, for the first helping of Memaw's mashed potatoes at every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

I don't need to tell you that I adored this lady. Just look at the smile on Logan's face as he played with her in her back yard on a fine fall afternoon! I honestly do not ever recall being down in the dumps in her presence. I remember trips to the 5 and Dime (seriously!) to pick up craft supplies before the start of a sleep over. I remember long, drawn-out games of scrabble and spades. And I remember clouds of perfumed after-bath powder, Chanel No. 5, to be exact. I remember her big fluffy bed and giggling late into the night. I remember the basketball hoop in the parking lot of their TDC housing complex as well as countless games of "horse" with my cousins. And I remember her smile, always her smile.

My mom had a bright, sunny disposition and I'm quite certain she inherited that from her mother.

It's kind of funny. I strongly favor my father's family in appearance. My mom was the same way. She greatly favored her paternal grandmother in looks. But as I sit here and think back, I can see how much of her personality was a direct influence from my Memaw.

Great Grandma Kyle's Dinner Rolls

I have genuinely struggled to find a reliable dinner roll recipe that is easy to make and enjoyed by my whole family. And then a few months ago on Thanksgiving, a young cousin brought several trays of these truly enjoyable rolls to share with everyone! It seems she found the recipe in some old papers belonging to my grandmother.

My guys enjoyed these rolls so much, they almost didn't save room for anything else! So after a healthy dose of teasing, we convinced my cousin to share what she learned. And today my boy and I spent an enjoyable afternoon in the kitchen cranking out a batch of our own.


These rolls are good with dinner, at breakfast, or just anytime you want a nice, toasty, yeasty snack!

Great Grandma Kyle's Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

3 - Tbs rapid rise yeast (1.5 pkgs)

1 - egg

1.5 - cups warm milk

1/3 - cup sugar

5 - Tbs softened butter

1 - tsp salt

4 - cups all purpose flour

2 - Tbs melted butter

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 180F. When it reaches temperature, turn off the heat and keep the door closed. This is an optional step, but is useful in cold weather.
2. Combine all ingredients except melted butter in a bowl. You’ll want to start with 3 cups or so of flour and add in the rest as needed. Adding all the flour at once is doable, but difficult. The dough should be sticky, but workable. Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time as needed to achieve proper texture.
3. Put the dough in a greased oven-safe bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes in the warm oven (or on the counter in warm weather). It should roughly double in size.
4. Take the dough out of the oven and punch it down, then return it to the oven and let it rise for another 30 minutes in the warm oven. Again, it should about double in size while rising.
5. At the end of the 2nd 30-minute rise, punch it down again.
6. Pull out dough and roll in your palm to your desired size. We use about a 2 Tbs scoop at a time.
7. Place the dough balls in a greased pan (or two, depending on the size of your pan). Cover with a damp rag and allow the rolls to rest while you preheat the oven to 375F.
8. When the oven reaches 375F, brush the melted butter over the top of the dough.
9. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes until lightly golden in color.

Allow rolls to cool slightly before enjoying!

Recipe Notes: I've actually made these a couple of times now and I've tweaked things just a little. I like to "proof" the yeast with the warm milk and sugar for 5-10 minutes before mixing everything together. It's not necessary, but I'm finding the dough to be a bit lighter and more airy when I add this extra step. Also, just before putting in the oven to bake, just after brushing with the melted butter, I like to lightly sprinkle sea salt over the rolls. We like a lot of savory foods and these rolls really pair well with savory dishes with the added salt.

I am thankful that I got to spend a large part of my childhood around my Great Grandmother Kyle. Grandma Kyle (as we all called her) was a teacher by profession and by spirit. She never missed a teaching opportunity. She liked to lead hikes through the woods with my cousins and I where she would tell us tales from her childhood and point out the different plants and animals we saw along the way.

But my favorite remembrance of her was story time! Grandma Kyle could crank out a yarn at the drop of a hat! She did special voices for all of the characters and even acted out some of the action. She could recite a favorite story or spin a tale of her own but my favorites were the escapades of Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox. I can still hear her voice in my head as she would mime out Br'er Rabbit's tricksy plans to make a fool of Br'er Fox.

Grandma Kyle also played a role in a "breakfast scheme" my cousin Lian and I had going when we were in elementary school. We all lived within sight of one another on "the hill": my cousin and her family, my grandparents, my great grandmother, and my little family. Each day, before our parents left for work, we'd have breakfast at home. Then we'd meet up at our grandparents home and grab breakfast with them before Grandaddy had to go to work. After Granny shooed us out of her house, we'd sneak back to Grandma Kyle's place for one last morning feast with her before being told to get on to school or at least outside for some play time. It was always a fun way to start the day and remains one of my favorite childhood memories.