Quick and Easy...well maybe just easy, Chili Verde

The Pastor came to dinner tonight. And She brought the beer.
Two things that are odd to me.... That the Pastor is a she. And that the Pastor brought the beer.
Let me rephrase that....they used to seem odd to me. Not anymore. And I'm thinking odd as in 30 years ago it was odd to have female pastors, and it took me awhile to get used to the idea. Tradition and all that, you know. But now? It's the norm. Funny how time changes things, even in a good way... and female pastors are a good thing.

But the beer? Who would have thought? But...we were having Mexican food, and it was very spicy, so......

Chili Verde. From Scratch. (kind of)
This recipe is easy, if not fast. It isn't fast at all, but it's really good.
One of the things that my kids who are in grad school in Connecticut find frustrating about being on the east coast (they are born and bred westerners...which does not mean they are cowboys, just west-ern-ers of the Rockies ) is that they can't find good Mexican food products in the grocery store.

A side note: we love to tease these kids....these grad school kids, my son and his wife, who have no interest in cooking whatsoever. In fact, I just got a call from my son who asked me for the Kringle Kisses recipe I had posted a few days ago. I told him to check out my blog...he did and proceeded to make the cookies. He had to call me when he got to the part that said to "cream" the butter and sugars together.
He didn't know what it meant. (sigh) But he carried on and ended up with a great looking cookie. ( I won't even mention the time he read my recipe for BBQ beef and called to ask me what I meant by shredding the meat). LOL

Okay, enough of me giving my kids a bad time, I love them and am very proud of them, who cares if they can cook or not! They have me! LOL

I was just going to say that I think...and some of you from the East correct me if I'm wrong...that if you looked hard enough, you could find good Mexican food products back east. Maybe not ones you are familiar with if you are from the west, but I bet there are markets that carry it.

But, let's get on with it....

Chili Verde1 pork butt roast
flour
1 onion
3-4 garlic cloves roughly sliced/chopped
1 sm. can diced Ortega jalapenos
1 sm. can diced Ortega chilies
1 jar Ortega green chili salsa
1 can tomato sauce
salt to taste

Cut meat into chunks; add a little oil to a Dutch Oven. Add meat to pot and fry until brown. Add a little flour while browning. Add onion and garlic and cook until onions are soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 1/2 hour on stove. Transfer to a 250 degree oven for 3 hours or until meat is very tender. Serve with warm tortillas for burritos.

you can:
* prepare it until you are to put it into the oven for 3 hours. Refrigerate and finish the next day.
* add some Mexican sour cream on top to take off a bit of the heat/spiciness.
* sprinkle with a good Mexican cheese before serving.
* don't add the can of jalapenos if you don't like it as spicy.

It's very good. Spicy, and warm.
It comes from a cookbook that I bought at JCPenneys in 1996. It's their company employee cookbook called "A Cause for Celebration, the 1996 Associate cookbook".
All the recipes are broken down into chapters for celebrations, such as "New Year's party" "Super Bowl Party" or "Halloween, etc.".
The Chili Verde comes from the "Cynco De Mayo" chapter. Of course.

Now for the photos!
1st, the ingredients.... I've included a can of refried beans and some rice, because with most any Mexican dinner, you'll have beans and rice.

2nd, you chop the pork into bite sized chunks.

3rd, you add it to the big red pot.

4th, you chop the onion

5th, and the garlic. Add them to the pot.

6th, you add the cans of jalapenos and chilies to the big red pot

7th...this is what it will look like once you add all the canned ingredients.

8th....the big red pot is ready to go into the oven. FOR THREE HOURS at a low temp.

9th....I fried up a little bit of chorizo to put in the beans. I used vegetarian beans and add a greasy, spicy Mexican sausage. Go figure!

10th....while the rice and beans are cooking, shred some cheese.

11th....dinner is done. We eat it with some warm tortillas. sometimes we roll them up like burritos and sometimes, we just tear off small pieces of tortilla and pick up the meat. We use the pieces of tortilla as a utensil of sorts.
It's a good dinner!! Or supper. (depending on where you're from)
Enjoy!

A mom of independent means...and many pumpkin rolls

Could you all bear with me? I am learning a new skill: How to make a link with just one word.

Now, yes, I could have read the blogger help directions weeks ago, but then you wouldn't have gotten the privilage to listen to me whine in every other blog post.... "I can't wait until my kids are home from school at Christmas break so they can show me how to make a link with just one word."

Nor, would you have gotten the frustration of wondering why in the world doesn't this woman just make a link...why is she writing all that crap out?!

I thought I needed help from my kids, that's why!
But now...I have become an independent mom. I don't need any help from those stinking kids! I'm a big girl now.

When did I become so "needy" of my children?

OMG!! I just realized I've become my mother. (that's not a bad thing entirely. LOL ).

But with technology, it has always been much easier to say to my young adult children, "can you download these songs into my Zune for me?" "can you fix the background of my MySpace Page?" (don't laugh, I have one. I'm never on there, but I have one. And YOU TOO could be my friend.... )

The trouble is, they all live far away from me, so we have to do this long distance. Which means, I've had to giv them "passwords". They know all my passwords. To everything.
I just went to my Netflix account and all my movies have been changed... Mark is coming home from Connecticut. He likes Adam Sandler movies. I was hoping for a good family viewing night of "Holiday Inn".
They hack in here, they hack in there...... nothing is sacred.

But I digress.
I'm getting impatient. I want things done with my blog when I want them done. Grad School finals at Yale? pfft! Your mother needs help with her blog!!
Wife's family needs help moving? pfft!! Your mother needs help with her blog!

So I guess it is time for me to leave the nest....cut those technology apron strings.....fly away....

okay....let's see if I can make this a link. To my bookblog. Being the sophisticated bloggers that you are, I don't have to tell you to cick on the "this" above to see if it works, right?

I will leave you with a picture of what I did this weekend. I stayed up way too late on Friday night, making 5 pumpkin rolls (The Big Red Kitchen made 24 at once, whew!!) and some sweet chex mix for the church bazaar on Saturday.

I will have food posts tomorrow. I have 3 posts I need to put up. But for now...cross your fingers that I have learned this new skill and you are now looking at my book blog.

Or.... and.... you could click on this link and go to the pumpkin roll recipe post. Hmmmm.....let's try that one.

Right outside the kitchen window

Right outside my kitchen window yesterday afternoon....

Sugared Walnuts, Kringle Kisses and an Award!

I came downs stairs early this morning....so excited to use my computer. It's faster today that it was yesterday! My husband put more memory in it for me.
Now.... I didn't really want more memory, but he thought I needed it. He researched and researched ( I like to jump in and research later) and ordered memory and last night it came. He said "turn off your computer".
I was frightened....very frightened. I thought....why don't we take it to a PROFESSIONAL. But he said "have faith".
I sulked away to the TV room. I was nervous.... I kept hearing swear words coming from the computer room. And then some pacing and then some swearing. I texted my daughter-in-law warning that if HER father-in-law had ruined my computer, I was moving in with them!
I think she was more frightened than I.
BUT...it worked, he did it. My computer is faster than ever. Whew....what a relief! (I have to give him a bad time, you know.)

Okay, so I came downstairs, made coffee, put on some James Taylor Christmas music, opened my blog, and what to my wandering eyes did appear? AN AWARD!

I'm so tickled I can hardly stand it! I won an award.
Honey B. from "The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch" ( http://shelbymaelawstories.blogspot.com/ ) gave me the butterfly award for "the coolest blog I ever know".
Hooray, whoopee...and the crowd roars!! She's way too kind, but I'll take it. It's always fun to be noticed. Thanks so much Honey.




A few days ago, I bought a whole bunch of walnuts and thought I would make these sugared walnuts. I use to make them when the boys were younger, but that's been a few years ago. My oldest baby will be 29 in February. That's almost 30! Yikes! I hope he still likes them as well as he used to, because I'm sending him a tin of them in a few days. If you like nuts and sugar and spice, these are the easiest thing to make. And they are kind of nice to have in a dish or to fill out a cookie plate, if you're giving that as a house-warming gift this holiday.

Sugared Walnuts3 cups walnut halves
1 cup white sugar
1/2 T. cinnamon
6 T. milk
1 t. vanilla

Combine sugar, cinnamon in a pot. Add milk and cook to soft ball stage. Add vanilla and walnuts and stir until mixture is grainy and thickened.
Spread immediately onto waxed paper and leave to cool.

This is what you need:

And this is what you do....it's super easy!

Put the milk in the pot.

Add the sugar.

add the cinnamon.

let it come to a soft boil unti it reaches the soft ball stage.


add the vanilla.

add the walnuts.

spread them on a cookie sheet to cool........ and......

they are ready to give as gifts!

*****
The other cookie I just made, I think deserves the award for "most common" Christmas cookie outside of Sugar Cookies. IF you made them with chocolate kisses, there were called them "Kringle Kisses", where I come from, but most of the time, my family made them with chocolate stars. I think the official name is "Peanut Blossoms" or something like that. I've already noticed these cookies on a few other blogs... but really, I think I "thought" of them first. LOL How can I not put mine on also.
Do I even need the recipe? Doesn't everyone make these? It's a cookie most everyone loves. Kringle Kisses, Peanut Blossoms.... whatever you want to call them...they are good.

Kringle Kisses

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg

Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in egg.

2 T. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

stir into sugar mixture

1 3/4 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

sift together and stir into sugar mixture

48 Hershey kisses or Chocolate stars
granulated sugar

Shape into small balls about the size of a walnut. Roll in granulated sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press candy kiss or chocolate star firmly into top of each cookie. Let set.

Pioneer Woman's Migas

Speaking of the Pioneer Woman.
I made her Migas the other day.

What are Migas you ask? Well, they are very good.
I had copied her recipe off in a printable version... or a made up printable version that I had e-mailed myself back in September and when I came across it last Saturday, I wasn't sure if it was a breakfast, brunch or light lunch dish. ONLY because I didn't have her description and witty repertoire in my e-mail. But she liked it, the list of ingredients were something the Mr. would like, so I thought: I'M GOING TO MAKE THIS.

And guess what? It was gooo-oood. It had a southwesterny feel/taste to it, and while Nevada is not quite the Southwest (what are we really? not the coast, not the mid-west, not the Pacific Northwest.... we are a state without a region... well, the Great Basin, but what is that really?) We have no regional dishes unless it's cowboy beans perhaps.
Oh well... this was good.
And you really need to have more than 2 of you for brunch. It makes a lot.

And please forgive the photos. Me and my little Kodak ---we try.

Pioneer Woman's Migas

4 corn tortillas
Canola oil, to fry tortillas
10 to 12 large eggs
1/4 cup half & half
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, roughly chopped
4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and finely diced (leave on the white membranes if you like things spicy)
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, depending on your taste
1 cup grated Monterey Jack or Cotija cheese

In a bowl, whisk together eggs and half and half. Salt and pepper eggs, then set aside.

In a small skillet, over medium heat, heat oil and fry each corn tortilla just until crisp. Remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Chop tortillas and set aside.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter with the olive oil. Add onions and bell peppers and cook until starting to turn brown/black about 3-4 minutes (mine took a bit longer). Add diced jalapenos and stir to combine. Add tomatoes to the skillet and stir around, then add tortilla pieces, stirring gently to combine.

Reduce heat to low.

When the heat has decreased, pour egg mixture into skillet. Stir gently to cook with the peppers, folding mixture very gently as it cooks. Add in grated cheese and chopped cilantro and stir to combine.

** I did not read the directions carefully and I did not fold, I scrambled. It didn't look as good as the Pioneer Woman's but it tasted great!
Besides the scrambling when I should have folded, remember me and my little Kodak are not professional photographers. We just have fun.

You use a lot of eggs for these Migas....really invite friends over...they will love it too. Trust me.

Pouring in the half and half....put some in your coffee, it's good for you. ( I have a huge issues with expiration dates! This is a good date...until next Wednesday and then this post will bug me)

take a tortilla....fry it

chop it

my veggies really are a ....very...rough....chop

cook them--until they begin to carmelize... or just before, you still want them to hold their shape and not be limp.

add other chopped and diced veggies

OOPS... I added the eggs and then the tortillas...do it the other way around please...that way the veggies take on some of the pepper flavor before being doused in eggs

okay.... the finished product! From me and my little Kodak. Here the sun shines thru my kitchen window.

here...it doesn't. But they were GOOO--OOOD!! Good Migas!

Try 'em, you'll like 'em.

Insult to Injury

and to add insult to injury.... I just got this:

Hi Debbie,

Thanks for entering the MarxFoods.com Finishing Salt Giveaway!

Can you help us spread the word about this giveaway? If you have family and friends that would enjoy trying new finishing salts, please tell them where to enter! If you have a blog or web site you can use the button below to let your readers know about this contest.

http://marxfood.com/contest-giveaway-a-flight-of-fine-finishing-salts/

I also entered Honey B's giveaway...

http://shelbymaelawstories.blogspot.com/2008/12/progresso-holiday-giveaway.html

I have to win something, right? LOL

(ps I can't wait for my college kids to get home for Christmas break so they can teach me some blog stuff. Such as; how to write "here" and have it be a link, instead of me having to put the who link address. Sorry for the ingorance. )

Now go forth and sign up for give-aways!

Contests and Giveaways

The Pioneer Woman has 9,107 comments on her giveaway. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/
Seriously.

LOL

and I just made it 9,108. As well, as entering 3 other giveaways in the last 5 minutes.
I've never won anything. But it's okay... it's just fun.

Did anyone ever see the movie "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" by Terry Ryan?
I actually read the book first, and I really enjoyed it.

a blurb about it from a reviewer says:
Erma Bombeck meets Ogden Nash in the inspirational true story of an enterprising mother of ten who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the fifties and sixties.


These give-aways remind me of that book. Every time I make a comment on someone's giveaway, I am reminded of those old contests, where you make up poems and rhymes or a jingle about a product in 25 words or less, and hope you win.
And I know they are all chosen randomly, but I still freeze....what if my jingle (comment) is not snazzy (is that still a word?) enough? What if it doesn't make someone smile? (mine rarely do)
How can I be more witty? and enchanting? WHY DON'T I EVER WIN ANYTHING?!

whew...no really, I'm okay now.

LOL