Smothered Round Steak Enchiladas

Ridiculously easy. Cut round steak into cubes. I use Touchstone Black Angus. Toss in flour, brown. Put into a slow cooker, toss in some taco seasoning (yep), a bit of water, and simmer away.
Warm a corn tortilla, fill with meat and a combination of cheddar and cojita cheese. Roll, cover with sauce from the slow cooker. Garnish with diced onions, jalapeno, cilantro, more cojito cheese, and hot sauce.

Leftover Turkey Chili

Leftover turkey
Leftover gravy
Leftover turkey/chicken stock
Frozen corn
1 can navy beans, rinsed
Sauteed onion, jalapeno, cilantro (leftover garnish from tacos the other night)
Dried green chilies
Green chili powder
Cumin
Oregano
I heated the stock, and added the frozen corn. Then I put that with all the other ingredients into the slow cooker.
I'll serve it with cornbread. (yep, leftover, in the freezer)

Thankful...

This Year's Bird

So far, so good. New trick: fill a pastry tube with the seasoned butter. This was an easy way to get the butter between the skin and the breast meat.

Slow-Cooker Stuffing

The only stuffing I make is the stuff that gets stuffed into the slow cooker! Pretty simple stuff: saute leeks, onion, celery in butter. Add sage, thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss with dried bread (I used a combination of store-bought whole grain and home made sourdough whole wheat), chicken broth, a couple of eggs. I cooked the wild rice most of the way through, as they were beginning to pop. Put it into the slow cooker, kind of loosely. I add broth or let steam escape throughout the day.

Apple Crumble Pie

Purchased pie crust, an assortment of apples. As I prepared the apples, I dropped them into a bowl with orange and lemon juice. Then added brown sugar, a bit of white sugar, butter, cornstarch, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg.
For the crumb topping, I put 1 cup flour, 1 stick butter, 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt, and some walnuts I had left in a bag in the back of the cupboard.
Put filling into crust, top with crumb mixture, bake 400F for about 40-50 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie

Yes, the recipe on the back of the can. I added about 1 1/2 Tblsp. of dark molasses. Just because.
I used one pie crust for the bottom, and used about half of the other to cut into squares. Egg wash.

Daily Bread...

Sourdough starter, warm water, whole wheat flour, sugar; mix together and let sit and ferment. In another measuring cup, put some yeast, sugar, flour, warm water; when bubbly add to other mixture.
Add milk, melted butter, salt.. Add flour until able to turn out and knead. I used a combination of AP flour, Hungarian high altitude flour, and Wheat Montana Prairie Gold.
Let rise until doubled, form into rolls, bake.

Cranberry Apple Sauce

Combine a bag of cranberries, a couple of cups of sugar, a bit of corn syrup, zest of two oranges, juice of same oranges, grated fresh ginger (about a thumb's worth), cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. Simmer.
I added a jar of apple butter, then simmered some more.

Vanilla/Cardamom Mini-Cupcakes

Vanilla/Cardamom Cupcakes

3 cups all purpose four
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon cardamom
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup whole milk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with wrappers.

In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, cardamom.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing just until blended. Beat in vanilla. Add the flour mixture and milk.; mix thoroughly.

Fill each cup 2/3 full and bake for 15-18 minutes (for mini-cupcakes) or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely and frost as desired. Makes 96 mini-cupcakes.

Almond Dragees

Cook 8 oz. sugar in 4 oz. water, with 1 tsp. lemon juice. When it begins to caramelize, add 2 lbs almonds. Stir to coat. Then add 2 T. butter. Spread on cookie sheets in a single layer, cool.
Melt chocolate, I used two bags of chips. I put in about 3/4 of the chips, then when they were melted, added the last bit of chips.
Using a third of the chocolate each time, put the nuts in a bowl, add chocolate, stir. put on a cookie sheet to cool Repeat for a total of 3 times. After the last time, coat with powdered sugar and cocoa.

Gingerbread Men

I followed the recipe in the big red and white checked cookebook...
Except, I added some heavy cream (about 2 Tblsp) mixed with instant coffee when I added the egg, and I also added a 1/4 tsp. of ground black pepper. I decreased the molasses to account for the liquid of the cream.