Brown sausage and ground beef and drain off fat.  Add salt, Worcestershire, oregano, and cubed velveta cheese.

While warm spread onto rye bread slices.  Flash freeze on cookie sheet.  When frozen place in ziplock bag.  Keep frozen.  Bake at 400 and heat for 10 minutes when ready to serve.

With a knife, cut out the core of the cabbage.  Place in a large pot with about 3 inches of water.  Bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes or until leaves turn a little soft.  Drain water off and rinse with cool water to speed cooking process.

While cabbage is cooking prepare the 2 cups of rice.  Set off to the side.

In a bowl mix 2 lbs of meat with the 2 cups of cooked rice.  Add 1 egg, chopped onion and salt, pepper and herbs to your liking.  Mix everything well.

Seperate cabbage leaves apart and add some filling to each leaf then roll it like a burrito and put into a casserole dish that has 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom.  Line all rolls up close togehter and pour remaining sauce over the top.

Bake covered with foil for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Meatloaf:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp. curry powder
1 egg lightly beaten
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk

Sauce:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. white vinegar
2 Tbs. butter
1 tsp instant coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine breadcrumbs, onion, parsley 7 curry.  Add egg, water and milk.  Season to taste.  Add meat and mix together until well combined.

Shape meat mixture into a loaf.  Place in dish and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and pour off the fat.

Put all sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil while stirring.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Pour sauce over loaf.  Bake for a futher 40-45 minutes basting frequently with sauce.  Serve sliced, hot or cold.

Brown garlic, onion, olive oil and meat in a pan, then salt the meat. Put meat in sauce pot on low. Ad tomato paste and 3 cans of water to 1 can of paste. Add tomato puree and 1 can of water to each can of puree.  Add pepper, sugar, oregano, salt and a pinch of baking powder to taste. Simer and stir for 1 hour until consistent.

Meatballs:

1/2 lb lean ground beef
1/2 lb hot italian sausage
1 egg
2 tbsp water
1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
3 Tbsp. minced onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine egg, water, crumbs, onion, salt and pepper.  Add ground beef and sausage and mush with your hands to mix.  Form into meatballs 1″ round and place on a broiler pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until meatballs are cooked through.

Ben’s Mom’s Authentic Tacos:

For tacos:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 small pkg of corn tortillas (12-20 tortillas)
Vegetable oil

For garnish:
Avocado sliced thin
Tomatoes diced
Mexican style shredded cheese
Refried beans
Green Taco sauce
Salsa

Cooking materials:
cookie sheet covered in paper towel or news paper
Large round skillet
Large splatter screen
tongs – the longer the better
Paper towels

Open up the package of ground beef and the tortillas. With a butter knife or your fingers spread about 1-3 tablespoons of meat on half of one tortilla. Your tortilla should look like a pie graph with one half filled in with meat. Make sure you press the meat into the tortilla firmly, that will help keep the meat on the tortilla when you are cooking. Prepare all of the tortillas in this manner until you are either out of meat or out of tortillas.

Set uncooked tacos to the side of the stove. Heat the oven to 200 degrees and place the cookie sheet with the paper towels or newspaper inside it. On the stove heat about 1/2 cup vegetable oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. When the oil is heated, slip your first uncooked taco into the oil. The tortilla should be floating meat-side up. With your tongs move the tortilla around in the pan a little to coat the face up side of the taco with oil. This will help soften the tortilla to make it easier to fold. You’ll be able to see the ground beef browning on the side touching the tortilla. When it’s about 1/2 way brown use your tongs to fold the empty side of the tortilla over making the taco shape. Now that it’s taco shaped, turn the taco over in the oil to cook the other side. When the beef is browned, pull the taco out of the skillet.  Try to drip most of the excess oil back into the pan as you take it out. Place the cooked taco in the oven on the paper. This will soak up the extra oil and make the tacos crispy. You may put another taco in the pan now and restart the process. Replenish the oil as needed to cook all the tacos. When the last one is done, leave the tacos in the oven for 10 minutes so the last few can crisp.

Follow The Recipe Extra:
The Oil – It will spatter!! Make sure you are using your screen! I always make these tacos wearing long sleeves and it helps if you put a piece of paper towel on the top of the screen to keep spatter from jumping up at you. Also, towards the end you’ll find that the tacos and oil spatter more, and seemingly for no reason. This is for two reasons, 1.) the temp of the oil is too high or 2.) the oil has residual meat in it. The solution for problem 1 is to turn the stove down (duh!) and for 2 you can use an empty can in your sink to pour the old oil into and put new oil into the pan and continue. Do not touch the hot oil can with your bare hands until it has fully cooled!

The Tacos – You can usually cook two tacos at a time depending on the size of your pan. You should always be removing one, folding the other in 1/2, and then adding a new one to replace the one you just took out. I cannot recommend doing more than two at a time the first time that you do this.

The Meat – Sometimes the meat will fall out while you are flipping or removing. The key to avoiding this is long tongs and always turning, flipping or removing the tacos by using the tongs on the side of the taco that is open.

You – This recipe makes a lot of tacos. Lucky for you they are awesome left over. I included the list of condiments that we use, but use whatever you want. Everything is good on these tacos. Finally, if you’re a little nervous or concerned about splattering oil or burning yourself, then only heat the oil to the temp that you are comfortable with. The tacos will take longer to cook, yes, but you will have a more enjoyable time making them if you aren’t worried about the oil.

Enjoy – feel free to comment with questions!

EZ Jambalaya

1-2 skinless chicken breasts; cubed
1 package of beef sausage or kilbasa, sliced
1/2 lb frozen shrimp
-optional bacon; diced or ham steak cubed, or some type of white fish.
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
1 green bell pepper diced
1 can beef consume
1 can french onion
1 small can tomato sauce
2 tbs. butter
tabasco
Creole seasoning (I use Tony Chachere’s)
3 cups rice

Begin by starting rice on the stove. (For making rice see here.) In a large stock pot combine remaining ingredients except for shrimp, tabasco and creole seasoning. Set pot on the stove and set burner to high or med-high. Allow the pot to boil for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly. In the meantime, defrost the shrimp per package instructions. After 10 minutes the chicken should be white and cooked almost all the way through. Reduce heat to medium and add shrimp. Also add tabasco and creole seasoning to taste. Let it simmer until rice is finished. Serve.

Follow the Recipe Extra:
If you’ve got a lot of time on your hands and an iron or high quality stock pot you can also put this in the oven with a lid (@350) for a few hours (stir occasionally, but be careful, the pot will be hot!). The crock pot also works, but not as well I think. You can usually find creole seasoning at your local grocery store. Add a little at a time till you get used to using it. It’s deliciously spicy but it’s also surprisingly salty. Use it sparingly at first; adding a little at a time as you taste.

D’s Chili

1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 small white onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
2 cans of chili beans in Hot sauce
1 or 2 cans of kidney or black beans
1 cup of Newman’s Own Black Bean & Corn Salsa
Tabasco sauce
chili powder
red pepper flakes
shredded cheese
Fritos

In a skillet begin browning the ground beef. Add in onions and garlic and finish browning. Drain fat and transfer beef, onions and garlic into a stock pot. Set stove to med high heat. Add in Chili beans with sauce from can. Use about 1/4 cup water in each can to get out the remaining sauce. Drain kidney or black beans and add to the pot. Add in salsa then add the Tabasco, chili powder and red pepper flakes to taste. Lower the heat to medium and stir all contents together and simmer for 15 or 20. When finished simmering lay a handful of Fritos in the bottom of a bowl, put a scoop of chili in and garnish with shredded cheese.

Follow The Recipe extra:
First; I am not one for needlessly advertising for companies, but in all seriousness I made this recipe with whatever salsa I had laying around the house for years. Then one day I happened to have someone bring over this Newman’s salsa to a party and I had some left over so I threw it in the chili. It was a whole new chili level! That being said the “extra” is this: put new things in your chili. I once made it with fresh red and yellow bell peppers sauteed with the onions and it was phenomenal. I’ve tried it with fresh tomatoes and chicken instead of beef. You literally cannot go wrong. Also, if you’re expecting people, but you aren’t sure when, just remember to throw some water in the chili and lower the heat. Don’t worry, the water won’t water down the taste. Yeeeaaahh Chili!!

P.S. the most recent serving of chili at my house was while playing Rockband on 360! We rule!

Today it snowed for the first time this fall in Colorado. It was cold and wet and I was hungry. Nothing sounds better than Beef Stew on this type of day. Here’s the recipe

Ingredients:

Steak or beef (a lot of different kinds of beef work for stew, but mostly just make sure you get something nicely marbled, but not fatty. I used top sirloin.)
vegetable or olive oil

1 white or yellow Onion
1 large or 2 small carrots
3 cloves garlic minced
4 or 5 red potatoes diced
1 pkg of mushrooms
1 can green beans
1 can diced Italian style tomatoes
3 cans beef broth
water
1 tbs rosemary
Salt
pepper

Optional:
Celery
squash
bell peppers
red wine

To Make:
pour 2 tbs of oil into a large stock pot. Cube beef and put into pot to brown over medium heat. When beef is browned, remove from pot and set aside. Drain excess fat. Add 1-2 tbs of oil back into the pot. Add onions carrots and garlic, and stir over medium-high heat until soft (about 5 minutes). Add in potatoes and mushrooms and return the beef to the stock pot. Stir over same heat for 5 minutes. Add green beans, tomatoes and first two cans of beef broth plus one can of water. Add rosemary and salt and pepper to taste. Cover Bring stew up to boiling for 20 minutes. You will lose a lot of liquid in the steam. Turn the heat down to medium or until you have a rapid simmer. Add last can of broth and 1/2 can of water. Simmer for 1 hour or until beef proteins have been broken down and beef is soft.

Follow the Recipe extra:
For me, Beef Stew is all about knowing how things cook. The beef needs to boil for a long time to be soft and not chewy. The lower the quality of beef, the longer it will need to cook. Softer foods should be added later on in the process so as not to get too soggy. Potatoes can be added later in the simmering process to leave them a little crunchy. Try different things and taste a lot as you go. Also, if you’re like my husband and I and you can’t stand rosemary floating in your soup, use a coffee filter and some cooking twine and make a baggie. Take the baggie out of the stew before serving

You kinda can’t screw up beef stew.