Freezer Tip

I may have posted this before but this is such a good tip I want to tell you about it again. When freezing things like sauces, tomatoes, pork and beans etc. Fill freezer bag with the amount you will need for one meal or what you will use in one recipe such as one pint of tomatoes or two cups of pork and beans (one can). Lay bag flat and press the ingredients flat while getting out all the air. This saves so much space in your freezer you won't believe it.

Really Good Spanish Rice

I also made Spanish rice tonight to go along with the burritos. It turned out really good, but I made way too much and froze the leftovers for two more meals. This is the recipe:

1 cup rice
about 1 tbs oil (whatever kind is your favorite, I just used salad oil)
one diced bell pepper
about 1/4 medium onion finely chopped
pint of tomato sauce (mine is homemade from last summer's tomatoes)
1 tbs taco seasoning

Saute onion and pepper in oil for a couple of minutes add tomato sauce and the taco seasoning and then rice. Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer. Cover pan and stir every once in a while so rice is not sticking to pan. You may have to add water along the way if rice thickens too much before it is done. It took about 30 minutes to cook. The was the best Spanish rice I had ever made. Forgot to take a picture though.

Homemade Beef Cheese and Bean Burritto

I made these yummy beef, bean and cheese burritos from scratch and they were so good.

To start with you will need to make this taco seasoning recipe:

* 1 tbs chili powder
* 1/4 tsp garlic powder or granulated
* 1/4 tsp onion powder
* 1/4 tsp cayenne
* 1/4 tsp dried oregano
* 1/2 tsp paprika
* 2 tsp ground cumin
* 1 tsp course salt
I make big quantities of this and keep in a jar.

Now make the tortillas from my earlier post on breakfast burritos. The recipe makes about ten tortillas.

Now for the mix for the inside:

I cooked two cups of pinto beans with water and polish sausage along with one tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper for about 5 to 6 hours or until beans are tender.

Brown 1 lb. ground beef with chopped onion, I used about a 1/2 of a medium onion. Drain ground beef and add 2 cups of the cooked pinto beans with 4 tbs of the taco mix and one pint of tomatoes. Cook until mixture thickens. Let cool.

ready your tortilla for filling. Place 1/2 slice of pepper jack cheese, a pinch of shredded cheddar cheese, and a spoonful of the beef and bean mixture, another pinch of the cheddar cheese and a spoonful of the mixture, continue until burrito is full and wrap in plastic wrap.

Now you can freeze them and take out as many as you need for later use.

I made some tonight. Put them in a oven pan and smothered them in a tomato basil sauce I had made last summer, along with more shredded cheese on top. I cooked in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. They were just great.

Home Made Pork and Beans

I have a bunch of dried white beans that I saved from my over-matured greens beans that I got from my garden last summer. I decided I would try making my own pork and beans yesterday. They actually turned out really great. I think possibly they could have been a little sweeter but since I'm only going to be using them to make baked beans which takes lots of brown sugar that won't really matter anyway. Here is the recipe I used:

2 cups dried white beans
3 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
16 oz tomatoes (I used my frozen ones from my garden)
handful onion flakes
clove garlic (mine was dehydrated and I crushed with the onions into a powder)
Pork (I used two pork steaks probably about 1/2 lb)
water

Combine all in large pot with enough water to cover beans by about 3 inches. Bring to a boil and then simmer covered until beans are tender and soup has thickened, you will have to continue to add water as it steams away. It took about 5 to 6 hours. This made about one quart:

World's Best Stew Better than Dinty Moore

I made this stew today for tonight's dinner and it was so amazingly good I wanted to share with anyone who loves Dinty Moore Stew, this is so much better:

1 lb stew meat
3 tbs. dehydrated onion flakes or one medium onion
clove garlic minced
potatoes pealed and cubed
carrots sliced
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs. corn starch dissolved in a little cold water
2 pks brown gravy

In large pan or dutch oven cover meat with about 2 to 3 inches water and boil with onions garlic and cornstarch until tender. Add water if needed during cooking to keep juicy.

When meat is tender add potatoes and carrots (I used 3 medium sized red and two handfuls of baby carrots sliced) and cook until tender.

Add the two pkgs of brown gravy that has been dissolved in cold water bring back to boil then to a simmer

Have this dumpling recipe ready to add:

Dumplings:

1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tbs soft margarine
1 cup milk

Mix together dry ingredients and cut in margarine until it looks like meal. Add milk and you should have a very sticky dough. If not add more milk.

Drop by spoonfuls on top of stew. Put lid on pan and cook for ten minutes. After 10 minutes cut through a dumpling to make sure they are done, if still doughy cook a little longer.

Enjoy your stew!!

Breakfast Burritos from Home Made Tortillas

These breakfast burritos are so good and the homemade tortillas are soft and tender. You will never use a store bought tortilla again after making and tasting these:

Tortillas:

3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 tbs vegetable shortening
about 1 1/4 cups warm water

Mix dry ingredients together add shortening and cut into flour until it looks like meal.

Add water a little at a time until your dough is soft and not sticky.

Lightly knead dough for a few minutes.

Divide dough into 10 sections.

Let rest for ten minutes

While waiting heat skillet to about medium high

roll out sections until paper thin

place in skillet and cook first side until brown spots appear

Turn and cook other side

Keep cooked tortillas in a kitchen towel until ready to use









Breakfast burritos:

10 tortilla shells
10 oz breakfast sausage
3 tbs dehydrated onion flakes
green pepper chopped
7 eggs scrambled
1 package shredded cheddar cheese
10 slices pepper jack cheese

Fry sausage together with onions and peppers simmer until onions and peppers are soft, drain

In large bowl combine sausage mixture, scrambled eggs and shredded cheddar cheese

Fold bottom of tortilla up and then one side over the other side. Place plastic wrap around about half of the tortilla.




Now fill first with the pepper jack broken into two pieces and then the sausage egg and cheese mixture and wrap up in foil.



These can now be frozen and used whenever you crave one. When heating wrap in damp paper towel and heat in microwave.

Harvesting and Threshing Popping Sorghum

We planted two rows of popping Sorghum in the spring this year. We harvested most of the grain the middle of September before our vacation to Texas and the grain has been sitting and drying in my grow room ever since.

We finally found time to remove the grain from the stalks. I had no idea how it was done and there was virtually no information on the internet about it. We finally decided to put the stalks in a pillow case and then hit it against something hard. This worked pretty good but then had to figure out how to get the seed from the chaff.

I finally decided to put it all in a bowl with water. I removed anything that floated and kept rinsing until nothing was left but the heavier seeds that stayed at the bottom of the bowl. This worked well. We laid the seeds out in trays to dry. I think we probably ended up with 5 or 6 lbs of sorghum seed.



The seed pops great. At first I used some oil in a pan and heated until smoking and then put in seed a tablespoon at a time. Now I have an air popper we found at the DAV store and it works even better. One tablespoon of seed makes about 10 tablespoons of popped sorghum. It tastes better than popcorn. I found a recipe that calls for popped popcorn flour and makes a loaf of bread. 6 tablespoons of seed makes about 2 1/2 cups of flour.

Here is the recipe for popcorn bread using either popcorn or popped sorghum:

1/3 cup popcorn or 6 tablespoons sorghum (popped and blended into 2 1/2 cups of flour)
1 1/4 cups water 110 to 115 degrees
3 3/4 t yeast
2 tbs sugar
1/4c oil
2 1/4 t salt
1 tbs butter or butter flavoring
3 to 4 c flour

proof yeast in hot water while at 110 to 115 degrees with the sugar added to water for about 15 minutes.

blend popped popcorn or sorghum in blender on liquefy and then sift to remove any kernels that do not get broken up.

add all liquid ingredients to bread machine and put on dough cycle. Mix for a few minutes then add salt, popcorn flour and 2 c flour. Add more flour until you have a smooth ball of dough.

When dough cycle is complete remove dough press out into a rectangle and then roll into a loaf pressing closed all seams.

Place on a parchment covered pan cover and let rise until double. Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes or until bread registers 190 to 210 degrees. This made a huge loaf of bread and was the most moist tender and fine textured bread I had ever made. In the picture the loaf is on a regular sized pizza pan so you can tell how big it was. I also brushed on olive oil and put some poppy seeds on the loaf.

Recipe for Jalapeno Poppers

I have had a prolific abundance of jalapeno peppers and after pickling more then enough for my needs until next gardening season, I decided to make and freeze jalapeno poppers. Here is my recipe:

Wash and separate small from large. Small peppers cut off tops and using a paring knife scraping around insides get out veins and seeds. Large ones cut off top, cut in half and scrape out veins and seeds.

Use whatever cheese you like. My last poppers I used a jar of pimento cheese, the same amount of cream cheese and a handful of shredded colby. Mix together and put cheese in whole small jalapeno and large halves.

in a bowl mix and beat together an egg and about a tbs of milk. Dip pepper in mixture and then flour. Set aside to dry for about 15 minutes.

Coat with egg mixture again and then into fine bread crumbs (I use stale bread set out for about a day then blended and into the freezer.) Into flour again and
set aside again to dry for about 15 minutes.

Repeat one more time and place on a plate and freeze.

When nice and frozen place in freezer bags for later use.

When you want to fix some, heat oil to 365 and fry until golden brown. Drain and enjoy!!


Halfway there:



Ready to Freeze:

Pizza Hut Dough Clone Recipe

I have already posted my Pizza Hut Sauce clone so today I am making Pizza from scratch using that and my Pizza Hut Dough clone recipe.

Pizza Hut Dough using a bread machine

1 1/3 c water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
tsp sugar
1/3 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
4 c flour

Proof yeast in 1/3 cup of the water and the tsp sugar at 110 to 115 degrees for about 15 minutes

Put rest of ingredients in bread maker and the yeast after it is foamy and has risen

put in two c of the flour and using dough cycle let that mix well

put in rest of flour and let the machine do the rest.

Punch down, remove from pan and divide into two pieces. This is enough for two pizza pans. Or you can use one and freeze one. What I am making today I will be freezing one along with half of the 1 lb of hamburger I have browned. This will be great for another day!

My Home made Pizza

Pizza Hut Clone Dough
Pizza Hut clone sauce
1 package mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb hamburger browned and drained
pepperoni
onions chopped
peppers chopped
dried tomatoes

This is a really thick pizza and will need to be baked at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes:

The Before baking:



The after:

Comfort Food

I remember when I was little, my Mom who was a planner, always let us know what she would be cooking for supper before we went to school. If it was something I loved, I would think about that meal all day long. Going home after school was over was a joy, but going home to a meal you loved was like Christmas.

Two words that could make me go wild to get home that evening was Oxtail Soup. Oh how I loved coming home to the smell of oxtail soup. It is still my favorite food. My Mom is gone now and sometimes I feel like I let all her cooking secrets go with her without at least getting them all in my head to write down someday when I had time.

I do think I have pretty much got her recipe down and make it just the way it tasted from her stove.

My Mom's Oxtail Soup

3 to 4 lbs oxtails (they are mostly bone so even this much is not that much meat)
the heart of one celery stalk
2 cups white rice
several tsp caraway seed to your taste
salt and pepper to taste

Boil oxtails with salt pepper and caraway seeds in plenty of water to have enough so there is still broth after the rice cooks. This will probably take several hours to most of the day for tender meat.

Chop the celery heart and cook with the oxtails about 30 minutes before rice.

Cook rice until tender

Now you have my Mom's best Oxtail soup and oh how good it is.