Guinness Sloppy Joes

Okay, so you know how you just cook supper every night. It's all good, but not like, "blow your socks off" good?
That didn't happen tonight. Instead, it was PHENOMENAL!
The best part was, my husband and I were on Zoom with our friends from Minnesota while I was cooking, which makes the experience of cooking much more enjoyable. In the end, these were the ultimate stretchy gooey sandwich. And oh how it warmed my soul!

Take a bunch of bacon, chop it up, and fry it until it's almost crispy. Drain it, and cook a whole chopped onion in some reserved bacon fat. Then add ground beef to the onions. I used 2.25 lb, as there are 7 of us eating in the household tonight. When the meat is done, drain the fat. Ketchup, tomato paste, dijon or brown mustard, 2 bottles of Guinness beer, some garlic, salt, pepper, and you're good to go. Let it simmer there for awhile. I let it simmer for about a half hour until it was a thick sloppy texture. Then we added the crispy bacon and cubes of sharp cheddar cheese. This is important-add those things when the heat is off. Then the cubes won't melt into nothing and the bacon won't get wobbly. Let the cubes of cheese start melting, and spoon over toasted buns.

Guess what?! It's one of my kid's new favorite meals! And I think one of mine. It's homey. It's comforting. It's the perfect quarantine food.

Hope you're all feeling well and staying healthy! We're just hunkering down waiting for the virus to hit.  In the meantime, we're eating super good food tonight. :-)

Chile Verde on Burrrrrrr-itos!

We had hospitality yesterday. This means we had to make food, and a LOT of it. Yay! I love food. And I love company. And I love Chile Verde.

It's a delicious green sauce poured over burritos. You can make the burritos any way you like. I got this recipe from my fabulous mother in law. She uses refried beans and hamburger in the burritos, but I'm not the biggest fan of refried beans. So mushy for me.

Heat up your dutch oven. HOT. Add cut up pork cubes and onion. Fry it. It needs to be hot and quick because the juice will stay in the pork then.
Add garlic, green chiles, jalapeños, water, salt, pepper, and a few diced tomatoes.

Bring it to a boil. Thicken it with cornstarch.

We made pinto bean and cheese burritos. The other ones were rice, hamburger, and cheese burritos with Complete Seasoning.
You know, I never knew about complete seasoning...until my great friend from Costa Rica came. She made Sopa Azteca and used the seasoning. It's divine! On everything. I mean, I use it constantly. It should be a staple in everyone's cabinet. Unless you're allergic to MSG (A friend of mine can't have it because of that) It's even good on mac n cheese!

This made a whole lotta good warm food, and it's even awesome on eggs in the morning. It's good scooped on tortilla chips for a Green Chile Nachos meal.

Zuppa Zuppa Zuppa

Howdy! Yesterday was a crazy day. It all started out good, but quite frankly, we were all breaking down in this family. So we made the easiest supper ever. Zuppa Tuscana (AKA "Kale Soup").

Fry up mild italian sausage, add onion, garlic, and sliced potatoes. Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and throw in some half and half or heavy cream and a bunch of kale. Don't be afraid of the kale! It's really good in there. Top it off with some hot pepper flakes and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Hot, spicy, and warm in the tummy. And the perfect comfort food for a rough day. :-)

Shrimp and Chicken Scampi, y'all!

So my mom was saying she wanted shrimp for some reason, which is kind of unusual because she's not always the biggest shrimp fan. I'm certainly not, but my Mike (hubby) loves it! I haven't made shrimp scampi in a long long time because I've made it only twice, the second time I made it, it wasn't so good.
This was GOOD...
First, the chicken gets thinly sliced (4lb of chicken breasts) and cooked in butter, garlic, and some leftover chicken broth I had in the freezer.  Then when it's finished, remove it from the pan. Put 2 sticks of butter into a large saute pan with a bunch of fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Add 3 or 4 thinly sliced red peppers and a thinly sliced onion, saute it fast.
Add about 1.5-2 cups of white wine and a bunch of lemon juice. Let it simmer.
Mix all the ingredients together and pour it over angel hair noodles. Sprinkle some fresh parsley into the mix for a fresh add-in! Plus it's beautiful. Add fresh grated parmesan and extra red pepper flakes for a little kick.
It's simple.
It's beautiful.
And it's so delicious!

Oh yeah, of course,

we had bread with it to soak up the delicious wine sauce.

Back online!

Hey my people! I haven't looked at this blog in years, it was sort of part of my "healing process" after my sister died. I was home all the time, watching a billion kids, looking for a way to express myself and let out some of my emotions. I did it through food.
Since then, we have moved from snowy Wisconsin to Douglas, Arizona, which is about as far opposite as you can get. Pretty much we live as close to Mexico as you can get without actually crossing the border. It's been a huge change!
The food is different, the people are different, the culture is different. The weather is different, which means we make much less heavy food now. But I'm getting sick of the same old food we always eat.

I've been inspired by my own blog, and I think I want to get back online and express myself through food again. Food defines me. I love to find myself through my cooking, and I'm ready to begin that process again.

Our kids are 15, 13, and 9. All homeschooled. I'm never home, as opposed to back in 2011. I'm always out in service, preaching about Jehovah. People need it. They need to know there's a God who cares, and that things will be better.  They need hope.
I can't just do that, though. I need an outlet. So in addition to learning guitar, I'm going to start cooking more often and loving it more often.

We have a huge flat-top grill in our back yard. It's the best purchase I think we ever made. We use it constantly, and if you are thinking of buying one, you will not be disappointed, I promise you that. So I will be writing about that as well.
I also have my parents living with me! My dad loves to cook. He's overflowing with ideas, so I will be including all of his ideas too.

It's on like Donkey Kong.  Let's do this!
(Oh and on the photo, yes, that's the wall. To Mexico. We're that close) :-)

Pizza #3: Buffalo Chicken Grilled Pizza

I didn't get a picture this time because I want you to be able to use your own imagination for this wonderous pizza.

I topped our homemade pizza dough (you can find the recipe under pizza #1) with cooked pulled chicken, drizzled Red Hot Buffalo sauce ontop, added green onion, fresh tomato, Marzetti's Ultimate Bleu Cheese dressing, a sprinkle of Monterey Jack cheese, and fresh parmesan cheese.  Grilled it for 12 minutes, and WOW was it good!  My favorite so far.
I'm thinking Mike's favorite is still number 1.  It has bbq sauce and onions, what's not to love?!
But I love this one.  It's amazing.

Pizza #2: Italian Sausage & Homemade Salsa Grilled Pizza

So fresh, so good...
I actually made extra pizza crust last time we had pizza and had put it in the freezer.  It only took like an hour to defrost.  So I rolled it out and added a bunch of salsa on the bottom (made of tomatoes, peppers, onion, lime juice, salt, pepper, and cilantro) then cooked italian sausage and monterey jack cheese.  Throw it on a medium low-medium grill for, let's say, 8 minutes...
Top it off with homemade guacamole and sour cream.
Good to go! 
And don't grab the pan while it's in the grill with your bare hands.  Take my word for it, it's hot!