Barbecue Beef

This can be done in the oven, in the crock pot, or in a skillet (with ground beef.)  It's very good- a little tangy, a tiny bit sweet.  Beyond the ketchup, there's no added sugar.

The original recipe is from Taste of Home, 2007.

1 boneless beef chuck roast (about 3 lbs.)
2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp pepper, divided
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups water
1 cup ketchup
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 garlic clove, minced
12 kaiser rolls, split

Season beef with 1 tsp each salt and pepper.  Brown in hot oil and drain.  Combine water, ketchup, onion, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, chili powder, garlic and remaining salt and pepper.  Pour over meat.  Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 2 1/2-3 hours or until meat is tender.  (Or in crock pot on low 6-8 hours.)  Remove roast; slice.  Skim fat from cooking juices.  Return meat to the pan and heat through.  Serve on rolls.

My stove top variation for a quick weeknight dinner: Brown 1 lb ground beef.  When about 3/4 done, add 1/3 cup ketchup, 2 tbsp vinegar, 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce, 2 Tbsp dried onion, a dash of granulated garlic, and some chili powder (or smoked paprika.)  Serve over mashed potatoes.  

Black Bean and Chipotle Chili

Before running out the door to church, I treasure-hunted in my cupboards to see what I'd serve for dinner that night.  This chili came together fast, it's vegetarian, and everyone (including my white-foods-only-diet preschooler) cleaned their plates.  And had seconds.  Definitely a keeper!

You could definitely go with dried beans, but I didn't have any dried black beans on hand so I wrote this up the way I made it.  

Chipotle peppers are smoked jalapenos- I purchase them in small cans, packed in adobo sauce.  They're smoky, a little spicy, and delicious.  Store the unused portion in the fridge- I hear they're great in eggs!

Black Bean and Chipotle Chili

Ingredients:

5 cans black beans

1 can tomato sauce

2 Tbsp. chili powder

2-5 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

2-3 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Optional garnishes: sour cream, shredded cheddar, green onions

Drain and rinse 3 cans of beans, and put in crock pot with remaining 2 cans of undrained beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, and chipotle peppers with their sauce.  Let cook on low 3-5 hours.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Add cilantro half an hour before serving.  Serve over rice, and topped with sour cream, cheese, and green onions.  

Enjoy!

Aunt LoLo's Pumpkin Butter

*Edited to add a step to the recipe. I had to puree my pumpkin butter because I didn't get a good puree on it when I first put it up in the freezer.

Last year, I convinced the husband that we needed three pumpkins from Stew Leonard's for Halloween. I mean - come on! There were three of us...it just seemed fair.

I need to stop here and ask you a question. You know how when you're at a huge warehouse store and a two pound package of yeast looks small? Because there's nothing really small to compare it to?

Alright - keep that in mind.

When we got our pumpkins home and weighed them, we realized we had just purchased slightly upwards of 100 pounds of pumpkin.

Can I get an oof?!

Then, to add to the Crazy, I was called out of town and couldn't be here for Halloween. We didn't even carve them.

I was told, in no uncertain terms, that if I didn't follow through on my promise to process and preserve all 100 pounds of pumpkin, I would be In Trouble.

I'm a smart girl, so I set aside a few days and dutifully cut, steamed, peeled, pureed, drained, bagged and froze all three pumpkins. I even roasted as many seeds as I thought we could eat! For the rest of the winter, you could be pretty sure that if I was invited to a party, I was going to show up with my Pumpkin Bread in tow.

Well, now that it's October, I figured that I ought to clear the last of that pumpkin out of my freezer, to make way for the new pumpkins I'm going to talk Lo Gung into buying this year! (Luckily, Stew's pumpkins seem noticeably smaller this year. Phew! Because now? There are four of us.) I had five baggies of pumpkin left in the freezer, which I threw in the crock pot on high until they were thawed. At that point, I added some spices, left the cover off, and let the slow cooker work its magic!


I kind of winged this, but I really like how it turned out. A lot of recipes online call for the addition of applesauce or apple juice, which would probably add a nice depth of flavour to this spread. However, as is, it's lovely spread on fresh bread. Even Siu Jeun likes it, straight from a spoon!

Please note - There are no safe ways approved to can pureed pumpkin at home - the mixture is simply too thick to achieve the correct germ-killing temperature. This pumpkin butter is a strictly keep-it-in-the-fridge-and-eat-it thing, or freeze it.

Aunt LoLo's Pumpkin Butter

Makes 2-3 pints

Ingredients:

10 cups Pumpkin Puree (If you are using puree made from jack o' lantern pumpkins, you can shave quite a bit of time off of this project if you first drain the pumpkin for a few hours in a tea-towel lined colander.)

2 tsp. Saigon cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground Ginger

3/4 cup brown sugar, or to taste,

In a slow cooker, combine the pumpkin, cinnamon and ground ginger. Turn the cooker to high, and leave the lid off. Stir every hour or so. I found that, since my cooker heats all around the pot (as opposed to just on the bottom), I could move the process along by smearing my pumpkin around the inside of the pot, up the edges.

When the pumpkin butter has reached the desired consistency, sweeten to taste with the brown sugar and pack it into sterile containers (jars or plastic containers with lids). Store it in the refrigerator or freezer. (Freezer would be long term storage - anything over two weeks.)

I should add that my pumpkin was a little on the chunky side - I wasn't very careful about pureeing it last fall. To compensate for that, I let the pumpkin butter cool and then ran it through my food processor before packing it away.

Bon Appetit!

Sticky Bones

I don't really know what else to call this. The recipe is based on this one at Recipezaar called Sticky Asian Pork Neck.

I modified it a bit to what I had on hand, and what sounded tasty. Since I definitely plan on repeating this sauce on other types of meat (spareribs!!), I couldn't really call it Pork Neck anymore. So...we're gonna call it Chi Gwat, or Sticky Bones. Sound good?

Sticky Bones

Ingredients:
Meaty bones (I used 5 pork neck bones)
1/4 cup Oyster Sauce
1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup (loosely packed) brown sugar
2 T. finely grated Ginger (I used a microplane) (Use about 1 T. of powdered ginger if you don't have fresh)
2 tsp. Minced Garlic
1 tsp. Chili Sauce
1 tsp. Chinese Five Spice Powder

Heat on high until the meat is cooked, about 1 hour, and reduce to low. Turn the meat over once an hour to give it a good glaze.

Serve with rice and vegetables.

(My bones were frozen when I put them in, so I left this on high for about three hours. Next time, I could put it on low in the morning and let the glaze get even stickier.)

*A note on meat - If using Pork Neck bones, go for the absolute meatiest ones you can find. If using something else, like spare ribs, make sure the meat has just a bit of fat on it, otherwise your ribs will come out tough. Alternately, you can boil your ribs first to tenderize them, and then put them in the slow cooker.)

Crockpot Chili

This is my second chili recipe posting, not the last of my bean dishes! I've eaten this for three days, served over rice and topped with cheddar and sour cream. It is with sadness I can see the bottom of the serving dish.

Also, Ernie has eaten second helpings of this two nights in a row. Major bonus points for this recipe!

My changes are in parentheses

Slow-Cooker Hearty Beef Chili
from Fall 2008 Kraft Food and Family

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef (I used about a cup of cooked ground beef, from the freezer)
1 can each dark and light kidney beans, 15 oz. each (I used two cans dark)
1 1/2 cups "Taco Bell Home Originals Thick n' Chunky Mild Salsa" (I used large jar of spicy)
1 can tomato sauce, 16 oz.
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 onion chopped (I used a few good shakes of dried)
1 cup frozen corn (didn't include this)
(I added about a cup and a half of water too, because it looked dry)

Brown meat and drain. Add to slow cooker with remaining ingredients. Stir and cover with lid. Cook on low 5-6 hours, or high 3-4 hours. Stir just before serving. Serve topped with cheddar cheese and sour cream.