Stuffed Green Peppers

Tonight we made stuffed peppers. We eat these a lot in the summer to use up the green peppers from our garden. I haven't made them the same way twice.

Recipe to come later-- it's time to watch some reality tv..... Big Brother!

Southwest Roast

Josh cooked this meal for dinner tonight. I can't believe we ate the whole thing.........

This is Josh blogging on the menu board this evening. I would like to share with everyone this easy recipe that we acquired from Lisa's older sister, Amy. She is one hell of a cook. I never eat so good as when we go visiting. It is one of those recipes that actually takes less than ten minutes to prepare and is very tasty, as is everything cooked in a crock pot.

You will need a large cut of meat, an onion, and about 4 cloves of garlic and a lime.
You will also need a few spice: ground cumin, paprika, chili powder, and coriander.
4-5lb beef roast
1 onion
1 lime
4-5 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp coriander

Start by rubbing the meat with the mixture of spices. Next, pour the beer in the crock pot and add the meat. Slice the onion thick and crack the garlic cloves. Put the onion and garlic on and around the meat. The last step is to add the zest and juice of the lime. Turn on the crock pot and let it cook.

Comming attraction:
In a few short weeks we will be going where we always go in September, Winfield Ks. There is a wonderful festival there every year. We stay there for over two weeks every year in our camper. We also take our large pull behind smoker with us. We don't use it much the rest of the year because of it's large size. You can seriously feed about 150 people out of this thing (I'll put some pictures of the smoker as well as some tips for smoking meat on here soon).

This may be a good time to tell everyone that a meal ain't a meal without onion.

Grandma Walter's Fried Chicken

For dinner tonight I made my Grandma's fried chicken recipe. Sally Walters made the best fried chicken.... ever. My mom and dad and sisters used the same recipe. It goes a little something like this:

Use a fork to poke holes in the drumstick and thighs. Salt and pepper the chicken and coat with flour. Cook in electric skilled at 350 degrees with the vent open... or use a regular large skillet like I did...

Use enough vegetable oil or shortening to cover the pieces half way. Do not crowd the chicken. Turn when crisp and brown (about 10-15 minutes per side). I just made wings tonight and 8 minutes per side was perfect.

Gravy

Drain oil leaving 2 tablespoons of grease and all the crumbs (yum!). Add 1/2 cup of flour and stir. While stirring over low heat add milk and stir until the gravy thickens (4-5 min). Add milk slowly to desired thickness. Salt and pepper the gravy to taste.

Tonight we had the fried chicken wings with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and Stovetop Savory Herb stuffing.

almost like violet crumble

Yesterday I tried to make a candy we love called Violet Crumble. A co-worker of mine brought some of these yummy candy bars back from her honeymoon in Australia. They are hard to find around here-- but we buy them whenever we make a trip to World Market. The homemade version is often called honeycomb or seafoam. I wish I could make it *exactly* like Violet Crumble. It is surprisingly easy to make and only requires a few ingredients.

Here's how I made 'em:

1 c sugar

4 tablespoons light corn syrup

a little squirt of honey

1 to 2 tablespoons baking soda

Melt the sugar and corn syrup (and honey-optional) on low heat with just a little water in a large saucepan. You will need the large pan because when you add the baking soda it really puffs up big. Stir the sugar while it's melting. After your sugar is melted (about 5 minutes) turn up the heat just a little (to 3 or 4 out of 10) and quit stirring as it comes to a boil. This is when I insert a candy thermometor. Bring the mixture to 300 degrees-- the candy will turn a light brown/dark straw color. This might take up to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda. I mixed the baking soda with water although the recipe I used didn't say to do that. I also added the honey, but out of two batches I made, I preferred the one with very little honey. I meant to add some vanilla with the baking soda but I forgot. Will try that next time.

Pour into buttered metal pie pan (or jelly roll pan, or whatever you want) and leave to cool and harden. Once hardened (20 minutes or so) break into pieces.

I coated these with melted chocolate. I used Baker's Bittersweet, 6 squares mixed with a little (tsp or so) shortening. There is probably a better way. I had to store these in the frige so the chocolate would firm up and stay that way.

They are crispy and sweet-- but light in texture. I'll make them again for sure!

Pizza!

Last night I made homemade pizza. I made two, and burned the 2nd while I was taking a picture of the 1st. We make pizza about once a week-- mostly to justify the expensive Kitchenaid mixer we bought... but we do love beer and pizza

This pizza was made like this:
crust
1 pkg yeast (I used quick-rise) or regular
1 cup very warm (but not too warm) water
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil (Bertolli)
2 1/2 plus almost 1 cups flour

dissolve yeast in 1 cup very warm water (can do this in mixer bowl)... wait 5 min. for yeast to dissolve. add a good squirt of honey, a little salt, some olive oil, and 2 and a half cups flour. If you have a mixer, mix with dough hook for a minute or so (I use power setting 2 at all times). Add another cup (a little less than that really) a little at a time over the next minute or so, with mixer running. Once the dough starts to really look like pizza dough, let the dough hook knead the dough for 2 minutes. If mixing by hand, you'll have to knead the dough for about 5 minutes I think. When dough is finished kneading, drizzle more olive oil on top and turn to coat. Place (or leave) in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and put in a warm place for a half hour to one and a half hours (depending on how patient you are). Dough should rise nicely-- unless your water was too hot! I let the dough rise in the oven that I have preheated for a minute then turned off.

I use shortening to grease my pizza pans. Split the dough into 2 balls. Stretch and pull dough so you have a bigger, flatter circle, and press into pans. No need to pre-bake crust-- I make it pretty thin.

toppings
you can top with anything you want (except cucumber-- you can't put cucumber on a pizza!) but in the pizza that is pictured, here's what I did:
spread with Cascone's pizza sauce
sprinkle with 2 cups mozzarella cheese
sprinkle with 1/2 cup Provel cheese (this is the famous St. Louis cheese)
top with green bell peppers, pimento peppers, red bell peppers (from the garden).
top with an entire bunch of green onion, chopped up
top half with leftover bacon from the morning, half with pepperoni.

bake in 440 degree oven, on lower rack, for 12 minutes. Move to top rack and broil for 2 minutes or so, watching closely. This will bubble up and brown the cheese, and make the pepperoni crispy.

sprinkle with Parmesan and wash down with a cold beverage like bud light (for those older than 21 years of age).