Slow Cooker Beef Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

2 lbs of beef chuck roast

3 slices of ginger

2 green onions

1 large yellow onion

2 carrots

1/3 cup red cooking wine

8 cloves

8 cloves garlic chopped

3 star anise

3 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon fennel

3 dried chili peppers

1 Greenhouse tomato quartered

1/3 cup of soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons of beef base

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon black pepper

2 tablespoons of sea salt

Olive oil

Bok choy

2 packs of udon noodles

Garnish:

Jalapenos and cilantro

Equipment: 7 quart crockpot

**Fyi Walmart has them on sale at the time of this post for $20.

Boil 5 mins to get the muck off. Set it aside.

Slice thin half of the yellow onion. Then saute onion, garlic, ginger, bay leaf, anise, cloves, chili peppers, cumin, fennel, cinnamon, sugar and black pepper in olive oil.

Pour in wine, soy sauce and beef base. Let simmer.

Quarter half of the yellow onion and tomato. The slicing of the vegetables are meant for flavor purposes.

Slice the beef in portions sizes like pictured.

Drop in the spices you already sauteed. Then cover with water.

Cook on high for 8 hours. Add the sea salt and stir.

Boil udon noodles for 8 minutes. Strain them out and rinse with cold water breaking up the noodles. Set aside.

Blanch bok choy for 2 minutes. I cut off the ends and sliced them.

This was my final set up. Then combine your bowl.

YOU DO NOT NEED A BREADMACHINE!

Baking bread is like the oldest trick in the book. For some crazy reason in our technology driven age it has become as elusive as finding the Leviathan. Not that one would want to find this deep sea creature cause surviving the meeting has even less odds. Yet here we are with countless epic fail stories and people resorting to buying expensive equipment to do it for them.

As a young child I used to watch my father fail over and over again to make bread. The horror of burnt loaves! Imagine the despair of a super intelligent man who could work on submarines get served defeat time after time from a little ol’ loaf of malformed bread. I even told him why even bother they sell it in the stores. Just go buy it! Welp, after dang near the 25th time the bread finally came out right and it was well okay. Yeah…. just okay. It was nothing amazing or worth my tastebuds to remember. However, I feel I have redeemed our family name in regards to baking. I realized I could not overthink think the process. Remember people been making bread before we had blenders, food processors and that dang Breadmaker!! I believe the trick is allowing the time for the bread to rise and adding a Dutch oven to your kitchen arsenal.

My Italian Herb Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour

2 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast

1 Tablespoon of McCormick® Perfect Pinch® Italian Seasoning

4 cloves of garlic chopped

1 1/2 cup of warm water

**Replacing your Breadmaker Equipment:

5-7 quart Enamel Coated Dutch Oven (I got mine from Walmart)

Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. It’s gonna stick together but look really stringy and messy. This is okay. You’re not looking for uniformity or a smooth beaten mixture. In fact don’t over mix the dough or the bread wont be as fluffy.

Your final mixed ratchet-looking dough is below. Remember, it will come together less is more.

Cover it with plastic wrap or a damp cloth for at least 8 hours at room temperature. I typically prep this a day before so I can bake for the next nights dinner.

After 8 hours your dough will have risen and will look like this. You will see nice little air pockets!! Super cool!

Preheat your oven 450 degrees. While it is heating up put some flour on a flat surface and powder your hands so the dough doesn’t stick to them. Dig the dough out the bowl and then punch it a few times.

Hee hee…

Ahem, yes… punch it a bit. Then shape it into a nice ball like this.

Cover the dough with the plastic wrap until the oven is heated and ready.

You will put the bread AS IS in the Dutch oven. The dough shouldn’t stick to the enamel so you don’t have to line with oil or whatever. If you are not using a non-stick oven then add olive oil or parchment paper on the bottom of the pot. Bake for 30 minutes COVERED. Then REMOVE the top and put it back in the oven. Mine looked like this after 30 minutes.

***PAY ATTENTION***

Now…this is the final stretch for you. Depending on your oven it may take roughly 7-15 minutes to get that golden color. I set my oven timer on 7 mins initially. Checked it. Nope! 3 mins more. Nope and finally 3 mins again. Yes it’s perfect!

Remove it from the pot on to a cutting board.

Slice it and spread some butter or olive oil. It’s whatever you want to do at this point!

I made pot roast that night so it was super useful at sopping up juices from it! The finished product looks so unbelievably sexy I tell ya. The herbs and garlic really shine through in this recipe! I mean you can really taste them! The crust is crispy and the bread moist and fluffy!! I guarantee your family will love it. I know my boys did!

**Peep Lil Rocs stalker hand**

Whole Baked Lime and Cilantro Flounder

Ingredients:

1 whole flounder

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons melted butter

juice from 3 limes

chopped garlic

cilantro

sea salt

pepper

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Season both sides of fish. Garnish with lime slices. Bake for 20 minutes until flesh is flaky.

July 31, 2019 0

My Favorite Salad Creations!!

This will continue with my personal bests. FYI

Pictured: Smoked salmon, soft boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, avocados, snap peas, black olives, dill, garlic, spinach, homemade lime vinaigrette

Pictured: Tuna Poke, green bell peppers, avocados, super ripe tomatoes, birds eye chili, green onions, garlic

July 31, 2019 0

Scrambled Eggs with Cubed Salmon Filet

Ingredients:

Eggs

small salmon filet cubed

spinach

chopped garlic

green onions chopped

sea salt

fresh dill chopped

black pepper

olive oil

a little white wine

July 31, 2019 1

Crockpot Lemon and Thyme Turkey Legs

Ingredients:

2 lbs Turkey legs

3 carrots chopped

2 potatoes chopped

cherry tomatoes

Juice from one lemon

fresh thyme sprigs

McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Chicken Seasoning

paprika

black pepper

sea salt

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

1 chicken bouillon cube

1 cup water

*garnish with 1 lemon

Set the crockpot to high. Season the turkey legs with the above list and put everything in. Let it cook for up to 4 hours or until the meat is tender.

July 15, 2019 0

Beef Heart Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1 beef heart

1 red onion chopped

1 bundle green onion sliced

4 whole cloves garlic chopped

fresh ginger (1 tablespoon chopped for stir fry, 3 chunks for boil)

3 bell peppers sliced

1 stalk of lemongrass

2 Thai chili’s *for spice*

1/4 cup sherry wine

sea salt

black pepper

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 cup water

vegetable oil

Butchering the heart can be scary at first but the main thing is to remove the hard fat, connective tissue, valves and the shiny skin. It will make it a whole lot easier to get over the fact it’s a heart.

How it looks cleaned up. Then I thinly sliced the meat.

Boil on medium heat with the lemongrass and 3 large chucks of ginger each about half the size of your thumb for 30 minutes. This is to tenderize it before you stir fry it. Once the time is up drain the meat and set it aside.

Set the eye to medium heat. In a wok, saute onions, ginger, garlic with salt and pepper in a little vegetable oil.

Add your remaining vegetables and toss.

I like my food spicy so I advise only using 2 peppers unless you are feeling frisky.

Lastly add the heart, soy sauce, fish sauce, water, sherry and more salt and pepper to taste. Toss so it can mix well. Then cover the wok and let it simmer for 7 mins.

Serve with rice.

June 21, 2019 0