Habañero Chili Sauce

Notes

Another one you didn't grow up with. Rosa makes a chili sauce, much like my grandmother made. Problem is, I don't like it. So I came up with my own. This one's not bad. Hot but not too hot with an interesting taste.

Ingredients

• 4 Habañero Peppers
• 4 Roma Tomatoes
• 2 Carrots, peeled and sliced into chunks
• 1 Brown Onion, peeled and halved
• 1 Roasted Red Bell Pepper (you can roast it over the burner of a gas stove)
• 2 heaping tablespoons Minced Garlic

Directions

1. Put habañeros, tomatoes, carrots, and onion into a pot and cover with water.
2. Heat pot on high until boiling, then simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Turn heat off, place red peppers in pot, and let it sit for a while. Even overnight.
4. Dump pot into a collander and place contents with garlic into a blender.
5. Blend until puréed.

Carnitas

Notes

• You didn't grow up with Carnitas but these are so good that I had to pass them on.
• This started with a post someone shared on Facebook but, as cooks do, I've tweaked it and made it my own.
• This is cooked in a Crock Pot all day but there is still a little bit of work to do in the evening before serving.
• The night it is cooked we make tacos with salsa (and avocado, if we can) and Jarritos to drink.
• A night or two later: nachos.

Ingredients

• Pork shoulder/butt (depending on where you go) with a nice layer of fat on top and preferably a bone inside
• 1C Orange Juice
• 4 California Chile pods (they're smoked Anaheims)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cumin seeds
• 2 heaping tablespoons Garlic (I use minced)
• 1 Medium Onion, chopped
• 3 Jalapeño Chiles, chopped
• 3 Serrano Chiles, chopped

Directions

1. Start preparations in the morning.
2. Pour orange juice into Crock Pot.
3. Place pork, with fat layer on top, into pot.
4. Cut/tear the California Chiles in half and place in the bottom of the pot.
5. Place the rest of the ingredients on the pork (don't worry, most will fall off and that's fine) and cover.
6. Turn Crock Pot on high and let cook until 30 minutes before serving.
7. Turn off and unplug Crock Pot.
8. Scrape fat and whatnot off top of pork.
9. Transfer pork from pot to large plate, breaking it up as you go.
10. Set up a colander over a bowl in the sink and pour contents of Crock Pot into it.
11. Heat up a cast iron skillet (medium high or 8/10) and pour a couple of tablespoons of oil into it.
12. Dump the pork from the plate into the skillet.
13. Cook pork long enough that the bottom gets a bit crunchy.
14. Turn pork (in sections) over with a flipper spatula. Cook until that side gets crunchy.
15. Turn pork over halfway and spread out over pan.
16. Pour the liquid from the bowl into the pan and simmer until almost gone (some of the liquid is fat and that will not boil away).
17. Serve.

Roast Chicken on Potatoes

Notes

• You might think this dish is about the chicken. Wrong! It is all about the potatoes swimming in chicken fat.
• The chicken does have its purpose, though. Since you are using a whole chicken, after dinner separate the chicken from the carcass and turn that into chicken stock for chicken soup.
• Cooking this always takes longer than I expect. Plan accordingly.
• If you don't have an oven thermometer with a temperature alarm, now is the time to get one.
• You can adjust the amount of potato crispiness by adjusting that first cooking time without the bird. Be careful, though, it doesn't take much to end up with really crispy (which I actually like) or over-done potatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• Several potatoes, washed, unpeeled and cut into cubes (red or russet--I used to use just red but, it turns out, it doesn't really matter)
• Minced garlic
• EV olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• ½ onion
• Fresh rosemary (if available)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 415°.
2. Combine potatoes, enough olive oil to coat them, a few tablespoons of garlic, and salt & pepper to taste in roasting pan.
3. Place in oven for 30 minutes.
4. Rinse bird then stuff with onion and a sprig of rosemary.
5. Place sprigs of rosemary under breast skin, one on each half.
6. After the 30 minutes, take the pan out of the oven. Place bird in the pan, set thermometer alarm to 170°, and insert probe into breast. Place pan back in oven.
7. Cook for another 30 minutes.
8. Set oven to 350°, take pan out of oven, cover with aluminum foil, and place back in oven until done (when the alarm goes off).

Michael-style Deli Sandwich (Coleslaw Sriracha Sandwich)

Notes

Funny thing is, if you Google "coleslaw sriracha sandwich", all you find is a bunch of "sriracha coleslaw" recipes and videos. Near as I can tell, I am the only person on the planet who likes sandwiches this way. I'm a precious snowflake!

Ingredients

• Bag o' coleslaw cabbage
• Jar o' coleslaw sauce
• Sriracha
• Sandwich roll
• Deli meat and cheese and whatnot except condiments

Directions

1. Combine the bag o's in a mixing bowl and mix together.
2. Assemble your sandwich.
3. Spoon coleslaw onto sandwich.
4. Squirt Sriracha on top of coleslaw.
5. Eat yummy sandwich.

Chocolate Scotcheroos

Notes

• A slight variation on the classic, with the chocolate in a middle layer rather than on top.
• The big win here is I can put in some helpful steps that the official recipe doesn't go into.
• If ever there was a recipe that benefits from mise en place, this is it.
• Note that this is one third of the official recipe because this I make these for bicycling snacks, so I don't want them too big. Need to feed a lot of people? Triple it.
• For sticky ingredients like corn syrup and peanut butter, first spray non-stick in the measuring cups. That will help them slide back out.
• The Scotcheroos are going in a 9"x5" loaf pan. It's the same one I use for meat loaf.

Ingredients

• ⅓C corn syrup
• ⅓C sugar
• ⅓C creamy, non-natural peanut butter like Skippy
• 2C Rice Krispies
• ⅓C semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• ⅓C butterscotch morsels

Directions

1. Put the sugar and corn syrup in a small, non-stick pot on the stove.
2. Measure out the peanut butter have it ready to add to the pot.
3. Measure out the Rice Krispies and put them in a bowl.
4. Put the morsels in a microwave-safe bowl and place in the microwave oven.
5. Spray the loaf pan with non-stick then tear off a piece of wax paper big enough to cover it.
6. Now the cooking starts. Turn the burner under the pot onto low-medium heat (my burner is set to 4 out of 10).
7. Start heating the morsels in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until they are almost completely melted. They will be so hot that stirring them a bit more will finish the melting. This keeps them from burning.
8. When the sugar/corn syrup mixture starts simmering, stir (with a wooden spatula, I hope) until it is mostly clear.
9. Turn off the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir until mixed in.
10. Add the Rice Krispies and stir until well-coated.
11. Add ½ of the mixture to the loaf pan and spread a bit with a spatula.
12. Use the wax paper to cover the mixture and spread the mixture evenly and into the corners. The mixture is hot but, hopefully, not too hot through the wax paper. If your fingers aren't as tough as mine, use a towel. It's okay because you're still on the wax paper.
13. Now add the chocolate/butterscotch to the top of the mixture. Don't worry if it doesn't reach the edges.
14. Put the mixture pot back on the stove and the set heat to the lowest setting.
15. Put the loaf pan in the freezer for five minutes.
16. Take the pan out of the freezer and press the remaining mixture into the pan.
17. Cover pan with wax paper and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
18. Take out of refrigerator and the whole thing should pop right out of the pan, making it very easy to cut.
19. Store, covered in the refrigerator when the weather is warm or things can get melty.

Meatballs

Notes

So you've made croutons (and the French love you). You have eaten them all (the croutons, not the French) and now you are left with a bag of crumbs. What to do with them? Make meatballs!

Ingredients

• 1# Ground beef
• 1# Italian sausage
• Leftover crouton crumbs
• 2 Eggs
• 2 heaping tablespoons Minced garlic
• 8oz can Tomato sauce
• Oregano (I use at least ¼cup)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°.
2. Spray non-stick coating on an oven-ready pan. I use cast iron.
3. Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine by hand.
4. Grab bits of the mixture, form into balls, and place into the pan. You may need more than one pan.

Puttanesca

Notes

Formally known as Spaghetti alla puttanesca.

• The ingredients are the ingredients but my measurements are pretty loosey-goosey so feel free to change them (for instance, maybe you don't want to use two tins of anchovies--but they're so good!).
• This makes a lot of sauce.
• I cook enough spaghetti for at least four people, even when I was only cooking for two, because leftovers.

Ingredients

• EV olive oil
• 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes (Costco has a nice pack of these)
• 2 tins of anchovies
• Capers (I use at least a couple of heaping tablespoons)
• Kalamata olives, chopped (maybe I grab half a cup of these before chopping?)
• Garlic, chopped (I use two heaping tablespoons of the chopped-in-a-jar kind from Costco)

Directions

1. Start up your pasta water. Did you know you can put the pasta in the water at this point? Just stir it every so often to make sure things don't stick together.
2. Put the anchovies in a pan that has a lid. Add a little olive oil. Cook over low heat until the anchovies disintegrate. You may need to stir them up a bit. There will be much splattering.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients.
4. Cover with a splatter screen and simmer until the pasta is done.
5. I would serve the sauce on top of the pasta. I have had this in restaurants where they mixed the sauce with the pasta but that never worked out for me.
6. Serve with Parmigiano-Reggiano on top, of course.

Lasagna

Notes

I really like my lasagna.

• I am a terrible person and use the instant/no boil/pre-boiled lasagna noodles. They are just so stinking convenient.
• This is a great dish to make on a day you are making Marinara Sauce. You use the sauce that you need in this dish, then you can freeze the rest.
• I use this 8½" x 11" x 3" ceramic pan/pot with rounded corners and ribbing to cook lasagna. Rounded corners mean no hot corners when baking, which means no dry corners in your lasagna. Sure, it means your lasagna noodles aren't going to fit perfectly but I just break off their corners (and toss the breakings back in the dish) and nobody ever notices.
• Save some $$ and shred your own cheese.
• This is a pretty hearty dish. I can't have salad with it because even a small slice fills me up.

Ingredients

• 1# ground beef
• 1# Italian sausage
• Marinara sauce
• 15oz ricotta cheese (I like whole milk)
• 16oz Mozzarella cheese (Whole milk here, too), shredded
• 2 eggs
• Lasagna noodles

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°.
2. Cook the ground beef and Italian sausage together, breaking them up.
3. Add just enough marinara sauce to coat the meat well. You don't want the mixture to be soupy. You can simmer for a bit or not, because they are going to simmer when baking. I almost always simmer for a little bit.
4. Combine the ricotta, shredded mozzarella, and eggs. By hand. It's fun.
5. Spray your cooking pan with non-stick spray.
6. Divide (mentally or by drawing lines in their containers) the meat mixture and cheese mixture into thirds.
7. Assemble your lasagna (you may need to adjust the # of layers to your pan's size):
   1. Meat layer
   2. Noodle layer
   3. Cheese layer
   4. Noodle layer
   5. Meat
   6. Noodle
   7. Cheese
   8. Noodle
   9. Meat
   10. Cheese on top (that's right, no noodle layer here)
8. Bake for 60 minutes.

Marinara Sauce

Notes

So simple.

• Taken and adapted from a cookbook by Giada De Laurentiis.
• You will want to cook this in a pot with a lid and a thick bottom. If you use a thin-bottomed pot it will burn the sauce for sure. Burnt sauce is really hard to scrub out of a pot.
• If you don't already have one, you need a splatter screen.

Ingredients

• 2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
• ⅓C olive oil
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 celery ribs, cleaned and the white ends trimmed off (just wanna use the green)
• 1 red bell pepper
• Garlic
• Dried oregano (I just pour it in. Probably ⅓ to ½C.)
• 2 bay leaves (the ones from Morton & Bassett are the best and well worth the extra $$)
• Red wine (I just grab a cheap six-pack of little bottles)
• Kosher salt

Directions

1. Cut up the veggies and cook them, covered, over medium heat in olive oil a bit. Not enough to brown the onion, though.
2. While they are cooking, cut the bell pepper in half, remove the seeds, and roast each half over the flame from your stove (you do have a gas stove, right?).
3. Slice the bell pepper and add it along with the oregano and garlic (I use the minced stuff from Costco and I use a lot--two or three heaping tablespoons) to the veggies and stir.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes and a few splashes of red wine to the mixture and stir.
5. Set to simmer at the lowest temperature you can. You do not want a tomato sauce to burn at the bottom of the pot.
6. Stick two bay leaves in the sauce. Leave a little bit of them sticking out so you can remove them later.
7. This is important: use a splatter screen--do not cover with a lid. This is going to reduce the water in the sauce so you don't end up with water on your plate under the spaghetti.
8. Simmer for an hour or two.
9. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaves, and use your want mixer to pureé the veggies.
10. Add kosher salt to taste (at least 2 tsp).

Meat Loaf

Notes

The classic.

• No horrible tomato sauce/ketchup/honey on the outside, though. Tried it once. Terrible.
• Note that leftovers make great sandwiches and Chili Spaghetti.
• I press the mixture into a loaf pan, then turn that over and dump it on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. I like the browned bits of the meat loaf and the foil keeps baked-on schmutz from messing up the cookie sheet.
• Goes really well with mashed potatoes and beef gravy. Don't forget a veggie!
• Note that you can substitute 2C of shredded wheat crumbs (yes, from the cereal) for the bread. Some people here actually prefer that version. Plus it's a good way to use the crumbs and not just toss them.

Ingredients

• 1# good ground beef (ground sirloin is best, if you can afford it, but I almost always use a Costco lean chub)
• 1# fat ground beef (need the fat for flavor)
• 2 slices of bread, toasted so they're very dry
• 2 eggs
• 1C sauce (tomato, bbq, duck, or whatever)
• Parsley
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dash or two of Red Wine Vinegar
• Dash or two of Worcestershire Sauce (optional)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°.
2. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Spray the inside of a loaf pan.
4. Break up the break into crumbs. A cheese grater can be helpful (but if you didn't toast the bread enough, it just makes a mess).
5. Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl, wet to dry.
6. The seasonings don't have measurements because you do it to your taste (plus I don't measure them so much). A couple teaspoons for salt is a good start. Then again, I also use two heaping tablespoons of minced garlic because I really like garlic.
7. Combine with your hands. Good, squishy fun!
8. Press the mixture into the loaf pan, then turn over and dump the loaf onto the cookie sheet.
9. Bake for 30-60 minutes, depending on how well-done you like your loaf.