Filed under: recipe
I realized today as I was searching for my gumbo recipe that I had not yet posted it to kevinomara.com so here we go again. I’m lazy, so I’m copying and pasting the old entry from my last blog. Nothing’s changed, it’s still delicious.
This comes to you today because this is a great way to get rid of an entire pound of leftover turkey, especially the dark meat. If you’ve still got some turkey left then now you know what to do.
——
Here it is, folks, my favorite of my recipes of all time ever. Now I know I told you how much I love the sausage casserole but that’s not technically my recipe. This one is. It’s nothing special, really, just a standard gumbo, but it’s mine. The first time I went to make gumbo I couldn’t find a recipe online that I liked so I just took the best parts and directions from a couple of sources and made basically this. A bit of time and testing has perfected it, and here you have it.
I love this recipe. I share it with everyone. It is my personal signature dish and I wish the internet had Smell-o-vision so I could waft it towards you as you read.
Sometimes it’s hard to find the right kind of sausage depending on where you live. During difficult shopping trips I have fallen back on kielbasa or “Louisiana Hot Sausage†but if at all possible, man, get some andouille. It is pretty much necessary to make this dish as it should be.
Kevin O’Mara’s Gumbo Recipe:
STOCK:
6 cups stock – whether from chicken or bouillon, doesn’t matter. I usually do it out of the water in which I boiled the chicken plus some bouillon.
ROUX:
1 cup vegetable oil or shortening
1 cup flour
FIRST VEGETABLES:
2 onions (diced)
2 green bell peppers (diced)
2-3 long sticks celery (diced)
2 big tomatoes or 4 small tomatoes (diced)
SECOND VEGETABLES:
1/2 lb okra (sliced)
1 bunch green onions (diced)
1/2 bunch parsley (diced)
12 cloves or 1 pod garlic (diced)
MEATS:
1 lb andouille sausage (sliced)
1 lb chicken (boiled and hand-shredded (with fork))
SPICES:
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp red (cayenne) pepper
1 tbsp hot sauce
2 bay leaves
RICE:
Usually 2 cups (pre-cooked) is sufficient.
2 cups rice
4 cups water
In the beginning:
Create stock.
To make the roux:
Heat oil in skillet to medium high. Add a little flour, whisk until dissolved. Use s-shaped or sine-wave-shaped whisking motion, not circular. Continue adding flour bit by bit until it’s all in, whisking constantly. Continue to whisk until the roux has taken on a dark brown color. If black flecks appear you have burned the roux and must start over. Sorry. No way to save a burned roux.
Add first vegetables, stock, meat, spices:
Remove roux from heat. Add first vegetables (onion, bell pepper, celery, and tomatoes). Use the residual heat from the roux to sautee the vegetables, mixing well. Place vegetables in pot.
Note: I have stopped cooking the roux in a skillet and transferring it to a pot. Because I’m tall enough to do it comfortably I make it in the pot, but you might not be able to reach down in there and whisk the whole time without making your wrist sore. It’s up to you.
Turn to medium-high heat, add stock, andouille, chicken, and spices. Bring to boil and then lower to simmer. Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Add second vegetables:
After one hour of simmering, add second vegetables (okra, green onions, parsley, and garlic). Cook for 10 minutes or until okra is soft.
Serve over a bed of hot white rice.
That, my friends, will produce an awesome gumbo. I hope you make it and love it.
Filed under: recipe
I don’t have much to say other than it’s been cold lately (or what passes for late Autumn cold in the south) and that means it’s time to dust off that old crockpot and start making something hot and hearty. Today’s recipe is a modification of one by an old family friend. I got ready to make it the usual way and while I was in the grocery store I decided to spice it up just a hair, so here you go.
Tasty B. Rhea Memorial Beef Soup as Modified by Kevin L. O’Mara, Esq.
You gonna need:
1 lb stew beef, browned
28 oz. can peeled crushed tomatoes
1 14oz. can corn, drained
1 14oz. can green beans, drained
1 14oz. can chicken broth
1 large potato, chopped
1/2 white onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
1/2 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp Sriracha pepper
salt to taste
There aren’t really instructions to this, but here goes:
1.) Put the stew beef chunks in a skillet to brown with a little oil and salt and pepper.
2.) Put the tomatoes, corn, green beans, broth, and potato in the crockpot and put it on high.
3.) While the beef is still cooking use another skillet to cook the onions and garlic until the onion is translucent.
4.) When all the things that are cooking in skillets are done put them into the crockpot.
5.) The spices are really up to you – this is just a list of what I used today.
6.) Let it cook until the potatoes are soft and there you go.
Now if you’ll exCUSE me I have some soup to check on.
EDIT: Apparently I am a genius. For starters, if you don’t yet have any Sriracha in your house you have to go buy some now. Anyway, as mentioned above I used some to give the soup just a little kick. I ate one bowl just like this and it was great – BUT for my second bowl I used my diabolical fantastical idea. After filling the bowl I stirred in just a touch of heavy cream, just enough to turn the soup red-orange instead of bright red. The extra richness became a perfect counterbalance to the heat of the peppers and brought the whole thing up a level. I highly recommend going that route.
It was my dad’s birthday a few days ago and I told him for his birthday present I’d cook him whatever he wanted. Turns out he never specifically asked for anything so I just made a decision for him. Today’s birthday dinner was:
Spinach salad with toasted pine nuts and goat cheese
Chicken and andouille in cream sauce over pasta
Bread pudding with whiskey sauce
So here we go! Recipe time! Hey, it’s been a while since I mentioned this, but I totally find all my recipes on the internet. I know I should give credit but I’m bad, I change ’em up a little and then they’re not really the original any more, but I should still give credit, ‘cept wherever I got them probably took them from somewhere else, etc. you’re falling asleep so WAKE UP here we have:
Spinach salad
This doesn’t really need its own section but what the heck. Toast pine nuts in the skillet ’till golden brown. Put baby spinach leaves in a bowl, sprinkle on pine nuts and crumbled goat cheese. Vinaigrette is a good dressing if you wish.
Okay, now for real food:
Chicken and andouille in cream sauce over pasta
3 boneless chicken breasts
~1/2 diced andouille, diced
flour
olive oil
1/8 cup onions, diced
1/8 cup celery, diced
1/8 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/8 cup green bell pepper, diced
1 roma tomato, diced
4-5 cloves garlic, diced
pinch of dry thyme
pinch of dry basil
~2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 box rotini pasta (16 oz? I don’t remember. I’m not a smart man.)
1.) Cut chicken breasts into one inch cubes and season with salt and pepper. Dust lightly with flour and set aside.
2.) In a big skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat.
3.) Saute chicken until lightly browned on all sides.
4.) Add andouille, onions, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. Saute approximately three to five minutes or until vegetables are wilted.
5.) Add thyme and basil.
6.) Add heavy whipping cream (I ended up using a little less than 2c) and bring to a low boil.
7.) Stirring occasionally, allow cream to reduce and thicken.
8.) Remove from heat, spoon over cooked rotini, garnish with parsley.
MMMMMMM. There is NOTHING that cream does not make better. NOTHING. I of course ended up putting black pepper on mine, you may want a little cayenne. Your choice. It’s gonna be good regardless. I served some sauteed (seared?) pepper strips on the side.
and now
HOORAY FOR DESSERT
Bread pudding
1/2 loaf ‘Italian’ bread from Kroger
2 tablespoons butter, melted
~1/2 cup raisins (optional)
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.) Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan.
3.) Drizzle melted butter over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins.
4.) In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed.
5.) Pour mixture over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking it up.
6.) Bake for 45 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.
The bread should be day-old but I didn’t decide ’till this morning what I was making. If you cut that bread in half as if it were a giant sandwich and bake it for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees that’ll dry it right out perfect.
Whiskey sauce
4 tbsp. butter, cut in 1/2 inch bits
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup whiskey
1.) Melt butter in double boiler.
2.) Stir sugar and egg in small bowl.
3.) Gradually add sugaregg to butter until sugar dissolves over hot, not boiling, water.
4.) Remove from heat after 2-3 minutes; let cool.
5.) Stir in whiskey (I ended up finding that a little less than 1/4 cup was perfect)
6.) Pour warm sauce over pudding, top with whipped cream.
That’s it! Delicious food! Eat some!
RECIPE TIME! ARE YOU NOT EXCITED?!
Okay, this is something that I didn’t cook. That’s right, I didn’t even cook this stuff. It’s someone else’s cooking and it’s SO GOOD that I have to blog about it anyway. Dad whipped this up sometime over the holidays and I just now wrested the recipe(s) away from him. I have to share! He’ll understand one day.
Oh, one last thing before I get into this – I do not, as a rule, enjoy eggplant. I mean, if someone makes it I’ll eat it, but I certainly wouldn’t cook it myself, and I can’t even imagine paying a restaurant to cook it for me. Having said that, this is an eggplant recipe that I fully intend to duplicate at some point in the near future. That’s how good it was.
But first, the chickie-bawk.
Lemon-caper chicken
1 1/2 lbs chicken breast tenderloins, each beat nice and flat
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 tbsp butter, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine or vermouth
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
2 minced garlic cloves
2 tbsp capers
garnish: lemon wedges, parsley
1.) Cut chicken into 1/2 inch thick slices (if necessary). Place between waxed paper and flatten with meat mallet until 1/8 inch thick.
2.) Dredge chicken in combined flour, salt, and pepper.
3.) Melt 2 tbsp butter with oil in skillet over medium high heat. Cook chicken in batches; about 1 1/2 mins. on each side or until golden.
4.) Remove and keep warm.
5.) Deglaze skillet with remaining butter, wine, and lemon juice. Cook 2 minutes or just until heated through.
6.) Stir in parsley, garlic and capers; heat through.
Spoon over chicken. Add garnish if desired.
And now the faboo eggplant. I’m not gonna tell you where Dad got the recipe. Think space aliens, think Italian grandmother, think creative burst of inspiration, think dusty old magazine … think whatever you want. It’s his secret, not mine.
The First Eggplant of Which I Have Intentionally And Emphatically Had Seconds
1 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
3 tablespoon sesame seeds (I used toasted)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1.) Preheat oven to 400
2.) Combine ingredients and place in shallow bowl
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs beaten with a splash of water
1 large firm eggplant, thinly sliced
3.) Dust the eggplant slices in the flour, then dip in the egg mixture.
4.) Press into the breadcrumb mixture.
5.) Arrange eggplant on a large nonstick cookie sheet and bake in the center of the oven until golden all over, 15 to 17 minutes. (no need to turn or broil)
While the eggplant was baking Dad sauteed some garlic in olive oil and added that to some store-bought bruschetta and heated it all up in a little saucepan. Man, was that ever awesome.
So!
Go and create, my children, go and create. You will not be disappointed.
Filed under: recipe
Another Tuesday, another recipe. I don’t know where the parents got this one – it’s torn out of some magazine. I asked if there was anything they wanted, and they just wanted this. Easy for me as I didn’t have to think, just to cook.
Turns out this was far tastier than I expected. I was a bit taken aback at the thought of raw ramen noodles, but I broke them down pretty small and it turned out ultra-tasty. No more crunchy than peanut bits, if you need a comparison.
Anyway, on with the recipe. I don’t have anything else to say other than YUM.
Thai Beef Salad with Crispy Noodles
1 sirloin steak (about 1 lb)
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp soy sauce (UGH)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp peanut butter
Juice from one lime (approx. 2 tbsp)
4 cups coleslaw mix (apparently available in the bagged salad section or something like that)
1 tbsp chopped cilantro (NOTICE: THIS DID NOT MAKE IT INTO MY RECIPE)
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil (I would love to have had Thai basil (you know, the one with the purple stalks and green leaves) but it is not readily available in Cookeville)
1 3-oz package ramen noodles (save or discard flavor packet), broken into tiny bits
1.) Season steak with salt and pepper
2.) In a grill pan or cast-iron skillet, sear the steak over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes per side for medium-rare. You want your steak to be medium-rare otherwise you’re not human.
3.) Transfer cooked steak to a plate to rest – covering it is not a bad idea either.
4.) In a small bowl, whisk together the water, soy sauce (UGH), honey, peanut butter, and lime juice.
5.) In a large bowl, combine the slaw mix, basil, and peanut dressing. Toss ’till covered.
6.) Add crushed dry ramen noodles and toss again.
7.) Cut the steak into thin slices and distribute amongst the salads.
Should make four good bowls or so. Really tasty. I urge you to try this recipe.
I also urge you to be nice to your fellow humans, as the holidays are upon us, and you’re bound to be confronted with some total idiots. Just remember, they’re only trying to shop for presents just like you.
I don’t even remember the name of this recipe. I’m sure it was something like “easy holiday sweet-potato sausage skillet surprise extravaganza meal” or something like that. Hell, I don’t even know what magazine it came out of – just something lying around my parents’ house. Regardless, I saw it the other day and decided that this would be my Tuesday Dinner For The Parents this week.
I’m gonna start here by mentioning that the original recipe – which I do not have with me, by the way, I am writing this from memory – called for salsa verde to top the dish. I’m no big fan of salsa verde and I lucked out – when Mom was picking up ingredients she was shopping at Food Lion which is often referred to in my mind as That Place That Never Has A Damn Thing I’m Looking For. Turns out – get this – they didn’t have salsa verde. ¡QUÉ UNA SORPRESA!
Mom did an amazing thing and picked up some Newman’s Own Lime and Tequila Sadly Alcohol-Free (Red) Salsa. That stuff is FANTASTIC. Well, okay, let me back (that thing) up and say that it was wonderful as a topping to our meal. How it would work on chips, I dunno. This salsa has a bit of an attitude problem, a cry for attention, perhaps, and is a bit intense. Not spicy-heat-wise or anything, no, it’s just like Paul Newman said, “I WANT SOME SALSA WHOSE FLAVOR GOES TO ELEVEN.” He talks like that. I’ve met him.
Without further ado, you’re about to be subjected to my best job at remembering how to make tonight’s dish:
Seriously, It’s Not Weird – It Tastes Great
You will need to procure, and probably not from Food Lion,
2 sweet potatoes – I only used 1.5 as the ones Mom got were huge
1/2 lb breakfast sausage. Cut that little Tennessee Pride boy right in half!
1-2 green bell peppers
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp cumin (are you listening, Trey?)
Olive oil, water, salt, pepper, the usual.
IF YOU WANT TO RE-CREATE THE TRUE KEVIN O’MARA DINING EXPERIENCE YOU MUST USE NEWMAN’S OWN TEQUILA LIME GOES-TO-ELEVEN SALSA. I’M JUST SAYING IS ALL.
1. Add a dash of salt to a medium-sized pot full of water. Bring to boil.
2. Cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2-inch chunks.
3. Boil potato chunklets for 4 minutes or until barely tender, then drain
4. In a large skillet (no, seriously, like make sure it’s a 12-inch) brown the sausage. Drain the sausage. Set the sausage aside. Ignore the sausage. Do not eat the sausage yet.
5. Bring skillet to medium-high heat, add olive oil and green bell peppers. Sauté for a few minutes.
6. Add onion. Cook until translucent and done.
7. Add garlic, sausage, sweet potatoes, and cumin to pan. Continue cooking for 5 minutes or so.
8. Salt and pepper to taste.
Pretty easy, huh? Top that sucker with a few splashes of the salsa and you’re good to go.
I have to totally give a shout-out to my Mom who prepared a super-tasty salad to go along with this. Shredded fresh spinich topped with grated carrot, nuts (walnuts?), dried cranberries, and … um … something else. I’ve already forgotten. Drizzle a little raspberry vinaigrette over that and you’re good to go.
Hearty! Filling! Jawsome! Until next time!
“What? Another recipe?” I hear you cry. Yes, it is the truth. Once again I have conquered the demons of the kitchen and returned triumphant with a tasty dish fit for two guys to eat on a Tuesday night.
I’m trying to make Tuesday be my “cook for the parents” night, and so far it’s working, though this week Mom’s out of town visiting relatives and so it was a guy’s night … um … in, I suppose.
Before I get too far into this, I have to brag on my dad – he’s pretty much the best kitchen help I could possibly hire. Considering I don’t have any spare cash, my help would have to work for free, and you just can’t find good employees for free anymore. I guess that’s what’s at the root of the word employee, after all – the word employ, from the French, trompe l’oiel, which means to pay people to sit around in such a way that it appears they’re actually working.
Anyway, Dad’s a great help in the kitchen because he and I seem to know how to work without getting in each others way. He has a knack for knowing what I’ll need next without me even having to ask, and he’s a pro at cutting tortillas into 1-inch strips. That’s actually what they had him doing in the Army for three years. He has war stories about guys losing fingers during the Corn Tortilla Conflict, dull knives, stale tortillas … it’s horrific.
I guess I should get around to the recipe part, yeah?
Oh, hey, but listen – I have pretty much decided that I hate corn tortillas. The soft warm and almost sweet goodness of flour tortillas wins out every day, in my not-so-humble opinion. Next recipe in which I am involved that calls for corn tortillas is gonna get a rude awakening when I mix it up all crazy-like. I found that the corn tortillas in this recipe detracted from the flavor of the rest of the dish so TO HELL WITH CORN TORTILLAS, I say, AND DAMN THE TORPEDOES.
This Recipe Had Some Interesting Name But I’ve Lost The Link So I’m Gonna Call It … Tortilla Madness
1 cup onion, thinly-sliced
5 garlic cloves, diced
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (that means pre-cooked and THEN shredded, people, you can’t shred raw chicken, or at least not easily and without grossing someone out)
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chicken broth
1 can (~7 oz) salsa de chile fresco (I could find nothing of the sort at Food Lion so I made do with some green chiles and mild salsa)
15 (6-inch) FLOUR tortillas, cut into 1-inch strips
1 cup shredded white cheese or maybe if you’re me you opt for Mexican 4-cheese blend, which tastes just like all the other bagged pre-shredded cheeses at the grocery store.
1.) Sautee the onions in a little bit of oil until translucent, maybe 3-4 minutes.
2.) Throw in the garlic, cook for 1 minute.
3.) Add the chicken, cook for 30-45 seconds to warm it up a bit.
4.) Put chicken, garlic, and onion in a medium bowl and stir in the black beans.
5.) In the skillet, bring the broth and the salsa to a boil, and then turn it down to a simmer for a few minutes. Stir occasionally.
6.) Grease up a 9×12 baking dish.
7.) Make a layer of tortilla strips, using half the strips at your disposal.
8.) Make a layer of chicken-bean mixture, using half the chicken-bean.
Mmmmmm. Chicken-bean.
9.) Repeat steps 7 and 8.
10.) Pour the broth-salsa mixture evenly over the casserole.
Mmmmmm. Broth-salsa.
11.) Top this with the cheese.
12.) Bake at 450 (you pre-heated your oven, right?) for 10 minutes, or until cheese is all golden and bubbly.
Eat eat eat eat eat. I served with corn, because black beans and corn entered into an alliance in the year 450 CE and declared that they would always taste great together and work as a team on any plate.
Man, I totally need to go to bed.
I’m a bit down lately because it doesn’t matter which day of the week it is, whether or not I’m getting out of class or out of work, there’s no daylight left. It seems silly for an amateur to say something so pretentious, but my photography is stagnating. I currently have one day a week when I can go outside and enjoy the daylight (that’s Sunday, for those of you keeping track) and I can’t just force inspiration to strike. Sometimes I’m too busy on Sundays even to just run around looking for photographic opportunities. There are only so many pictures I can take at night in Cookeville before I start to get a bit worn out, and only so many times I can take photos of sitting around a friend’s house doin’ nothing. I’m gonna have to start doing self-portraits against the blank white walls of my apartment or something.
I realize I should view this as a challenge instead of a detriment, but it’s hard to think that way. I walked to the square tonight to see what I could find, and the answer was NUFFIN.
Well, um, let’s see. Past that, I’ve decided that Tuesday night is Cook for the Parents Night. It’s an excuse to go use their sweet kitchen setup and not have to clean up afterwards. Tonight’s experiment was a FANTASTIC success, a solid keeper vote by all three parties. Cooking Light is to thank for this recipe, though I will post my ever-so-slightly modified version. Seriously, this one’s a keeper and it’s also stupid simple.
I Don’t Remember What They Called It – Italian Sausage Soup or Something?
3 links Italian sausage
2 cups chicken broth (for this I do recommend broth, not water + bouillon)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano (see how easy? all y’uns’s ingredients is already in the can)
1/2 cup uncooked small penne pasta (or shells, or bowties, or whatever)
2 cups bagged baby spinach leaves
Lotsa grated fresh Parmesan cheese
2-4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1.) Heat a large saucepan over medium heat.
2.) Remove casings from sausage.
3.) Add sausage to pan, and cook about 5 minutes or until browned, and make sure to break it into bite-size pieces (or smaller)
4.) Drain; return to pan.
5.) Add broth, tomatoes, and pasta to pan, and bring to a boil over high heat.
6.) Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until pasta is done.
7.) Remove from heat; stir in spinach until wilted.
8.) Sprinkle each serving with cheese and basil.
See? Stupid easy. It doesn’t even have 10 steps, and it’s delicious. I’d make the Rachael Ray face here, but you can’t see me over the internet.
Though maybe I just got an idea for one of those self-portraits …
Just like that Burden Brothers song, it’s a beautiful night. Tonight’s the first time I’ve ridden my bicycle since I moved to the apartment – actually, the first time I’ve ridden it since I left Portland. It felt great. The whole town is asleep at 8:00 on a Sunday night and no one got in my way. It was lonely, cold, quiet, and blissful.
I just did some quick errands: depositing a check, turning in my time slip, grocery shopping. It felt really good to be going to the store on bike again, and Kroger isn’t very far from my place. It is, however, going to piss me off if they don’t grow a bike rack soon. I realize this is Cookeville, not Portland, and there aren’t bike commuters at every intersection. Still, one bike rack is not too much to ask, I think.
I shall have to write them a letter.
I’m constantly finding myself more and more motivated to do something, something important, but I don’t know what my cause is. I thought about getting myself banned from Wal-Mart but that just didn’t seem right for me. It’s not that I shop there often, or would even miss it, just that it seems a pointless gesture to make in the middle of Wal-Martburbia.
I know that I’m only one voice, I know that someone hearing my words may not make a difference. I realize on the other hand that if I say nothing and stay silent then there’s not even a chance to make a difference.
To what cause should I apply my voice? I can’t make the decision, maybe because I can’t even come up with interesting prospects.
Ah, well, the entirety of my time is occupied with school, work, and red beans ‘n rice anyway. Right? No? That’s a cop-out?
Hey, speaking of red beans ‘n rice, and of Kroger, i.e. food in general, I have a recipe that I’ve forgotten to share with you. It’s an old one from the parents’ food library. Let’s see if I can remember it off the top of my head.
B. Rhea Memorial Soup
You need a crockpot to do this correctly (in other words, with the minimal amount of effort) though I suppose you could do it in a large stock pot.
1 lb hamburger
1 can whole kernel corn, undrained
1 can green beans, undrained
1 large potato
1 large can (30 oz?) stewed tomatoes
also:
butter
1 whole white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced or minced
2 cups water
2 tbsp beef bouillon
(or instead of the two ingredients above, substitute 2 cups beef broth)
Worscestershire sauce
Salt
Honey
1.) Brown and drain ground beef
2.) Quarter the potato and slice thinly
3.) Put potato, beef, corn, green beans, and tomatoes in the crockpot and get it started
4.) Sweat the onions and garlic (in the butter) in a small saucepot over low to medium heat. Cook for about 10 minutes until translucent and soft, covering if necessary
5.) Add water and bouillon (or broth) and bring to a boil.
6.) Add a pinch of salt, a dash of Worcestershire, and a blop of honey
7.) Once the fake onion soup is hot and mixed, add it to the crockpot.
8.) When the potatoes are soft, it’s time to eat.
That’s it – really easy, and a great hearty winter soup.
Caveat: last time I made this, I didn’t need quite all the tomatoes, so you eyeball it, okay, and make sure it’s as tomatoe-y as you want it to be.
Thassit. I gots to go study some Spanish and think of a recipe for Tuesday. I’ll try to keep you posted.
Mwah.
Where should I start yet another meaningless blog post full of disconnected inane ramblings?
I went by Photographic Services at school today and while they don’t have any pay positions ’till the start of next semester, I have an invitation to play with gear and shoot events (and accompany real employees on events) whenever I want. That alone is worth it – to be able to put on my resume that I took pics not for the school newspaper, but for the school itself. And the thought of getting the peanuts pittance next semester, to actually get paid to photograph things – that’s exciting.
‘Course I still gots to get a real job because I’m planning on taking Jim’s apartment when he moves to Nashville, and rent doesn’t pay itself. If you know of some entertaining and not-mindless student-friendly part-time job that I should be considering, please let me know. I think the employment classified ads in the Herald-Citizen got stuck – all three of them have been the same all week.
Um, um, my MOO cards are not here yet! About this I am livid! I filled out my form about five minutes before Trey did, and he has his already (and so does JC for that matter). Where are my MOO cards? If they never arrive, what will I do? Honestly, I’ll probably end up ordering a pack of 100 since I’ve seen Trey’s and the quality is awesome. They’re just about the best thing ever, and probably going to be totally passé in a week. I should hop on that.
When I get a job.
And money.
Lastly, on the food front, I’ve been moderately active. The other night while discussing with Mom what I was going to make for dinner I realized we had the ingredients for … um … I dunno what to call it. Southwest skillet, I guess. I think there used to be a name for it but I’ve forgotten.
It ain’t pretty, so there’s no picture, but the gist of it is this:
Start your rice (1c rice, 2c water)
Brown ~1lb ground beef
While beef is browning, sautee the following:
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 white onion, diced
As many cloves of garlic as you can stand, finely diced
Once the beef is cooked and drained, and the veggies are nice and soft, combine.
Season liberally with cumin (no, really liberally. Very liberally.) and cayenne pepper and ancho chile powder and chili powder and whatever else you have that’s spicy. Don’t forget salt and black pepper too.
Once that’s all good and hot and seasoned, dump the following in there:
1 can black beans, drained
1 can whole corn kernels, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
Heat to a simmer, throw in some flour if it’s too liquidy for your tastes, and serve over white rice. Scatter the shredded cheese of your choice on top and eat.
Warning: very filling.
Also, I was asked to make alfredo sauce tonight but we didn’t have any heavy cream. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup heavy cream, but instead I used 1/2 cup cream cheese, whisked into the milk until nice and smooth. If you go this route, leave out the salt, as our end product was a bit saltier than I usually like to make it.
That’s all for tonight, folks! Tune in tomorrow when I clip my toenails.