Tex-Mex Skillet

If this food blog were a New Years resolution, I would have failed miserably. However, if this were a January resolution, I would've done great. So many great posts in that month. And very few thus far in February. And this will be my last one until March, sadly. After a four year hiatus, I am finally forced to go TDY again. A beautiful winter-time tour of this nation's three missile bases in North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. As a self-proclaimed cold-weather person, I am excited. As an owner of exactly 0.0 items of cold-weather uniform gear, I am not so excited. I guess I'll have to do what I do down here in the summer:  suck it up in between the car and the building. Of course by the time we get to Cheyenne, where we'll spend the last 9 days of the trip, it'll be in the 50s and sunny (far warmer than we have it now).

Weather aside, I'm sure it will be a rewarding and fulfilling trip, but I am not looking forward to being without my family. I am sure going to look forward to Steph's daily update to her photo blog, which nearly brings me to tears every night when I'm sitting in our own living room. At the hotel, people are going to hear me sobbing from the hallway. When I get back, Audrey will have just turned 4 months and Connor will be in his last month of being a one-year-old (though he's gotten a jump start on the terrible twos).

Tonight, Steph made Tex-Mex Skillet since I was still at work. It's a yummy dish that looks relatively easy to make, but I'll have to take Steph's word for it. It involves using ground pork, which gave us a chance to use our kitchen aid meat grinder! And it had some of my favorite ingredients (I'm looking at you green chiles and monterrey jack, although I think she used cheddar). We served it with warm flour tortillas and I added hot sauce.

Makes 4 servings

8 oz ground pork
4 oz bulk chorizo or lean ground beef
1 10 oz can diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 cup frozen corn
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1 cup uncooked instant rice
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese or monterrey jack
Flour tortillas, warmed (optional)
Sour cream (optional)

1. In a large skillet, cook pork and sausage until meat is brown. Drain fat; discard. Stir in undrained tomatoes, corn, water, and pepper. Bring mixture to boiling.

2. Stir uncooked rice into skillet. Remove skillet from heat. Top with cheese. Cover and let stand about 5 minutes or until rice is tender. If desired, serve meat mixture in flour tortillas and top with sour cream.

Chocolate-Mint Pinwheels

Steph here--

For the Super Bowl we were having a few friends over so we decided to make a lot of yummy food and get all our broncos decorations ready! I always find these great ideas for food and decor on pinterest and decide to challenge myself to re create the same. Most of the time it turns into a pinterest fail and never quite turns out the same, but this time I feel like it actually turned out pretty good. I'll start off by showing you some pictures of our set up.

Most of the decorations I printed out on card stock paper and cut them myself. For example the snack trays that we served the chips and salsa in were printed on card stock paper and I cut, folded and taped them to make them into trays. The individual goody bags were also card stock paper cut and taped to snack size ziplock bags.

Chocolate-Mint Pinwheels

Ingredients

1

cup of butter, softened

1

cup of granulated sugar

1

teaspoon of baking powder

1/4

teaspoon of salt

1

egg

1

teaspoon of vanilla

2 1/4

cups of all-purpose flour

2

ounces of semisweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled 

1

cup of layered chocolate-mint candy baking pieces **andes mints probably would work best**

1/4

teaspoon of peppermint extract   **i just used mint extract, not sure if it alters the taste at all**

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add 1 cup granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until mixture is combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.
2. Divide dough in half. Stir melted chocolate into one dough portion. Stir chocolate-mint baking pieces and peppermint extract into remaining dough portion. Divide each dough portion in half. Cover dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or until easy to handle. ***I took mine out after one hour and it was still a little to soft, might be better to let it chill for a little longer***
3. Roll each peppermint dough portion into a 9-1/2x6-inch rectangle on a piece of waxed paper. Roll each chocolate dough portion into a 9-1/2x6-inch rectangle on waxed paper. Invert one chocolate dough rectangle on top of one peppermint dough rectangle; remove top layer of waxed paper. Roll up dough. Discard waxed paper. Pinch dough edges to seal. Wrap dough roll in plastic wrap. Repeat to make a dough roll with remaining chocolate and peppermint dough rectangles. Chill dough rolls in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours or until very firm.**we chilled it overnight
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets; set aside. Unwrap dough rolls; reshape, if necessary. Cut dough rolls crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices.  Place slices about 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are firm and just starting to brown. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Oven-Barbecued Chicken

Ever since Connor could form the syllable, he has said the word "dog" every single time he sees one, even on TV. I'm fairly certain it was his first word. This, like many things Connor does, is heartwarming and adorable. Except for when those sad, manipulative ASPCA commercials come on. The volume was down, so we couldn't hear Sarah McLachlan singing "Angel". Lucky for us, Connor was on the ball.

"Dog!!!"

"That's right Connor, that's a dog, good j...."

"Dog!!!"

"C'mon Connor these dogs are sad and making me feel gui..."

"DOG!!!!!"

"Wahhhhhhh!!!! I'm so sorry!" sob, sob, sob "We should donate! Get my phone Connor. Let's donate all of our money! Hell, let's just open our own abandoned dog hostel!!! Those poor creatures!!!!"

Tonight we had Oven-Barbecued Chicken, which should be renamed "Amazing Barbecue Sauce." After all, every non-chicken ingredient in the recipe is used for the sauce. For the chicken, we used boneless thighs and breast halves (cut in half because they were gigantic). The sauce was a little harder than our normal homemade BBQ sauce, but we prefer this version. It was much more flavorful. I accidentally used light brown sugar instead of dark; this might have made it thinner than advertised, but still good. We are going to serve this sauce with our ribs we're making for the Super Bowl. Speaking of which, serve this meal with a side of Fat Tire, because Go Broncos! 

Connor says: I will eat this chicken, but only with ketchup. Also, I will commandeer that bread on your plate.


Makes 6 servings

4 lbs meaty chicken pieces (breast halves, thighs, drumsticks)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup molasses

1) Preheat oven to 375. Skin chicken. Arrange chicken, bone sides up, in a foil lined 15 x 10 x 1 baking pan. Bake for 35 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, for sauce, in a large saucepan cook onion, garlic, and salt in butter over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add paprika, chili powder, crushed red pepper, and black pepper; cook and stir 1 minute. Add 1 1/2 cups water, vinegar, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce; bring to boiling. Whisk in tomato paste and molasses until smooth. Boil gently, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until sauce is thickened and reduced to about 4 cups, stirring occasionally.

3) Turn chicken bone sides down. Brush 1 cup of the sauce over chicken. Bake for 10-20 minutes until chicken is no longer pink. Serve with some of the remaining sauce. Store the rest of the sauce in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.