Crock Pot Baked Beans

These beans are always a crowd pleaser. I forgot to take photos the last time I made them, but I did take a quick photo of a plate of leftovers before they were inhaled.... ;)

How yummy does that look?? Seriously? Thick, gooey, just yummmmm!

Anyway....it's simple, really. You'll need good bar-be-cue sauce (I really love Longhorn BBQ sauce for stuff like this, and you can get it at most local grocery stores if you happen to live in the WA-OR-ID area), 1 large red onion, 1/2 a pound of bacon, approximately 1 cup dark brown sugar, 1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, and 2-3 cans of plain old everyday baked beans. Not the "grilling" ones, just plain baked beans. Tip: The generic baked beans are better than the name brand for this, so don't waste your money. ;) You could really add whatever you like, but this is what I use.

Start by opening the beans and dumping them into the crock pot. Go ahead and turn the crock pot on to "High" now. 

Slice the onion super thin, and caramelize it in a heavy bottom pan over medium-low heat with about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. This will take a while, so be patient, and stir it now and then so it doesn't burn. Some onions have more natural sugars in them than others...if your onions don't start to brown after about 15 mins, turn the heat up slightly and add a spoon full of sugar. You could probably skip this step, but I like the extra flavor this provides. Add the caramelized onions to the beans.

Chop the bacon into small pieces and brown them until they are crispy in a skillet, and add it to the beans.

Finely chop the jalapenos, seeds and all. Add the jalapeno, sugar and BBQ sauce to the beans.

Cover the crock pot, and cook on high until everything is hot and bubbly. Adjust the lid so it is cocked a bit to let steam escape, and cook until the beans reach a thickness you like. All crock pots are different, but on high, it takes about 4 hours in mine to reach the consistency above. I like them to stay where I put them on the plate, not spread out all over the place.

Super simple & super yummy!! Great side dish for bar-be-ques and pot lucks! 

Homemade Egg Noodles

Is there anything on this planet better than homemade pasta?? I'm such a carb head.

This is totally not my recipe or method, either. It belongs to Ryan Detzel, and I first saw this posted on The Pioneer Woman's blog.

This a simple method to make homemade noodles. All it takes is two ingredients--flour and eggs. Done. And it's simple to remember, too, so there's nothing to write down--1 cup of flour + 2 eggs = dinner for 2.  If you cut them a little on the "chubby" side, like I did below, they are almost dumpling like. So yummy.

I'll spare you the directions since you can just click on over to the Pioneer Woman's site and see much prettier photos than mine, along with all the directions and commentary ya need to make them.

But I will say this...seriously awesome go-to dish to have in your repertoire. Two ingredients. No fancy gadgets needed to make it. Versatile. The kids LOVE to help. Everyone loves to eat them!

Chicken Taco Salad

In a word, NOM!

Everyone in my house loves green salad--even my super finicky 8 year old with severe feeding issues will eat salad, so we usually have some variation of a salad as a main course 3-4 nights a week. This is one of our favorites.

The chicken is very similar to my crock pot taco chicken. I basically do the same thing, but instead of salsa, I use a large can of diced tomatoes (you could totally use 2-3 cans of Rotel) and a bag of frozen Southwest mix veggies. I also use lime zest instead of a tangelo peel for this.

The salad is nothing special. Whatever greens that are on sale--romaine, cabbage, arugula, butter, green leaf, baby spinach, just whatever you like; tomato, onion, cucumber, etc. etc. etc. Just make a salad. ;) You could totally serve this on top of tortilla chips or even in a tortilla bowl if you're in the mood. I normally don't, though. Toss a handful of cheese on top and a spoonful of the chicken and you're good to go! My husband tops his with salsa and sour cream.

The Best Pico de Gallo EVER

At least in my opinion...but then, I'm biased, so you'll just have to decide for yourself. I'm not one for condiments and sauces, but I will put this on pretty much anything. :)


What you'll need:

Cilantro, onion (I prefer white....), ripe tomatoes (romas are best, but I had others that needed to be used up that day...use what you have), jalapenos.

Chop everything super fine and mix it together. Don't bother measuring, but you want to aim for equal parts cilantro, onion and tomato. Add enough finely chopped jalapeno to make it as spicy as you like. That's all there is to it. You *COULD* add a squeeze of lemon or lime, and a pinch of salt, but consider if you'll be eating this with chips or not, because tortilla chips have a lot of salt on them already.

Pollo Loco

*Update* I made this on the grill last night and it worked out so much better! Take 4 sheets of tin foil and fold them together so they are 2 wide and 2 thick. Fold up a lip all around, and put it straight on top of the grates on your grill--if you have wire grates with 1" or so spacing like on the top rack pictured below, you might want to make it 3 layers thick; my grates are cast iron with about 1/3-1/2" spacing and this worked perfectly. Spread your charcoal evenly across the whole thing and raise it up almost as high as the charcoal carrier will go. If you have a gas grill, just turn it on as high as it'll go. Add a little bit of oil to prevent sticking, and cook the same way on the grill as you would in the pan, but this way you have a huge surface to work on and you can just throw the mess away! :)

My family frequents this Mexican restaurant in our town, and they make a dish they call "Pollo Loco." It is basically just peppers, onions and chicken charred like for fajitas, and served over spicy rice with some shredded lettuce and a little bit of mozzarella (yes, mozzarella) cheese, tomato and green onions. They serve it with 3 flour tortillas. As simple as it is, it is one of my favorites and I always order it when we eat there. I've been meaning to make it at home for a few weeks now and finally got around to it last night.

Here's what it looked like in the restaurant the last time I ordered it....it came out a little underdone, and kinda greasy...I wasn't real pleased, but it was still pretty yummy. Horrible cell phone pic...sorry....

What you need to make it at home:

Pretend there's a bowl of rice and a can of Rotel in that photo for me, ok?

Shredded iceberg lettuce (I'd much prefer romaine, but who am I to argue?), mozzarella cheese (again, I'd think monterey jack would be more appropriate, but even their menu says they use mozzarella, so....), onion, green onion, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno pepper, white chile, poblano pepper, (you could really use any variety of peppers you want or can get your hands on....this is what the Safeway near my house had....so I grabbed one of each), tortillas (flour!), chicken breasts--this is about 1 lb, and you can use thighs if you prefer them.

First things first, this is one of those recipes that you cannot prep as you cook, because if you're anything like me, something will burn before you have the next thing prepped, so wash and slice everything before you even heat up your pan. Snip the green onions with scissors and slice up the tomatoes--and set them aside because you want to add these fresh at the end. I wound up using only half of each of the bell peppers, and half of the onion, because it was a LOT once it was all sliced up, and I wanted to actually taste the chicken. haha! Slice the peppers into thin strips--I quartered the bell peppers and then sliced them across the short way into thin little strips. Fillet or butterfly the chicken and slice it into pieces about the same size as the pepper strips, maybe a bit bigger, but not much.

When everything is prepped and ready to go, season the chicken with salt and pepper, and then heat a couple tablespoons of oil in the bottom of a large heavy skillet (cast iron if you've got it...or even a good dutch oven if you don't have a huge skillet) over medium high heat. A griddle would be awesome if you've got one that goes directly onto the stove, too....but I like sides for stuff like this because I'm a messy cook!

Pour a cup of rice, a can of Rotel, and 1 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan (you could totally add taco seasoning or extra cayenne or hot sauce or whatever you like, but I think the rest of the dish adds more than enough flavor) and cook it like you would normally cook rice--bring it to a boil, throw the lid on, turn the heat down and let it simmer for a few mins. Set the rice aside.

While the rice cooks, toss the chicken into your pan first. Cook it a minute or two until it starts to brown, and then add the sliced onion and peppers. You may need a little more oil, add it as necessary. You want that sizzling sound. Stir and cook it all together until everything is slightly blackened--don't be like me and open a beer and walk away while chatting with your husband....because mine was more than slightly blackened (haha!), but it was still good because I was GOING for that charred taste anyway. No seriously, I was...not at all joking.

Awesome....

When everything is cooked to your liking, plate a spoonful of the rice and spread it out to cover half the plate, then take a handful of the lettuce and spread it on the other half. Toss the green onions and tomatoes with the veggie/chicken mix (yeah I just threw mine on top because I'm the only one in my house that will eat a fresh tomato...house full of weirdos, I tell ya!)--I added olives I found in the cabinet, too--and then spoon the veggie/chicken mix over the rice, along with a handful of cheese. Top with cilantro (that I totally forgot to buy...oops!) and serve with warmed tortillas.

mmmmmm....Leftovers for lunch the next day!!!! ;)

Verdict? Even slightly more charred than I wanted, my version was *WAY* better...and for what it costs to eat it at the restaurant, I made enough for 4 people to have for dinner AND lunch the next day. :D

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Brined & Roasted Turkey

This is such a basic thing, but it makes all the difference in the world, no matter how you intend to cook your turkey. You can adjust the quantities to your desire, just make sure the ratios remain proportionate. You can add whatever herbs or aromatics you'd like. Traditionalists will recommend thyme, rosemary and bay leaves, but do what you want. Even if you don't add anything else to this, the bird will come out awesome, I promise.

I have a cooler that holds 7 gallons and happens to be the *PERFECT* size for brining 1-2 14-pound turkeys...which was totally a happy accident since I bought it because it's also the perfect size to hold 2 gallons of milk and one bag of ice for road trips (it's a Coleman model 6277 if anyone cares). You could easily do this in a 5 gallon bucket or a massive stock pot, or, well, really anything that the turkey will fit inside completely.

My brine is super simple, and you can omit the beer and just add extra water if you'd like and it'll be just as good.

In a large pot, combine:

6 12-oz beers

1 cup of brown sugar

2 cups of salt (whatever salt you have....I use kosher in my cooking, but I always just buy a 50 cent thing of cheap table salt for this....that is almost exactly 2 cups)

2-3 quarts of water (enough to top off the pot)

Heat over medium high heat until all of the sugar and salt dissolve, then remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. If you are as impatient as I am, you can pour this over a bag of ice right into the bucket/cooler/pot you're going to use.

Pull the pop up thermometer out of the turkey if there is one, rinse well under cold water, and then put your turkey into the cooler breast side down. Add a bag of ice, and then top off with water and stir to distribute the brine. Let the turkey sit in this at LEAST 8-12 hours. Usually, I buy a frozen bird and I let it thaw in the brine. This saves me room in my refrigerator, and it gives the bird extra time in the brine solution. :) Win-win! Just make sure you check at least once a day and add ice as needed, to keep everything cold. Luke warm water + poultry is not a good idea. ;)

When you're ready to cook your bird, preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Pull it out of the brine and rinse it off, inside and out. Pat it dry and put it on a rack inside a roasting pan. Smear the outside with real butter (you could certainly whip your butter up with some fresh garlic paste and use that for extra flavor) and put stuff loosely inside as desired (note: NOT STUFFING. STUFF. Onions, garlic, carrots, celery, apples, orange peel, whatever...but under no circumstances dressing...It will not cook evenly and will just make a huge yucky mess). Put extra 'stuff' in the bottom of the roasting pan and add about a quart of chicken stock (or turkey, if you happen to have it in your freezer...I never do). Just make sure the bottom of the turkey is not touching the liquid--you can add more stock as necessary throughout the cooking process if you find all of the liquid has evaporated. You can just as easily use Better Than Bouillon and hot water, too. ;) 

Throw the bird into the 500 degree oven, close the door and walk away for 30-45 minutes. Do not look at it. Do not, under any circumstances, open the door. After 30-45 minutes, turn the heat down to 350, pull it out, baste it really good with the liquid in the bottom of the pan, and then tent the breast only with foil. Put the bird back in. Every 30ish minutes, go back and baste it again.

Using a probe thermometer (available at Walmart for like $3....don't skimp), take the bird's temperature in the thickest part of the thigh, between the thigh and the body of the bird. When it reads between 155 and 160 (should take roughly 2-3 hrs for a 13-15 lb bird), pull it out and cover the entire turkey tightly in foil. Its temperature will continue to raise and the juices will distribute it will be perfect and ready to eat after about 20-30 minutes.