Crockpot Applesauce

As a child and young teenager, I loved applesauce. I anticipated the soft, sweet, cinnamony, gentle taste as I eagerly ripped open the aluminum top of the plastic, kid-sized package. One second later, I had eaten all of the applesauce and was always disappointed there was no more.

Shredded Beef Tacos

I cannot believe I forgot to blog about this dish! Remember when I made the adobo sauce many moons ago?! Well, there was a purpose for that sauce, and I was supposed to share with you all this dish I'm posting today.

What a bad food blogger I am!! I must have been distracted by something sweet or something because this dish was fantastic. Along with this flavorful beef, I made arroz mexicano (yes, I used the same recipe. I guess I used more red tomatoes the first time and tomatillos/regular tomatoes this time. I don't remember.) and tortillas de harina or flour tortillas.
The good thing about the beef is that you make it in the crockpot. You could also make the tortillas the day before by rolling them out, placing the uncooked, flattened discs of dough between wax paper, place them all in a freezer bag, and keep them in the refrigerator (or freezer for a longer amount of storage). The next day, you take them out and cook them on a comal, cast-iron skillet, or some very hot oven-top surface.
The arroz can be made ahead of time, too, but it tastes better when it is first made. I grated monterey jack and lots of cheddar cheese. I also used a bunch of jalapeños. These jalapeños weren't very spicy, so I could handle a bunch of them for added flavor and zing.

I apologize for holding out on this amazing dish. It was truly perfect. I wish I could make some more right now, but I haven't been in the kitchen much these days. I think I've lost my mojo for now. I hope to get back in the kitchen very soon.

Shredded Beef Tacos
adapted from Gimme Some Oven and Baking Addiction

1-2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds beef (boneless chuck roast)
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 cup beef stock or broth
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced (homemade version here!)
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
Flour tortillas, homemade or store-bought

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, combine the chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika in a small bowl.

Rub the spice mix into the beef, covering each side evenly. Once the oil is hot (it will shimmer a bit in the skillet), place the beef in the skillet and sear on each side. Do NOT MOVE the meat while it cooks for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Remove the beef from the skillet, and place in the bottom of a slow cooker. Leave the pan on the heat, and add in the beef stock to deglaze, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato paste and minced chipotle or adobo sauce, and whisk into the pan sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly.

Add the diced onion and minced garlic on top of the seared beef in the slow cooker. Pour the pan sauce down over the onions, garlic, and beef. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

Remove the beef from the slow cooker, and shred with two forks. Use a slotted spoon to remove the onions from the slow cooker, and mix into the shredded beef.

Serve the beef in the flour tortillas, topped with your favorite taco toppings, such as fresh salsa like pico de gallo, frijoles refritos, arroz mexicano, etc.

Sloppy Joes

For my first giveaway, one of the questions I posed dealt with what types of dishes you all would like to see on my blog. A couple of commenters suggested I blog about some family recipes. While most people would see this suggestion as normal and more than satisfactory, I thought it was quite humorous because for my family, there is really no such thing as a family recipe because the relatives with whom I grew up never really learned how to cook. Their inability to cook stemmed from the fact that my grandmother would kick the kids out of the kitchen!

This sentiment may come off weird, but I'm actually proud to admit that my mom is considered the worst cook of my family b/c her ineptitude in the kitchen goes against gender stereotypes. She doesn't like to be in the kitchen for more than 5 minutes. In fact, her dream house would include a small kitchen and a huge bathroom. My dad, on the other hand, does know how to cook, but I was not raised by him. My maternal aunts and uncles are inept in the kitchen as well; however, one or two of my aunts have been getting better b/c their husbands or ex-husbands taught them how to cook.

So, unfortunately, I won't have any family recipes to share on this blog. Well, my mom does know how to make one dish: potato salad. So, I could share that one day (mom?). Anyway, I wrote all of that to say that the recipes on my blog will probably become my future family recipes if I ever procure my own family, and this sloppy joe recipe will definitely be one of them.
The dish was very flavorful. I didn't make any buns, so I just used regular, store-bought bread. I highly suggest you make this recipe part of your "family recipes" soon. Enjoy!

Sloppy Joes
adapted by allrecipes

1 pound lean or regular ground beef or black/kidney beans (for vegetarian option)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper (optional; I didn't use)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
3/4 cup ketchup
3 teaspoons brown sugar
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
Topping: cheddar cheese, optional

In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper; drain off liquids.

Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Plan-ahead: Fill the cups in a muffin tin with leftovers, and freeze them. When frozen, pop them out, and store in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Each one is the perfect size for a bun and ready to microwave.

Slow-Cooker Turkey Chili

More than two posts ago, I promised you all that I would write about a healthy recipe I made for my dieting mother when she came to visit me. Years ago, when I was on my diet, I made a turkey chili for her in my slow cooker that was so good that I didn't miss the fatty food! Somehow, I'd lost that recipe and tried many times to recreate the recipe but to no avail.

So, before my mother came to visit this time around, I asked her what she wanted me to cook for her. She immediately replied, "I want that turkey chili you made for me a long time ago." (Yes, it was that good.) I told her for the umpteenth time that I had lost that recipe, and she told me that I needed to try to find it again before she came to visit. She is demanding! haha
So, I turned to one of my favorite sites for recipes, allrecipes.com. I found a recipe called "Laura's Quick Slow Cooker Turkey Chili". It is considered to be quick because of the use of canned beans as opposed to soaking dry beans and slow because of the use of the slow cooker (duh). I added a few extra spices to ensure success because I didn't want my mother to complain. I now think the chili was the real reason she came to visit me hmmm.

Since I knew she was leaving Sunday afternoon, I started preparing the chili Saturday night so that she could have something to eat at home (my mom doesn't like to and doesn't know how to cook very well. Sorry, mom!) Anyway, I asked her to chop the veggies for the chili. Then, I put together everything else while I made her flour tortillas and the cheesecake for my Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake. I was busy in the kitchen, and this was all happening late at night! I set the slow cooker to low for 8 hours, and at 10am the next morning, the chili was ready.
I prepared a bowl of chili for my mom and sat across the table opposite her all while waiting intently for her response. She loved it! She absolutely loved it! I asked her if it was comparable to the other chili I'd made for her many years ago, and she said that it was very close. She also said that I was missing her favorite cornbread (because I didn't make enough for her already haha).

This chili is very good; it really is. Also, if you add enough cheese to it, it could be a good dip for nacho chips. You can make this dish extremely healthy and flavorful or very unhealthy and flavorful. What a win-win situation that is! Don't forget to make the cornbread!

Laura's Quick Slow-Cooker Turkey Chili
very loosely adapted from allrecipes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon ground cumin

1 pinch ground black pepper

1 pinch ground allspice

salt to taste

1 pound ground turkey
cumin to taste
Lawry's Seasoning Salt to taste
pepper to taste

2 (10.75 ounce) cans low-sodium tomato soup (I used one can low-sodium tomato soup and one box of Pomì chopped tomatoes)

2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained

2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained

Worcestershire Sauce (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)
Small block of favorite type of cheese, grated (optional) (I used cheddar and monterey jack)

Heat the oil in a skillet or dutch oven over medium heat. Season ground turkey with cumin, Lawry's Seasoning Salt and pepper (all to taste). Place the veggies in the skillet, and add all the seasonings (from the chili powder to the salt to taste). Next, place the seasoned, ground turkey in the skillet over the veggies, and cook until evenly brown; drain.

Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray, and mix in turkey, cooked veggies, tomato soup, kidney beans, and black beans. Season with additional chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, allspice and salt ONLY if you feel something's missing. You could also add Worcestershire or hot sauce for an added boost of flavor and heat.

Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.

Crockpot Dulce de Leche *UPDATED* with extra tips

I'm sure you've seen many people in the blogosphere making dulce de leche (pronounced [DUEL-say deh LEH-chay] based on U.S. English pronunciation) by boiling or baking condensed milk. I'm sure you've also heard the warnings they've made about the chance of the can exploding when boiling condensed milk. In order to simplify things, I decided to try making dulce de leche via a crock pot or slow cooker. I searched online to see if this was feasible, and it was.

So, the night before I needed the dulce de leche, I placed the can in the crockpot (place a can on top of a saucer to avoid getting a ring at the bottom), filled it with water until it covered the can, turned the crockpot on low (high if you have an older crockpot, or if it tends to run a true low), set the timer for 8 hours, and went to sleep. I woke up, turned off the crockpot, and allowed the water and can to cool. Then, I poured out the water and opened the can. After getting over my amazement, I started taking photos of my newly-acquired dulce de leche to share with you all.

So, if you don't feel like paying a few extra cents for already-made dulce de leche, try making it in a crockpot. The process is a lot less dangerous and worry-free. I didn't get any decent photos of the apple pie I made with this dulce de leche, but you can see beautiful photos of it here. *UPDATE* Also, you can see additional photos of the dulce de leche apple pie and the source of my new go-to pie crust here and here.

Here is a small snapshot of my pie at night. This was my first attempt at making a classic, lattice top apple pie!

Crockpot Chicken and Dressing

Well, I apologize to the few who were looking forward to seeing the famous dressing I keep harping on and on about. I hesitated about posting about the dressing because I couldn't produce any extremely tempting photos of this dish (even though they look tempting to me!), and I know most people eat with their eyes when "meeting" a new dish for the first time.

Despite the low-quality photos, please trust me that this dressing is fantastic. If the photos fail in convincing you of its awesomeness, I have compiled a list of reasons I think you should try this dressing at least once:

• When I made this dressing for Thanksgiving last year, one of my aunts found a way to hoard almost all of the leftovers for herself.
• This Thanksgiving, I doubled the recipe, and she still found a way to hoard a lot of the dressing to the dismay of everyone else (they still found a way to get some).
• Even though my aunt and my mother were full, they still managed to put more dressing on their plates. In fact, my aunt was saying, "Whew, I'm full!" as she spooned up more dressing :).
• I gave this recipe to my stepmother, and she has made this dish a bunch of times already and has admitted that it tastes better than my paternal grandmother's recipe for dressing.
• Even though I made a double amount of the dressing, I still felt compelled to make this dressing again as soon I got home.
• I'm still happily chomping on this yummy concoction to this day. In fact, I can't wait to get home every day just to heat up another bowl.

Now if those reasons don't convince you, then I don't know what else will. The consistency of this dressing is not like that of the northern version where there are more solid chunks of ingredients. It is creamier with a bready texture like that of a non-sweet version of bread pudding, I guess. I topped the dish with gravy made of a roux and chicken broth since I didn't have anymore turkey drippings. Make this dish at least once; you won't regret it.

Crockpot Chicken and Dressing

adapted by Southern Plate

• 4 chicken breasts, cooked
• 2 pans of cornbread or two quarts (I always use Buttermilk or "Dixie" cornbread)
• 2 hamburger or hot dog buns (I have used leftover, homemade yeast rolls or white bread)
• 2 Tbsp sage (add more to taste. I usually end up adding about a Tablespoon more)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 eggs, hard boiled and chopped
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup (separated)
  
• 1 stick margarine or butter, melted
• 2 cans chicken broth (3-4 cups)

CHICKEN: While preparing the other ingredients in the dressing, season with salt/pepper, and poach (or simmer in a little water in a saucepan) the chicken breasts for about 10 minutes.

DRESSING: Mix together cornbread, other bread, sage, onion, hard-boiled eggs, one can cream of chicken soup, melted margarine or butter, and two cans of broth in a big bowl.

PREPARATION: Make a layer of half the remaining can of cream of chicken soup in the bottom of a large crock pot. Top with 1/3 of the dressing. Top dressing with half of the chicken, shredding it as you put it in. Top with 1/3 dressing, remaining chicken, and remaining dressing. Spread other half of cream of chicken soup over top.

Cover and cook on low for three to four hours. Serve hot.