Posts Tagged ‘cooking’

A guest Chef!

This week I’d like to welcome my friend Beth as a guest Chef who will be giving us a recipe for Cinnamon Apple Crisps.

The knives are yours Beth!

Having grown up on a small apple orchard when I was little, I have acquired a love of apples. There was nothing like picking a ripe red delicious apple off the tree and biting down into it. It never failed that I would come home my chin and hands would be caked with apple juices. There would be long afternoons with my grandmother and then my mother and father baking apple pies with gala, golden delicious, and granny smiths. There really are so many wonderful varieties and flavors in this simple fruit.

When I was visiting my mother some years ago I had this sweet craving. She pulled out this recipe and suggested we give it a try. Within the first thirty minutes the house smelled so good, reminding me of those memories growing up. After the first hour, I was ravenous! Pulling them out of the oven to put them on the rack, they cool quickly. They were wonderful! The perfect sweet thing along with a potato chip crunch, I was hooked!

There is no need to peel or core the apples, just wash them off and dry them. I use a mandolin to slice the apples; they make the perfect paper thin slices with half the work. Don’t slice more than you can bake at one time, or you will wind up with brown slices. Unlike baking cookies, you can place them as close as you want to each other, they will shrink and ripple slightly during the baking process.

I put my sugar and cinnamon in a shaker and just sprinkle liberally over all the slices. Easy clean up. After you pull them out of the oven, you can use your fingers or a spatula to put the slices on a cooling rack. Let them cool thoroughly before storing. I normally just put mine straight into snack bags for the work week, also great for the kids lunch boxes. They will last about a week after baking them. It’s the perfect sweet, crispy, healthy snack. I hope you enjoy!

RECIPE:

Cinnamon Apple Crisps

Ingredients

2 small apples, Red Delicious or Gala, sliced paper-thin

1 Tbsp. sugar

½ tsp. ground cinnamon.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (NOT WAX PAPER). Place apple slices in a single layer on paper.
3. Mix sugar and cinnamon
4. Sprinkle over apple slices
5. Bake until lightly browned, about 2 hours. Cool on a wire rack and serve.

This is a Weight Watchers recipe and makes 4 servings at 1 point a piece.

Double bonus, makes the house smell wonderful!!!

Base Chili!!

I would never consider chili to be a Lazy Sunday meal.  Chili is so much more complex than people give it credit for.  I love chili for this complexity and have been working for many years to perfect and play with the base recipe to create best chili that I can.  My hope is to provide you with a strong base recipe that you can work with until you find your perfect recipe.

One thing I will say now (and will reiterate in a later Chili Chronicles post) is use a Crock-Pot.  I can not stress this enough.  You must let chili cook for at least four hours at low in a Crock-Pot to get the beginning of a right flavor and no more that six hours at low.  Any longer and the meat will begin to get mushy and you’ll lose the body of the chili.

So you think you are ready?  Well let’s see what you can do!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of meat

2 20+ oz. cans of seasoned diced tomatoes.  I love Dei Fratelli tomatoes and they have one that is seasoned with sea salt.  Therefore you won’t have to add salt to the chili.

2 16 oz. cans of beans (your choice) rinsed well

1 large white onion

8 oz can of tomato sauce

A chili mix that strikes your fancy.  I am a huge fan of Carrol Shelby’s Chili kit because it comes with all the seasoning you’ll need AND some Masa flour for thickening the chili.

Directions:

1) Brown the meat thoroughly in a large skillet, in batches if needed. If you are using a mix of meats (I use combinations of Pork, Beef, and Veal) I recommend hand combining the mixture in a bowl prior to browning the meat.

2) Dice your onions as thick or thin as you want them.  I love thick wedges that I let roast in in the Crock-Pot for 4 hours.

3) In your Crock-Pot add everything else.  Remember not to add ANY salt!  Also hold off on the Masa flour that came with the kit.  The Masa goes in at the very end based on how thin or thick you want the chili. (tomato sauce, onion, rinsed beans, diced tomatoes, chili powder from the kit or mix)

4) Set Crock-Pot to low

5) Stir in meat mixture once its browned and rinsed.  (Rinse the meat to get all the excess grease off)

6) Cook for 4-5 hours stirring and taste testing every so often.

7) If you like thick chili, add the Masa flour and stir in very well about 1 hour prior to serving.  You’ll see the chili begin to thicken almost immediately.

Serving Suggestions:

Sour Cream

Cheese

a variety of Hot Sauces (green, red, smoky)

Tortillas

Rice

Beans (if not mixed in the chili)

Pasta

Diced Onion

Corn Chips (like Fritos)

Enjoy!!

I hope everyone enjoys this base chili recipe.  There will be many future articles that will deconstruct chili and it’s contents, that will hopefully allow each one of us to develop our own chili recipes.  One day I will pass my recipe down to my beautiful daughter, Mallory.

Keep Cooking Gang,

Chef Ben

Surprise!

I thought I’d put a new recipe up tonight!  We made some Sloppy Joe’s to take over to our daughter’s babysitters since their little one just had surgery.  Let me tell you these are the best Sloppy Joe’s I’ve ever had!  I can’t eat the canned stuff anymore, there is just something in them that doesn’t quite sit right in my stomach.

Here is the recipe for these awesome Sloppy Joes!

Ingredients: 3 lbs Ground Beef 1 Cup Chopped Onion 1 Cup Chopped Celery 1/2 Chopped Green Pepper 1 12 oz Jar Prepared Chili Sauce 6 oz. Tomato Paste 2 TBS Brown Sugar 1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce 1/4 TSP Black Pepper Sandwich buns

Directions

1) Brown the Ground Beef in a large skillet or in batches in a smaller skillet.  Make sure to drain off the fat.

2) When the beef is done pour into the crockpot

3) In a separate bowl combine all other ingredients and pour over the ground beef

4) Cook on low for approximately 4-5 hours.

The biggest thing to remember when you are making these is to stir them every half hour to make sure the meat stays nice and moist in the sauce!  The original recipe called for the celery peppers and onions to go in the skillet with the beef but since it cooked so long in the crockpot I thought it would provide a better flavor if they were mixed with the sauce and cooked in the crockpot!

I love good Sloppy Joes and these certainly fit the mold!  Make sure to watch for 3T Tuesday next week.  We are going to be discussing kitchen knives!

Enjoy,

Chef Ben

Welcome!

I am proud to welcome you to Boiling and Beyond!  My goal on this website is to provide those who are cooking challenged with the knowledge and ability to walk into a kitchen and try new things.  We will have multiple features on this blog that will bring new ideas and concepts to you.

3 T Tuesdays – Tools, Tips, and Techniques Tuesdays will bring discussions about the following:

• Tools – Knives, appliances, and equipment that is used in the kitchen.  We will also discuss the purchasing and usages for that equipment. 
• Tips – Shortcuts and ideas that I have discovered and learned over the years.  Things that will make our life even easier in the kitchen.
• Techniques – Techniques for performing certain tasks in the kitchen like dicing onions, roasting food, braising and even some grilling techniques.

Recipe Thursdays – Thursdays will be the big day of the week where we will unveil a new recipe or two for the week.  The recipe will be available for download so that you will have it on hand.  If there are any special tips or techniques for preparing those recipes they will be included.  Different categories will be covered including Lazy Sundays, Grilling, Breads, Party Foods, and many others.

The Chili Chronicles – As we move towards fall I’ll be working on The Chili Chronicles that will  include a base recipe along with serving suggestions, meat mixtures, toppings, and additions.  This list will be built from my experience with preparing and serving various types of chili to friends and families!

Thank you for visiting and my expected goal for the first informational blog post will be on August 18!  Keep an eye open though because you never know when things might happen quicker!

Once again, thanks for stopping by,

Chef Ben