Slow-Cooker Asian Braised Beef Short Ribs

Serves four to six.
(Source)

• 1/4 cup chicken broth 
• 3/4 cup hoisin sauce 
• 3 scallions, white parts minced, green parts sliced thin 
• 4 teaspoons Asian chili-garlic sauce 
• 1 tablespoon instant tapioca 
• 5 pounds bone-in English-style short ribs, excess fat trimmed 
• Salt and pepper 

Combine broth, hoisin, scallion whites, chili-garlic sauce, and tapioca in slow cooker. Season short ribs with salt and pepper and nestle into slow cooker. Cover and cook until beef is tender, 9 to 10 hours on low or 6 to 7 hours on high.

Transfer short ribs to serving platter, tent loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest for 5 minutes. Skim excess fat from surface of sauce. Pour sauce over short ribs and sprinkle with scallion greens. Serve over rice.

Grandma's Cole Slaw

How could I not have posted this before?

First the "official" recipe:

• 7/8 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup of mayonnaise
• 1/4 c vinegar (calls for "tarragon or other")
• 1/4 c salad oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 head of shredded cabbage

Now the version I usually make:

• half of the dressing recipe (cut cabbage, especially when shredded, adds liquid to the recipe and a full batch of dressing is always too much, imo)
• using miracle whip
• and plain, white vinegar
• skip the onion
• medium/small head of cabbage

NOTES:

• Quite often I don't measure very carefully - it's a pretty forgiving recipe.
• It was originally from the A & W or Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Staples and my recipe card calls it Ozzie's Cole Slaw.  (Ozzie Anglin? was the restaurant owner.)
• It was cut down from a huge restaurant recipe, hence the 7/8 cup measurement.
• If you use some red cabbage, add it at the last minute or the dressing will get all pink.

Crock Pot Barbecued Ribs

I made this in the crock pot today using boneless ribs I had left over from the adventure in the photo.
They were very easy and adding the baking step at the end made them better than the average, overcooked crock pot meat.

 3 pounds baby back ribs, trimmed
 salt and ground black pepper, to taste
 1/2 cup water
 1/2 onion, sliced
 1 clove garlic, minced
 1 (18 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce

Directions

• Season ribs with salt and pepper.
• Pour water into slow cooker. Layer the ribs into the slow cooker. Top the ribs with onion and garlic.
• Cook on High for 4 hours (or Low for 8 hours).
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Transfer ribs to a baking sheet. Discard onion and garlic. Coat ribs with barbeque sauce.
• Bake in preheated oven until the sauce caramelizes and sticks to the meat, 10 to 15 minutes.

NOTES:

• I used boneless ribs
• and less barbecue sauce than called for
• Very easy with a better than average finish.  Quick enough to do after work.
• Source

Mexican Biscuit Casserole

1 1/2 lb. hamburger
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
3/4 c water
1 16 ounce can kidney beans, undrained
1 11 ounce can corn w/ sweet peppers, drained

3 1/4 cups bisquick
1 c milk

3 c shredded cheese

• Brown the hamburger, add water, seasoning mix, beans and corn.  Bring to boil.
• Meanwhile, mix milk and bisquick and form biscuits.
• Put meat mixture into a sprayed 9 x 13 dish.
• top with at least half of the cheese and then place the biscuits on top of the hot meat mixture.
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly browned.  
• Take out of the oven, top with remaining cheese and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

NOTES:

• Very easy and we all liked it.
• Next time, change the meat to 1 pound, put it in a 9x9 baking dish and use half a batch of biscuits.  (We thought the meat to biscuit ratio was pretty low.)
• Regarding the biscuits - this recipe could be made easier with a can of refrigerator biscuits.  It could be made tastier with a home made biscuit recipe.  Really, any would work.
• This could be a freezer meal.  Just package the cooked meat mixture in a ziploc and package it with the right amount of cheese and a pack of frozen biscuits.  Assemble before serving, but it's probably worth noting that the meat would need to be reheated before assembly.  (Not sure if that's important or not, but the original recipe specifically says "hot."
• Source.

Rhubarb Vodka

Just bookmarking it here so I can find it again.  Delicious!

3 pounds rhubarb, cut up

Mixed with
1 bottle vodka
1/4 cup grand marnier
Simple syrup (6 tablespoons sugar heated to boiling with 1/4 cup water)


Cool the syrup before mixing into the rest of the ingredients. 
Let stand 1-2 weeks in covered container.

Recipe is flexible - it originally called for 1/2 cup of the Grand Marnier, but my source preferred with less.

It's a lovely pink color and, according to reports, is dangerously good when mixed with 7-Up.

Cherry Jam

After having this unproductive sour cherry tree in our yard for quite a few years, we were pleasantly surprised to see more than a few berries finally this year.  Tony beat the birds to them and I was able to make this recipe.

There was only a pound of usable fruit (pits removed), so I added another 1+ pounds of bing cherries to make the jam-making mess worthwhile.  I may regret that, since I've heard such fantastic things about sour cherry jam, but in the meantime, I'm sure we'll enjoy the few pints of mixed cherry jam I made this afternoon. I'll bookmark the recipe here (and below, in case it drops off the interwebs), just in case next year's yield is closer to the 4 pounds the recipe asks for.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds of pitted and mashed sour cherries, which should yield about six cups of jammable fruit
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 packet liquid pectin (that's half a box)

Instructions

• Put three pint jars or six half pints (or some combination thereof) in your canning pot and bring to a boil.
• Combine fruit and sugar in a heavy, non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil and let bubble for a good twenty minutes, occasionally skimming the foam from the surface of the fruit as it develops. Add the pectin and boil for another five minutes. You want to cook it until it looks like boiling sugar - thick and viscous.
• Kill the heat, fill your jars, wipe rims, apply the lids and rings and process in the hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water and let cool on the countertop. When the jars are cool (I typically wait until overnight), remove the rings and test the seal by picking the jar up by the lid. If it stays put, your jars are good to store indefinitely.
• I love the flavor of sour cherries, so I didn't add a drop of extra flavor to this jam. However, you are welcome to spice things up with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla or orange (or anything else).

Delicious Hot Dish

Brown in 2 tbls of butter:

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 3 c celery
• 2 c chopped onions

Mix with:

• 1 c uncooked rice (not minute rice)
• 1 10-ounce can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 10-ounce can of chicken noodle soup
• 2 soup cans of water
• 3 tbls soy sauce

Cover and bake at 350 for one hour or more, until rice is fully cooked.

I've been trying to come up with some different recipes, and lately "different" = "retro."  In short, I pulled a bunch of things from my old recipe box that I haven't made in years.

This one is pure Minnesota comfort food, probably copied from something my Mom used to make.  Everyone was pleased with the "new" recipe and ate a ridiculous amount.  If I had a regular rotation (which I  don't, but probably should), this would be on it.

It's probably worth noting that I only used 1 pound of hamburger, and this would probably be classed up a bit if it used cooked chicken or turkey instead of the beef.