Posts Tagged ‘comfort food’

Last Minute Tortilla Soup

August 31st, 2009

Last night I had grilled some steak on the grill. Needless to say, I had some leftovers and wanted to do something with it. After searching around my pantry for a couple of staples, here’s what I came up with for a last minute tortilla soup.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1 can whole tomatoes (28 oz)
  • 1 can whole corn kernels, drained (16 oz)
  • 1 can black beans, drained (16 oz)
  • 1 bottle beer. Be sure to pick something not too bitter as that will increase with cooking (I use a good Hefeveizen)
  • 2 dried Chipotle peppers
  • 2 dried chili peppers
  • 1/4 C brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp cumin
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp chili powder
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 1 green pepper chopped
  • 1/4 C corn starch
  • 1 steak, any cut, cooked in any fashion, diced

In a large sauce pan, add the tomatoes and their juices and blend together (I have an imersion blender). Combine all of the ingredients, except for the corn) and place over medium heat and let simmer for about 45 minutes or until the peppers and onions are soft. Add the corn and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve with some crushed tortilla chips and enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

June 1st, 2009

After a bit of a hiatus, I’m back with yet another muffin recipe: The ever so popular blueberry muffin. I tweaked the recipe that can be found here: To Die For Blueberry Muffins.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1 1/2 Cup all purpose flour
  • 3/4 Cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/3 Cup vanilla yoghurt
  • 1/3 Cup soy milk (you may need more or less depending on the yoghurt)
  • 1 egg
  • About 1 Cup of blueberries (more or less depending on your preference)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. As the oven is preheating, combine the sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the yoghurt, milk, and egg; mix into the dry ingredients. Finally, fold in the blueberries and place into a lined muffin pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.

Need to Sharpen my Knives

January 30th, 2009

Last night, I had tried this slow roast recipe I found from this magazine/cookbook that I had picked up at the grocery store the other day. After about three hours of cooking in the oven, I was ready to cut into this baby, only to realize that my carving knife was so dull that it basically smashed the meat before it actually cut anything. Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed that I couldn’t make really, really thin slices of meat so that I could make sandwiches out of the left overs. Besides that, the roast turned out superbly, and I’ll definitely have to make it again!

After last night’s vain attempt at slicing meat, I had come to the realization that, yes, my knives have indeed taken a beating after three years of hard use, and that they are in desperate need of a good sharpening. I had tried using a knife sharpener at home, but it just didn’t cut it (sorry for the pun!), so I believe it’s time I found a “professional” to take care of this.

Crockpot Woes

January 14th, 2009

Before I left for work yesterday, I had decided to make a roast in one of my new crockpots. It’s this fancy GE slow cooker that has a timer on it and three different temperature settings. I threw all of the ingredients in the cooker, set the timer and temperature, and was on my way to work. Raegan had the day off yesterday and I asked her to keep an eye on it, just in case. Oddly enough, the cooker magicaly changed its setting to warm rather than the low setting I had set earlier. Alas, we did not have the meal that I had intended to make; the potatoes didn’t come out at all, and the meat wasn’t tender either. All this fancy technology makes me long for the simpler days when slow cookers had threee settings: on, low, and high and no timer to get in the way.

The only good news out of this is that I had set it on high as we ran out to REI to get me a new snowboarding jacket, pants, and gloves…all at an insanely low price! Perhaps we should have gone to the General Lafayette that was down the street….