When I think of this dish, I think of Julia Child. Everyone knows that it’s one of her signature dishes. We all have our own little twist on the recipe, but for the most part, it’s the same……..beef, carrots, little mouth watering onions, mushrooms and wine. Ohhhhh yesssss. Wine. It’s hard for me to cook with red wine. “They ” say that you should cook with what you would drink. Don’t use some crappy old wine that has been laying around, that you wouldn’t dare drink. If it tastes blekh in a glass, it’s going to taste blekh in your dish. So that’s why it’s hard for me to cook with wine, because I prefer it poured into a wine glass and sipped. But the wine just makes this dish taste magical. It’s rich and bold in flavor…….a special dish indeed. Use a chuck roast or stew beef for this. Don’t worry, it will be nice and tender…melting in your mouth. Enjoy it with some egg noodles or rice. Your taste buds will be dancing.

Beef Bourguignon

4 slices Bacon, diced
3 pounds chuck roast (cut into big chunks) or stew beef
2 cups of pearl onions, fresh and peeled (you can use frozen)
3 cups red wine (a nice hearty wine……cabernet sauvignon, good red blend, Zinfandel) Don’t forget a sip for yourself! 🙂
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs of fresh parsley, minced
3  tablespoons butter
1 pound fresh mushrooms
2 carrots, cut in big chunks

In a large pot, fry up the bacon. In the meantime, coat beef with flour, salt and pepper and brown it in the bacon grease with the bacon. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on medium high till it starts to boil. Then reduce your heat to a simmer and cook for  about 3 hour or until your beef is fork tender. At the last half hour of cooking, you may have to thicken the sauce. To thicken, add 1/2 cup of your broth in a bowl, with about 3 tablespoons of flour. Mix with a fork till smooth. Add to your pot and stir. You don’t want it super thick. Allow to cook and thicken.

Serve with egg noodles. Serves 4.

You can cook this in a slow cooker too. It should cook on low setting for about 5 hours or so.

I’m willing to bet that some of you are wrinkling your nose as you read this. That is if you are even reading this at all, after seeing the Post title. Most people I know do not like brussel sprouts. I happen to love them. I even loved them when I was a child and my parents would just boil them….and boil them….and boil them some more. They were plain, kind of a pale gray green….and I loved ‘em anyway. But today, they are so popular and served at many restaurants. They are delicious pan roasted, oven roasted, shredded up for slaw or salad. I love to pan roast them till they are getting a bit caramelized (brown and crispy-ish). Good word…..CRISPY-ISH. I like it. Ok, so anyway..I love to roast them with bacon or pancetta…another good word…PANCETTA. I say this with my best Italian accent. I wish you could hear it. Add a little shaved parmesan cheese and deeeeeeelicious.

Oh and they are oh so delicious tossed with some cooked potato chunks. Please give them a try. Ester, do you hear me? My friend Ester is a nose wrinkler when I mention brussels. Stop making that yucky face…and go give them a try.

Pan Roasted Brussel Sprouts

 1 pound (approx.) of brussel sprouts, washed and ends cut off.
A few slices of bacon or pancetta (say pancetta with your best Italian accent)
Salt and pepper to taste
Shaved parmesan (optional)
1 diced cooked potato (optional)
1 tablespoon of oil

Dice up the bacon and start frying in a good size pan, on a medium heat.  Cut brussels in half.  Add brussels and the oil to your pan of bacon and cook with the frying pan covered for 5 minutes. Remove cover, stirring occasionally until they are all browned and to the consistency you like. Season to taste. At this point, add potatoes and toss around till potatoes are coated with all that bacon yumminess. Serve.

Note: if don’t want to do them on the stove top, you can do them in the oven. Put everything on a baking sheet in the oven. 375 degrees. Be sure to stir them around after about 15 minutes or so. Do this till they are nice and roasty looking and bacon is thoroughly cooked through….about another 15 minutes. Check for desired done-ness. Enjoy.

So, I saw this recipe on Pinterest. Everyone had their version. But everyone agreed that these crackers are addicting. I looked at the various recipes and thought, EH…..not my thing. But for some reason, I wanted to try them out. They are the perfect party snack. I used both saltines and Ritz.  But I think you could probably use any kind of plain cracker. You will notice the recipe calls for oil. That was a huge turn off for me…the thought of all that oil on my crackers. All the recipes that I saw on line said to put the crackers into the oil for awhile. Hmmmm. I just couldn’t do it.  So I brushed the oil mixture onto the crackers with a pastry brush, thus having a little more control on the amount of oil. I also replaced some of the oil with butter. HUGE surprise there, right? I am a butter girl…not an oil girl. 🙂 I also baked mine for a few minutes. Most of the recipes on line didn’t bake them.

This is a perfect snack for upcoming SUPER BOWL. You really gotta try these. Super simple. Ohhhhhhh, you don’t have to put red pepper…but most of the recipes I found on line used a lot…thus the name Fire Crackers. I personally, love alot of spice. But I know some folks don’t care for spicy, so you can leave it out. I’m glad I tried this recipe.

Fire Crackers

2  sleeves of Saltine crackers (or Ritz, oyster crackers, any plain crackers)
1/2  cup canola oil
1/4 cup butter, melted
1  one oz packet of Ranch salad dressing seasoning
2 tablespoons of crushed red chili pepper (or not)

Preheat oven to 245 deg. Whisk together the oil, melted butter, seasoning mix and chili. Lay crackers out on a baking sheet. Brush the liquid mixture all over the crackers or drizzle it on. Flip the crackers over and do the same on the back side. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Line another baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the crackers over to the parchment lined sheet. Be careful not to break your crackers. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to sit out for at least half an hour. Transfer to an air tight container.

One of my favorite sandwiches is a chicken salad. I was in the mood for a chicken and bacon club sandwich, but at the last minute, I decided to make a chicken salad and I just crumbled up the bacon and just mixed it right in. It was delicious. It was a great combination. Using an applewood smoked bacon is best. You really want that bacon flavor to come through. This is my go to chicken salad recipe and it’s delicious. I add sliced crunchy almonds but you certainly don’t have to if you’re not a nut fan. I LOVE nuts…some of my good friends are nuts. Haha 🙂

You will love this chicken salad. You don’t have to put it on bread….it’s great scooped on some romaine lettuce or served with crackers. I recommend a nice glass of Pinot Grigio to go with it. Mm-m-m-m.

Chicken Salad with Bacon

2 cups leftover cooked chicken breast (cut up)
1/2 cup mayonnaise (more or less)
2 tablespoons diced onion
1 tablespoon diced celery (optional)
salt and pepper
2 slices cooked crumbled bacon
a few sliced almonds (I like a lot) love the texture….crunch crunch

Just mix everything up  and slap a scoop onto your bread or salad or whatever you’re going to do with it. Enjoy!

It’s even better the next day!

Next to chocolate, my favorite flavor is orange. I love orange. I have been craving a 50/50 cupcake…..orange and cream. It is one of my favorite cupcakes. But I didn’t want all that sugary sweet. So I was going to make orange scones. But then I realized I was out of butter. WHAT??!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. How can that be?? I am never out of butter…..it’s a tragedy, I tell ya!! So, what to do….what to do…I squeezed up some big ol home grown oranges and decided to make orange muffins. I made up a recipe and crossed my fingers. I used lots and lots of fresh grated orange zest. Ohhhhhhhhh, I love that smell of fresh orange zest…….so fragrant. I love seeing all those little speckly bits of orange bits in the batter. The batter with no butter. Bits in the butterless batter is better. A butterless batter is better with bits. A no butter batter is better with bits. Haahahah, sorry. I couldn’t resist. Kinda fun to say. Oh just one more time…..a bit of butter may be better in a batter with bits. Ok, I will stop now.

So, since oranges are loaded with vitamin C, I think this muffin is healthy…..maybe…ok, maybe not healthy per se, but it sure is tasty. Go pick some oranges from your tree, or sneak over to the neighbor’s yard and pick some. Make a batch of these soon. YUM.

Orange Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup orange juice
1 Tblsp milk
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
2 Tblsp fresh grated orange zest

Orange Glaze
2 cups of powdered sugar
Add enough orange juice to get the consistency you like, approx. 2 tablespoons give or take.
1 tsp orange zest (or more)
Mix until smooth and set aside.

Orange Sugar
3 tblsp granulated sugar
1 tblsp orange zest
Mix together with a fork till well mixed

Heat oven to 375. Lightly spray muffin pan (bottoms only) with non stick spray, or lightly grease with oil. You can use baking cups if you prefer.

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the orange juice, oil, milk, zest and egg. Add the wet to the dry flour mixture. Stir JUST until dry stuff is moistened. It’s ok if your mixture has lumps…..it should. Lumps are good. Fill the cups 3/4 full. If you are using the orange sugar topping, sprinkle on top of muffins and bake for approx. 17 minutes for the extra large muffins and 12-14 minutes for the regular size . Check with a toothpick cuz you DONT want dry muffins. Blekh. Cool just for a bit in the pan. Remove and drizzle with orange glaze if you want. Sometimes I like them plain, sometimes I like a little glaze. Sometimes I like orange sugar topping. Any of those are yummy.

Makes 4 very large muffins, or 8 regular size.