Easy Drop Bicuits

To go along with yesterday's Basic Stew Recipe, I thought I'd post an easy recipe for drop biscuits. It's pretty similar to what you'll find on the box of any baking mix, like Bisquik or Pioneer Brand. If you have a box of baking mix you really don't need this post. If you don't, read on and then add a box to your grocery list when you pick up the stew items.

2-1/2 cups baking mix
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425*F

Mix the baking mix (BTW, I prefer Pioneer Brand) and mix in a bowl until just mixed.  Don't overdo it.
Grease a muffin pan and spoon equal amounts of your biscuit batter into each cup. (about 1/3 of a cup)
Bake for about 12 minutes, until light brown on top.

Enjoy!

Basic Beef Stew

It amazes me how many people I've talked with that love beef stew but don't have the slightest idea of how to make it.  I've had folks say they looked up directions but it looked too complicated.

"Dredge in flour? Brown in oil?  How do I do that?"

I am here to the rescue with a basic recipe that requires no dredging, digging, oiling, browning or even stirring (if you don't want to stir it, that is).

Basic items:

1 to 1.5 pounds beef stew meat
1# package of baby carrots
3-4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into eighths
1 medium onion chopped (or 1 cup of frozen chopped onions)
1 clove of garlic chopped (or 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic from the jar)
Beef stock (about 2 quarts)
Salt
Pepper

Optional items:
1/2 cup or so of diced bell peppers (any color)
1 - 8oz can of corn, drained
1 - 15oz can of black beans, undrained

Take the beef out of the package and rinse it off, place it in a 6 quart Dutch Oven and add beef stock to cover.  Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Let it simmer for about an hour, a little longer is ok if you're busy.

Then add the baby carrots (after taking them out of the package), potatoes, onion, garlic, a pinch of salt and a couple of ground pepper. Also add the bell peppers if you're using them. Add enough beef stock to cover and return to a boil.  Turn down heat to a simmer again, and let it cook for about an hour, or until the potatoes and carrots are done.

Add the cans of corn and beans at this point, if you are using them, and if needed more beef stock to keep everything covered.

Let it simmer for about 20 minutes and then it is ready to eat!

If you're using a Slow Cooker, it's even easier.  Remove everything from the packages, put it in the slow cooker, pour in enough beef stock to cover everything, put the lid on it and turn the heat on the low setting for 6 - 8 hours.  How hard is that?

Baked Ziti (Sort of)

Baked Ziti is an Italian comfort food.  Just about everyone has their on way of making it, with their favorite ingredients.  This recipe is a baked "Ziti" recipe, but tweaked as I am in the middle of a VERY BUSY stretch, without a lot of time to cook. As a result, most of what is used in this recipe comes from a jar.

First of all, maybe it should be called "Baked Pasta", as I seldom use Ziti.  Click here for an explanation of Ziti. I usually use Penne Pasta, and that is what I used in this recipe. You can use Ziti, Penne, Mostaccioli, Rigatoni, in a pinch you could even use Spaghetti noodles.  Whatever you like, or what you have on hand.


This will make one 9X13 pan or two 8X8 pans.

On to cooking! You'll need:
1 pound of ground beef
1 small onion, chopped up
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 15oz jar of Alfredo Sauce (I used Classico Creamy Alfredo)
1 24oz jar of Pasta Sauce (I used Classico Cabernet Marinara)
1 - 1# package of Penne pasta
Parmesan Cheese

Place about 4 to 6 quarts of water in a large pot and start it to boiling.

Brown the ground beef in a medium skillet.  When it is about halfway browned, add the onion and allow it to cook with the beef. When it is almost done add the garlic and mix it in well for the last minute or two of browning. Drain well and set aside.

By now the water should be boiling. Add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package.

Drain the pasta and put it in a large bowl.  Pour the Alfredo Sauce over it and mix it in well. Place a tiny bit of the red sauce in the bottom of your baking pan(s) and use it to cover the bottom of the pan(s).  Mix the rest in with the pasta. Add the meat mixture and mix well.  Spoon the mixture into the pan(s) and level the top.  Sprinkle Parmesan Cheese over the top.

Place in a cold oven, turn it to 350*F and cook for 25 minutes, including the warm up time.

Let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving.  The whole recipe will serve 8 - 10.

It goes well with a loaf of Sourdough or Faux Sourdough bread.

This is one 8 X 8 pan, the other is in the freezer for another day!

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Applesauce-Pumpkin Bread

If you made a loaf (or 2) of my Pumpkin Bread you'll notice this recipe is almost the same.  I use vegetable oil instead of butter, cut the amount of oil in half and add some applesauce.  In the Pumpkin Bread recipe I said you could use 1 cup sugar (or more, to taste).  In this recipe stick to 1 cup, no more, due to the sweetness of the applesauce.

 Try it, I think you'll like it!


1/2 of a 15oz can of Pumpkin (Approx 1 Cup)
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup apple juice (use water if you don't have juice)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice mix

You can add a half teaspoon of salt.  I don't add salt to many things, but you decide for yourself.

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Grease a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients (the wet ones).  Mix together with your mixer until well blended.

In another bowl, Add the remaining ingredients (the dry ones) and mix well with a wire whisk.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing as you go.  Continue mixing until blended.

Cook for 60 mins at 350*F or until a toothpick or sharp knife inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 10 - 15 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Fall is here.  In my part of CA that means 80*F days and 50*F nights.  LOL!  Believe it or not, we do get fall colors and such, the leaves should start turning any week now.  You know it;s fall when the stores are putting out Christmas items before Halloween and the grocery has displays of pumpkins.

I'm not going to go into cooking your pumpkin so you can use the meat to make bread, but I am going to share a good recipe for pumpkin bread.  This recipe will make one loaf, I know a lot of recipes make 2 (or more) loaves, but why make more then one until you've tried it?  You may want to make adjustments so make it one loaf at a time until the recipe is unique to you and your tastes, then double (or triple or quadruple) it for more loaves at once.

Here we go! You'll need:

1/2 of a 15oz can of Pumpkin (Approx 1 Cup)
2 eggs
1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar (a little more is ok to suit your tastes)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice mix

You can add a half teaspoon of salt.  I don't add salt to many things, but you decide for yourself.

First, get your oven preheating to 350*F.  Also get out your loaf pan, either an 8.5 X 4 or 9X5.

Take a large bowl and add the softened butter to it.  A neat trick I got from TheRedheadRiter is to use the paper from the cube of butter to grease the pan.  Rub the paper over the inside of the pan and the butter left on it will grease your loaf pan.  Great tip, Red!

To the  large bowl add the pumpkin, eggs, water and vanilla.  Mix well with your mixer.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour, baking soda and spice mix. Also the salt, if used.

Use a whisk to mix them until well mixed.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, mixing as you go.

When totally blended, pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake in the oven for about 60 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.

At this point you can sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the top if you like.

Let it cool for another 10 to 20 minutes, then slice if you want to try it warm with a little melted butter.

As you can see, I was too anxious and didn't let it cool enough before slicing so it crumbled a bit at the edges.  It still tasted great!

Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix

Today I'm going to give you an easy way to make your on Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix. I'm going to give you an easy to mix batch that I and my family like.  It's cheaper to mix your own, and you can tailor it to your tastes!
There are several variations of this on the internet, obviously I like mine the best.
On a final note, the next few posts will tell you why I'm posting this today!  ;-)

This is easy to remember, 3-2-2-1-1 and the acronym CANGC. (Cangood).  It deciphers as
3 Parts Cinnamon
2 Parts Allspice
2 Parts Nutmeg
1 Part Ginger
1 Part Cloves

The spices are all ground, of course.

So now you don't have to buy the overpriced pre-mixed little jar in the store, you can make your own with items you probably already have on hand.

If you're itching to try it out, make up a cake using my Basic Cake Recipe and add 2 tablespoons of the Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix.  :-)

Easy Applesauce Cake

Want something a little different? Not sure what you have to make a good dessert?  Here's a simple cake you can throw together quickly if you have some applesauce and a couple basic spices.

Start with the Basic Cake Recipe

To the dry ingredients:
Substitute brown sugar for the plain sugar in the recipe.
(if you already added plain sugar, don't sweat it)
Add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Add 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

To the wet ingredients:
Omit the vanilla
(again if you already added, don't sweat it)
Cut oil to 1/4 cup
Add 1 cup applesauce.

That's it!  Follow the mixing and baking instructions in the
Basic Cake Recipe and enjoy!