Bailey's Irish Cream Waffles

I love spending my mornings with my son Ted.  Lately we've enjoyed a handful mornings watching "My Names Earl", a very silly American show, while eating breakfast.  Today was another such morning.  For breakfast, we decided to eat waffles.  While I mixed the batter, Ted's head seemed lost in the refrigerator.  Looking at him, I knew he was in search of something, but what?  Soon, Ted's head popped out and in his hand he held a bottle of Baily's Irish Cream.  He opened the lid and poured a generous amount into the batter.  "Mom, I bet this will taste great!" He said with a grin. Knowing that it was too late to stop the experiment, I continued mixing the batter.  Minutes after I put badder in the waffle iron, our home filled with a wonderful sent.  Now, I decided to set any of my second thoughts aside about the Bailey's, and impatiently waited for my waffle to finish.  The golden brown crunch on the outside yet soft in the middle treat, did not disappoint.

Bailey's Irish Cream Waffles

In a mixing bowl:
2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
1 egg
2 cups of flour (you might need a bit more)
1 heaping tablespoon of baking powder
1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups of milk
1 shot or so of Bailey's Irish Cream

Mix well, and ladle onto a seasoned waffle iron.

Guinness Stew

My sister is writing a blog called "52 Pies".  Her last post is a beef and Guinness pie.  Looking at this new concept of putting Guinness in food, I decided to give it a try.  Not her pie, but cooking with one of my favorite beverages. Being a "seat of the pants cook" the challenge did not see as hard as one might think, I just pretended that I was on a cooking show where the main ingredient had to be Guinness.  From there, I let the contents of my kitchen dictate the dish.

Guinness Stew

In an oven safe pot:
place two stew bones and stew meat, two vegetable bouillon cubes, two bay leaves and sea salt. Add: 4 cups of water. Cook for an hour on 375 F.

In a frying pan:
liberal amount of olive oil, 1 large chopped onion, 4 chopped garlic cloves, and salt.  Saute until tender.  Add: 3 tablespoons of flour.  Cook on low until the flour is browned.

Add into Stew pot:
4 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 1/2 turnip, frozen corn, frozen peas, 2 tablespoons Marjoram, 1 teaspoon Thyme, 1 bottle of Guinness and on can of stewed tomatoes. 

Cook in oven until meat is tender and falls apart.

Collaborative Enchiladas

Ted's beautiful girlfriend Rita and I decided to make enchiladas  for dinner.  I will say, that this meal did not disappoint in any way. It beet any Mexican dish I've ever ordered in a restaurant, hands down.  Knowing Rita is half Mexican, I thought is best to expand my culinary abilities by shadowing her, and learning new cooking tips.  Trust me, this was not a mistake.  Between the authentic enchiladas and the great conversation, the night was perfect.

Collaborative Enchiladas


 Place 2 lbs of stew meat into a crock pot set on high.  Add 4 cups of water and salt.  Let the meat cook for 3 hours.  Transfer into a small Dutch oven.  Add: water so that meat is completely covered, and one package of Nueva Cocina Picadillo beef seasoning.  If you can not find the already prepared seasoning, add: dehydrated onion, raisins, small amount of sugar, salt, dried red bell peppers, garlic, dried green peppers, green onions and a small amount of vinegar. Cover stew meat and cook in oven for two hours on 375 F.  Take out of oven, place on stove burner to cook out the extra water.  Us a spoon to shred meat while water is evaporating.
 

In a small iron skillet, cook corn tortillas in a small amount of oil until golden brown. 

Place a small amount of stew meat and cheese lengthwise in the center of the tortilla, roll up and place in 9 X 12 pan.  After pan is filled, pour red enchilada sauce over the top and bake for 20 minutes. 

Serve with a portion of re-fried beans, jalapenos, cheese and sour cream.

Pot Roast Omletes

My son Ted works 3rd shift.  Often he stops off at our house on his way home from work to eat breakfast with us.  I cherish these moments, knowing that they will not last forever. Many mornings I dream of freezing  time; maybe that way I never lose my son from growing up. Although if I where honest, I would admit that  my desire to become a grandma far out weighs eating breakfast with Ted.  Ok, that is why I had him buy a home eight houses away from mine, so I can be active in my grand kids lives too.  Back to this morning, Ted came over with a great idea to make pot roast omelets.  His idea produced on of my favorite breakfast meals that I've ever eating in the past 46 years.  I guess I should listen to his suggestions more often.

Pot Roast Omelets

Cut up pot roast into small pieces and heat in a pan.  Add Worcestershire sauce on the meat while it is heating.   

Two eggs mixed together with a bit of milk.  When the eggs are partially cooked grate cheddar cheese on half of the omelet.  Take some of the heated meat and sprinkle it on half of the omelet.  When eggs are cooked to your liking, flip over omelet style and eat. 

Extra suggestions:  Feel free to add: onions, green peppers, mushrooms or anything that goes well with roast. 

I also made scrambled eggs with pot roast. First,  I sauteed onions, then I added two eggs mixed with milk and grated cheddar cheese.  I cooked the eggs until the cheese was past melted and a bit burned.  I love burned cheese.  This is a must make recipe!

Special Christmas Sweets

I ‘m on Christmas vacation from college classes from 18 December 2011 to 9 January 2012.  As always, I had big plans to write every day working on my blogs and maybe a book.  By taking one glance at the last post of this blog, it is apparent that I've found other activities to keep myself busy.  Christmas week was filled with hanging out with my kids eating a lot of good food, drink wine and port (Complements of Ted and Rita), talking and laughing really hard and playing games.  I think that the creative writing part of my brain decided to go on a break too.  

Now the Christmas lights are down, and my kids are gone, it's time for me to get serious and start writing again. This blog is dedicated to the many different recipes prepared for our Christmas celebration.  It would be wonderful to be able to take the credit for all of the recipes that in today's blog, but I cannot.  So, Marcia Butlman, Christmas would not be the same without your banket recipe.  My family loves almond past. I believe that you're the originator of our addiction.  When each of my kids found the hidden treat, they looked at me and said, "Marcia's banket!" Yes, Marcia is the banket queen.  In addition to her banket, Marcia gave me a new Toffee Squares recipe.  This is a, OMG I must eat bar! I promise it will not disappoint anyone who makes it.  Well it will if you substitute the butter; make sure to use real butter and you will be the hit of any party you take this bar to.

Banket
Crust:
4 cups of flour
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/w teaspoon baking powder
1 lb butter soften
1 scant cup of water
Mix and refrigerate overnight.
Filling:
1 lb almond past room temp.
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs take out one egg white for latter.
Mix and divide into 8 parts.
Separate crust into 8 equal balls.  Roll out 1/8 of crust about 12 inches long and 4 inches wide.  Put 1/8 filling in the center of crust. (roll filling to almost the size of the crust) Fold ends over, roll and seal pastry using a bit of egg white.  Brush egg white on top and sprinkle sugar over the top.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Toffee Squares
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F
Crust:
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick softened butter
Topping:
1 cup paean halves
2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Combine crust ingredients until well blended.  Press into ungreased 9x13 pan.  Distribute pecans over crust.
Filling:
Combine butter and sugar in exactly 1 minute.  Stir constantly.  Pour over crust.  Bake exactly 20 minutes.  Sprinkle chocolate chips over top, evenly.  When chips soften, spread with knife to cover top.

My friend Linda Mathews loves to create pastries.  For all who think these tasty treats are difficult to make, think again.  All you need is per-made pastry crust, pie filling and marzipan.  Linda's pastries are so simple yet their appearance and flavor deceives any party guest, giving them the impression that hours of labor were needed in the creation of flaky mini pies. 

Linda's Pastries

Pre-made pie crust, pie filling and marzipan.

Prepare cupcake tin with papers.

Roll out pie crust.  Thin it to half its thickness.  Use cookie cutter or glass and cut out circles of crust.  Place circles of crust in cupcake tin; bake in oven for 10 minutes or until crust is lightly flaky. Take out of the oven: Add a couple tablespoons full of pie filling.  My favorite is cherry or marzipan.  Bake in the oven until crust is golden.


It is tradition to make  sticky buns every Christmas morning.  It is ok if we do not have money for presents, or even fancy foods, but it is unexceptionable for me to not create these cinnamon nutty rolls no matter how small our holiday budget.  The beauty about these is, it does not take all day to create.

Sticky buns

Two cans of large pre-made biscuits dough.  One package of vanilla, chocolate or butterscotch pudding, brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and butter.

Place in a bowl: pudding, 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground pecans. 

In another bowl, melted butter.

On the bottom of a bunt pan place melted butter, brown sugar and pecans.

Roll the one biscuit in the butter and then the cinnamon mix.  Place in a bunt pan. Repeat. After pan is full, pour all the remaining cinnamon mix over the top.  Bake in a 375 F oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fully cooked.


After taking it out of the oven, immediately turn upside down on a plate.  Keep bunt pan on top of the buns until serving.