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This Latin beef stew is delicious!  Adding the bell peppers and green olives at the end really adds a nice flavor.  I like to eat this in a bowl with some bread to dip in or serve it over rice or runny polenta.

Lots of great ingredients make for a yummy stew!

{Recipe} Ropa Vieja
(adapted from the Food Network Magazine)
1-1/2 lbs beef stew meat, cubed
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp cumin
Sea salt & fresh ground pepper
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
14 oz can whole tomatoes
2 carrots, cubed
1 onion, halved & sliced
3 Tbsp tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, 2 crushed & 2 minced
1 bay leaf
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 cup green olives, pitted
Fresh parsley
Rustic bread

Rinse and dry the stew meat well.  Season with the oregano, cumin, sea salt & pepper.  Put the oil in a dutch oven and brown the meat on all sides (do in batches if necessary).  Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, tomato paste, crushed garlic cloves & bay leaf to the dutch oven with the stew meat.  Bring up to a boil, cover and place in a 275* oven for 3 hours to slow cook.

Meanwhile saute the peppers in a skillet with a little olive oil.  Season with sea salt and pepper.  When the stew is done cooking shred the beef and add the peppers & olives.  Taste for seasoning and serve with fresh parsley and rustic bread.

Delicioso!

This recipe is pretty intricate but boy am I glad my Mom picked it out to make this last Monday.  We each made our own batch and it’s super delicious!  We couldn’t get the exact dried chiles the recipe called for but the mix we made was not too spicy and the chipotle chiles gave a nice smoky undertone.  There was enough mole sauce for me to freeze 4 pints to use later and I used the rest on half of my turkey meat (I used a heritage turkey so there wasn’t a lot of meat).  I don’t know if I’ll make the recipe again the way I’ve written it but I did freeze a couple quarts of the leftover turkey broth so I can just make a batch of the mole sauce and skip cutting up a turkey to boil.  I think it would be very tasty on pork  :)

A long process but worth every minute when you dig into your plate of turkey mole!

{Recipe} Turkey Mole
(adapted from Gourmet Today)
1 turkey (10-12 lbs), cut into serving pieces
6 Tbsp lard
4 quarts cold water
6 dried ancho chiles
4 dried chipotle chiles
4 dried hot red chiles
2 cups boiling water
1 lb tomatoes, chopped and save juices
1 lb white onions, chopped
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
2 Tbsp masa harina or 2 corn tortillas, torn
1 cup almonds, blanched
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
2 whole cloves
1/2 cinnamon stick, ground fine
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1-1/2 oz Mexican chocolate, chopped
1 Tbsp sugar, or to taste
Sea salt

Rinse the turkey pieces well after you have cut up the turkey, pat dry and season with sea salt.  Brown in batches in a dutch oven with the lard (reserve the dutch oven and lard for later).  Put browned pieces of turkey in a large stock pot and cover with cold water, add 2 tablespoons sea salt and bring up to a boil.  Skim off any foam and simmer, uncovered, for 1-1.5 hours or until the turkey is cooked through.  Place the turkey pieces in a bowl and allow the broth to cool.  Removed the fat from the top of the broth and stain out impurities.  (This can be done a day before you plan to serve your mole.  Just put the turkey pieces back in the broth and store in the fridge.)

Meanwhile make the mole.
Remove the stems, seeds & ribs from the dried chiles.  Tear into pieces and place in a bowl.  Cover with the boiling water, use a plate to keep the chiles submerged and let soak for 30 minutes.  Use a blender to puree the chiles, their soaking liquid, tomatoes, their juices, onions, garlic, masa harina and 2 cups of the turkey broth (this will take a few batches).  Place the chile mixture into a large bowl and mix all the batches together well.

In a food processor mix the almonds, peanuts, raisins, coriander seeds, anise seeds, cloves, cinnamon, 2 Tbsp of the sesame seeds and enough turkey broth to form a paste.  Stir the paste into the chile mixture.

In the reserved dutch oven heat up the lard and add in the chile mixture.  Simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened.  Add in the chocolate and enough turkey broth (about 4 minutes) to make the sauce the consistency of cream.  Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally so the sauce doesn’t stick.  Season to taste with the sugar and sea salt.  (This can be done a day before you plan to serve your mole.  Just cool the sauce and store in the fridge)

Put the turkey pieces into the mole and simmer until heated through (I pulled the meat off of my turkey pieces so I could freeze my extra mole sauce and half of my turkey).  Serve with rice, corn tortillas, black beans or anything else you like.  Sprinkle the extra sesame seeds over the top  :)

Rhubarb is one of my favorites (which you might notice if you search rhubarb on my blog).  :)   This pie recipe is from my Mom and since rhubarb season is just starting up I figured I better clear out the rest of the frozen rhubarb I have before I even start to think about using this year’s crop.  I think I have enough to make one more pie… my husband was very excited about that fact.  There’s nothing wrong with 2 pies in a week, right?  ;)

Served warm with a little ice cream!

{Recipe} Rhubarb Custard Pie
4 cups diced rhubarb (can be a mix of rhubarb & strawberry if you’d like)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1-2 tsp lemon zest
Sea salt
1/4 cup flour
Double pie crust of choice (I used the same dough as in this recipe)

Beat the eggs in a bowl and mix in the lemon zest, sea salt & sugar.  Stir in the rhubarb and flour.  Pour mixture into a pie plate lined with crust (you can dot the top with a little butter for some extra richness).  Place the second crust on top, fold top crust under and crimp the edges.  Cut a few vents in the top crust, sprinkle a little sugar on top and bake at 450* for 10 minutes.  Turn down the oven temperature to 350* and continue baking for 30 minutes.  Let the pie cool a little before serving.

***Note – depending on how wet your fruit is you may need to add an extra egg or a little extra flour to keep the custard from getting too runny.  I usually just eyeball the mixture.

I’m really going to enjoy having a whole day off each week!  Since opening my retail store 5 years ago we’ve been open 6 days/week and other than a few holidays I’ve worked almost every single day!  But now that we moved into a smaller location we are closed Sunday-Monday.  It’s super nice not to have to rush on Sunday afternoon to get all my errands & chores done.

My plan with my extra day off is to use it to garden, forage & cook… then I can relax more throughout the week if I have meals ready to go when I get home from work.  This last Monday my Mom and I made a big batch of savory galettes to keep in the freezer.  It will be great to call up my husband, have him bake off a couple and then just finish them off with a poached egg for a quick dinner!

Ready to Freeze

{Recipe} Savory Galettes
(adapted from Coastal Living)
Makes 6 galettes, can easily be doubled or quadrupled :)
4 cups greens of choice (I used blanched & frozen spinach, chard & turnip tops)
2 eggs
1 cup ricotta
1 cup parmigiano-reggiano, grated
2 Tbsp pesto
Sea salt & fresh ground pepper
Crushed red pepper
Fresh ground nutmeg
1 Pastry crust batch, recipe below

Make the pastry crust and place it in the fridge to chill.  Squeeze any excess water out of the greens and chop fine.  Place the greens in a bowl and mix in the eggs, ricotta, parm, pesto, sea salt, pepper, red pepper & nutmeg.  Divide each pastry round into three pieces and roll out into a round.  Put 1/3 cup of the filling in the middle and fold the crust over the top.  Place on a cookie sheet to freeze (after they freeze, wrap in plastic wrap and store in a container in the freezer) or brush with an optional egg wash and bake at 425* for 15 minutes, or until crust is browned.  If baking from frozen add an extra 5 minutes of cooking time.

{Recipe} Pastry Crust
3 cups flour (I prefer soaked flour)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup butter, cold & cubed
3 Tbsp lard
1 egg
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup cold water

Mix the flour and sea salt in a bowl.  Cut the butter and lard into the flour until it’s in pea-sized pieces.  In a small bowl mix the egg, vinegar & water.  Mix into the flour mixture until the dough comes together, add more cold water if necessary.  Form into two rounds, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour or more.

They are delicious!

I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months since I last posted!  Here’s a quick post to keep you all up to speed on where I’ve been.  :)

The lease on my retail business (All Things Italian) came to an end and we decided to move into a new location that is in a more visible area of town and is shared with another business.  We are very excited about the move and it’s a double bonus that I get to be around delicious desserts all day long – check out our roomies: Sweet Pea Bakery.

Our New Digs

Now that we are all settled in and it’s getting closer to harvest season you should be hearing more regularly from me!

I started my garden last weekend, plan on foraging a little this weekend & I might build a few raised beds as the garden space my Dad gave me to use is almost full (and I’ve only planted my cool weather crops, eek).

How have you all been?

Another one of my body care goods was coming to an end so it was time to make my own!  I’ve looked at a few deodorant recipes or ways to supplement vitamins so you can go without but I figured I’d go with homemade before I try to ditch using it altogether.  There are a few recipes where you just make a powder and dust it on but I liked the ease of application when coconut oil was added in so you can wipe it on.

I’ve been using this deodorant all week and I have to say I’m impressed.  It works far better than the pricey “natural/organic” versions I’ve been buying.  The few downsides I see so far is that it’s not as hard as purchased products so you can’t rub it on really hard (not a big deal) and it does leave some white residue on clothes (so I’ll have to be careful with dark clothes, I’ve gotten use to clear products).

All in all I like this simple deodorant ”recipe.”  Have you ever made your own?  How do you make it?

Easy to put together.

{How To} Homemade Deodorant
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup corn starch or arrowroot powder
Coconut Oil (a little over a 1/4 cup was what worked for me)

Put the powders in a bowl and whisk with a fork.  Add enough coconut oil to make the mixture come together.  A fork is an easy way to mix in the coconut oil and I also used my hands at the end to break up any final lumps.  Put in a jar and apply with fingertips or use a recycled deodorant container.

All ready to use!

I’ve made this laundry detergent a few times now and it works great!  It’s easy to put together, decreases the packaging I have to throw away and eliminates some chemicals I’m trying to avoid in my household goods.

A few ingredients is all it takes!

{How To} Homemade Laundry Detergent
5 oz bar of soap
4 cups borax
4 cups baking soda

Grate the bar of soap into a large container, add the other ingredients and mix well.  Stir gently so you don’t breath in the fine powders.  Store in a container and add 1/2 cup for each large load of laundry.

Now who wants to come fold my laundry? ;)

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