Slow Cooker Taco Soup

With autumn fully in the throws now, I enjoy making soups, chills, chowders & stews for dinner. Also this Taco Soup recipe, almost like a chili, is no exception to cooling weather comfort food. 

Dan's Taco Soup 

1 pound lean ground beef


1 pound lean ground sausage 


1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans, including liquid


1 can (11 to 15 ounces) black beans, including liquid


1 can (10 to 15 ounces) fire roasted tomatoes, including liquid


1 can (10 to 15 ounces) tomato sauce


1 can (small, 6 ounce) tomato paste


2 TBS taco seasoning


1/2 Tsp ground cumin


1/2 Tsp smoked spanish paprika 


1 sm can (4 ounces) chopped chile peppers


2 cups stock (chicken, beef or vegetable), whatever you have on hand.

Brown the ground beef and sausage; drain well. In a large crock-pot, add remaining ingredients and stir. Simmer in slow cooker on LOW for 8 to 9 hours. Serve with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream and avocado slices. 

Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Feta

With Summer right around the corner, there is the start of the abundance of farm fresh produce. I love this time of year, where you can peruse the growing selection of fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, grocery stores, neighborhood produce stands and more. Simple goodness. 

I was in the mood yesterday for something basic. I was perusing my Saveur, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetit monthly magazines for inspiration. Italian sounded good. And so did tomatoes and fresh herbs. So I came up with this. 

Dan's Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Feta

3 pints cherry or grape tomatoes

1/4 cup best quality olive oil

1/4 cup best quality balsamic vinegar

1 T honey 

4 cloves garlic, crushed 

Fresh herbs (any will do), about 1 loose cup total 

Fresh cracked pepper

Sea Salt

1/2 crumbled feta cheese 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large non metal baking dish, spread out whole tomatoes. Whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey. Pour over tomatoes. Sprinkle on half of the prepared herbs. Liberally season with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. 

Bake for 2-3 hours. Depends on desired caramelization, and end texture. I ended up cooking mine for almost 3 hours. When tomatoes have shriveled and start to blister, remove from oven. Turn broiler on high. Sprinkle on crumbled feta and place under broiler for 5-6 minutes. Until cheese starts to melt and is browned, and skins on tomatoes continue to blister and turn dark. Remove from oven and sprinkle on remaining half of herbs. 

Serve hot or at room temperature. Simply smash together and use as a sauce on top of cooked pasta. Use as a bruschetta alternative. Or just eat by the spoonful for a healthy snack. 

Chocolate-Corn Flake Cookies

Chocolate-Corn Flake Cookies

2-½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks or chips

3/4 cup toffee bits (such as Skor baking pieces)

1 cup finely chopped toasted almonds (I use my food processor)

1 cup finely chopped corn flakes (I use my food processor)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter till light and creamy. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla gradually add dry ingredients ¼ cup at a time until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips, toffee bits, nuts and corn flakes. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto Silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake 11-14 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield 3-4-dozen cookies. 

Christmas Cookie Exchange

We decided to start a new Christmas tradition in our new home, a cookie exchange. We do do a lot of entertaining this time of year, but mostly in the fall. We both felt a Christmas cookie exchange would be a fun thing to do as a family. And as Oscar grows older had an help prepare cookies and invite his friends down the road to be a part of it all.  

Holly and I each came up with a new recipe to share. It was fun perusing many cookbooks and looking online. I decided to to a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but added a bunch of toffee bits and pretzel chunks into the batter. It came out to be a nice salty-sweet concoction.

Holly made a really rich & dark chocolate cookie with chunks of peppermint and white chocolate chunks in it. The fun thing about a cookie exchange is you can try all sorts of new things and add some new recipes to your cooking repertoire.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Holly Craven

1-1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces good quality semi sweet chocolate coarsely chopped

4 to 6 ounces peppermint chunks (such as Andes baking pieces)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla or pure peppermint extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

Melt the 4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Let it cool slightly.

Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and extract in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce the speed to low and gradually fold in the flour mixture. Fold in the peppermint chunks.

Using a 1-1/2 inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto silpat or parchment lined baking sheets spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces are cracked, about 15 minutes. Cookies should be soft. Let cool on parchment lined wire racks to prevent sticking.

Cookies can be stored between parchment layers in an airtight container. Best if eaten within 3 days, or frozen.

Yields 2 to 2.5 dozen cookies. 

Pretzel Chocolate Toffee Cookies
Dan Craven

2-½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 to 3/4 cup toffee bits (such as Skor baking pieces)

1 cup roughly chopped pretzel chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter till light and creamy. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add dry ingredients ¼ cup at a time until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips, toffee bits and pretzel chunks. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto Silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield 4-dozen cookies. 

With our house full of friends old and new, I also made a big batch of Aztec Hot Chocolate. This was pretty much milk & cream based, with spices and some chopped-melted chocolate to the simmering milk.

Lastly I made a big pitcher of Cranberry Shrub. Holly and I both like Cranberry Shrub, and it stems to our time we spend in Williamsburg, VA. We honeymooned there, as well as spending our 10th Anniversary there. Many of the traditional tavern recipes can be enjoyed in King's Arms Tavern, or Christiana Campbell's Tavern to name a few. Cranberry Shrub traditionally is spiked with your liquor of choice, but we typically make it alcohol free. It's a very tart & refreshing combination of 100% juices and lots and lots of fresh lime juice. It was a fun new tradition to start and we look forward to doing this in the years to come.

Annual Harvest Party & Seasonal Treats

We've been hosting an annual autumn open house for years. Nearly 20 years to be precise. I started these way back in High School, and have kept up on the tradition for years as I've married, and as Holly & I have created our own family traditions. It's a time each year where I make a spread of soups, chowders, chili and stew to share with all our friends and neighbors. We also make a bunch of homemade confections as well. 

We make homemade suckers (lollipops) every year. In traditional autumn hues. I always make root beer and orange-cream suckers.

Cooking down the sugar syrup to make a batch of root beer suckers.

Crock pot's full of potato-leek soup, and Guiness Beef Stew.

All the fun Fiestaware Holly has purchased for me/us over the years for this fun annual tradition.

A big batch of chorizo chili, and clam-oyster chowder on the gas stove.

Our treat table. Complete with baked goods, homemade confections and of course some store bought Halloween treats.

I tempered a bunch of dark and white chocolate and made some pretzel rods. Holly always designs beautiful labels to package up all our homemade goodies we make together.

The homemade orange & root beer suckers, alongside a bunch of chocolate oatmeal cookies and peanut butter cookies with big chocolate kisses.

I love the way the suckers look all wrapped in saran wrap and on display.

All the individually packaged pretzel rods with Holly's custom labels.

All the soups are ready to share with the masses that come and visit us each year.

Chowder ready for eating.

Chili ready for eating as well. 

Our fun new Halloween purchase this year. Some 1940s retro pumpkin couple, each about 3 feet high. Picked these up at a antique store, that I perused online via Etsy.

Also, each year we put out our collection of antique Ball canning jars, in various shades of blue. The look gorgeous lit up with candles all up and down our entry & driveway.

Enjoying some rest time on the couch with our snuggle bug.

With the annual open house complete, it was time to put all the Halloween specific decor away, and break out all the Thanksgiving specific decor to complement the harvest decor and pumpkin collection we've grown over the years.

Our minimal, yet sophisticated Thanksgiving table.

Some of the antique turkey tureen's I started collecting.

Another turkey tureen.

I still love the beauty of the black walnut dining table we recently purchased. Looks great adorned with holiday decor, and lots of candles illuminated.

Also my sister Melanie, made Oscar his first "silky blanket." He loves this treat that Aunt Mel sent him.

Another turkey tureen.

We love our annual harvest time traditions. Our fun soup party and open house we put on. Making seasonal goodies. Getting out all our decor for this time of year. Autumn, and the holiday season are hands down our favorite time of year.

Home Canned Salsa Verde

The annual canning extravaganza continues. I've been craving Salsa Verde. Nothing so hot you can barely stand to digest it. But also something that honestly does have a little bite to it. After perusing about six recipes and comparing and contrasting, I finally came up with something that was suitable for my taste. Lots of adjusted spices and herbs made this particularly good. I'll be making this every season for sure, to keep my pantry at home stocked. 

Lots of sweet onions cooking and caramelizing down. 

Freshly husked, farm picked ripe tomatillos roasted hot in the oven to bring out the flavor. 

Adding the roasted & blackened tomatillos to my canning pot of onions. 

A medley of peppers and garlic was charred to add more flavor. 

Adding the charred peppers to the tomatillo mixture. 

Lots of spices, dried herbs and fresh cilantro is added

A good amount of freshly squeezed lime juice was added to get the right level of acidity to make it suitable and shelf stable for water bath canning. 

Lots of kosher salt and cumin.

 Prepping for water bath processing. 

 Post water bath processing. 

Nine finished pints of home canned salsa verde. The possibilities are endless with what this can be made into. Or, just popped open and enjoyed with some fresh corn or flour tortilla chips. 


Dan's Salsa Verde

6 pounds tomatillos, papery husks and stems removed, rinsed

2 tbsp canola oil

3 medium onions, peeled, medium dice

5 jalapenos, stems removed, (seeds and all for added heat)

5 hatch peppers,

5 poblano peppers 

2 green bell peppers 

15 cloves garlic

2 tsp ground cumin, more to taste 

1 tsp ground coriander, more to taste  

2 bunches fresh cilantro, chopped

5 fresh limes, juiced 

2 tbsp kosher salt, or to taste

Fresh cracked black pepper

Approx 2 tbsp agave or honey, or to taste

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.  Place tomatillos on a lined baking sheet. Roast for 20-35 minutes, turning occasionally, until blackened in spots and the tomatillos are soft, collapsed and leaking. Prepare another lined baking sheet as roast peppers and garlic. Roast 30 minutes as well, until blackened in spots and the vegetables are soft, collapsed and leaking.  

Meanwhile, preheat a large stainless steel stockpot over medium high heat.  When hot, add canola oil and saute onions that have been lightly sprinkled with kosher salt and pepper. Cook until translucent.  Add roasted tomatillos and bring to a simmer. Add roasted peppers and garlic, and bring to a simmer again. At this point I used an immersion blender and puree the mixture to a consistency of my liking.  If you do not have an immersion blender, you can puree batches of this in the blender or food processor. Once pureed, return mixture to a simmer, add and mix in half the kosher salt, cumin, coriander, cracked pepper, chopped cilantro and the fresh lime juice.  At this point taste, add more salt if needed.  Use agave or honey to further balance the flavor should the salsa seem too acidic and it needs to be sweetened. 

Ladle the hot salsa into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2" head space at the top. Use a clean damp cloth to wipe the rims of the jars, then put a flat lid and ring on each jar. Screw bands on jars to finger tight. Place jars in a boiling water bath with water covering jars by at least one inch.  Bring to a boil, and process for 20 minutes.  Remove jars from bath and allow to cool on a towel. After one hour, check that the lids have sealed by pressing down on the center of each. If it can be pushed down, it hasn't sealed, and the jar should be refrigerated immediately. Sealed jars can be placed in your pantry for 12-18 months. 

Yields 8-9 pint jars.