BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD

SHE2016©

So I made venison back-strap stew that included that precious, tender, and prized deer meat, turnips, carrots, celery, onion, and slivered red cabbage, all braised and stewed together to make one savory and wonderful bowl of warming yumminess on a cold winter's night.  (LOTS of adjectives there)  To go with it, I made a quick bread - no, let me explain it the way it deserves:  This is a fast and easy bread make with seasonal beer (in this case, winter beer), beautiful fresh-and-pickled jalapenos, and mounds of gorgeous shredded cheddar cheese.  It may very well be the best thing EVER, and this I PROMISE YOU.  The Hubster made a simple turkey sandwich with it the very next day and said it was the best sandwich he has ever had in his entire LIFE ...... because of the BREAD, Y'all.  MAKE THIS.  Then slather it in (real) butter while its still warm, and know that it must be a little taste of what Heaven is like.

QUICK BEER JALAPENO CHEDDAR BREAD

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 - 3 pickled jalapenos, chopped

2 - 3 fresh jalapenos, seeded and chopped

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

12 ounces seasonal beer or beer of your choice

4 tbs butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the chopped jalapenos, cheddar cheese, and butter. Pour beer into the mixing bowl and mix until blended. Pour mixture into a prepared loaf pan. Bake for about an hour or until golden brown. Tent with aluminum foil and cool for 5-10 minutes. Slice and serve or just grab a chunk of it with your bare hands like an animal and place a honkin' piece of butter on it and eat straight out of the pan!

NOTES:  You are so welcome.

OOPSIE, I DID IT AGAIN!

SHE2016©

This was a Sunday supper that was a bit different - but it was still DELICIOUS!  We were taking a meal train meal over to our friend's house that just had a baby - BUT!  They are on the Atkins diet so there were exact specifications for what they could and could not eat.  Well, I LOVE A GOOD CHALLENGE!!  So I made meatloaf from ground turkey, ground chicken, and ground sirloin with a sour cream paprika gravy, cauliflower (non-mac) and cheese, collard greens, a gorgeous salad with home-made apple cider vinegar dressing, oopsie bread and coconut macaroons for dessert!  WOO!  Below I've given you the OOPSIE recipe.  This is extremely bread-like and wonderful.  Just make sure to add only a DASH of salt - trust me on this one!  Low-carber's DREAM!

OOPSIE BREAD

3 egg yolks

3 tbs cream cheese

1 sachet sweetener (I use Stevia)

pinch of salt

3 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Whisk egg yolks, cream cheese, sweetener and (just a pinch of!) salt in a bowl until well blended.
In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, then add in cream of tartar and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold in the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture until just blended, be very careful not to break the egg whites down. Fill the batter into a greased 6-cup muffin top pan.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.  

NOTES: If you are making these to be savory (for burgers) you can add dry mustard or dill or other any other seasonings (just no more salt!) to the yolk mixture.  If you want a more sweet roll, add a very small amount of stevia or other  natural sweetener to the yolk mixture.  I double the recipe and bake in a muffin tin with the extra-large cups so that I can use for turkey burgers.  Once you store your oopsies, they can be frozen!

OH, DEER!

SHE2016©

I have a friend who has a very generous heart.  She is one of the few people I know that would literally give you every possession she had if you let her if she thought it would make you happy.  I often feel reluctant to take gifts from her for that very reason.  HOWEVER comma - when she offers up fresh venison to me, I have NO QUALMS receiving that gift!  Her hubby fills their freezers and fridge with all kinds of beautiful meats from hunting trips, so it's my pleasure to take some off of her (giving) hands!  This night I took some venison sausage and turned it into a beautiful and hearty stew perfect for the cold weather outside!

VENISON & BLACK BEAN STEW

extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

2 pkgs venison sausage links, sliced

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 turnips, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, diced

sea salt

pepper

1 tbs cumin

1 tbs paprika

1 tbs garlic powder

i small can diced tomatoes

4 cans black beans

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup sour cream

chopped cilantro, for garnish

In a heavy pot (I use my cast-iron Dutch oven, of course!) sprinkle enough evoo on the bottom to cover and heat on medium for about a minute.  Add sausage and brown for about two minutes.  Add onion, garlic, turnips and carrots and continue to cook on medium for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally.  Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper to taste and add cumin, paprika, and garlic powder, and stir to combine.  Cook for another minute, and then add diced tomatoes.  Drain 2-of-your-4 cans of black beans and add to the pot.  Add the remaining 2 (un-drained) cans of beans and stir.  Add the vegetable broth, stir, cover, lower heat to low and let simmer for another ten minutes.  Sprinkle a little more sea salt and pepper to taste, stir in the sour cream and remove from heat.  Garnish with cilantro.

NOTES:  I use organic black beans, and really do think it makes a difference for a cleaner taste (and fiber!) - especially if we are eating venison, which is the best meat you can put in your body for digestion!  I also use my own home-made vegetable broth, but you can just buy a box of organic and use that!  Turnips are my go-to in place of potatoes right now for low-carb options and they are so freaking good in this recipe!  If you want some spice, add a little cayenne during the cooking process or simply add your favorite hot sauce before eating!

HAM IT UP!!

SHE2016©

This was a Christmas catering job, and it was so much fun!  The menu was magical, and not only perfect for the season, but great for the cooling winter months!  There was Shiner Bock beer bread with sweet honey-cream butter, bacon-wrapped green bean almandine stacks, a honkin-huge bowl of salad with honey mustard vinaigrette, sweet potato casserole with home-made marshmallows melted on top,  red velvet stack cakes, and the most gorgeous ham with orange-balsamic-honey-mustard-and-clove glaze.  And that, Ladies & Gents, is the recipe that follows!

ORANGE BALSAMIC HONEY MUSTARD & CLOVE GLAZE

juice and zest of a large orange

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/2 cup honey

2 tbs ground clove

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.  Baste ham as it bakes, and pour remaining glaze over the ham as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Let rest.

NOTES: I used organic aged balsamic and orange blossom honey, but I'm certain any variation on this recipe with similar ingredients would taste just as amahz!!

Squash It!

This image is © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used.

Like many of you, autumn is my most-absolute favorite time of year.  Part of our Annual Fall Family Day consists of vegetable picking as a family, and boy did I get a TON of squash!  So, for this particular dish, I cooked it up with some chicken thighs and the green-and-purple beans we picked wrapped in bacon (let's just say The Hubster was HAPPY!!)

CHICKEN THIGHS AND SQUASH

2 pkgs chicken thighs

extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

sea salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

3 cups squash, any kind, peeled and cubed

 1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

3 tbs dried rosemary

3 tbs dried sage

2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp pepper

2 cups vegetable (or chicken works here, too) stock or broth

1/2 cup parsley, chopped fine

In a large, heavy oven-safe skillet (I use my cast-iron, of course!), pour enough evoo to cover the bottom and heat on medium.  Meanwhile, sprinkle both sides of the chicken thighs with sea salt and pepper to your taste.  Place thighs top-side-down first into the heated pan.  Let sear and brown well before turning, about four-to-five minutes and the same on the other side.  Remove from heat and let rest on a plate covered in paper towel.  Heat your oven to 350 degrees.  To the same pan and on the same medium heat, add your squash, onion, garlic, rosemary, sage, nutmeg, sea salt, and pepper and stir.  Let cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add your vegetable stock and scrape the bottom of your pan for all those goodie-brown-bits with a wooden spoon.  Turn off the heat and return the thighs to the pan, nestling them in between the squash mixture.  Cover and place the entire pan in the oven and let it braise by continuing to cook it for another 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven, sprinkle with parsley, and cover and let rest for five minutes.  Lift the lid.  Smell the wonder of autumn.  Then, eat the MESS out of it!

NOTES  I served this over brown rice and with the side of bacon-wrapped green bean stacks, but if you want low-carb, simply omit the rice.  

Horn of Plenty

This image is © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used.

I was asked to cater a small luncheon and with autumn upon us, I was super-pumped when they chose the Horn of Plenty Menu!  It consists of a stuffed acorn or carnival squash and a simple salad, from-scratch Shiner Bock beer bread with honey-butter rounds, and delicious cake truffles.  It made the house smell so wonderful and made me feel autumn deep in my soul!  I want to pass that along to you, so I am giving you the stuffed squash recipe below.  Happy Autumn Eating!

STUFFED ACORN SQUASH

 2 acorn or carnival squash, halved, seeded, and scraped deep and wide so as to fill generously, but still leaving enough squash flesh to eat

1 pnd ground beef

1/2 pkg bacon, chopped fine

1 onion, diced finely

2 green apples, cored and chopped finely

2 tbs pumpkin pie spice

2 tbs brown sugar

1 tbs dried sage

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp pepper

2 cups Jasmine rice, cooked

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Place squash halves cut-side down on a rimmed dish. Add water to dish and bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes.  While squash is roasted, cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until almost crisp. Add onion and apple. Cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in ground beef., breaking up meat as it cooks, and let it get just-brown.   Add brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, sage, salt and pepper. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in Jasmine rice.  Drain water from baking dish and flip over squash. Spoon meat-and-rice mixture into squash halves generously, pressing down with hands to pack it in. Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve with fried sage as a garnish.

NOTES:  Want low-carb?  Omit the rice.  Be careful frying your sage leaves - if they turn brown they will taste bitter.  I used all-organic ingredients for clean eating, but I'm not sure it made a difference in taste except for the ground beef.  No need to make any sides, as this houses all of your food groups.  Horn of Plenty, get it?

She-cago Cubs

This image is © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used.

Though I am not a Cubs fan, I am a fan of Cubs fans.  One in particular happens to be my favorite person - The Hubster!  As we watched the possibility of Back to the Future's prediction in progress, we were invited to two of my other Cubs fan-favorites, Cody and her husband Joe.  My job was to take a sweet and a savory.  I did not don the Cubs gear; however, in support, I did fix up some Cubs eats!  I did cupcakes decorated with a Cubs logo, as you can see from the picture above, and also dressed up some antipasto apps to look like baseballs!  That is the recipe I provided you below......throw them together for your next sports party!

BASEBALL ANTIPASTO APPS

1 pkg 'everything' bagel thins, sandwich-size

1/2 pound hard salami, sliced at a 2 or 3

1 pkg sliced smoked provolone cheese

1 jar roasted red peppers, keep the liquid

2 tbs mayonnaise

2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Toast the 'everything' bagel thins until just crisp.  Mix the liquid from the jar of peppers, the mayonnaise, and the Parmesan cheese in the jar, close and shake well.  Spread very thinly and evenly on toasted bagel thins.  Place a slice of salami on top of the dressed bagel thins, and then layer a slice of provolone cheese.  Cut each roasted red pepper into thin slices to make the baseball 'laces', and layer according to the picture above.

NOTES: I use Boar's Head salami because it has no nitrates or MSG, and is minimally processed.  Also, as the low-carb girl, I simply eat this without the bagel thin and it is DELICIOUS!

Stew In It

This image is © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used.

Yes, People.  Autumn is upon us.  Much like you - it's my most favorite time of year  So even though it is still a bit warm outside, I couldn't wait to get my beef and vegetable stew into my Menu Planner.  Super-duper easy, and SUPREME as far as flavor!  I served it to The Hubster with some leftover garlic flatbread I had from the meal the night before.  Come on in, Autumn!  You are welcome here.

BEEF & VEGETABLE STEW

1 pkg beef stew meat

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

1 turnip, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks

4 carrots, washed and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

4 stalks celery, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1 pkg frozen green beans

2 cups favorite broth (beef works best here)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 can tomato paste

sea salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

2 tbs garlic powder

2 tbs cumin

2 tbs coriander

2 tbs Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

fresh parsley, chopped coarse, for garnish

Now watch this: throw everything (minus the parsley garnish) into your crockpot.  Set on lowest setting and just let it cook.  Remove bay leaves and sprinkle with parsley.  Eat it up.  THAT'S IT!!

NOTES:  You may want to re-season a little prior to serving, as crockpots can tend to mute the seasoning level.  I use organic ingredients whenever I can, including the balsamic vinegar, and I would add that in this particular case, organic beef or beef without hormones or additives will definitely help in flavor here.  You want the liquid to reduce, but add a little more broth if you like it soupier.  You can throw some chunks of potato in, if you like, but I leave it out for low-carb, and it is just as hearty and filling.