Category: From My Kitchen

Posted in From My Kitchen

Quick and Easy Casserole Recipes

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Break out your best casserole dish because there’s nothing better than some homemade comfort food. From breakfast casseroles that can feed a crowd to creative takes like casseroles inspired by other popular dishes (and everything in between!), these recipes are layered with flavor—and sure to satisfy. You can’t go wrong with any of the recipes in this roundup but we love a good mashup like this one. With hash browns, ground beef, canned tomatoes and green chiles, taco seasoning and gooey cheese, it can’t be beat. It’s the ultimate hands-off meal. And since everything’s tossed together right in the baking dish, there’s very little cleanup. Simply garnish with your favorite taco toppings and dinner is served. If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, try wrapping them in a tortilla for a quick burrito.

Food Network

Posted in #allrecipes

Champion Chili Recipes for Winning Cook-Offs

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These top-rated recipes are tried-and-true chili cook-off winners. And they could be your ticket to a blue ribbon, too. From classics to spicy new favorites, you’ll want to try all of these prize-winning chili recipes.

  • Boilermaker Tailgate Chili
  • Debdoozie’s Blue Ribbon Chili
  • Fusion Chili
  • Best Damn Chili

Allrecipes

Posted in From My Kitchen

5 Big-Batch Soups That Are Perfect for Stocking Your Freezer

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Whether you’re craving some cozy comfort on a snowy day or need an easy meal because you’ve got a case of the sniffles, there’s no better choice than a warming bowl of homemade soup. But, what do you do when cooking from scratch isn’t an option? With a little planning, you can simply reach in your freezer!

Stocking your freezer with soups may seem like a big task but it’s surprisingly simple to do. Just make a big batch on the weekend, let the soup cool completely and then tuck it away in your freezer. Most soups are freezer-friendly as long as you store them correctly.

When it comes to tucking them away in your freezer, less is more — meaning that it’s better to save the soup as several small portions than it is to freeze the whole batch in one big container. If you don’t have the right size or shape containers for maximizing freezer space, you can pour the soup into several gallon zip-top bags. Freeze the bags flat on a sheet pan so that you have several thin, frozen packages that are easy to stack and store. (You can also vacuum-seal portions of soup and freeze the same way.)

So, which soups freeze best? Most soups work well although ones that include a starchy element (like rice or pasta) are better if you undercook that ingredient just a touch. That way, when you reheat the soup the rice or pasta will be perfectly cooked. If that feels too complicated, just go ahead and make the recipe as directed, cool and freeze — I promise, it will be fine. Your rice or pasta will be just a little bit softer.

One ingredient you should avoid when you’re freezing soups though, is potato chunks. They don’t reheat well. If your soup calls for chunks of potato you can omit them and cook them fresh when you’re ready to serve your soup. Or, simply stick to soups where the potatoes are pureed (like Ree’s Perfect Potato Soup, below).

Ready to give it a try? These five big-batch soups will help you get started.

Food Network

Posted in #allrecipes

How to Create Perfect Cheeseboards Year-Round

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Let’s start with an apology. We’re sorry we didn’t bring this hack to you back in November. This was before all the holiday cheese boards and charcuterie boards. Trust us, if we had known about this trick back then, we would have shared it with you. 

Fortunately, cheese isn’t just a holiday food. It is everyday food for many of us. There are always occasions to make cheeseboards. Some occasions include birthdays and anniversaries. Valentine’s Day, an Oscar party, and the big bowl game are other examples. Even an average Tuesday is a good time, to name a few.

If you always volunteer to bring the cheese to an event, you should know about this trick. You like your cheese boards to look professional with uniform slices.

How to Use a Fork to Uniformly Slice Cheese

This viral cheese-cutting tip that spread.the.grub posted on Instagram is so simple and so genius. 

Here’s how it works. Grab a dinner fork (any regular old dinner fork). Grab your block of cheese. This trick seems like it would work best with a semi-hard cheese such as Cheddar, Gouda, Swiss, or provolone. It wouldn’t work very well with a soft goat cheese or Brie that isn’t easily sliceable. Hard cheeses, such as Grana Padana or Parmesan, would probably crumble under the knife. 

But for those cheeses that are cut into slices cleanly, this method will make easy work out of uniformity.

Allrecipes

Posted in From My Kitchen

Cowboy Soup Recipe: Hearty & Customizable Comfort Food

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Anyone who has lived in a cowboy town knows that the Wild West is still very much alive. Rodeos, cattle drives, coal-powered railroad rides and mining tours are all still a part of daily life for those who live in picturesque mountain towns. In addition to Wild West vibes, the cowboy appetite is also quite real. After a long day of working outdoors, there’s nothing more comforting than hearty cowboy recipes, especially a big bowl of cowboy soup.

The beauty of this one-pot cowboy soup recipe is that it’s completely customizable. Mix and match ingredients from the pantry and refrigerator, use other types of ground meat or change up the spices and vegetables to your personal preferences. This soup is traditionally made with pinto beans, but even those aren’t off-limits when it comes to making it your own. Black beans, cannellini beans, great northern beans or kidney beans all taste great in cowboy soup.

What is cowboy soup?

Cowboy soup is a simple yet flavorful soup that’s packed with filling ingredients like ground beef, tomatoes, green chiles, pinto beans and other vegetables. It’s a one-pot meal that comes together in about 30 minutes.

Some say cowboy soup is similar to a hearty chili. While it does have a comparable spice profile thanks to the combination of tomatoes, chili powder and ground cumin, cowboy soup is not typically as spicy as most chili recipes. It also contains extra ingredients that make the soup more filling, like chunks of potatoes, sweet corn and canned mixed vegetables.

Ingredients for Cowboy Soup

overhead shot of ingredients for Cowboy Soup; wooden background;
Taste of Home
  • Ground beef: You can use fresh or frozen ground beef for this recipe. It’s best to defrost ground beef in the fridge overnight, but if you forgot, you can cook ground beef from frozen. Just make sure to flip the frozen brick over frequently and scrape off the outer layers as they brown.
  • Onion and garlic: These aromatic vegetables season the ground beef and add the first layer of flavor to this hearty cowboy soup.
  • Beef broth: Use low-sodium or homemade beef broth if you want to keep the salt content low. Alternatively, you can use chicken broth or vegetable broth.
  • Ranch-style beans: These canned pinto beans are seasoned with tomato sauce, spices and a splash of vinegar to give them a tangy finish. They’re available at most grocery stores, but regular pinto beans also work. (You can make homemade ranch-style beans if you prefer to cook from scratch.)
  • Tomatoes and green chiles: The combination of drained diced tomatoes and undrained diced tomatoes with green chiles gives the soup a bold flavor, a stew-like consistency and the perfect hint of heat.
  • Veggies: You can use any type of vegetable in this soup. We like peeled and chopped potatoes, frozen corn and a can of mixed vegetables, but feel free to experiment.
  • Seasonings: Chili powder adds a hint of spice, while ground cumin boosts the smoky vibes. A little bit of salt and pepper rounds it all out.
  • Jalapeno pepper: Garnish the soup with thinly sliced jalapeno peppers for some spice.

Taste of Home