Barbacoa

My goal is to make barbacoa like they have at Chipotle. The problem? When I look it up online all I can find is special cooking methods like baking underground or something. (Ok, I looked it up awhile ago and don't remember the details - but I do remember it wasn't practical for me, an apartment dwelling suburbanite with not even a balcony to my name. :))

I decided to try it anyway.

Ingredients:
About 2 ziplock baggies full of stewing meat - mostly defrosted.
One can of coke
A little bit of butter
1.5 packages of dry southwest marinade
1.5 Tblspns of garlic

Smear the butter around your crock pot so stuff doesn't stick.
Put the garlic on the bottom
Put meat in
Pour marinade powder over top
Pour coke over top
Cook on high for 3-4 hours. (Lets hope, because that's when dinner is!)

I'll let you know how it goes. (And if you have a better way, please, please let me know because I kind of think this will fail! :))

Recipes

I thought it might be fun to post some of the recipes that Jamie and I like...well, eating together (although Jamie does sometimes help a little...and he does most of the dishes!) So here are some of our/my favorites in no particular order.

Lettuce wraps

Yummy, yummy. "Brown" 99% fat free ground turkey with a whole bunch of sesame ginger dressing until turkey is cooked. Turn the heat off and add grated carrots, chopped green onion and sliced almonds. Pile a couple tablespoons of the meat mixture into the each of the middles of romaine or iceburg lettuce leaves. Serve with rice. And I tried stirfry vegetables, but that didn't work out well...mostly because I substituted red wine vinegar for rice vinegar. LOL.

Banana Waffles

This is Jamie's favorite dessert/breakfast. Put chocolate chips into the squares of frozen waffles. Bake. Top with chopped bananas, whipped cream, and syrup. It makes me feel sick to think about how sweet it is, but sometimes it hits the spot.

Resurrection Biscuits

I actually got this recipe from a patient at our office. I made them for Easter and thought they were cool, but I have to be honest and say that's the only time I made them and we didn't finish the batch I made, even though I only made eight. But they're a fun Easter thing - especially if you have more than 2 people in your family! Get Pillsbury biscuits in a can. I think I used southern style. Gently pull each biscuit around a large marshmallow. Pinch the seams, so the marshmallow is completely encased and secure. :) Dip the biscuit covered marshmallow in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar (1Tbsp cinnamon to 1 cup of sugar). Place biscuits seams down on parchment paper covered cookie tray. (Or a friend at work used cupcake paper thingies in a muffin pan.) Bake at 350 degrees (or whatever the biscuit container says) for approximately 10 minutes. When you bite into the biscuits you'll see why they're appropriate for Easter.

Chicken and Onions

This is the last one and probably long.
Carmelize some onions. (Chop onions in slices, put them and butter in a frying pan, add garlic, crushed red pepper, brown sugar - like 1 teaspoon or a little more -, yellow spice if you have it, stir around until they're floppy and kind of brown.) Take onions out of pan. Put chicken in pan and cook so that both sides are slightly brown and the inside is white (not pink, silly). You might need to add more butter at some point. When chicken is cooked through, but not overly cooked, add the onions back in and pour some sherry in (maybe a cup?). Let the sherry boil a while until the sauce is a bit thicker. Serve chicken with onions over the top and shredded extra sharp cheddar (costco's is great!) over the top of that. Serve with pasta and yummy salad.

Craveable Salad

Well, at least I've been craving it recently. Chop romaine lettuce into small bite size pieces. Add chopped red bell pepper. Add chopped green onion. Add lots of feta cheese. For salad dressing: basil vinegarette(sp?) from Wegmans.