Easy Pico-de-Gallo

3 tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, minced
1/2 sweet onion, minced
1 section of green pepper, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
about 1/3-1/2 cup vinegar (use your best judgement)
salt and pepper

Mix it up really well and refrigerate. I put my pico in a Tupperware and shook it up really well right before serving to re-mix.

Cafe Rio Tomatillo Dressing

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix
3 tomatillos (remove papery skin), rough chop
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup (or more) cilantro, rough chop
3 cloves garlic
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp green Tabasco sauce
juice from 1 lime

Dump everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate in air-tight container (or your entire fridge will smell like garlic and cilantro).

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

Total cooking time: 18 hours

5-6 lb. pork roast
1 liter Dr. Pepper (or Coke, do NOT use diet soda)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
7 oz. can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
6 oz. red taco sauce (I used hot)
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper


Place roast in crock-pot, cover half-way with water and cook on low for 12 hours. (I started my Pork Adventure at 6pm on Saturday and everything worked out perfectly for Sunday dinner.) After 12 hours, drain pork. Remove fat if any.

Mix remaining ingredients until sugar dissolves. I didn’t keep the actual chilies, I dumped the can into a bowl and added enough Dr. Pepper to get all the sauce off of the chilies, then I tossed them. I also rinsed out the can with Dr. Pepper for more adobo goodness. My version had a fairly good kick to it, but if you LOVE hotness, then blend everything + 2 or 3 chilies in the blender. (Also, the adobo sauce tends to stain plastic, using a glass or metal mixing bowl will make your clean-up of adobo sauce considerably less frustrating).

Add Dr. Pepper mixture to the roast and cook on low an additional 4 hours.

Take out roast and shred, add back into sauce and cook for 2-4 more hours. At this point the meat was so tender it practically shredded itself.

My sauce had too much liquid (from Dr. Pepper) so I let it cook on low in the crock pot without the lid for about 1 supervised hour to let the extra moisture evaporate.

Pulled Venison BBQ Sandwhiches

This recipe is best whenever you have any left over venison roast. I have a great recipe for venison roast here.

Pull apart the rest of the roast and place in a pan over medium heat. Add your favorite BBQ sauce, I used about a cup, and a dash or two of coke. Once all meat is heated up reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Venison Slow Cooker Roast

Ingredients

• 3 pounds boneless venison roast
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

Directions

1. Put cleaned meat in slow cooker and cover with onion. Sprinkle with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and pepper.
2. In a small bowl combine the soup mix and the soup; mix together and pour mixture over venison. Cook on Low setting for 6 hours.

Quick Chicken and Dumplings

4 C water
3 C chopped cooked chicken
2 (10 3/4 oz) cans cream of chicken soup
2 tsp chicken bouillon granules
1 tsp seasoned pepper
1 (7.5 oz) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits


Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring often. Separate biscuits in half, forming 2 rounds; cut each round in half. Drop biscuit pieces, 1 at a time, into boiling mixture, stir gently. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes.

Traditional Butter cream Vanilla Frosting

This is a simple but very delicious butter cream for your cakes or brownies!!

8 C confectioners sugar
1/2 C milk
2 sticks of softened unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla

Mix butter, 4 cups of sugar and vanilla together in bowl. Add one cup of sugar at a time, until it gets to a spreadable texture. You may not need all the sugar.

Venison Jerky Marinade

Jeff got a deer this year, so we were on the hunt for some jerky recipes. This is one that we found that turned out delicious.

Ingredients

2 lbs of Venison or Cow Meat

2 C Soy Sauce (Kikkoman is the best)

2 TB Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 C Liquid Smoke

1 C Brown Sugar

Dash Cayenne Pepper

Directions

Mix all wet ingredients together in a large bowl.

Add dry ingerdients and stir until dissolved.

Slice flank steak diagonally with the grain of the meat into very thin slices (If slightly frozen it slices more easily). Combine ingredients and marinate meat overnight or 12 hours. Be sure all pieces are covered (coated) with marinade. Drain excess marinade. Place meat on paper towels to soak up marinade. Meat should be squeezed as dry as possible in paper towels. You can cook it in a dehydrator if you have one, or in the oven as follows. Place individual pieces of meat on rack in oven at 140 to 160 degrees for seven to 12 hours, or until meat is dry throughout. Leave oven door ajar (slightly open) during the drying process. Meat can also be hung in the oven by placing a wooden toothpick in each piece and strung from the rack.

Store finished jerky in an airtight container. It keeps for several months, but it is likely that it will be consumed by the master hunter, kids, or the cook within a few days.

Roasted Butter Herb Turkey

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 2 tablespoons garlic herb sauce mix (recommended: Knorr)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed garlic
• 1 (32-ounce) bag celery and carrot party sticks
• 2 large onions, large dice
• 1 (32-ounce) container low-sodium chicken broth
• 12-pound turkey, thawed if necessary
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper
• 3 (3/4-ounce) packets fresh herbs poultry herb blend (sage, thyme and rosemary)
• 1 lemon, thickly sliced

Directions

In a small bowl, combine softened butter, poultry seasoning, garlic herb sauce mix, and crushed garlic. Use a fork to mix together until well combined. Cover and put in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes, until firm but not hard.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Arrange celery, carrots, and half of the diced onions in the bottom of a roasting pan. Add chicken broth and set aside.

Rinse the thawed turkey and pat dry. Use your finger to carefully loosen the skin around the entire bird. Take the butter mixture and cut into large pieces. Place the butter pieces under the skin of the entire turkey. Rub the remaining butter pieces on the outside of the skin and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the inside of turkey cavity with remaining onions, fresh herb poultry blend, and lemon slices. (Truss if necessary.) Insert the pop-up thermometer at an angle about 3-inches down from the neck cavity and 2-inches from the breast bone, in the thickest part of the breast.

Place turkey on the bed of vegetables in roasting pan. Place in the oven and reduce temperature to 325 degrees F. Roast for 1 hour, then baste with pan juices every 20 minutes until thermometer pops up or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 180 degrees F, about 3 hours.

Benihana Style Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces steamed rice
• 2 ounces cooked chicken
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon onion, chopped
• 2/3 teaspoon carrot, chopped
• 2/3 teaspoon green onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seed
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 6 pinches pepper
• 6 pinches salt (optional)

Directions:

1 Scramble eggs and chop after cooking.

2 Saute chopped onion, green onion and carrots until done and mix with chopped scrambled egg and chicken.

3 Break off chunks of steamed rice and mix with vegetable, egg and chicken.

4 Add sesame seed and salt and pepper, stirring well.

5 Add butter and soy sauce into the mixture, stirring well until done.

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN TUSCAN HUMMUS

1 15-ounce can white beans or Great Northern beans (strain and keep liquid)

¼ Cup liquid from the can

¼ Cup sesame tahini

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons minced garlic

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon rubbed dried sage

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper



GARNISH

2 Tablespoons chopped Roma tomatoes

1 teaspoon chopped basil

¼ teaspoon minced garlic



1. Dump entire contents of the can of white beans into a strainer set over a bowl. Let the beans sit for a little while so that all of the liquid drips into the bowl.

2. Dump the beans and ¼ Cup of the liquid from the bowl into a food processor.

3. Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor and puree the mixture until completely smooth – about a minute or so.

4. Spoon the hummus into a covered container and chill for at least 2 hours so that the flavors can develop.



When serving, garnish the hummus with a couple tablespoons of chopped Roma tomatoes mixed with chopped fresh basil and garlic. Serve with warm, sliced pita bread, pita chips or crackers.