Red beans and rice is often a side dish in the south, but it makes a perfectly good “soup” or meal. I make mine in a pressure cooker, but you can also make them in a crockpot. I also use a summer sausage in mine rather than the more tradional ham bone or salt pork.

In pressure cooker:
16 oz red beans sorted, washed and soaked for 2 hours (some restaurants use kidney beans or a combination of beans. I like the small red beans.)
1 large sweet onion, diced
2 large stalks of celery, diced
5 baby carrots, diced
2 jalapenos, diced (with seeds for more heat)
6 oz chopped summer sausage
1 tablespoon crushed thyme leaves
1 tsp sage
2 bay leaves
1 tsp minced fresh parsely

Cook under pressure for 1 hour. After cooling, taste. Sprinkle additional thyme, salt and pepper if needed. Remove bay leaves and serve over white rice or a combination of wild rice mixed with white rice.

If you are cooking in a crockpot, cooking time will be 6 to 8 hours. I would advise searing the sausage, onions and celery in a skillet before adding to the crockpot. Make sure to add the grease from the sausage as this is important in flavoring the beans.

The secret to good scalloped potatoes is to cook them hot enough that the milk boils and soaks into the potatoes, taking some of the potato back into the milk. If you’ve ever tried making them and had the dish turn out tasting like potatoes sitting in milk, you probably didn’t cook the dish hot enough and/or you needed more cream or butter in the dish.

For creamiest potatoes, use cream. If you’re trying to diet (what are you eating scalloped potatoes for???) and want to cut back on fat, you can use 2 percent milk–but put in some half and half or 1/4 cup of butter. The fat helps the potatoes cook properly.

2 large idaho potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 large onion sliced
place in ovenproof casserole bowl that is large enough so that at least an inch remains free at the top–this dish is going to boil and you don’t want it to boil over!

Dissolve 2 tablespoons flour in a cup of milk. (This will help the mix thicken while cooking. You can substitute 1/4 cup mashed potatoes.)

Add the milk/flour and enough additional milk (2 percent is fine) such that the final layer of potatoes are still dry

Top with half and half or cream so that only a few tops of potatoes are sticking above the milk mixture.

If you don’t want to use half and half or cream, add in 2 to 4 tablespoons butter or margarine.

Cook until bubbly at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. A fine, browned layer should form across the top. You can stir the potatoes once after about 1/2 hour; but you don’t want them to cool. Do not cook covered.

You can add cheese to this dish (au gratin usually has cheese and a high content of cream) during cooking or after. Bacon, ham, grilled shrimp or even hamburger are also other nice additions.

If you’re panicking because the recipe category is missing from the left sidebar, don’t worry.  I moved it under hobbies.  Gardening is moved under hobbies also.  I’m getting ready to move the sidebar categories across the top for a streamlined look.   Or maybe it won’t be streamlined, it’ll just be remodeled.  Just a bit of a new look for the coming new year.

Of course, if you have suggestions, we’ll take them under consideration.  Probably.

Chili is the ultimate Superbowl food, but it’s pretty darn good on an any cold winter day. I serve mine over fluffy white rice, but it’s awfully good with a side of sweet buttered cornbread as well.

In a crockpot combine:

16 oz tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) chili beans or ranch style beans (you basically want pinto beans with spices)
1 can (15 oz) of diced tomatoes
I usually throw in a extra tomato or two if I have fresh ones from the garden–peel them by blanching and dice before adding to the pot.

Brown in skillet:

1 pound hamburger
2 medium-sized cloves of minced garlic
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 minced jalapenos or one large red/yellow/green bell pepper

When the meat is cooked, add it to the crockpot.

Add:

2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Cook on low for about four hours. (About halfway through, taste the sauce and adjust spices to your taste!)

Serve over rice with extra chopped onions and grated cheese!

For cornbread I use Martha White’s Sweet Yellow Cornbread or Pioneer brand. Most excellent!

WOooWooo! Almost time to eat. Here’s one of my favorite parts of the meal:

This stuffing can be made in the oven, or stuffed into a chicken or turkey. It will be more moist and have more flavor if stuffed into a bird!

Cube approximately 24 slices of bread (I like honey wheat!)

melt 1/2 cup of margarine in a deep pan

Cook the following in the margarine:

3/4 cup diced onion
1 1/2 cup diced celery

When the vegetables are tender add:

1 1/2 tsp sage
2 tsp thyme
pepper to taste

Add the breadcrumbs to the margarine and vegetables

Allow the margarine/bread mixuture to cool down for fifteen minutes. Add 1 egg and stir well. If you are baking in an oven (rather than inside a turkey or chicken), drizzle the stuffing with 1/4 cup chicken broth and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until the top begins to brown.

If you are stuffing a bird, do not add any chicken broth. The broth will incorporate naturally while the chicken/turkey cooks. Stuff your bird and cook according to the bird directions!

Deer meat is a very low-fat, excellent meat. Most of the time, it isn’t very gamey either. If you do have gamey meat, soak it in buttermilk or milk for a few hours. Another technique is to cook in a crockpot with chicken stock for two or three hours–then throw out the broth and cook again with fresh broth another two hours until the meat is tender. The first cooking should take off some of the stronger flavor. The second cooking tenderizes the meat. You can then use the meat in a stew or as meat in just about any dish. (This crockpot method works for almost any game meat–elk, deer and even bear meat. If you are in a hurry, you can achieve the same tenderness by using a pressure cooker. Bear meat is quite good when cooked in a pressure cooker.)

The best venison steaks (back steaks, tenderloin, meaty part of the leg) can generally be used in dishes such as pepper gravy or strogonoff without much preparation. Marinate the pieces of steak in soy sauce or sprinkle with a meat tenderizer. Sprinkle with pepper and leave in the refrigerator for several hours (usually venison is frozen, so just marinate it until well thawed, turning several times.)

When ready to cook:

Dredge the meat in flour, coating both sides.
Pepper the top with fresh ground pepper.

Heat two tablespoons olive oil in skillet and lay each steak pepper side down. Pepper the top side.

Cook on medium heat until juices form on the top of the steaks. The flour will begin to clear on the edges and top. Turn the meat over, carefully scraping the flour coating with it.

Cook the meat through. When the meat is very nearly done, add any remaining marinade. Slowly add chicken or beef stock, about 1/4 cup at a time until you have incorporated about a cup to a cup and a half. You can let the juices cook down, but if you add slowly, you’ll end up with a nice gravy without needing more cooking time.

Venison should be cooked all the way through with no red, but you don’t want to overcook. The gravy keeps the venison from being too dry. It also picks up the richness and flavor of the meat, melding the flavors quite nicely.

Serve with mashed potatoes and stuffing. (You might want to make an additional, light gravy to smother the mashed potatoes and stuffing.)

Leftover Tip: If you have venison steaks/gravy leftover, add sauteed mushrooms and onions. Heat the meat/gravy and then add a few tablespoons of sour cream and you have strogonoff! Serve over cooked noodles.