Charro Beans

Soak beans overnight

½ pound bacon chopped into 1" squares
½ cup bacon drippings
1 large onion, finely chopped
½ pound cooked ham, diced or... I used a half pound of diced Hillshire smoked sausage
¼ pound chorizo sausage, crumbled
1 tsp Mexican Oregano
2 tsp cumin
1 tbls salt
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black pepper
1 Jalapeno diced
1/2 can Fired tomato
4 cloves garlic

1 lb beans
2 cans beef broth

Cook the meat in a Dutch oven, leave the grease in, add onions, tomato, pepper, and garlic. Once translucent add 1 can of beef broth, and all the spices. Let simmer a few hours to break down the veggies. Then add the beans and enough beef broth for the mix to be the right consistency. Cook until beans are done. And serve, or put in fridge overnight. Skim fat off the top when cold.

Carne Guisada

3 lb Stew diced 1" cubes
1 heaping tbls lard
1 onion diced
4 cloves garlic diced
1 tomato diced
1 green bell pepper diced

Add the above to a Dutch oven medium heat and mix

Add 1/2 can beef broth (14.5 oz can)
Add: 2 tsp Cumin
1 tbls salt
1 tsp black pepper

Cook 3-4 hours until meat is tender
Add 1 tbls flour or a pinch more to thicken.

Chili

1 can chicken broth 14oz can
1 can beef broth 14oz can
2 beef bouillon cubes
12 oz tomatoes blended
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic diced
1 diced Jalapeno plus any pepper you wish to use for heat

Combine and bring the above to a boil…..In the meantime
Season 2-3 lbs Chop Meat with season salt and pepper.
Roll into meatballs and place in boiling broth on simmer for about an hour.

Add

chili powder
Cumin
Hot pepper powder (optional)

Break up the meatballs
Add two cans of the beans of your choice ( I use red kidney Beans) (Optional)
Let simmer for a few hours then add some masa/mixed with water.
I like to let the chili set over night in the refrig.

Chili Relleno:

Ingredients:

8 large peppers, so far hot Hatch peppers did the best, we've used Poblano as well.
1lb of chopped meat
Added to the meat:
1 diced onion
2 diced garlic cloves
Salt, pepper powder of your choice, fajita seasoning, and cummin. A little bit more than a light sprinkle of each.
1lb of Asada Mexican cheese this is last once it cools, see below.

The sauce:
1/3 cup of veggie oil
1 large onion diced
4 cloves of garlic diced.
1/3 cup flower.
1.5 cups of whole San Marzano toms- we used canned ones- less cook time.
1 bay leaf
2 tsp salt
1/2 to 3/4 tsp Oregano
5 cups of water
1 large jalapeno or 2 small guys
2 cubes of chicken bouillon

The peppers:
Scorch them until they blister, any method works. I use the BBQ over a Mesquite wood fire. Then let them rest in a one gallon bag which helps the skin loosen
Peel and de-seed the peppers. We scraped the peppers with a knife to peel them. De-seed them.

The Meat:
Brown with the onion and garlic, drain and season, mix well and set aside to cool, then place in the fridge. Once cool add 1 part ground cheese to 2 or 3 parts meat to your liking. We're up to 1 part cheese to 2 parts meat on the next batch.

The sauce:
Place the 1/3 cup of oil, onion, and garlic in an 8 quart pot.
Cook until just before the onions just start to brown but are still translucent. Add the flower and stir in, cook a few minutes. In a blender add the de-seeded Jalapeno(s) the
tomato, and the contents of the cooked onions and garlic. Add 2 cups of the water and puree. Place this back in the same pot adding the rest of the sauce ingredients.
Whisk until it boils. I used a high heat to do this. Once it boils take it off the high heat and then simmer 10 minutes.

Next I took 5 eggs and separated them. Add 2.5 tsp of baking powder to the yolks and whisk until well mixed. The whites: use a mixer and beat until they peak.
Then spoon the 2 together.

Stuff the peppers.

In a 9" pie pan add 1" of flour and pepper it with black pepper. Coat the stuffed peppers and then roll them in the egg mix. Fry them until they just get golden. You can spoon some egg mix on the cut you made on the pepper and then spoon hot grease on it to seal them.
Serve with the sauce.

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Hot sauce, great for chips and tacos!

Hot sauce:
1 28oz. can of whole San Marzano tomatoes. The one we use has no water. It's whole tom's in a very heavy sauce.
4 to 6 (hot) Jalapeno peppers. In reaching your level of heat, add what you think will work.
Deep fry the jalapeno's until they just start to blacken, 10-15 minutes depending on the temp. Paper towel them to remove the oil. I used olive oil.
Add the tomatoes and peppers to the blender and liquify. Add some salt to taste, and maybe some water to get the consistency where you want it. I added a few ounces of water. Let it sit overnight in the fridge.

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Killer Margarita recipe:
In a blender:
6 ounces tequila
3 ounces triple sec or Cointreau liqueur
3 ounces lemon juice made from countrytime lemonaid mix
1 1/2 scoops of the countrytime mix
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar. Use a spoon from the drawer
Add ice, blend. Add ice and blend until the mix is 1" from the top of the blender.

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Baby Back Ribs:

Cook time 6-7 hours @ 225

Mix the following for the rub:

2 tbls fajita seasoning
2 tbls lemon pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
3 tbl brown sugar

Paint the ribs lightly with yellow mustard, believe me you won't taste the mustard later. Use half the rub to coat the ribs, wrap in foil and cook for 3 hours @ 225 degrees. Un wrap and re-coat with mustard and rub. Finish cooking without the foil 3 to 4 hours until desired tenderness has been reached.

Apply your favorite BBQ sauce and cook 10 more minutes, you can add honey to the BBQ sauce prior to painting.

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Scott’s Rancheros Sauce:

24OZ. CAN DICED TOMATOES
2 OR 3 JAPALENO PEPPERS (adjust to your heat tolerance)
2 GARLIC CLOVES
½ TB BUTTER
1.5 TB VEG OIL
½ CUP OF ONION
DASH OF SALT
¼ to ½ can of chicken broth (this is to your taste, start with ¼ or less and go from there)

Mince garlic and chop onions, place tomatoes in blender. I slice the peppers into 1/8” slices and leave the seeds. Add all ingredients to the pot and cook at 3 until it begins to boil while stirring. Lower to low and cook until onions are clear. Let sit overnight in fridge to “mingle” before use. We then divide into meal sized portions and freeze.

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Habaneros hot sauce (salsa):

2- 28oz cans of whole tomatoes
2- garlic cloves
2- large Jalopeno peppers
4- large serano peppers
3- habaneros peppers
Just less than ½ cup of carrots
Dash of salt

Remove stems from peppers, place whole in small pot with about ½” to ¾” of water, cover and boil for 20 minutes.

Caution: stay away from steam it will burn your eyes and nose. Make sure water doesn’t boil out. Let cool enough so it’s not steaming before proceeding.

Place ½ can of tomatoes at a time in blender and pulse until tomatoes are chopped but still chunky, do this for all the tomatoes. Place on burner set to low while peppers and carrots cook.

Carrots: skin carrots and cut to 3/8” long pieces cook for 12 minutes or until tender. Measure to just under ½ cup.

Mince garlic, add garlic, drained carrots, and peppers with their water to blender. Blend the heck out of it being careful of pepper warning above.

Add pepper mix to tomatoes and cook for 35-40 minutes after light boil has been achieved lightly salt.

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Italian Sauce Recipe:

If you're not ready to invest 10 to 12 hours (using fresh canned tomatoes from the garden) cooking time don't bother with this recipe, or you will be disappointed.

Best to start recipe in the morning.

For 8 quarts:

In an 10 quart pot:

Add a silver dollar sized spot of olive oil
Chop 2 baseball sized onions
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb chopped meat

Stir and brown meat.

While this is browning:

Take:

8 quarts of whole tomatoes
3- 10 or 12 oz. cans of tomato paste


Run the whole tomatoes through a blender to liquify
Dump these into the browned meat, set heat to 3 on an electric stove.

The idea is to generate ONLY very small bubbles while simmering, turn heat down if the pot does NOT have an aluminum clad bottom.

Meat balls:

These get added about 1.5 to 2 hours after the sauce starts to bubble.

2 lbs chopped meat
1.5 cups seasoned italian bread crumbs
1/2 to 3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and pepper

mix and form meatballs, adjust mixture to suit your needs. The wife says if the meatballs seem heavy or dense add more bread crumbs AND cheese otherwise these will be like everyone elses meatballs.....suitable for pool and heavy in the belly:)

Brown meatballs in a frypan and add to sauce pot.

Add a pinch of salt, sugar, oregano, italian seasonings, rosemary, basil, and 3 bay leaves. We call a pinch a light dusting over the complete top of the pot. Stir frequently tasting is allowed:)

Simmer sauce for another 3 hours. Let cool and put in the fridge overnight. OR stay up and cook, we make a double batch and freeze it into servings.
if tart add more sugar, if sweet more salt. just small amounts! taste for this after 4 or 5 hours.

Day two:

In the morning take the pot and set on the stove at 2.5 to 3 and watch carefully and stir frequently... don't rush the reheat. Sauce is ready for dinner meal:) Yum!!!!
For the time involved making this we make 16 quarts and freeze the sauce, it takes no longer to make 16 quarts versus 8. We use the sauce for meatball heros, chicken cutlet parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, zitti, raviolli...you name it.

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Apple Butter
Ok, 8 pounds of Fuji Apples, 6 Fataliis, 2 cups of Bourbon and 2 cups of Rice vinegar go into the pot.
Bring it to a boil for 10 minutes then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Place the pot next to the Food Processor next another clean pot and start processing To that add 4 cups of sugar, white, brown or a combination ( I like 2 of each), 2 tsp Cinnamon, 1 tsp Ground Cloves and 1 tsp Ground Allspice, grated peel and juice of 2 lemons then simmer for another 30 minutes
Time to run through the sieve Simmer a bit more to bring it back up to temperature.
After all the jars are filled and a lid and ring have been put on it's into a boiling water bath for 10 minutes

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Habanero Sauce:

#3 Red Habaneros, processed in a food processor
#1.5 Carrots, grated
2 jumbo Spanish Onions, chopped
1 head Garlic, chopped
2 c. shredded sun-dried Tomatoes
4 stalks Celery, chopped
.25 c. salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp ground Cumin
6 c. white vinegar
1.5 c. water
Process in canner