We had a little birthday celebration at work last night, and the birthday girl requested Mexican for her dinner.Yum! Who doesn't love Mexican?  So all of us pitched in and brought a dish. My contribution was this Guacamole salad. It's an awesome side to Mexican or South West dishes, and actually I think it would make a great lunch. It's a Barefoot Contessa recipe (Oh, how I just love Ina!), but of course I make changes to it. The biggest change is that I buy bottled dressing and doctor it up a bit, but if you can't find the Newmans Own Light Lime, then follow the Barefoot recipe. I also add a can of corn to mine.

Guacamole Salad    Barefoot Contessa

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1 yellow pepper, seeded & ½ in diced.

1 (15oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup small diced red onion

2 TBSP minced jalapeno peppers, seeded

½ tsp freshly grated lime zest

¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes)

¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp minced garlic
¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper
2 ripe Haas avocados, seeded, peeled and ½ inch diced

Place the tomatoes, yellow pepper, black beans, red onion, jalapeno, and lime zest in a large bowl. Whish together the lime juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, garlic, and cayenne pepper and pour over the vegetables. Toss well. Just before you’re ready to serve, fold the avocados into the salad. Check seasonings and serve.

 

Here’s my version:

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 orange or red bell pepper, seeded and ½ in diced (I use orange or red to add more color, because I add the corn) 

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 oz) can corn, drained

½ cup red onion, small diced

2 TBSP jarred pickled jalapeno, diced (can find in Mexican food isle, I usually get Old El Paso)

4 TBSP Newmans Own Lime salad dressing

Juice of 1 lime

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 Haas avocados, seeded, peeled and ½ in diced

   

Padon the sideways view- I took it from my phone and couldn't turn it. Boo!

So here's a good use for the scraps of beef that you trim from a roast. If you haven't trimmed a roast lately, try asking the butchers at the grocery store for theirs. I've done it before and they were more than happy to bag some up for me.

I honestly don't know what makes it "French" and if there is an authentic way of making French Onion Soup, so I like to call this Sweet Onion Soup. It's another one of my own recipes. I call for a small bottle of wine because I use one of the small bottles that comes in a 4 pack from the grocery store. I don't like most red wines for drinking but love them for cooking. So I buy the 4 pack and that way I don't have to waste most of the large bottle.

Sweet Onion Soup

Trimmings from the beef roast

Olive oil

1 TBSP salt

2 sweet onions, cut in half and then sliced

Small bottle of red wine- I used Cabernet Sauvignon

2 TBSP butter

2 TBSP brown sugar

4 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

6 cups of beef broth

1 cup of water

Over med-high heat, use a heavy bottom pot and heat olive oil. Add the beef trimmings and salt, and let brown. Lower heat to medium, and let cook for another 10 minutes. Remove the beef (if there is a lot of grease, drain it off) add the onions, and let them cook down for about 20 minutes. They should be very soft and translucent. Turn heat up to med-high and add the wine. Let the wine reduce to about ½, about 10 minutes. Add the butter, brown sugar, Worcestershire, Italian seasoning, broth and water. Cover and lower temp again to low. Let simmer for 2-3 hours.

To serve, cut chunks of French bread into crouton size and heat in the oven on 400* for 3-5 minutes until crispy. Ladle soup into an oven proof crock, add croutons, and layer cheese over the top. You can use Gruyere, Swiss, provolone or whatever you like. Put under the broiler, and watch closely- until the cheese melts.

What better during a cold wintry week than a bowl of chili? Plus, the Super Bowl is coming up, and it's a perfect time to get the chili making skills down!  This is actually my recipe. I don't particularly like hamburger in my chili, I prefer nice chunks of beef instead. I also don't like it so spicy that you can't actually taste the food. I find that this has a "kick", but doesn't bring tears to your eyes. If you are really sensitive to spice, I'd leave out or just put in half of the cayenne and red pepper flakes. You can always add them towards the end.
I would have posted some pics but I took them all from my phone and of course my phone wasn't cooperating with me. Boo.

Chili

1-1 1/2 lbs stew beef

2 TBSP olive oil

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped (I prefer sweet onions)

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

1 TBSP chili powder

1 TBSP oregano

1 ½ tsp. cumin

½ tsp. cayenne

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 ½ tsp. cocoa powder

1 (28 oz.) can of diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (4oz) can of chopped green chilis

2     (15 oz. each) cans of kidney beans. If you like black beans, substitute one of the cans of kidney beans for the black beans.

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over med-high heat. While that’s heating, season the beef with the salt & pepper. Add the beef to the pot, and let it brown, approx. 3 minutes. Make sure that you turn it so that all sides get browned. Add the onions and peppers and cook for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes before lowering the temp to medium. Add the chili powder, oregano, cumin, cayenne, red pepper flakes, and cocoa powder. Let it cook for another minute (it will be sort of thick and kind of pasty). Add the diced tomatoes, and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down to low, cover and let simmer for an hour. The beef should be good and tender by now, if not, let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Turn the heat back up to medium and add the chilis, kidney beans, and the tomato paste. Leave uncovered, and bring to a simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Makes 4-6 servings. It also freezes really well. So if you’re like me and you’re 4 year old won’t touch it, and you don’t want to eat leftovers for more than a day- go ahead and freeze the leftovers.

Helpful tips: Instead of buying the actual stew beef already chopped up at the grocery store. I bought a chuck shoulder roast, and cut it myself. I bought almost 2 ½ lbs. of beef for the same price that I would have paid for a pound of the stew beef. I froze the other half of the meat to use later for a beef stew. If you need a big batch of chili go ahead and use it all, just double all the other ingredients as well.

 If you buy the roast, you’ll most likely have to trim a little bit of fat from it. Do not throw this away! Use it to make some yummy onion soup- I'll post a recipe for that next. If you’re not ready to make the soup, freeze the scraps for later.