Guacamole and refried beans w/ chips and corn tortillas a perfect playoff football snack.

Make the guac w/ onions, tomatoes, jalapeno pepper,lemon juice,plenty of garlic, cilantro and olive oil. Process. Serve with chips of your choice.

Pinto or black beans mashed and fried in half butter and olive oil, seasoned w/ salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne topped w/ cheese, served w/ chips and warm soft corn tortillas.

Looks good, smells great, tastes like a touchdown.

A Winter Sandwich

Use marble jack cheese and bleu cheese and cooked spinach to make a great midwinter grilled cheese sandwich on whole grain bread. Grill the sandwich in a small amount of olive oil, or olive oil and butter. Eat it alongside a multi bean and vegetable soup.

Happy New Year

I braised it stovetop w/ the wine and vegies and herbs/spices because my oven caught on fire. I added herbs de Provence and plenty of garlic along w/ the wine. 3 hours cooking time.

You can add the onions, mushrooms, carrots and potatoes after 2 hours of cooking the meat. 3 hours total. I do it in a black cast iron pan( 8inch) with a glass lid. You can watch it and test it all as you cook. If the vegies are done before the meat is fork tender, simply remove the vegies and continue cooking the beef. Add beef broth or beef bouillon to the pan for a deeper, richer flavor.

Happy New Year!

3 hours is a while. You will want to have some appetizers, like shrimp cocktail and cheese( bleu, and brie w/ jam) and crackers,sardines, minced mushrooms and onions sauteed w/ garlic and sage , artichokes etc... . while you wait, as well as wines of your choice ( I';m a nut for pinot noir), and / or egg nog . You will have sports on tv and as much talk as garlic in the food. It will all be spicy and good. You will need some kooks from your very own family to be involved, as well as the lonesome and homeless. They are as worthy of love and consideration as the food.

God Bless. Happy New Year.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

An historic college basketball game tonight as the 90 game winning streak by Connecticut - best all time since John Wooden's UCLA men's team in the 70's - was eclipsed by the Stanford women. Great ball game. I am an avid fan of girl's basketball because all 3 of my girls have played basketball.

It happens with food, too. You might have made, say, a great beef Bourguignonne - which means beef " as prepared in Burgundy," which is braised w/ onions and mushrooms in red wine, Burgundy, I suppose, which equates with our California Pinot Noir( same grape).

You make it the best 90 times and the next time you screw up and lose and then you might make it great many times thereafter. It will probably make you better after you lose because you don't want to lose again.

I bought a beef chuck roast today and intend to prepare it in the beef Bourguignonne manner tomorrow - a simple adaptation - and will report on the results tomorrow after it is done.

It Will SaveYour Life

Nice to be back. I've had a nasty virus in my computer and was unable to hold my website. Thanks to Norton Live, the virus(es) has been removed and I am protected again.

I have a passion for the roasts, stews and soups of wintertime. The one pot meals that nourish, sustain and excite us through the cold and dark time of the year. I swear that some of these lunches and suppers have saved my life.

If you're from the Midwest( Mn) and you grew up on Mom's pot roast , you know what I mean. You can make it better, I think. She seasoned it with salt and pepper - the chuck or blade front end of the cow, as well as the potatoes, carrots and onions.

Add garlic and rosemary or "herbs de Provence( a mixture of dried herbs from the South of France) which includes basil, fennel seed, lavender. marjoram, rosemary,sage, summer savory and thyme ( according to the "Food Lover's Companion") - a thoroughly intoxicating perfume of flavors esp when married to meats like beef or pork, or chicken in a one black cast iron pan meal.

One hour total cooking time w/ chicken - add vegetables the same time as the chicken.

With a pork or beef roast( or venison), add the vegetables after one hour of cooking and check for tenderness at 2 to 2 1/2 hours. You should add water and wine at the beginning and cover your container( 2 cups water, 1 cup wine - red or white). It is so simple and so good - deep, rich, aromatic, delicious.

Serve with artisan bread for dunking.It will keep you alive and interested. Umm, 350 degree oven. Oh, add whole mushrooms, too. Mom didn't.

Best Memories, First Fruits of the DeerHunt

First fruits of the hunt are the tenderloins, the torpedo shaped portions of muscle that lay on either side of the backbone INSIDE THE CAVITY OF THE DEER, an area I think many hunters miss. It corresponds to the tenderloin or filet mignon of beef cattle.

It should be removed when you get your gutted deer back to camp. Otherwise it will dry out. Next day for sure.

Slice them in 3/8 inch thick portions. Saute onions till translucent( half carmelized) add sliced mushrooms, cook till soft ( a couple of minutes), add seasoned( salt, pepper, garlic) deer tenderloins to pan and cook a minute or so and turn and cook another minute or two. Add brandy ( 1/2 cup), cook 1 minute, then add butter( 3 -4 pats) and swirl till melted and serve over french bread toasts. Venison should be medium rare.

Tender, luscious first meal of your special deer, as they all are.

Deer Hunting, The Earliest Memories

The best memories of deer hunting are the earliest ones. You knew nothing about it from experience - you were 12 or 15 and hunted with a 12 or 20 gauge slug, or a 30-30.

You'd mostly heard stories from your Dad and your uncles and great uncles. About them and their hunts and Grandpa, too, who'd learned to hunt deer from the Indians who still lived on the homestead when he was young. Before they were called to the reservation. The Indians had no problem getting the deer they needed - my impression was that it was more outsmarting them, than hunting. Which just might be be defined as hunting.

The Indians knew where and what the deer ate, and where and when they slept and since that's about all that deer they do, it was simple. Get there a little ahead of time and watch and wait and then shoot.

Cousin( great uncle) Clifford taught me that deer feed downwind, thus utilizing the great sense advantage they have over us - sound and smell, primarily - smelling upwind, looking downwind and hearing all directions as they fed downwind.

Which helps us to get them and then eat them, which is the original reason for all this hunting. Our advantage is eyesight and reason. Theirs the nose and ears. The deer win most of the time.