Ropa Vieja

Ropa vieja, which is spanish for "old clothes" is Eric's favorite Cuban dish. It's shredded meat with peppers, onions, and tomato sauce - it really looks like a shredded mess of good food! His mother makes the very best, and I learned from her to make his favorite dish. You know the saying, "the way to a man's heart...is to feed him!!" My mother-in-law didn't give me the exact recipe, because she has made it for so long that there are no measurements! Use a little of this, lots of salt on this, one of this, put some of this, and some of that...lol, well - here's my recipe for this great hearty Cuban dish.

There are 2 parts to this dish, and the hardest component of this dish is braising the meat. I have a pressure cooker that helps tenderize the meat. It also cuts the time in half if I were to slow roast the meat or use a crockpot. Either way would work, but I highly recommend using a pressure cooker. This is the current one I use, Fagor 6-quart pressure cooker, which I purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Ropa Vieja (Adapted from my wonderful mother-in-law)

Ingredients:

1 to 2 pound flank steak

Water

1/2 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2 tablespoon kosher salt

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 tablespoon of cumin

1 can tomato sauce

3 tablespoons of tomato paste

1/2 cup of dry cooking wine

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2 bay leaves

*Badia Salzon completo seasoning, I got this in the spanish market, and it's a mix of all seasonings...like the finishing touch that I add to give it that extra flavor**

Preparation:

*Place the 1 to 2 pound flank steak in the pressure cooker. Fill with water to about halfway of the pot. Pressure cook the meat until is very tender, about 45 minutes. Remove the meat from the water, and place in a large bowl. You need to shred the meat into very thin slices, as pictured below. This process gets a little messy, and I always use my hands. Afterwards, heavily salt the meat about 2 tablespoons or so. Put the meat aside.

*In a large heated non-stick pan, add the EVOO. Add the onion, garlic, and peppers and let it simmer for 3 minutes. Add the shredded meat, tomato sauce, tomato paste, cumin, cooking wine, bay leaves and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Mix everything well. Add kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. *Add Salzon Completo if available*

Serve with white rice, fried plantatains. It's the best authenic Cuban meal I make and I'm not cuban! lol

Sweetest Texan girl!

I finally met Elisa, one of my fellow April knotties/nesties, today. She was only here for a short time, and she had emailed me that if I could sneak away from work to visit her for breakfast. I'm so thankful to have met in her person. I met her through knot.com on the April boards. We have so much in common, and I had always told her that I would bake or cook her something! She loves food just like me, hehe...well who doesn't love food? She had gotten married on the same day as me, DATE TWIN, too! Her and husband are expecting a beautiful baby this coming April, and I can't say enough good things about her. I felt like I had known her forever, and I have a feeling that this was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. I hope the next time we meet, I'll be meeting her little BB & hubs. What a great day!

Connie's Corn Casserole

My wonderful husband, Eric, had to figure out what food item to make for his work turkey potluck. He wanted to bring a main course, and everyone always expects our usual BBQ meatballs, he wanted to do something different. Plus, he didn't want to buy something already made...that's UNHEARD of for us!! I told him to make a corn casserole, a recipe I had gotten from the owner of the company that I work for. It's the best corn casserole I have ever had, and I was very proud of my cooking husband. Of course, I had set up all the ingredients for him in the kitchen. This is a fast & easy dish to make...he was like wow, you just mix and bake!! I laughed when he told me "Don't bother me, I'm baking!" lol...but my only request was for him to take a picture so I could blog it! Good job monkey!!

Connie's Corn Casserole
Adapted from the CEO of my work
Ingredients:
3 eggs, beaten
1 stick butter, melted
1 (4 oz) diced green chiles (optional)
1 (8 oz) container of sour cream
1 package of french onion dip mix
1 can corn, not drained
1 can creamed corn
8 oz Jiffy corn muffin mix

Preparation:
Mix all, pour into greased 9x13 baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

ENJOY!

Mascarpone Cheesecake with Almond Crust

I must admit this is the best cheesecake I've ever made to date. I hadn't made it since April, and this is my fave dessert for parties! This was the perfect treat for everyone to enjoy at our family party. My uncle who has had my cheesecake before thought I did something different. I was like no, what are you talking about??? He was like it's sooooo creamy, and I thought about it because I contemplated what I had done differently. I worked on getting that perfect almond crust, it wasn't mushy as I had made in the past. I used pure vanilla extract from Williams-Sonoma, and I picked lemons from our backyard....and I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer!! A-ha...all those factors, have made the best cheesecake ever!!! Seriously, the creaminess of the cream cheese & mascarpone, and the hint of lemon...truly melt in your mouth. I hope I can duplicate recipe for next time!! The water bath for the cheesecake is the best way to cook it as well. Thank you Giada for showing me your family's favorites!! The only item I omitted was the chocolate topping, but you can add that if you like, but the cheesecake is perfect either way!

Mascarpone Cheesecake with Almond Crust

Adapted from Giada de Laurentis

Ingredients

Crust:

1 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted

2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted**I always add extra butter*

Filling:

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature

2 (8 oz) containers mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature

Topping: **I omitted this process, but feel free to add - I have done this before, and it's delicious*

1/2 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread aka NUTELLA

1/4 cup whipping cream

Preparation:

For the crust, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Tightly wrap the outside of a 9-inch diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides with 3 layers of heavy-duty foil. *Make sure it's heavy-duty, the water will get into your pan if you don't do this.* Finely grind the almonds, cracker crumbs, and sugar in a food processor. Add the butter and prcoess until moist crumbs form. Press the almond mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan (not on the sides of the pan). Bake the crust until it is set and beginning to brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool. Decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

2. For the filling, Using my kitchen aid mixer, beat the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, and sugar in a large bowl until smooth, occasionall scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition.

3. Pour the cheese mixture over the crust in the pan. Place the springform pain in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the center of the cheesecake moves slightly when the pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour 5 minutes (the cake will become firm when its cold). Transfer the cake to a cooling rack, cool for 1 hour. Refrigerate until the cheesecake is cold, at least 8 hours and up to 2 days.

*For the topping, combine the nutella and cream in a small bowl. Heat in the microwave until warm, stirring every 20 seconds to blend, about 1 minute. Cut the cake into wedges, and drizzle the chocolate sauce over the wedges and serve!*

Enjoy, because I know my family & I sure did!!!!!