Comfort Food - How to make Homemade French Fries with Beef and BBQ

This has got to be the BEST dish I have had in the ENTIRE month of November! I love French Fries, especially homemade, (reminds me of my Grandma who made them for me when I was a child), I love meat, and I love BBQ sauce. What else could be better on a quiet Saturday evening? Thanks to my Hubby for cooking for me :-)

Ingredients:

6 Potatoes
1 onion
1 garlic
parsley
Salt
Pepper
BBQ Sauce
Rice
Sour Cream (optional)

Steps:

1. Cut up all your potatoes, onions, garlic, and parsley.

2. Heat up the oil, if you are anything like my Hubby, use a thermometer to check if it's at the right temperature. (bring oil to 350 degrees)

3. Make some rice on the side, if desired. We eat rice with pretty much everything in our home!
4. Season the meat with the parsley, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and cook until desired.
5. Get ready to eat, get messy, and have a fantastic time!

Pumpkin Challenge: White Bean and Turkey Stew in Pumpkin Bowls

Stew in Pumpkin Bowls garnished with Bay Leaves

 This is the first pumpkin dish that I made for my family this past weekend! It consisted of white bean and turkey stew in pumpkin bowls. Whoa! This dish was truly an adventure to make because...:

1. It was my first time buying pumpkins at the store. 
2. It was my first time cutting out the tops and removing the seeds.
3. It was my first time eating a pumpkin dish that was not pumpkin pie. 

I found this recipe at the Martha Steward website and I changed it a bit to make it my own. I substituted the sausage for turkey (I love the taste, smell, and texture of turkey - plus it's healthier!) and I didn't include the leeks nor the mushrooms. Ever since pregnancy # 1, I tend to keep mushrooms out of my meals. Used to be my favorite, though. Things change. 

This recipe calls for baking the pumpkins THREE times. You read that right, exactly three times and for different purposes. 

1st time - to bake the tops and right side of the pumpkins

2nd time - to bake the bottom of the pumpkin

3rd time - to bake the pumpkin WITH the stew. 

This is where the stew gets a really 'pumpkinny' flavor. The pumpkin is so soft and tender by now that its flavor permeates the stew. It is very tasty. And it makes for a very comforting, 'fallzy' flavor.  

In addition, when running out of the pumpkins, the stew mixes real well with rice and pasta. 

Pumpkin bowl covered - keeps the stew very hot! 

Filled Pumpkin

Stew in Pumpkin Bowls garnished with Bay Leaves

Come back next week for another Pumpkin dish!

~ Happy Pumpkin Cooking ~

Comfort Food in my Cupboard

It may the pregnancy or just the fact that I have been feeling a little down, but I just needed some comfort food! That's when I got started looking in the cupboard and found a package of  Betty Crocker's Double Chocolate Chunk that I had bought on sale for $1 at Meijer about a month ago. I always like to get a few things like that to keep in my cupboard just in case 1) we have visitors, 2) need a quick dessert, 3) to take to someone else's house.

I had the kind Double Chocolate Chunk, I poured in the mixing bowl. I looked at it (wish i had taken a picture of it!!!) and thought "hmmm, this needs more chocolate." So I added about a cup of Hershey's chocolate chips and followed the directions from the package. I had to add a bit extra water to count for the chocolate I added.


This is what it looked before baking:

before baking 

after baking

ready to eat!

Another thing I have learned here in the States is to eat cookies with milk :-)

Triple Chocolate Chunk cookies WITH milk makes for a perfect comfort food! Thank you Betty Crocker and Hershey's!

~ The Wife