Cowan Cowboy Chili (aka: Escalante Beans)

Recipe by: Karen Griffin

I'm hoping not, but I might possibly be murdered for posting this recipe for anyone to see. I wasn't told this was a secret recipe so hopefully I'm not divulging a family secret...
These are sooooooooooo good. I make them for Finn's birthday party every year, and they are, to my knowledge, made every year for the Escalante 24th of July Liston-Pollock-Meisenback-Griffin-etc family party.

You will need:
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb bacon
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 2, 15 oz cans Pork and Beans
- 2, 15 oz cans Ranch Style Pinto Beans
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 T liquid smoke
- 3 T white vinegar
- 1 small can diced green chilies


Directions:
In a skillet, cook bacon, remove and break into pieces. In same skillet, brown ground beef and onions in bacon juices. Put all in a slow cooker with beans.
In a small bowl combine ketchup, brown sugar, liquid smoke, vinegar and green chilies. Add mixture to ingredients in slow cooker.
Stir well, cook low to warm up. Remove lid after heated to let thicken up.

EVERYBODY loves them. Seriously.

Mac and Cheese (Carnation Brand Recipe, Pollock Family Favorite)

This is the mac and cheese Jacob was raised on. Now it's a Finnley, and soon to be a Penny, favorite too.

You will need:
- 1 and 2/3 to 2 cups dried macaroni noodles, cooked and drained
- 2 T butter
- 2 T corn starch
- 1t salt
- 1/2 t dried mustard
-  1/4 t pepper
- 1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups grated cheddar cheese (or cheese combo of your choice, pepper jack is awesome)

Directions:
 Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt butter in sauce pan over med-high heat. Whisk in corn starch and spices until thickened (only takes a few seconds to thicken up). Add evap milk and water and allow to thicken, still over med-high heat (will take 7 to 10 minutes) stirring often. Turn off heat and add cheese.

Pour cheese sauce over macaroni noodles in a 9x13. At this point I like to mix in sauteed kielbasa sausage, and/or add thin slices of salted and garlic-ed tomatoes over top. This is of course optional, but Jacob and I love it.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (or until tomatoes look roasted and yummy). Then eat and enjoy!

Coco's Ooohy Goohy Cake

So I was pretty excited because this last weekend I had reason to make our cousin Coco's FAMOUS Ooohy Goohy Cake. It goes without saying that you never need a reason for cake, but I do feel a little, teeny tiny bit of shame baking up a full 9x13 for just the three of us. I need to get over it. Anyway, my excuse came in the form of a Forest Service Archaeologist Work BBQ! Doesn't that sound fun!? Well, it was even cooler, and weirder than it sounds. I wish I had been brave enough to snap photos of the goings on. Jacob may have the coolest boss on planet Earth. The BBQ was at said bosses house. A collector of bizarre hats, one each was handed out to the party goers and we continued to trade off throughout the day. Finn played with his daughter, who, as the daughter of a single male archaeologist had a room that made Finn's blush with shame. She had boxes of dinosaurs, Indiana Jones figurines, a knee high Godzilla and a knee high King Kong, a terrarium with TWO real live lizards...on and on. Finn cried for an hour after we left. Aside from the cool stuff in her room they also played: dinosaur hunters (in the back yard with squirt guns), attack of the mummy, and (with the aid of a super creepy ware-wolf mask) attack of the ware-wolf. They got everyone in on the action, and one poor girl almost got pantsed and had her shirt ripped off at the same time in the kid's excitement.

Anyway, in case you have forgotten about the simple easy glory that is the Ooohy Goohy Cake, you can find it HERE.

Nutella Fudge

Nutella is God's gift to men.
Here's how to make your $5 jar of nutella go a little bit farther. This makes a 9 x 13 full of super rich fudge, so think of some friends because you're gonna wanna share. It is unbelievably easy to make. I like to cut the fudge into squares and wrap them in parchment paper. Just remember to tell your friends that it needs to be stored in the fridge or freezer. Enjoy!!!
(I adapted this recipe from one given to me by Jacob's Grandma Vance for plain chocolate fudge.)

You will need:
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 &1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 pkg milk chocolate or white chocolate chips
- 12.5 oz nutella
- 1 &1/2 sticks butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- chopped nuts if desired

Directions:
In a large bowl combine chocolate chips, nutella, and butter.
Combine sugar and milk in a LARGE sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, for 6 to 7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

Pour sugar mixture over chocolates and butter a little at a time, stirring until smooth. Then add in vanilla (and nuts, optional).

Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 pan or cookie sheet. Place in freezer to allow fudge to cool and harden. Cut into squares and wrap in parchment paper if desired.

Peanut Butter Pecan Cookies with Chocolate Frosting

I'm not usually a fan of peanut butter cookies, but Jacob loves them. He loves any kind of cookie. So, fine. Peanut butter it is. I took a basic peanut butter cookie recipe and added pecans to the batter, and frosting to the cookies after they had baked and cooled. I LOVE them

For the Cookies:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
-1/2 cup chopped pecans
- granulated sugar, or sugar in the raw for dusting

Directions:
Cream together butter and peanut butter. Add granulated and brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in pecans and flour. If necessary, cover and chill dough until easy to handle.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll into additional sugar to coat. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet flatten by making crisscross marks with the tings of a fork. Bake at 375 for 7 to 9 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For Frosting:
- 1 cube butter
- 3 cups-ish of powdered sugar
- a little milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 to 3 tablespoons coco powder (to taste)

Directions:
Blend butter and powdered sugar together, add milk to desired consistency. Add vanilla and coco powder. Spread over cooled cookies.

Larene's Country Style Pork BBQ Spare Ribs (in the crock pot)

Here are the BBQ pork spare ribs I made for Sunday dinner with Andrea and Ben. It is my mother-in-law Larene's recipe, but I made a couple small changes. Jacob loves these ribs, and growing up this was one of his top birthday dinner requests (along with macaroni and tomatoes, which I will NEVER make, because it is gross.)

Country Style Pork Spare Ribs
Cook time *(including prep): 4 hours and 15 minutes, Serves: 4 to 6

- 1 14oz bottle Chili Sauce or Ketchup (I ALWAYS use Chili Sauce)
- ½ cup Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Mustard
- ½ cup Brown Sugar (plus...and sometimes I add 1/4 cup molasses)
- 1 med Onion, cut any way you prefer. I like big slices.
- ½ tsp Lemon Juice
- 1 cup Water
- Beef Bouillon Cube to yield 1 cup broth
- Tabasco Sauce to taste
- About 8 Country Style Spare Ribs (I usually do 4 with bone, and 4 w/out)
- Optional: 4 to 6 Tablespoons Cornstarch
Optional prep: Season ribs with salt and pepper, dredge in flour and shake off excess, then braise ribs on all sides in hot skillet before placing in crock pot. (Braising will seal in juices and create a nice crust that otherwise wouldn’t form in the crock pot.)

I don't braise them every time, but if you do you will find it adds extra flavor and the flour helps to thicken the sauce.

If you choose not to braise then simply season the short ribs with salt and pepper and then add along with the onions to a crock pot. Mix together all other ingredients (except cornstarch) to create your sauce and poor over the onion and ribs. Cook for 4 hours on high setting. You can serve them at this point, or...

Optional: Remove Ribs from crock pot and set aside. Ladle some of the liquid (about 1 cup) into a small bowl and to it, add 4 to 6 Tablespoons of cornstarch. Whisk until there are no lumps. The liquid in the bowl should have begun to thicken quite a bit. Add this liquid back to the crock pot and whisk to combine. Add ribs back to crock pot and allow to cook for about 15 more minutes, or until the sauce has thickened up to an almost gravy like consistency. Serve over Buttered Noodles with Lemon, Shallots and Chives.

1: Oven Puff Pancakes (or as my Aunt Cherri calls them, "German Pancakes")

Because I don't get to post as often as I'd like, I've decided to make my time on the computer count. Today I've posted six awesome breakfasts that, since making them the first time, I have craved over and over again. My favorite of the six has to be the breakfast puff pastry. It is super easy and delicious, and I probably make it twice a week because I love it so much. Enjoy!


I would credit this recipe to someone, but it's pretty basic and well known. I've seen almost identical recipes for oven puff pancakes in tons of cookbooks. I like to add a dash of vanilla to mine because it makes them taste less eggy...

These are the bomb with fresh fruit.

Ingredients:

- 1 stick of butter
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup flour
- pinch of salt
- dash of vanilla

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Place your stick of butter in a 9 x 13 pan, or a dutch oven and place in your warm oven to melt while you mix the other ingredients.



In a blender, combine eggs, flour, milk, salt and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Pour batter into your pan once the butter has completely melted.



Bake for 18-20 minutes. Pancakes will "fall" once cut into. Serve with your favorite fresh fruit and powdered sugaar! Yummm....

Coco's Oohy Gooey Cake.

Jacob's Grandpa Meisenbach (aka Poppy) holds a pre-Christmas "Family Christmas" the Saturday before actual Christmas. This is so those grand kids who are married and have to share with the in-laws still get to see everyone and exchange gifts. It is FABULOUS! It is an all day event. A big white rental tent is set up in Poppy's back yard and furnished with a stage, on which sits a faux fireplace, a decorated Christmas tree, and extra-large faux gifts. There is also a large, brightly colored chair that we each take turns (by age, youngest to oldest) sitting on to open our gifts. My first year going I turned bright red, sweat so much I ought to have changed my shirt, and vowed "never again, ever. I mean it Jacob, never." But now I love it!

LLLLLLLOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEEEE it...

Here is Jacob's Cousin Bret, LLLLLOOOOOOOOOVVVVIIIIIINNNNGGGGGG it. I didn't ask his permission to post this, but....I'm sure it's cool.

The day starts with breakfast in the tent, mostly catered except for Aunt Wendy's amazing french toast. Then we all separate to do our own thing for a while, but end up meeting back up at the swap meet anyway. Then it's back for lunch in the tent, followed by games, the opening of presents, and dinner. Then comes dessert: my mother-in-law's hot fudge is the main attraction, but this year I had a new favorite: Coco's oohy gooey cake. Oh my sugar overload... Her is how she makes it, in her words:

"I make a chocolate cake from a box, then poke holes all over with a straw. Drizzle sweetened condensed milk and caramel so they seep into the cake. (I almost use a whole can of the sweetened condensed milk and probably half a bottle of caramel) then cover with cool whip and top with either heath bar or score bar, and wha-la, your done. Then just put it in the fridge overnight. (I think it's better cold. :)"

Thank you Coco! (I think it's better in my tummy.)
Try it. Do it. Love it. I spent the day enjoying the sun at Sea Port Village, jealous? Yep, you are...

Meisenbach Family Dinner Rolls (12/10/2009)

A Meisenbach family recipe, these are a Thanksgiving staple. I will also make them slightly larger and use them for sandwiches or hamburger buns, when doing this you may need to lengthen baking time and lower the oven temperature.

You will need:

- 2 packages yeast (Active Dry)
- ¼ cup warm water (to dissolve yeast)
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- at least 4 ½ cups flour (this recipe makes a very sticky dough, but to get it the right consistency I sometimes end up needing to add more flour)

Directions:

Start by adding the 2 packets of yeast to ¼ cup warm water. Let it sit while you start combining the other ingredients.

In mixer combine shortening, sugar and the three eggs. Add in the yeast. Alternate adding in a little of the flour and water. Add the salt in with your last bit of flour (salt will retard the growth of the yeast, so I add it in last). As I noted, this will be a very tacky dough, if it seems too tacky feel free to add in more flour up to an extra cup and a half, I have never needed to add in more than that. Once your dough has been combined, remove it to a lightly greased bowl to rise. I like to spray the top of my dough lightly with pam to keep it from drying out. Let it rise until double in size (about an hour and a half).

After the first rise you are free to punch down and shape into desired rolls. After shaping into rolls, allow to rise for another 20-45 minutes, or refrigerate dough up to overnight and allow to rise before baking the next day. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. This recipe is a great base for just about any roll: dinner, cinnamon, orange, etc.

Home made Chicken Noodle Soup (...great for those of you battling swine flu! Be strong out there!)

I have never measured it out, but I would guess this recipe -as is- gave me about 8 hearty servings when I made it the other night.

You will need:
- 3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper (and I use a couple cloves of fresh garlic, mashed in a garlic press) to season.
- 2 celery
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 carrots chopped
- 2 small potatoes, chopped
- 10 cups of liquid: 8 cups of water with 6 to 8 chicken and/or beef bouillon cubes to season.
- 2 chicken breasts
- 2 cups small shell pasta, or your preference of noodle
- chopped fresh parsley to taste (optional)
- juice of 1 lemon (optional)

Directions:
Melt the butter in the bottom of a large soup pot and add the vegetables as well as salt and pepper (and garlic, optional). Allow them to soften over medium high heat, about 10 minutes. Once the veggies have had a chance to get tender, add your chicken breasts and liquid. Allow chicken to cook in liquid about 20 minutes, until cooked through. Remove chicken breasts and shred or cube meat, then return to pot. Add your noodles. When pasta is done check your seasoning, and parsley and lemon, then serve!

Hot Fudge, baby! (10/20/2009)

Let me tell you about a little thing called “The Meatloaf Stack.” Start with a slice of buttered, toasted sourdough bread, then add 2 large scoops of mashed potatoes, top with a slice of meatloaf coated in mushroom onion gravy. Wanna know the fastest way to clog a toilet? Get five adults sharing a bathroom to all order the stack for dinner, then lock them in a car for two hours. When the dust has settled I believe you will find your toilet is out of commission.
The Meatloaf Stack is served at the Carnation restaurant in Disneyland, and that is how my family spent last Thursday.
Friday passed in a way much more my style: morning massage and adjustment, nap, aged steak from Bandit’s, and then a few of us went to see Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, my Friday was the BOMB. The weekend was quiet, the highlight for me was taking a drive up to Buellton and eating at Ellen’s Danish Pancake House. Their thin crepe style pancakes are so good. They serve them with butter and powdered sugar. Ugh, I wish I could wake up to them every morning!

We drove home on Monday, and we made it to just past Boulder, Utah before Finn decided to start throwing goldfish at the back of my head in revolt. So, a good drive. (My son might be the devil…)
The recipe I am sharing with you tonight is my mother in laws hot fudge. Famous throughout Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks, and already once published on a much cooler blog than mine, I feel I have to do my part to share it with the rest of the world. I hope you try it, I have actually seen people fill a cup and drink it straight.


(When Larene makes this she doubles the recipe.)

You will need:

- 1 and ½ cubes Butter
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- about 6 oz Carnation evaporated milk
- 6 to 7 tablespoons Coco Powder (depending how ‘chocolaty’ you want it)
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar

There doesn’t seem to be an exact science to combining the ingredients. The best way I can figure to prevent lumps would be to heat the butter and vanilla together in a sauce pan (probably over medium to medium-high heat), then alternate adding the dry ingredients (coco powder and powdered sugar) with the carnation milk, whisking like crazy. Larene puts hers in a mixer to get rid of lumps, and then reheats it. Pretty fool proof (yay!) but beware of overheating, which Larene says can cause the mixture to become too sticky. If you have leftover fudge that you will be keeping in the fridge, adding a little extra butter when you reheat it will help keep it from getting ‘sugary.’ Sorry I don’t have any pictures of this to post, I hate cooking when I have no idea of the end result I am shooting for. I will probably put some up soon, though!

Apple Sauce Cookies, and So Far in California... (10/12/2009)

We left for CA at 5:30 on Friday night, thank you sooooooooo much J. Crew for scheduling me for an on call shift and then not using me. Argh. So happy not to work there, but so sad to lose the discount. My emotions are playing tug-of-war. But thanks to them, Jacob and I had to drive through the night and arrived in Newbury Park at two thirty in the morning.

I shudder to remember how many times I looked over and caught Jacob going a hundred miles per hour. I shudder to remember how many times I got yelled at for back seat driving. Happily it is all fading into a sleepy blur.
We slept in on Saturday, and went to our cousins wedding that night. It was freezing cold outside for the service, but the food was slammin'! And here is my brother in law Adam on his third Shirley Temple....

Car and Jacob on their 6th. Yum.

Thank you Emily for babysitting!

We also went to the movies and saw Couples Retreat. Such a funny movie! The new, or I guess newish, movie theatre in the Thousand Oaks mall is so nice! Sunday we had a BBQ and I got to see my favorite male model. Thank you Mama Jo for having such a beautiful son! I wanted to try to take a sneaky picture so that I could post it, but I was too nervous… People just won’t understand. You really have to see him to believe it. And even then it’s still kind of hard to believe.(P.S. Mama Jo, I hope you had fun in Colorado with Willie, Kelly and their kids!)
Can I get a whoot whoot for Jacob who is super awesome and must still like me a little bit because he reserved us tickets for the October 14th taping of Conan O’Brien! I love Conan! My two reasons for waking up in the morning: Conan O’Brien and Laura Jensen. They make me laugh, and they don’t want anything from me like a clean house or for me to have had a shower, or for me to get them milk and a graham cracker.

I love coming to Jacob’s parent’s house! It’s no San Diego, but it’s a close second… Here are the cookies Larene made at the BBQ.

Apple Sauce Cookies

- 1 cup crisco
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups apple sauce
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 ½ cups flour
- 2 teaspoons nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup raisins

Cream Crisco and sugar. Add eggs and apple sauce. In separate bowl sift together flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and ground cloves. Add dry mixture to wet mixture until combined. Add raisins and chocolate chips. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees. The batter should be the consistency of thick cake batter. If yours seems runny just add small amounts of flour until you have the thickness you want. I found that this batter thickens as it sits.

Meat Sauce

This is the spaghetti I grew up on. I love to use this sauce when I make lasagna. When I make it I always make enough to freeze for later use. This recipe makes enough for just that.

Can we tell the theme for this week is quick, easy, comfort food?

Truth be told the only thing I really want, and I will get it shortly, is a bean and extra cheese add sour cream burrito from Sombrero’s in San Diego. Come next week I will have my burrito and the universe will again be in balance! (Could you tell something was off?)

For the spaghetti sauce you will need:

- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 14.5 oz can tomato sauce
- 2 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes, Italian style if you can find it
- 2 packets Lawry’s Spaghetti Sauce Spices & Seasonings, original NOT extra rich and thick

Directions:

Brown the ground beef in a large Dutch oven or stock pot.

Add canned tomatoes and sauce, one can full of water, and the spice packets. Cook until heated through and the sauce has thickened. You can serve it chunky, but I like to use my immersion blender to puree out the sauce. If you don't have an immersion blender you could use a food processor or regular blender. (But you should buy an immersion blender, best thing I ever did. Target, 30 bucks. And way easier to clean than the alternative.)

Add to your favorite pasta. You can also leave the meat out of the sauce completely, it is still really tasty.

Mormon Mom Enchiladas. (10/5/2009)

My sister-in-law Ashley and her fiancée are in town apartment hunting, visiting friends ect. Lucky for Jacob and I they made some time for us and came over for dinner along with our brother Grayson. Grayson is a mad dater and left around nine to go hook up with a hottie but Ashley, Jake, Jacob and I curled up on our bed and gossiped for a couple wonderful hours.

I love my family! I am so excited for Jake and Ashley, who have been dating since Ash was 15, to get married. Jake likes my food and my crazy kid, so I love him! If you know me well, then you know there is nothing I love more than spooning on the bed and hearing a good story. Tonight was heaven! And the enchiladas were good too.
My mother-in-law Larene gave me the recipe, but it’s just your basic ‘mormon-mom’ enchilada. The most Mexican thing about this recipe is the canned green chilies. This is real, heavy, cheesy, delicious comfort food.

For the enchiladas you will need:

- 4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
- 16 oz. sour cream
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup
- 2, 4 oz cans green chilies
- 10-12 small flour tortillas
- about 3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
-salt and pepper to taste

Mix together sour cream, cream of chicken soup and green chilies along with a little salt and pepper to taste. Layer a little of mixture on bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Roll cheese and chicken into tortillas and place in baking dish. Pour remaining sour cream mixture on top of tortillas. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 min, add cheese to top and bake another 5-10 min until cheese melts.