• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 2 teaspoons dried marjoram
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried sage

Combine all ingredients; store in an airtight container.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Yield: Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon black pepper, coarsely ground
• 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Preparation:

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Ketchup
1/3 Cup Worcestershire
1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Ground Mustard
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Liquid Smoke
Dash Red Chili Pepper Flakes
Pinch Salt and Pepper
1 Medium Sweet Onion, Chopped
3 Pounds Pork Shoulder, Trimmed of Fat.

Method
1. Combine all ingredients except for onion and pork into crock pot. Whisk all ingredients until well blended.
2. Place pork and onions into mixture, coating both sides of meat.
3. Cook for 8 to 10 hours under “low” slow cooker setting.
4. After meat is cooked, remove from slow cooker onto plate and break apart with fork. If meat has any bones, please discard at this time.
5. Place meat back into warm sauce to reheat.
6. Serve on hamburger buns or Kaiser Rolls.
7. Enjoy.

When caramelizing sugar, I add the water to the pan first, so that the sugar dissolves more easily and evenly.

Yield: 4

Ingredients

Apple Tart

• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• or 1 tablespoon white corn syrup
• 4 small Spy apples, peeled and cored but left whole
• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

Salted Caramel Sauce

• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup white corn syrup
• 3/4 cup whipping cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fleur de sel

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs pork shoulder
• 2 lbs beef chuck
• 1 lb pork fat
• 4 -6 ounces coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon allspice (ground)
• 1 head garlic
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 2 teaspoons peperivka spiced whiskey, see below, to taste
• 3 yards natural hog casings (or as needed)

Directions:

Prep Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

1. Grind pork coarsely, once.
2. Bone and chill beef.
3. With a very sharp knife, dice 2 pounds beef into 1/4 inch cubes.
4. Dice 1/2 pound fat similarly and grind the other 1/2 pound of fat.
5. Mix meats and fat in a large bowl.
6. Mash peeled garlic with salt in a mortar,and add pepper and allspice.
7. Mix all ingredients.
8. Add 1 cup water for each 2 pounds of meat, then add whiskey.
9. Cook a small sample in a little boiling water.
10. Taste and adjust seasoning (be conservative with the salt).
11. Wash casing in cold water, rinsing several times.
12. Carefully thread 1 yard of casing over a sausage funnel and stuff, taking care not to leave air pockets.
13. Do not pack or sausages will burst while cooking.
14. Tie ends with string.
15. Repeat until all meat is used.
16. Refrigerate, loosely covered with towel, for 48 hours.
17. Sausage may be smoked (following smoker directions) or cooked fresh.
18. TO COOK FRESH, simmer gently in a wide pot one-third full of water until cooked through, about 30-40 minutes.
19. Drain, cool, and refrigerate loosely covered.
20. TO SERVE, saute in a little fat for color.
21. Or serve cold in thin diagonal slices.
22. NOTE: Peperivka, cayenne-flavored whiskey, is made by soaking 10 whole red cayenne peppers in a pint of blended whiskey or bourbon for at least 48 hours.

Nutrition Facts

Guinness Beef Stew

Man this stuff is good. It’s not JUST the Guinness, it’s the slow cooking of all the spices, and sugar, and root vegetables, and all their goodness, and the essence of the beef…..Totally, one of the family’s favorite crockpot recipes…..

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds beef stew meat.
• 1/4 cup of flour to dredge beef in.
• salt and pepper to season flour
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 2 large shallots
• 2 large parsnips
• 2 large carrots or 8 oz peeled and washed baby carrots
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups draft Guinness beer (Use Guinness Stout only!)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 pound red potatoes, quartered
• 2/3 cup flour (to thicken the sauce)

Preparation:

Heat oil in large skillet until almost smoking. Dredge beef chunks in flour seasoned with salt and pepper and add to hot oil, brown thoroughly on both sides until very brown. (5 minutes per side) Toss into crockpot, and repeat with remaining beef.

Take about a half a cup of the chicken broth and pour it into the hot pan, bring to a quick boil and scrape the pan thoroughly to loosen the fond and the flour left in the pan. Toss into the crockpot, right on top of the browned beef.

Peel and chop up the turnips, carrots and potatoes and add to crockpot.

Dice onions, nice chunks of onion are good, and the same goes for the shallots. They’ll separate during cooking.

Add the seasonings, bay leaves, sugar and chocolate. The reason we put chocolate in this recipe is for sweetness and to help offset the tartness of the beer.

Now pour the chicken broth over the top of everything in the crockpot. Then pour 3/4 of the Guinness into the crockpot. You want to reserve the last of the Guinness to add at the end when mixed with the flour. This will thicken the sauce a bit as well as add fresh Guinness taste to the stew after cooking for so long.

Put the top on the crockpot and only stir once or twice during the next few hours. Seriously, it may take 12 hours of cooking before it’s ready.

You’ll know it’s done when it’s DARK brown, and all the vegetables are tender.

NOW, and this is critical, the soup needs to be salted and peppered. Pepper, no problem…you like a lot of pepper, add a lot of pepper, you not so much like pepper, don’t pepper to much.

Ah, but the salt, here’s the problem. It’s EASY to cook something delicious for 12 hours and over salt it.

Here’s why, we taste it, at the end of the cooking cycle, and it will taste bland and obviously needs salt. So, pour about a teaspoon of salt into it. But here’s what a lot of people do. They wait about 5 – 10 minutes, taste it again, and it’s still bland, so they salt it again, and later do the same thing, and on and on.

The fact is, once you salt, it takes about 20 minutes for the salt to completely melt, and stirring, to totally distribute the taste so you have an accurate measure.

Err on taking your time when salting….let it cook for 20 minutes, stir, and taste again.

A quick “cheat” would be to just salt the soup when serving…..

Salting it would be a good time to also mix the flour thoroughly into the remaining beer and pour it into the crockpot. (flour mixes with a liquid a lot easier when it is added first, and the liquid poured onto it, instead of the other way around)

Cook on high again for like 20 minutes until the sauce thickens a bit. And turn it off, and let it sit.

Spanakopita – Greek Spinach Pie

“Known world-wide!”

Spanakopita is the universal snack in Greece, bought at bakeries and snack shops everywhere. These pies are often eaten on the run on the way to work or to stem mid-morning hunger before lunch, which is usually taken late in most parts of the country.

Ingredients:

10 oz. Frozen Spinach
1 large onion, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
4 eggs
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
18-20 Phyllo sheets
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp butter

Preparation:

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a square baking pan.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions, green onions and garlic, until soft and lightly browned. Stir in spinach and parsley, and continue to saute until spinach is limp, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

2-In a medium bowl, mix together eggs and feta. Stir in spinach mixture. Lay 6 phyllo sheets in prepared baking pan, and brush lightly with the melted butter. Lay another 6 phyllo sheets on top, brush with melted butter, and repeat process with 6 more phyllo sheets. The sheets will overlap the pan. Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold overhanging dough over filling. Brush with melted butter, then layer remaining phyllo sheets, brushing each with melted butter. Tuck overhanging dough into pan to seal filling.

3-Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Test by inserting a table knife to the center. If it comes out relatively clean, your spanakopita is done. Don’t let this go beyond golden brown.

Cut into squares and serve while hot.

Enjoy!

Greek – Horiatiki Salata

Who would of thought that this traditional country-style salad would end up becoming one of the best loved Greek dishes? A very easy Greek recipe especially for the summer months!

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces feta cheese
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red/green bell pepper
• 5 tomatoes
• 1 head romaine lettuce
• Black Olives – handful
• 1 large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Red wine vinegar
• Olive oil

Preparation:

Assemble feta cheese and vegetables in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar and serve.

Servings: 4