Ashley’s Oven Ribs

Rinse ribs and pat dry.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Rub with fresh minced garlic.
Wrap the ribs in 3 layers of foil... One layer at a time so that all the seams are on top and the ribs are well sealed.
Place foil wrapped ribs (seam side up)on cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 3 hours.

Meanwhile either make BBQ sauce or use store bought.
After 3 hours, open foil packet and brush with BBQ sauce. 
Then either close the foil back up and let it sit in the oven for 20-30 more minutes or place the open foil packets under the broiler for a few minutes until bubbly.  

Five-Spice Noodle Bowls

(adapted from Clean Eating March 2011)

2 tsp sesame oil
1 white onion, very thinly sliced
2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
4 C low-sodium beef broth
3 C baby bok choy, chopped
8 oz brown rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in hot water and drained
8 oz beef, trimmed of fat and very thinly sliced (best to do this while partially frozen for thinner pieces)
4 green onions, thinly sliced (seems to be a common theme here)
tons of cilantro (especially for Rhonda)
soy sauce to taste
sambal oelek to taste (aka Rooster Sauce) - or another hot chile sauce
fresh limes, sliced

In a large pot, heat oil and cook onions, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add five-spice powder, cooking and stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add meat and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and add bok choy. (Don't worry about your meat not being done. It is very thin and you don't want it tough)

Cook until bok choy reaches desired level of crunchiness. :-)
Right before serving, add noodles.

Garnish with cilantro, lime, green onions and hot chile.

This is so easy and so tasty. My kids loved it, without the hot sauce of course.
This is something you probably have to plan ahead for to pick up the ingredients, but it is worth it!
Delish.

Easy Slow Cooker French Dip

4 lbs. beef roast
1 (10.5 oz.) can beef broth
1 (10.5 oz.) can condensed French onion soup
1/2 can or bottle beer
Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder, all to taste

6 French rolls
Butter
Cheese

Cook the first nine ingredients in the slow cooker on low for 7 hours. Remove roast from the slow cooker and slice thinly. Return meat to slow cooker and continue to cook for at least a half hour. Split rolls, spread with butter, and toast under the broiler. Place cheese on buns immediately and pile the meat on. Use the sauce for dipping, of course.

You might need to add spices at the end to get it tasty enough, but once you make it into a sandwich, it becomes pretty darn good. This is a slightly adjusted recipe from allrecipes.com. The original recipe is here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Slow-Cooker-French-Dip/Detail.aspx

Best Beef Stroganoff

16 oz pkg egg noodles
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 pound beef, cut into thin strips
14 oz can beef broth
1/4 cup red wine
2 to 3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cold water
8 oz sour cream

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook 5 to 7 minutes or until al dente; drain.
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook until slightly tender. Mix in mushrooms, and continue cooking 2 minutes. Place steak strips in saucepan and cook about 1 minute. Mix in broth, wine and lemon juice. Bring to a boil.
In a small bowl, thoroughly blend flour with cold water until smooth. Reduce saucepan heat to low. While stirring constantly, slowly pour flour mixture into saucepan. Gradually return to boil while stirring rapidly, until sauce is thick and smooth. Cover saucepan and continue cooking 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, let cool slightly and stir in sour cream. Serve over cooked egg noodles.

This is from allrecipes.com, with some inconsequential changes made by yours truly. It's really, really good!

Yummo Chili Cornbread

Brown in large skillet:
1 lb. ground turkey or beef
1 small onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic
a little salt and pepper

Add:
1 can Mexican style chili beans
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles (don't drain either can)
random spices that sound good to you, which may or may not include:
Montreal steak seasoning, chili powder, more garlic, pepper, liquid smoke...whatever

Cornbread "shell" (as Kirk thinks it should be called):
1 c. flour
1 c. cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 c. shredded cheese (the more the merrier)

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix buttermilk, oil and eggs separately, then add to dry mixture. Stir cheese into batter. Pour the chili into a 9 x 9 square pan*. Pour the cornbread batter evenly over the chili. Bake at 400 F for about 35 minutes. It is especially good with hot sauce (such as Frank's cayenne pepper sauce). Serves 4-6. I thought this would get soggy and gross as leftovers, but it is as yum as the day it was born.

I imagined this and thought it would be good, but as I made it I started wondering what I was thinking. Turns out I was right in the first place. The moral is: I'm never wrong.**

*Two things:
1) you may want to lightly grease the sides
2) the pan I used was deeper than average and it was none too deep for this concoction

**This may not be true.

Moose Marinade

That’s really the name that I found this recipe under in a Taste of Home type magazine. Ironically, I’ve never used it with moose meat, but it makes a tasty zebu steak! We’ve used this for our last two Christmas dinners.

1 cup oil

¾ cup soy sauce

½ cup lemon juice

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup mustard

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2-4 cloves garlic (or more)

Mix together and pour over 1 kg of steaks. Marinate 6-18 hours and grill as you like it.

I usually make ½ recipe for 1 kg of meat.

Easy BBQ Bork Sandwiches

Put 2-4 lbs of beef and/or pork roast in slow cooker. Make sure that you’ve taken off any strings if your meat is tied up, but don’t worry about trimming fat. (A combination of beef and pork is really tasty!) Pour enough Coke (That’s right. Good ol’ Coca Cola.) over the meat to come up to ½ the depth of the meat. Cook on high for 6-8 hours, turning the meat over after 3-4 hours, then turn the slow cooker to low or off.

When the meat is very tender, take the meat out of the Coke and shred it with two forks in a pan large enough to add the BBQ sauce to the meat. If the pieces are too long, snip it with a kitchen scissors (if you don’t have a kitchen scissors, I’m sorry) right in the pan*. Just point the scissors straight down and snip away. Take it from me, kids don’t like to eat this if the meat is in long strands that are hard to bite.

Ok, now dump in about 1 cup of your favourite BBQ sauce**, 1/3 cup of the Coke/broth mixture in the slow cooker, ½ - ¾ cup ketchup, 3 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp mustard and ½ tsp liquid smoke and salt to taste. (These measurements are for about 4 lbs of meat.) Stir it all up and heat till it’s steaming. Add more of the broth if it’s too dry. Serve on buns or rolls of some kind.

This is really good with homemade mac and cheese or potato salad or potato wedges or veggies and dip or coleslaw or 3-bean salad. Or all of the above. I would guess that 4 lbs of meat serves about 10-12 adults.

*I give all the credit for cutting it this way to my sister, Robyn. She is a brain in the kitchen.

**I suppose you could use all bottled BBQ sauce, but for me BBQ sauce is a little expensive so this is what I do.

Vegetable-Beef Soup

This is the most delicious homemade vegetable-beef soup that I’ve ever tasted. I adjusted another recipe a lot for what I had and the fact that I can’t serve chunky tomato things to my family. The broth turned out to be SO good, so I would recommend pureeing the tomatoes and onions, even if you don’t mind the chunks. It makes a huge batch and for me that’s fine cause I could eat this every day. If you leave out the potatoes I think you could freeze this well. Just add the potatoes when you reheat it. The original recipe called for celery and peas, but I couldn’t get either one. Also, keep in mind that my onions are very small, but strong.

Brown one kilo diced beef (roast) with one chopped onion and ½ chopped green pepper. When beef is nearly browned, add 5 cloves minced garlic. Brown completely and add 8 cups beef broth. Puree 3 tomatoes and 3 small onions in blender, adding a bit of water if needed. Add to soup with 2-3 Tbsp tomato paste, 2 Tbsp sugar and pepper and salt to taste. Simmer for 1-2 hours. Add 1 cup chopped fresh green beans, 1 cup diced carrots, 1 ½ - 2 cups finely diced cabbage, 1 ½ cups diced potatoes, 1 small can corn, 1 small can kidney or white beans. Simmer 20-30 minutes, or until vegetables are done. Add salt if needed. Serve with biscuits or cornbread.

Stuffed Italian Meatloaf

1 lb. ground beef or turkey (I used turkey and it's fine if it's good quality)
1 egg
1/2 c. Italian bread crumbs
Worcestershire sauce
ketchup
mustard
1/4 c. chopped onion
garlic powder
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning

Mix together and put half the mixture into a loaf pan. Push some of it up the sides of the pan a bit to make room for the filling.

Filling:
1/2-3/4 c. ricotta cheese
Italian seasoning
garlic salt
1/4 c. parmesan cheese

Put filling on first layer of meat and then put the rest of the meat on top of the filling. Squirt a little ketchup on top and sprinkle on some garlic powder and a little more Italian seasoning. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Yes, I did make this up and I didn't measure so you're guess is almost as good as mine. Just make meatloaf like you know how, except use these general ingredients. You won't be sorry. If you are, just don't ever make it again. Also, treat it well by serving it with mashed potatoes.

Pakistani Kima

For those of you with the 'more with less' cookbook this will not be a new recipe, but Karla asked for it since I love it so much. So here it is...

Saute in skillet:
3 T. butter or margarine
1 c. chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
Add:
1 lb. ground beef
Brown well. Stir in:
1 T. curry powder (the madras curry is good since it's spicier)
1 1/2 t. salt
dash pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and tumeric
2 c. cooked tomatoes
2 potatoes, diced
2 c. frozen peas or green beans
Cover and simmer 25 min. Serve over rice.

Sweet Onion BBQ Burgers

Mix:
1/2 c. dry bread crumbs
2 tsp. onion salt
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 lb. ground beef
Shape into 4 patties and place in shallow baking dish. Pour 1 1/4 c. bbq sauce over patties, cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hrs. (i think the bbq sauce part is completely optional)

Combine in small bowl:
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. bbq sauce
1 tsp. brown sugar
Keep refrigerated until serving.

Onion topping:
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. honey
2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
Melt butter in large skillet. Stir in honey until blended. Add onions; saute for 15-20 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. Keep warm until serving.

4 slices smoked cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you want)
4 hamburger buns (duh)

Discard bbq sauce from patties. Grill patties, top with cheese slice. Serve on buns with sauce and onion topping.

These are not as much work as they sound like (i don't think), and they're really good; even if you're not an onion fan. You can hardly taste onion, unless maybe if you're really sensitive, but wow, they're goooood.