Papa's Hungarian Goulash

Just last month, I had a wonderful week's vacation with J down at my sister's place in the Chicago suburbs. My sister's father-in-law, who we call "Papa" came over to visit and taught me how to make a couple of his favorite meals. Papa has an incredible story of living in Germany during the war and then coming to the US in its aftermath. He and his now late wife, Vera, were authentic cooks using everything fresh and not processed for their meals. This is a wonderful meal and I'm so blessed to now have this recipe.


Ingredients:
1.5 lbs Round Steak
2 pork chops
2 to 3 T olive oil
2 T Paprika
3 T ketchup
Salt/pepper to season
2 T Onion soup mix
1 can diced tomatoes
1 container fresh sliced mushrooms (or canned)
Beef stock
Few stalks of celery
2 parsnips
6 to 8 baby carrots
Red pepper
1 box Bow Tie Pasta
Corn starch (1 T plus little water)


Instructions:

• Trim round steak and pork chops removing fat and cutting meat into small pieces.
• Heat olive oil in large pan and add the meat.
• Add ketchup, onion soup mix, paprika and cook until meat is browned and not much oil is left.
• Put meat into dutch oven (basically any pan with a lid that you can put in the oven).
• Add beef stock, diced tomatoes and mushrooms. Cook for an hour or two (until meat is very tender).
• Chop veggies into small pieces and add to dutch oven.
• Cook for 1/2 hour or until veggies (especially carrots) are tender.
• Mix corn starch and water in small bowl. Add to dutch oven and let sit for several minutes.
• Add more corn starch and water until the sauce thickens to your liking.
• Prepare box of bow tie pasta.
• Serve goulash over pasta and ENJOY!
  

Dad's Chili

I haven't made this recipe in a LONG time, and it's really a good one. My dad put this recipe together over a few years of tweeking it. I have a funny story. So I was making this chili for the Packers playoff game. It calls for chili powder and I ran out of my homemade concoction. See quick chili powder. While at an Indian grocery store earlier in the week, I picked up what I thought was regular chili powder. (The red coloring should have tipped me off, but it didn't.) As I put the powder in, my eyes watered a little and I thought to myself, "Hmmmm, maybe the Indian chili powder has a little kick." Is that an understatement! It turns out instead of regular chili powder, I bought red chili powder. And not only that, but EXTRA HOT red chili powder. Come to find out, that's ground up hot chilis! YIKES! Needless to say, this just about burned your mouth off. Since people were on their way over, I used every googled tip I could find...(using slices of raw potatoes to soak up the heat; cutting the heat with a couple tablespoons of honey, using a little baking soda) but nothing really worked. I did add a 28 ounce jar of tomatoes, 2 more cans of beans and a 15 oz jar of tomato sauce. This helped tone it down a bit, but we still needed huge dollops of sour cream to actually eat it. Interestingly, one of our friends asked for some HOT SAUCE to add to his!! He loved it! (They got most of the leftovers.)

So....be careful when going to an ethnic grocery store and read the fine print on ALL labels! This chili recipe is really good when you make it right!


Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can light kidney beans
1 (15 oz) can dark kidney beans
1 (15 oz) can spicy chili beans
1 quart crushed tomatoes
2 large red peppers, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 T minced garlic
6 T white vinegar
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
4 T light chili powder
6 squirts Worcester
2 T brown sugar
4 squirts Tabasco or other hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Instructions:

• Brown the meat
• Using the juice of the meat, let the onions and peppers simmer until tender and soft
• Place meat in crock pot and add peppers and onions (after draining meat juice)
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together in slow cooker
• Cook for 4 hours on low or 2 hours on high

Enjoy!

(Slow Cooker) Pork Rib Ragu with Pasta

**I forgot to take a picture, so this picture wasn't mine! Mine wasn't as fancy and didn't have the Parmesan on top.**

I have been looking for some good slow-cooker recipes now that it's fall and I have a new one I tried. I got this from the Fix it and Forget it slow cooker series. This was awesome! I haven't made something in a while that's just wowed me. It wasn't even that amazing, it's just that the flavors really blended well together and I just love pork ribs. The meat was so tender. My son is a pretty picky eater and he ate more of his dinner this time than he has in a while.

Ingredients:
3 t vegetable oil
2 carrots, diced
2 pieces celery, diced
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1.5 to 2 pounds boneless country-style pork ribs
1 cup beef broth
2 T tomato paste
1 can (28-ounce) crushed tomatoes
1-1/2 t Italian seasoning
1/2 t pepper and salt
1 box bow tie pasta

Instructions:

• In large skillet, heat half of the oil over high heat. Add the carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Cook stirring frequently about 5 minutes or until browned. Remove from skillet.
• Add the rest of the oil to the skillet and the pork ribs. Cook about 5 minutes until browned turning once.
• Transfer pork ribs to 5-quart slow cooker. Top with the vegetables.
• In a small bowl, combine beef broth and tomato paste. Stir and pour over the ribs.
• Stir in crushed tomatoes and half of the Italian seasoning and pepper.
• Cook for 7 hours on low or for 5 to 5-1/2 hours on high. (I cooked mine for 5-1/2 hours on high.)
• Skim off any fat and remove pork ribs with a slotted spoon. Set aside. Stir remaining Italian seasoning, remaining pepper and the salt into the cooking liquid. Shred the pork into bite-sized chunks or smaller and add to the cooking liquid.

Serve ribs with sauce over bow tie pasta and enjoy!

Picture credit: msianinlongisland.com