The Ranch Kitchen: sausage

Showing posts with label sausage. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Cowboy Beans

It's the first day of fall and nothing says cooler weather more than a big bowl of pinto beans simmering on the stove.

This past weekend, on our thankfully lazy Sunday afternoon, I cooked a dish we all grew up with around my house called Cowboy Beans. This dish was made famous by my mom because anytime she placed the word cowboy in front of a dish, my brothers would eat it up and so would I.

The name just sounded rough and tough....something surely we should eat and always did. Moms of little, rowdy boys like my brothers have to learn what works and naming her food seemed to do the trick.

Pinto beans are one of those one pot meals that you can make and allow to cook all afternoon. The pinto beans in this recipe had not been presoaked the night before to tenderize the beans. Just follow the directions on the back of your beans package for the 'quick cooking' method. However, if you do presoak your pinto beans you will reduce your cooking time by half.

You may chose to use your pressure or slow cooker to make this dish even easier. Just follow their cooking directions for similar recipes.

Adding ground beef, pork, or turkey to these pinto beans makes this a meal chalked full of extra protein. I baked some homemade cornbread with a square pat of real butter making us all pretty content and full by that evening. You can get a recipe for my Jumbo Mexican Cornbread here, but I'd cut the recipe down by 3/4 as this recipe is for a huge crowd! Of course you can always freeze the cornbread.

Click here on the link for our Cowboy Beans to get the recipe where you can copy, share by email or to save in your files.

Cowboy Beans

This recipe can be served on top of rice and is always better the second day when the flavors seem to continue to improve. Reheat Cowboy Beans on your stove or in your microwave oven the next day.

We hope you'll enjoy this simple dish that is a family favorite on our ranch and a favorite of my childhood. It's one of my husband's favorites that we cook all fall and winter long.

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Casserole

Here's another easy breakfast casserole that a friend and I made the other day for our campus breakfasts! Little did Buffy and I know we each had made almost the exact same recipe....she knows our motto!

Click here for the link to Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Casserole

I like to call it The Ranch Kitchen's Green Eggs and Ham Casserole because of the green chili's that bring such a great flavor to it. I literally threw this together in ten minutes the night before. I cooked it and reheated the next day in our cafeteria for ten mintues in one of their jumbo steamers and was able to serve our staff. Someday I want commercial size appliances....hint...hint Scott.

Each year our secretaries Anita and her daughter Tori serve an assortment of sweets and their famous pumpkin roll. It's a tradition we all enjoy. The rest of our administrators help by pitching in and serving egg casseroles, doughnuts, muffins and croisants.

Buffy made this casserole with sausage instead of ham and cooked it in her crock pot all night on a medium heat. I think her idea is better and especially for Christmas morning this year!

Hope you enjoy it. Later this week I'll share my Principals 'Bobby's Egg Ring Casserole' that was a hit as well!

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Milestones and Breafast Soft Tacos

This week marked a milestone in our family when my youngest daughter Audrey turned 13! What a blessing she has been to our family. The last of our three girls and our 'baby' is all to quickly growing up.

This weekend we celebrated with getting her ears pierced of which is a tradition with our girls when you turn 13. We told her if Bethany her middle sister could do it she could...because she doesn't do anything that involves pain. She did it all while holding a teddy bear provided by the Claire's assistant.

Later on during the weekend, we continued the celebration with several of her closest friends, cousin Zoe, Nanny and had a slumber party with pizza on the grill, a chocolate fondue with sweets and fruits, cookie cake and hayride on the back porch by the fire.

In the morning, we will have her request of her big sister Ilissa's Breakfast Soft Tacos. Thankfully we get fresh farm raised eggs from Scott's brother Terry. They are always put to good use, especially with my middle daugther Bethany's love for baking sweets.

Tonight in the middle of the slumber party I am able to blog a little while watching these sweet girls put on performances for each other. I don't know if I'd ever be able to handle boys....I guess they wouldn't be inside, but camping outdoors. However, I couldn't imagine being any more lucky than to have been a mother of three girls.

My mom told me tonight how lucky I was and I know she is right. I'll gladly take a night watching these girls dance, share their junior high stories, and act like they are still not teenagers one more time...because as Scott said after the hayride, "you got this" and went to bed. And I guess he's right. I've got a 'passle' of girls and couldn't be more blessed!

Soft tacos are an easy dish to put together. We love ours with scrambled eggs, sweet onions, crumbled sausage (or shredded beef or bacon), and Colby Jack cheese all rolled up in flour tortillas and topped with a tomato salsa. This recipe is just that simple!