Winter warmup meals

Organic may be the "thing" that everyone wants to buy and eat, but it isn't always worth it. And the white wine you have with dinner? That may be just as likely to leave your teeth susceptible to stains as red wine. Whatever you eat, cook, or drink with your food, here are some recipes I've made recently that work either way!

Spicy Beef Vegetable Stew
Well... I think I missed the point of the "spicy" here. I somehow lost (didn't get home from the store with?!!) the can of tomatoes and chilies, so they just didn't get put in. If you don't add the water and bouillon cubes, this is definitely something you could serve over rice-- almost like a chili. I doubled the frozen mixed veggies and we enjoyed this one on cold winter nights.

Shrimp Etouffee
Dee-licious. A bit of home while I'm away from it! The recipe I've made before recommends cream of mushroom soup, but this was just fine. The cooking at a higher temp for a few minutes is key, otherwise it'll just be runny. Leave the tail shell part on the shrimp to keep more flavor in, serve over rice. It smells amazing and tastes quite good!

Chess Cake
I made this for a friend's dinner party and all really liked it. I certainly wouldn't make anything with this much butter regularly (and I used at least 1/3 less than recommended). You know that bite of peach cobbler you get sometimes that may or may not have any peaches in it, but is crispy, sweet, and just the right mix of flavors? That's what this whole cake tastes like. I might serve it with fruit or even cook some in if you like that kind of thing, just to mix it up a little!

BBQ Chicken
Now a lot of the comments on this one warned that it tastes too much like ketchup and that it's pretty likely to burn. So I used salsa instead, and basted about 30 minutes through. The edge of where the sauce was definitely browned, but the chicken itself didn't burn. Very good! I made it with both wings and tenders, which made it easy to put together nachos with cheese, avocado, tomatoes, sour cream- a fun treat! I also did some tenders in the same mix and then served them over rice for some variety. Pretty yummy!

Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas
These were surprisingly good. There was a little too much spinach-- you could probably make another one or two quesadillas instead of piling this all on just four tortillas (or maybe make 8 small tortillas). It could have had something to do with the mushroom caps being smaller than I would've liked, too. (Side note: Did you know that you aren't supposed to soak mushrooms? They absorb water so easily that you should wipe them clean with a damp cloth for cleaning). I would also probably add more cheese... but then again, I eyeballed what I thought was a half cup anyway. In fact, I think I would mix the cheese into the spinach and mushroom mixture so that it's spread throughout. I used about half the butter recommended, and when I heated each in the skillet, I didn't use anything. Overall, a great quick, hot meal.

Broccoli with Garlic Butter and Almonds
I thought this would taste much better after I refrigerated it overnight, and it was still good, but not as strong as I wanted the flavors. Also, I didn't have cashews, so I used sliced almonds. It was pretty good for several meals and I even sent it back to my cooking class coordinator as a suggestion for future options!