Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff

I made a batch of cream caramels over the weekend that was so delicious that by the time sunday night rolled around they were half gone. Now I’ have to make another full batch for passing out at halloween.

Here’s a link to the recipe - it’s not mine. Upon review and a few tests, it’s a very versatile recipe - cook it to a softball and you can coat cheesecakes, brownies, or cookie bars with it. Cook it to a sauce and dribble over waffles. Cook it to a hardball and they will set into yummy pieces of caramel.

Of course, I’m not going to leave you guys on your own. Here’s what I learned from making caramel all Saturday:

• Use a pot. I know, it says "a large saucepan." Two cups of cream boiling away in a saucepan would overspill by the time 10 minutes have passed in the boiling session.
• Do not skip ANY steps in a candy recipe. If it says to slowly pour in the second cup of cream after the first ingredients started boiling, DO IT.
• To test for doneness, have a few cups of room temperature water ready. Drop half a teaspoon full of the candy mixture in, and then pour the water out. That’s when you find out if you have a softball or hardball.
• If a recipe calls for a candy thermometer and gives you precise temperatures, don’t even think about eyeballing it. Candy making is like baking: it’s more about science than food.
• It is OK to use salted butter. It’d crank up the sodium content, but it does add a little something to the final product. Ever had salt-water-taffee? Mmmm.
• Don’t try to play with "making" chocolate until you have learned how to temper store-bought chocolate.
• Don’t leave the stuff on BOIL. Make sure it "just" boils, as like just above a simmer. Make sure your element temperature is below medium or the sugar will burn. You might find that electric works much better than gas in this project.
• When you pour your candy to set, butter your pan and then line it in wax paper. Otherwise you’d never get the stuff out. I learned this the hard way on my first batch.

Good luck! And it can take up to two hours for your candy to form a hardball, but MAN is it worth it. Everyone’s going to get caramel sauce and hard caramels for christmas this year.

Guaranteed to NOT give you gas, unlike most bean and meat chillis. This recipe will make enough for the biggest pot in your house. The meats will put you back $15. It’s a $20 chlli that doesn’t skimp in the beef department. On top of the chilli powder, you can also add a bunch of miscellaneous spices to taste - anything that would work on beef for you would work in it. Cumin, coriander, oregano, basil, thyme - go nuts. There is no "authentic" way to make chilli. There are only myriad of creative ways. So if you don’t have a certain ingredient, you can skip it or substitute it with something you think might work.

Another thing. Canned beans are usually high in sodium because of the factory cooking process. So to save on it (and we don’t need extra salt anyway - this is a sweet chilli), rinse the beans in a colander.

It will taste best if you start cooking it in the morning, let it simmer half the afternoon, cooled on the stove, then reheated for dinner.

Ingredients
2 pounds "marinating" steak, cubed (with plenty of fat running through it)
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 onions, chopped
1 Can diced tomatoes
1 Can tomato paste
1 bottle of dark ale

1 TBSP molasses
1/4 Cup sugar
2 squares of baker’s chocolate or 2 TBSP cocoa
3 TBSP chilli powder
1 TBSP cayenne pepper
1 TBSP instant coffee
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can mexican red beans, drained
2 cans red kidney beans, drained
2 cans of beef broth
1/4 cup flour
Salt to taste

Instructions
In a large pot, brown first the steak, then the groud beef a handful at a time. Don’t overcrowd the bottom of the pot. You will need to do this in batches. When the meat is browned, reserve the meat in a bowl and cook the onions in the bot (scraping up browned bits) until soft. Add the meat back into the pan, and add tomatoes, tomato paste, the beer, molasses, chocolate, and bring to a boil. Add all the beans and the rest of the dry seasoning including the sugar, turn down to a simmer.

In a large bowl, whisk flour and beef broth together, then add to the pot in a drizzle while stirring. When it’s all combined, put a lid on it and let it simmer for two and a half hours.

I served this with rice on the bottom and shredded cheddar on top - it was a hit. You can also serve it with spaghetti, crackers, bread, or any combination of the above.

We had Stu’s mom over for dinner last Saturday, and I made pork chops. Upon putting her knife into it, she asked me if it was cooked enough. The pork chops that she know of doesn’t bounce back when she cuts into it - it should be solid. I showed her that there’s no hint of pink juice coming out as she cuts into it, therefore, it is done.

Heck, even if you cook pork to medium, it’s still ok.

You know how people are always paranoid about cooking pork until it’s perfectly white even near the bone, dry as a hunk of rock, and over 160F? You don’t have to do that anymore. Most people don’t realize this, namely, my boyfriend, his mother, and pretty much all of our relatives. First of all, the first thing I do with pork is throw it in the freezer when it gets home. Freezing effectively kills all the parasites that MIGHT be in the middle of the meat, which, by the way, are most likely not there in the first place.

There are approximately 12 cases of trichinellosis per year in the U.S. Most of that from eating undercooked game meats. Since we eradicated the practice of feeding raw meats to pigs, the whole practice of cooking pork until it dries out is completely outdated. So, what do you do? Treat pork as you would beef. Bacteria lives on the outside of the meat, so as long as the outside is seared, you’re fine. If you’re paranoid about parasites, freeze it. If you don’t want to freeze it, invest in a meat thermometer and cook it to 140F.