Sunday Beef Stew

When I was a kid, I was a total book nerd (in all honesty, I'm still a total book nerd, although I no longer have hours and hours to hide with a book, at least not without feeling massive amounts of guilt). When I was 6 or 7, this was my favorite book in the entire universe:

If you're not familiar with it, it's about a family of orphaned children who find an abandoned boxcar and adopt it as their home. It was, like, the ultimate in playing house. I relished all the little details--dumpster diving for silverware and then scrubbing the rust off with sand, building a "swimming pool" in the creek by the boxcar, making a stew in the woods with beef and some garden vegetables. Looking back, when I read this book, it was the first time I was completely captivated by the story of food and cooking. I had never really eaten stew before (at least not stew that didn't come from a can), but I was completely taken with this idea of something wholesome and delicious cooked with something practical like baby garden vegetables and some meat bought after a hard day's work.

Fast forward a few years--after my mom died and my dad remarried, we did eat a lot of beef stew. In fact, this recipe was our standard Sunday dinner--everything would go into the Dutch oven and then into the oven before we went to church and when we got home 3 hours later, it would be ready. When we had it with whole wheat bread and butter and milk to drink, it seriously fulfilled my Boxcar Children vision of delicious wholesomeness.

I've changed the old standard a little--added some (a lot of) garlic, substituted V8 for tomato juice and beef bouillon instead of just salt. But really, it's all the same: something easy, nourishing, and delicious that just about everybody loves.

Sunday Beef Stew

Recipe from Our Best Bites

1 1/2-2 lb. lean stew beef, cut into even smaller bite-sized pieces (just pull out a pair of kitchen shears and cut anything that looks like you'd need to use a knife and fork on)

4-5 medium red potatoes, chopped

4-5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

2 onions, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

2 12-oz. cans or 3 c. vegetable juice cocktail (like V8 or even Bloody Mary mix)

1 10-oz. can condensed tomato soup

10 oz. water (just use the can from the tomato soup to measure)

1 tsp. basil

2 beef bouillon cubes (or 2 tsp. beef base)

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Now...this is super tricky. Preheat oven to 350. Combine ingredients in a large oven-safe pot that comes with an oven-safe lid.


Cook in heated oven for 3 hours. Remove from oven and serve. Awesome, huh?

You can also cook this in your slow cooker on low for 9-10 hours (or until vegetables and meat are tender) or on high for 5-6.

Serve with a loaf of French bread or homemade rolls and some honey butter.

Be sure to stick with us over the next few weeks because we have some fabulous Thanksgiving ideas coming up! Have a great weekend!

Easy Pumpkin Crumble

Remember the time I told you I didn't like pumpkin pie? Well I still don't. But I love this. Don't ask me why. It's basically pumpkin pie, but it's surrounded in crumbly-carby goodness. Because let's face it: crumbly-carby goodness makes everything better. I've made this for informal family gatherings as well as for Thanksgiving dessert. It's quick and easy (and no one has to know!)

Many of you are probably familiar with "Pumpkin Dump Cake" (which by the way is a horribly unappealing name for such a scrumptious treat!) If you're not then I can give you the recipe in about 4 sentences. Here you go:

1. Get a can of pumpkin (large or small depending on how thick you want it) and follow the instructions on the back of the can to make pie filling. Pour filling into a 9x13 pan.
2. Sprinkle one dry cake mix on top (yellow or vanilla).
3. Drizzle one cube of melted butter over the top.
4. Bake at 350 for about 45-55 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

You can use that trick for any sort of filling. Instead of pumpkin pie on the bottom, you can layer fruit, canned pie filling, etc. Just about anything. Good little trick to know.

Now let me share my version of this quick and easy dessert- just kicked up a notch. First I used part of the cake mix on the bottom of the dessert to create a little bit of a crust. For the filling, I used a recipe I think is much better than the standard back-of-the-can pie filling. Mine uses sweet and condensed milk to make it silky, creamy, and flavorful. And finally on top I added a touch of spice and some toasty pecans. When that all cooks up together it's one mighty fine dessert. And still incredibly easy! Even pumpkin pie haters like it! This shows up a lot at our table this time of year. It's a favorite for our weekly "Family Night". Maybe it will be for you too!

Easy Pumpkin Crumble
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 boxed yellow or white cake mix
1-2 sticks butter (see notes in instructions)
1 16 oz can pumpkin*
2 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t ginger
1/8 t cloves
1/8 t nutmeg
1/2 t salt
1/3 C chopped pecans
1/2 t additional cinnamon for topping

*This makes a dessert about an inch thick or less. That's because I like a high topping-to-pumpkin ratio. If you'd like it thicker, use a large can of pumpkin and double the rest of the filling ingredients (Eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and spices). Leave the rest of the recipe the same.

Preheat oven to 350.

Place 2 C of the cake mix in a bowl. Cut in 3 T chilled butter. Just use your fingers to crumble the butter until it's in small crumbly pieces. Place mixture in a 9x13 baking dish and press flat with your fingers.

Mix pumpkin, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and spices until smooth. Pour on top of the cake mixture in the pan.


Now take the rest of the dry cake mix and mix in 1/2 t cinnamon. Sprinkle it all over the top of the pumpkin mixture. Use a measuring cup so you have a rough measurement of how much you're putting on. Here's why:

Here's a little something I learned after making the dump cake a gazillion times. Cake mixes all have different amounts in them! Different brands, different flavors, etc. Each one is slightly different in volume. I found one mix to have almost double the normal amount. Measuring the amount of cake mix you're sprinkling on top will help you get the perfect topping ratio in the last step.

Next sprinkle on the chopped pecans. You'll have 3 distinct layers now:


Here's the trick: For every 1 C of cake mix you sprinkled on top, you'll need 3 T of melted butter. Drizzle it right on top.


That butter is going to combine with the cake mix and make magic in the oven. Pop it in your 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or so. A knife should come out without globs of pumpkin on it and the topping should be nice and golden.


You can eat it warm, at room temp, or chilled! My favorite is actually at room temp. Put a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top. It's also great with vanilla ice cream.





In the mood for pumpkin? Here's some pumpkin surprises for you. Click on a link to see!

Pumpkin Yummy #1
Pumpkin Yummy #2
Pumpkin Yummy #3
Pumpkin Yummy #4
Pumpkin Yummy #5

Minestrone Soup

I don't know about everybody else, but after the week-long junk food bonanza also known as Halloween, my body is craving something a little more wholesome. Does anyone remember vegetables? Yeah, I know, it's been so long that I can hardly remember them...

Sara and I have talked a lot about finding "the one." For years, I searched for the perfect Minestrone recipe. Time after time, they all just came out pretty flavorless and a little bit flat, like they were just missing something. Finally, I tried the Minestrone recipe from this cookbook. And it was exactly what I was looking for. Wanna know what the secret ingredient is? Canned, condensed, cheap-o Bean with Bacon Soup. It's so diluted that you can't actually taste its Bean with Bacon-ness, but it adds a richness and slight smokiness to the soup that is fabulous.

Since I can't seem to make a recipe without tweaking, I added some zucchini and an extra can of beans. The zucchini addition is optional,

but I think the extra can of beans is important, especially since there isn't any pasta in this soup. Also, this soup is good the first night, but it is fabulous as leftovers. If there's any way to make this ahead of time, let it chill, and then re-heat it, I HIGHLY recommend you do that. It is THIS very thing that makes this a great freezer meal; just prepare the soup entirely, allow it to cool, and then freeze it in a freezer-safe container. When you're ready to eat it, just place the frozen soup in your Crockpot and cook on low for 5-6 hours.

Minestrone Soup

Recipe adapted by Our Best Bites

1 lb. Italian sausage
1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves minced garlic

4 c. water
2 stalks celery, diced

2 large carrots, diced

1-2 small zucchini, quartered and chopped
1 can beef broth
1 10-oz. can bean with bacon soup
1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes

1 can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/8-1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Remove casings from sausage and crumble the meat. In a large soup pot, brown Italian sausage with onions and garlic. Carefully drain, if necessary. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, cover, and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer on low for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and breadsticks or French bread.

Additionally, you can make this in a slow cooker. Just brown the sausage, onion, and garlic in a frying pan, drain, and then transfer to a slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients and cook all day on low.

Stove Top Kettle Corn

To all of you who are parents--do you remember what life was like before those little bundles of joy arrived? It wasn't all that long ago for me, but I still have to squint my eyes and make my brain hurt to remember that at one point in my life, I didn't have permanent snotty hand prints on the shoulders of every shirt I own. Or that back in the day, a basic trip to the grocery store didn't involve a major strategic battle plan. In fact, it's amazing how different life was back then. For me and my husband it involved a lot of kettle corn. When we got married, we received a Whirley-Popper from a good friend (who, ironically, is Kate's mother-in-law and I didn't even know Kate back then!) along with a bunch of gourmet popcorn and seasoning mixes. It quickly became our favorite kitchen appliance and just about every single night, we'd sit on our LoveSac (the only piece of furniture that would fit in our tiny apartment living room), watch movies, and chomp on bowls of hot, sweet kettle corn. Those were the days when we didn't have to pause movies every 12.5 minutes to take turns dragging toddlers back to bed. Ahhh...kettle corn. For the record, as fun and carefree as those kid-less times were, it's SO much better now, snotty hand prints and all :)

For those of you who love to buy bags of this at the fair, get excited because you can make it at home! And you don't even need the fancy-schmancy popcorn popper. But beware: it's highly addictive!


Stove Top Kettle Corn
Recipe by Our Best Bites

3 T canola or vegetable oil
1/3 C popcorn kernels
3 T granulated sugar
kosher salt

The recipe for kettle corn isn't complicated--it's the little tricks that matter. So I'm going to teach you all of my little tricks!

1. Place a large stock pot on the stove top. Set heat to medium-high. Add oil. While your oil is heating (it won't take long), measure out your popcorn into a small bowl. Add sugar to the kernels. When it's time to cook, everything moves very quickly, so it's important to have it all ready to go.


Now, wait until you see your oil smoke. This is one little trick that a lot of people overlook, but it's important. The smoke is very faint, but if you just stare at the pot (it helps to get down parallel to it), you'll see little billows of smoke coming up. That's your cue!

Pour popcorn kernels and sugar into the pot.


Immediately stir using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, scraping sugar from bottom of pan. This step should only take about 10 seconds because I don't want a lawsuit from someone who got pegged in the eye with a popping kernel. Got that? There's your disclaimer. 10 seconds people!

Cover pot with lid. You will need to shake the pot with your hands and you'll want to make sure the lid stays on, so I get a dish towel and drape it over like this:


Of course I had to let go to take the picture, so normally I would be holding the handles so the towel wouldn't be dangling so dangerously close to the burner. I may be a klutz but I'm not an idiot!

Hold the pot by the handles in a way that you're securing the lid on as well. Shake the pan side to side in all directions and up and down a few times. Do this every 20 seconds or so. It will keep the sugar from burning on the bottom and help the kernels to be evenly coated.

After a few minutes you should start hearing the pops. (If it doesn't start popping after a few minutes, crack the lid to let some of the pressure out. Chances are when you put the lid back on, it will pop away). Continue the shaking every 20 second or so until you can tell almost everything is popped. Remove the lid and stir immediately.


Sprinkle Kosher salt to taste and then keep stirring. You can eat it warm right out of the pan (Disclaimer #2: caramelized sugar it HOT so don't eat it right away.) or let it cool completely. It's great either way!


Did you notice the cool wooden plate in these pictures? I recently participated in a fun little event called "Plate Swap." It was organized similar to a Secret Santa exchange, only all of the participants were food bloggers and the presents were plates! It was so much fun. I received 2 beautiful wooden plates from Joelen at What's Cookin' Chicago? Go check out her blog--she's got some amazing recipes over there and if you're in the Chicago area, she's a great resource as well! Thanks again, Joelen, for the awesome plates! And ironically, I sent plates to Chicago, but to Heather from Bodacious Girl Blog.

Still planning out what to eat for Halloween Weekend?

Surprise the family with a special breakfast! Then go for Chili and Cornbread for dinner. Make sure to sip some Cider, pop some Kettle Corn, and if you're having a party make lots of fun food and plenty of Halloween treats!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hope you all have a fun, and safe Halloween!

Tutorial: How to Frost Cupcakes. Plus: Candy Corn Cupcakes!

One of the most common questions we get is how to get the swirly cupcake icing. This is something I really wondered about, too, for a REALLY long time and honestly, I had a hard time finding clear instructions. It was almost like there was this code of secrecy among cupcake-eers. Well, I'm here to bust that code right open, not only because it makes your cupcakes impressive and professional-looking, but once you get the hang of it, it makes frosting cupcakes SO much easier and faster!

Also, I'm in no way affiliated with Wilton; I recommend their products only because they're inexpensive, easy to find at "normal" stores, and widely available in most areas.

Here's what you'll need:

--A Wilton 1M star tip. Although Walmart sells Wilton products, I haven't been able to find this particular tip of the coupler that goes with it at Walmart; I've had to go somewhere like Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

As you can see, the 1M tip is significantly larger than a standard decorating tip:

--A large coupler that fits the 1M tip. These are the plastic rings that attach the tip to the bag.

--Cake decorating bags. Not an absolute must-have; you can use a heavy-duty Ziploc bag. But I really do love the disposable cake decorating bags.

Now...I enlisted my husband's help in all of this because I couldn't take pictures and frost the cupcakes at the same time. At each critical juncture, I'd stop and tell him to take a picture. Finally, after a few times, he asked why we didn't just take a video. This is why he's the engineer and why I, the one with the English degree, get to use phrases like "critical juncture." May I introduce the very first Our Best Bites video tutorial:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Basically, you want to hold the bag at about a 45-degree angle with one hand (most likely your dominant hand) controlling the frosting flow near the top of the bag and your other hand down near the tip. With the tip nearly touching the surface of the cupcake (near the center), gently squeeze the bag. With the frosting consistently flowing, move the tip from the center of the cupcake to the edges and go all the way around and then back toward the middle. Who in the HECK am I kidding--I was not born to write complicated visual instructions. Just watch the video... :)

Now...I had an entirely different post planned for today. And then on Monday night, I checked the Our Best Bites email and saw something about Sara's candy corn pizza right before I went to sleep. As I was drifting away, I had this idea pop into my brain, clear as day, for Sara's Colorburst Cupcakes, only made with candy corn colors! I frantically ran to the store the next morning and got a cake mix, a pot of yellow food gel (let's not talk about what happened to the last one), and some full-fat sour cream because the non-fat yogurt I had in the fridge wasn't going to cut it for these bad boys. In my frazzledness, I accidentally picked up a white cake mix instead of a vanilla cake mix, but I found this doctored-up recipe from Ann Byrn. I did replace the vanilla with almond extract on a whim and I didn't regret it--they were mighty tasty.

Candy Corn Cupcakes

1 18.25-oz. white cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)

1 c. sour cream

1/2 c. vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 tsp. almond extract

Yellow and orange Wilton food gel (about a heaping 1/2 tsp. of each)

A double batch of Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 24-cup muffin tins with white paper liners (although you may not make it to 24 cupcakes). Combine all ingredients except for food coloring in a large bowl and beat on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then beat on medium for 2 additional minutes.

Divide batter equally into two bowls; you should have about 2 1/4-2 1/2 c. of batter in each bowl. Mix about 1/2 heaping tsp. of yellow coloring into one bowl of batter and 1/2 heaping tsp. of orange coloring into the other bowl.

Divide the yellow batter evenly among the muffin tins. I used a standard cookie scoop, which measures about 1 Tbsp. I only had enough to make 20 cupcakes with the cups filled about halfway. Holding the edges of each pan firmly, bang the pan a few times on the counter to level out the batter. Repeat the process with the orange batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes in the pan and then allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. When ready, frost the cupcakes and garnish with a candy corn. When you cut them open, they look like this: