Na na no no mo

Well, I THOUGHT NaBloWriMo coincided with NaNoWriMo, but apparently Blo is in October and Wri is in November. Shucks! Although, there's nothing to say I'm not allowed to do a personal challenge of blogging every day this month, right?

So--November 1! It was 77ish degrees today, and it's supposed to be 50 tomorrow and possibly snow tomorrow night. That's Kansas for ya, I guess.

It was great fall weather over the weekend so I did wind up making that beef stew--yummy! It turned out really well. I added some frozen corn as well as the frozen peas, because it seemed like a fitting addition. I think next time I won't cut the beef into QUITE so bite-sized chunks--after it had cooked for several hours, a lot of the pieces kind of disintegrated so there were tiny threads of beef in the stew and not many chunks. I don't want the honking big chew-for-5-minutes-before-swallowing chunks of beef in my stew, but I think I can find a happy medium somewhere in there. Regardless, the stew was awesome and I will definitely keep that recipe in my file!

The other lesson learned the hard way was that the cast iron lid to the dutch oven does NOT cool down instantly after removing from the 250 degree oven it's been sitting in for the last several hours... I picked it up with my bare hand and kind of scorched my fingertips. I was at the sink and only picked it up a couple of inches, but I did chip the enamel on the lid and on the edge of the pot when I dropped the lid. Oops. :( Lesson learned... and I've had more painful burns before, so it could have been much worse.

I tried a recipe last night for Granny Smith Apple Crisp, and oh my... it is so delicious! I found this recipe via Foodgawker and it tastes just as good as it looked. The oats in the topping make it nutty and sweet and so amazing. I could rave for hours about this stuff. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and might have... shh!)

Now... because I have really missed sharing my crappy cell phone pictures... I'm going to share a recipe of my own instead of just raving about everyone else's!

Taco Ring

I can't really claim this recipe as "my own." My husband actually brought this recipe into our marriage (along with more questionable choices like "cheeseburger soup" and the obviously tasty recipe for his mom's lasagna.) I was pretty skeptical at first, but after he made it for me I was sold. It's one of our easy go-to meals when we don't feel like exerting much effort, or on the occasion when I'd rather let my husband cook something than get in the kitchen myself.

Ingredients:
2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1 pound ground beef/hamburger
1 pkg taco seasoning
shredded cheese (we like the pre-bagged Mexican cheese for this)
Any other taco toppings you like

Process:
1. Preheat oven according to directions on the crescent roll package.
2. Brown hamburger and drain; add taco seasoning and a minimal amount of water (just enough to get the seasoning distributed, but not enough to leave liquid in the pan.)
3. Add cheese to hamburger and mix until melted. You can add as much or little as you like here--you want it to be enough that the hamburger starts sticking together when you spoon it up and doesn't crumble apart all over the place.
4. Arrange the crescent roll triangles on a round baking sheet/pizza pan/pizza stone. Arrange so the bases of the triangles overlap slightly and form a solid ring toward the center of the sheet, and the points of the triangles point out and hang off the edge. You want a good 1-2" ring of solid crescent roll dough at the center, with a hole in the middle. I googled and found this image to illustrate:

We usually wind up with 2 crescent rolls left over for some reason--we just roll them up like normal crescent rolls and stick them off to the side of the pan when cooking.
5. Spoon the taco meat/cheese mixture onto the solid ring of dough. Try to keep it even and not drop any into the middle. This would be a good time to add other toppings (tomatoes, whatever) if you want, too. If there is a lot of liquid in your pan, try to avoid transferring it to the dough--it'll make your dough too wet and it won't cook and crisp properly on the bottom.
6. Once all the meat is on the dough, begin folding the tips of the triangles back toward the center, arching over the meat. There will be stripes that the dough doesn't cover--that's okay. Tuck the points in along the dough at the center so they stay wrapped over the meat.
7. Bake for the time indicated on the crescent roll package--until golden brown and crispy, top and bottom. Nobody likes soggy bottoms.
8. Remove and slice as big or little as you want.

Here's the result! You can see on the top how the triangles were folded back over, and how they didn't totally cover the meat.

I have seen variations on this recipe in a few places--you could make a pizza ring with sauce and toppings if you wanted. I have yet to try them, but I'm sure they would be equally tasty.