Slow cooker Carne Guisada

My friends Caitlin and Hugh got this recipe from a Martha Stewart magazine, made it and invited us over for dinner. It was so good. The meat was so tender and flavorful. You have to serve it with cheese and cilantro, that makes it. Try this!

2 1/2 lbs beef chuck roast or bottom round, cut into 1-inch pieces
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 TB vegetable oil
1 medium white onion, diced medium
1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced medium
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp dried oregano
6 TB flour
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
flour tortillas, grated cheddar and cilantro, for serving

Season beef with salt and pepper. In large skillet, heat 2 tsp oil over high. In two batches, cook beef until browned on all sides. 5 mins per side. Transfer to a 5-6 quart slow cooker.

In same skillet, cook 2 tsp oil, onion, bell pepper and garlic over medium, stirring and scraping up brown bits with a wooden spoon, until vegetables are tender, 5 minutes. Add cumin, chili powder, oregano and flour and cook 1 minute. Slowly pour broth into skillet, stirring until liquid is smooth. Simmer 2 minutes, then transfer mixture to slow cooker, along with tomatoes and bay leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cover and cook on high 6 hours. Serve in tortillas with cheese and cilantro.

Amazing Chocolate Frosting

I found this awesome new website called Our Best Bites that has a ton of good recipes. I made the candy corn cupcakes that I found on this site and then I made chocolate cupcakes and put this frosting on them, and I almost died they were sooo good. Seriously. The semi-sweet chocolate gives it such a great flavor, you must use semi-sweet chips. It sounds weird to put flour in a frosting, but it turned out really good. I only added 1 TB of extra cocoa at the end, but taste and add what you want. I used a disposable piping bag and the largest star tip I had and they turned out beautiful, sorry no picture.

Chocolate Frosting
Recipe adapted by Our Best Bites from Sugar Plum

2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1 cup real butter, softened
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
Optional: Additional cocoa powder as needed

Melt your chocolate chips if you haven't already and set aside to cool. You obviously don't want it so cool that it hardens, but you can get it close to room temperature and still have it be soft and stir-able.

In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, and milk; bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Boil 1-3 minutes or until thickened like a thinned pudding. Remove pan from heat and strain mixture into a small bowl. Cool completely in the refrigerator or freezer.

When chocolate flour mixture is cooled, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture until well combined fluffy, about 1 minute. Finally add in melted chocolate and beat again until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. If desired, add additional cocoa powder to taste, up to 4 tablespoons more. Spread or pipe frosting on to cupcakes or cake.

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

Storage: Store unused frosting in fridge and bring to room temperature before using again. If needed, beat with an electric beater before using.