Crockpot Bolognese

Good recipe for those work days. Or lazy days. Or any days. It's good.
Some time ago I wasn't a big fan of pasta. It was fine, but never "wow, pasta!".  It changed. More and more often I find myself wanting to eat pasta for dinner, lunch... mostly at home. Still not a big fan of pasta dishes at restaurants (there are many good restaurants with great pasta, but I don't go there too often) Anyways, I think this dish greatly contributed to my pasta cravings. And I am thankful for it. As with many things, this is a "guide" not a recipe. You can add a word "about" to each of the ingredients.

1 pound of ground beef
1 large carrot
1 medium onion
1 celery stalk
1 16 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream + 1 cup of water
OR 1-2 cups of milk.
Salt, pepper, oregano, whatever you like to add to pasta

Mince the onions really finely, into tiny tiny bits. Same with carrots. Same with celery. We don't want big chunks of vegetables here (especially when veggie haters are invited to dinner)

In the heavy saute pan, heat the olive oil (couple of tbsp will do), add the onions, cook on medium heat until onions start changing color. Add the carrots and celery, keep cooking, the vegetables should start browning a little bit. Add the beef, constantly breaking the chunks with a wooden spoon cook until it browns. Add salt, pepper and whatever Italian herbs ( I like oregano, maybe a pinch of thyme as well).
Transfer meat mixture into the crock pot. Add tomatoes, cream and water, mix and set on low heat setting for 4 hours or high heat for 2.

I boil pasta to almost ready, drain it, but reserve about a cup of liquid. Return pasta to a pot with the water it was cooked in and add the bolognese, cook it all together until pasta is al dente. Then serve with lots of parmegiano or pecorino romano.

Should've taken more pictures...

Mexican Carrot Relish

I felt in love with this relish many years ago, when I first tried them at OKC's local Mexican restaurant "Ted's Cafe Escondido". Never thought about making these at home until about a month ago. Why!??? Why did I not tried to make this earlier? No clue.
Anyways, these carrots (and onions) are delicious. There are bunch of recipes online, but each one of them either has too much vinegar, or not enough sugar, or doesn't make much sense to me. So here is a version of the relish that works for me. By the way, 1:1 carrot onion ratio is not a must. If you like carrots more - have more carrots, if you prefer onions - take more onions. If you like it spicier - have more jalapenos.

1 pound of carrots
1 pound of white onions
2 jalapenos
3-4 cloves of garlic
 1 tsp oregano

For marinade: 
3 cups of water
1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt


Slice carrot into rounds. Not too bit, not too small, about the size of 5-6 quarters put together.
Slice onions, not too finely, kinda matching the  size of your carrots. Do not mix with carrots!!! We'll need to boil carrots first!  
Actually... even though this is my fourth time making these, I got so excited about taking pictures of cut veggies, that I forgot about this step... had to dig out carrots later to boil them... 

Slice the jalapenos. And garlic. 

Put carrots in the pot, add enough water to cover the carrots and bring to boil. Cook for about 4-5  minutes. Of course cooking time will depend on how thin your carrots are. It's probably better to under-cook them than overcook them. Drain the carrots and mix with onions and jalapenos and garlic. Add the oregano.

Now combine water, salt and sugar and bring to boil. Turn off the heat and add vinegar. Pour over carrot mix and let cool on the kitchen counter.

Once the relish cooled off, transfer into jars (or not) and refrigerate. It pretty much is ready next day. The more they marinate, the better they taste though. I wasn't able to check how long these will stay fresh in refrigerator since I usually finish a jar in a week... But I'm sure it'll stay good for at least couple of weeks, maybe longer.

Enjoy.