Dragon's Breath Chili

This is a twist of my second dish that I learned to cook, after Grandma taught me to cook a decent marinara sauce. (Of course hers will always be better than my own version.) Being that my family is blended cultures, I have drawn to experimenting in the kitchen, seeing where Korean spices enhance my traditional cooking.

As a cook, one of the most enjoyable compliments is when I give a menu to the kids for which meal I would cook, the kids, by majority acclamation, the kids would pick this classic. Sadly, however, I can never remember what I need. For example, because I don't like bean texture, I puree most of the beans that I use. But because I could not remember bean/other ingredient displacement, I accidentally pureed all of the beans in tonight's chili. Oops.

Also something that I need to learn to do is make this dish with less processed foods. So I will be experimenting with both the hot paste and the ranch beans that I use. Now why do I use ranch-style beans? It's one of the few dishes that I didn't mind when mom cooked it as I grew up.

Now why do I call it this? I love the flavoring heat of the Korean peppers. Unfortunately, they have a lot more heat than traditional, non-GMO western peppers. Then towards the end of the cooking process, I add a couple of more herbs to give a fresh, breathy feeling in the mouth. So that is how my warped mind came to this title.

Here's what I use:

2 pounds ground beef or ground pork

6.5 pounds ranch style beans

28 ounces crushed tomatoes

5 ounces of sliced carrots

5 ounces sliced celery

1 onion minced

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons Korean hot soybean paste

2 teaspoons ground Korean chili flakes

2 pinches of cumin powder

2 pinches paprika powder

2 pinches ground black pepper

2 pinches crushed cilantro (fresh is best)

2 pinches crushed mint or parsley

1 very generous splash olive oil

1 splash soy sauce

Start by slicing, dicing, or even mincing onion and garlic. Then over a heated skillet, take the oil and spread it evenly before adding the celery, carrots, onion and garlic. Once the onions are golden, add ground beef, ground peppers and one tablespoon of bean paste. Fry until cooked.

Then take your 8 quart slow cooker, because anything smaller can't hold this version. (Hey, I cook for a horde. This will give us dinner tonight and one meal of leftovers for some of us.) Throw in most of the beans and the rest of the bean paste. Puree it until it looks like a delicious bean dip. It does make a delicious bean dip, for the record.

Once you are done with your stick blender, add the veggies listed above. Yes, I know that tomato isn't technically a veggie, but a fruit. Still add it here. Quit arguing with me. Also add the cumin, paprika, ground chili flakes. I almost forgot that meat and veggies browning in a skillet. You need to add that to the slow cooker now as well.

DO NOT ADD the cilantro, mint, or the soy sauce at this point. There's magic to happen for the special effects. This will happen adding it towards the last half hour or hour prior to serving.

Now we wait for two hours. Let the aroma waft through the house. Let your taste buds be teased by the deliciousness in the air. Then when two hours have passed, allowing for occasional tasting sessions, add the rest. Let it continue to cook for another half hour. Then serve it up.

The odd part is that this chili has been a little different. In the past, I had always thought that texture was missing. Stop it. I know that I would have more texture if I DIDN'T puree the beans. I meant another type of texture, a third texture. So I got to thinking about what would go into the chili that wouldn't clash, and at the same time, increase the healthiness of the meal.

A great snack is celery coated with bean paste. Given this, tonight I decided to try carrots. And what veggie tends to show up along side the carrots in the average veggie tray? Cauliflower and broccoli. (Don't panic. I won't be adding them to the list of chili ingredients.) So in went these two new ingredients, carrots and celery.

But when new is added, then there is always a change to the flavors. This chili is sweeter than last time. It is beautifully hot, however. I wonder if that is the doing of the veggies. I will have to look into this. Wait, be right back.

Hey, still there? Thanks for waiting. I had to go and taste the chili and add the final ingredients. Here's what I found. One, I couldn't find any celery, but there's not really an concern. 5 ounces by weight is easy to disappear in 2 gallons of chili. Two, the heat is wonderful, though still mild. The previous statement of the heat was based upon the testimony of another. (I delegate and trust.) Three, I tasted a carrot. It was tasty, and was neither crunchy nor soggy. This actually is my very first time to cook with either celery or carrots and I am pleased with the results.

Now my dinner has been cooking for the last three hours. Time to go eat.

Wow, I just finished my dinner. I had a short panic. I like to have photos of my food to make it more interesting. But I typed this on my computer because I don't like to swipe-type on my tablet, but my laptop isn't efficient means of taking pictures. Now I have the blogger app on my tablet so I thought to save the blog entry and then edit and add the photo with the tablet and then publish. But this draft wouldn't show on my tablet. I am really thankful that I didn't have to retype this entry.

For next time, I will saute the celery and carrots with the onion and garlic. I believe I will also use the small carrot strips instead of the chips so that the younger kids will be more inclined to  eat it.  [1.13.24 Edit: I've minced the carrots and celery along with the onions and garlic and then sautéed them using also a splash of balsamic vinegar after cooking them in olive oil. ] To be fair, except for fishing out the carrot chips, my youngest proclaimed, "This is the bestest chili in the world!"

Hey, thanks for reading this short, albeit long entry. And remember to have fun in the kitchen.

Papa's Slop Joes

As a bachelor, I used to get the cheap version of sloppy joe sauce in a can and added to my own ground beef. The can usually says to add one pound of beef. I would use two. This allowed me to avoid the soupy consistency that one pound gave.Then several years ago, my son-of-an-accountant came out and realized that it would be more affordable to make it from scratch, as well as taste even better!! (OK, the real reason that I started making sloppy joes from scratch was a conscious effort to drastically cut the amount of sodium in our diet. I am proud to say that even though I use soy sauce in nearly every recipe, our sodium intake is extremely low.)

I looked up sloppy joes recipes online. (It took me, oddly enough, quite a while to find a recipe that didn't start with a can of sloppy joe mix.) I found one from Alton Brown and then I modified it. Now my original, but modified, recipe called for Worcestershire sauce, but one day I was out. (Turned out I couldn't find it behind the eggs. Oops) So I used General Tzo's. It LOOKED like W-Sauce. So I thought, "Why not?" But that is how good food combinations occur: Trial and success!

Here is what I've settled on:

1 splash olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 pounds of lean ground 33beef
1 teaspoon of majoram
1 dash of pepper
1 generous splash of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of choice spice (Papa prefers crushed mint or ground Saigon cinnamon)  Mint is used here.
24 ounces of tomato sauce
1/2 to 3/4 cup of water, as needed
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of General Tzo's sauce
1 dozen regular sized hamburger buns, toasted
1 dozen slices of cheese (optional)

Bring a large wok to heat with olive oil. Once hot, not yet smoking, fry up garlic and onion until onions are golden brown. Add ground beef, pepper and majoram.

Once beef is browned, drain, and put beef into dutch oven, add tomato sauce, water and the rest of the spices to dutch oven. Bring to boil over medium heat. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes. Serve.

Bon Appetit!!

Bye, bye, Dr Pepper

If you had seen my Facebook post last week, then you are surely asking what happened? One even asked for the backstory. Now if you haven’t, let me tell you what I wrote: “If you had told me last month that I would become repulsed by Dr. Pepper and all HFCS sodas, I would have scoffed. But here we are.”

Yep, that happened. And now you are wondering what that backstory is. After all, I was a king of Dr. Pepper. At the height, I was drinking at least a gallon a day. Yeah, I love Dr. Pepper that much. Then it happened. A rabbit trail here, but I never liked the horrid taste that comes after having a sweet snack, such as a candy bar. Then Dr. Pepper released a new flavor, Cherry Dr. Pepper. I gave it the test by taking a sip after a big bite of brownie. It wasn’t bitter. If there was a choice, it became Cherry, always. I would drink the original formula only if I had no alternatives. Sure, I drank other types, root, fruits, citrus types, just never imitation Dr. Pepper, however. But 80% of the time... you get the point.

Now back to the whole being repulsed. How did that happen? I am still a bit flummoxed how it happened. Ever since I was a teen, I have had people telling me that soda is bad for me, that I drink too much. Others were telling me about how high fructose corn syrup was bad, and corns were GMOs. Now I am not nay-saying them. But those aren’t the reasons that I stopped drinking Dr Pepper and all things HFCS.

Before I answer that, let me tell you about a food I loved as a kid. I don’t care for it anymore. That is popcorn. I enjoyed that marvel of a food like any kid. Then I was fitted for braces and given a list of food that I was to avoid. Popcorn was on that list. When the braces finally came off, about my junior year of high school, I learned that I had lost the taste for this. And ever since, I maybe have a kernel or two each year. The same thing happened with gum, as well.

And now it has happened with my beloved Dr. Pepper. You see, back mid-June, I became quite ill. I had a summer cold. My throat was on fire for days, and frankly, I just didn’t want to leave the house.  During this time, Dr. Pepper 2-liter bottles had nearly doubled in price, so we had already stopped buying it at the store, just filling up my mug and sharing it with my kids. But like I said, I didn’t leave the house during this two-week period, except for some of the church meetings.

Also, during this time, I was following the awesome transformation of my friend. He had shed quite a few pounds using the circadian rhythm. No medical intervention was used. Just determination. I’ve not referenced him because I didn’t obtain his permission, yet. As I was reading about his “Live-it”, he said that the first step is to see HFCS as evil. (There’s a bit more to his story. I am just telling you where his story grabbed me.) He encouraged readers who had done their homework to avoid HFCS products.

Then I finally started feeling better. The rest was useful and needed. July 2^nd came along, and Carol was all into birthday lunch with Papa tradition that I have had going 14 years now. We went for burgers and decided on Jake’s Café here in Las Cruces. It’s the best burger in town, though not a quick experience. I ordered Dr. Pepper with my lunch. It was the first I’ve had in a week and half. And I couldn’t stand it. When that glass was empty, I asked the waitress to switch it for lemonade for me. I couldn’t stand that either. Now there are times that a soda fountain is just adjusted differently than one might be used to. For example, I can tell you that the Circle K on the corner of Elks and Main is the best fountain for Dr. Pepper, with the second best being Circle K on Lohman and Amador. (Yes, I have tried nearly all the convenience store fountains here in Las Cruces.) So back to point: I figured that I wasn’t going to like Jake’s fountain, though I do love his burgers, and I am looking forward to trying his biscuits and gravy as well as his chorizo omelet.

The next day, I owed my eldest his birthday lunch due to our being otherwise committed on his birthday. He wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A. I love their sandwiches. But I was hesitant about drinking their Dr. Pepper. Their fountain was one of those that isn’t adjusted to be “Pepper friendly”. I was about to order their lemonade made with sugar, but the machine was empty during this little rush. I settled for Sprite. Mind you, I have had their Sprite before, so I hadn’t made the connection. But I couldn’t stand it. It just wasn’t appealing to me. As soon as I saw that the lemonade was available, I asked them to exchange the Sprite for the lemonade. Then it dawned on me. I am repulsed by the taste of high fructose corn syrup.

Just to make sure, my boy the next day, while celebrating at the church with a cookout, had root beer from the store in front of the church. I would place their fountain in the top 5 in town. I didn’t like his soda either.

Then I lamented to myself, not making a big deal, that companies should bring back sugar as the sweetening agent. Then I became curious about two points. 1. Where all can I order a drink that isn’t HFCS? I pondered about all the places around Las Cruces, as well as around Yuma, where I might be able to find a sweet drink made with sugar. So far, only Cracker Barrel, Wendy’s, and Chick have alternatives, their lemonades. (I prefer them in that order due to pulp quantity.) But it really will be hard to find alternatives. I am still not grabbing onto the teas, unless they are variations of an Arnold Palmer. But even Subway’s tea blends have HFCS. So I will be drinking more water when eating out, which my wallet will thank me.

2. How much has HFCS infiltrated my diet, or liveit, besides my soda intake. I searched. If I thought something was sweet, then I checked the ingredient list. What amazes me is that take Malt-O-Meal’s Tootie Fruities, Fruitie Dyno Bytes, and Honey Nut Scooters. These are the most requested flavors in the house. The last being my request. And they are listed from sweetest to least. Which do you think lists Sugar in the ingredients and which has HFCS as the first ingredient? Tootie and Honey are made with sugar. Color me surprised. For myself, I never liked the first two, just the Honey Nut Scooters.

I learned from there that most of our “liveit” is HFCS free. I am thankful that in our quest a few years ago to limit our processed food intake, to which it has become no more than 10% of the menu, it had become mostly natural as well.

I even quickly noticed something else that has changed during this sudden repulsion of HFCS. In the past, when I have attempted to stop the flow of Dr Pepper and sodas, I would suffer horrid migraines, or withdrawals, that would last days. (Sometimes I would go 6 days before I gave in and had a little caffeine.) But with this latest turn, nothing happened. Maybe being sick at the time masked the withdrawals. But I wasn’t that pained that long. So, yeah, I would say that I didn’t suffer the typical withdrawal. Mind you, I won’t lie to you, I still drink coffee. I have a cup on Sundays. Dunkin’ Donuts’ Vanilla Roast with Italian crème made with real sugar. It’s maybe 12 ounces of coffee with crème taking it to 15ish ounces, once a week.

To make a long story short, which is a little late now, I just lost the taste for HFCS drinks. I have had a couple of drinks with them since, once at Men’s breakfast yesterday, and then I took a sip of root beer at lunch with the family today. Nope, still can’t stand the taste of HFCS.

Now you know the backstory to my story. Good bye, my old friend, Dr Pepper. When you return to using sugar as your sweetener, as you once did when I first fell in love with your fine elixir, I will take another evaluation.

Thank you for reading. 🤠

Live Wire over Dr. Pepper?!

(EDITOR'S NOTE -- I started this post 3 years ago. I find it interesting that since I wrote this, prior to publishing this, so much had changed. But I still stand by my review. Interesting how things can change over time...) 

I remember when Mt Dew Live Wire was first released and came to an end.  It was to that point unfathomable to believe that an orange sofa could outdo Sunkist.  But Mt Dew did.  Then with the end of summer came the end of Love Wire.  A couple of years later it returned.  

This was so good that not a few times had I skipped the Dr. Pepper for Live Wire,  maybe a often as 1/3 of the time.  Then one day I stopped doing them on the shelves.  Mt Dew's official website didn't list Live Wire as a current flavor.  And now with new releases, I've been keeping my eyes open,  looking for that orange box of goodness. 

Then yesterday I spotted them next to the green boxes.  They are back! But the 12 pack wasn't on sale.  Then I found a 20 ounce bottle.  I purchased it. 

Today I was determined to write about the return of my favorite orange soda,  the one that I'd easily grab instead of the black Dr. Pepper. 

How I was disappointed. It seems that Mt Dew changed the recipe.  Maybe I became too old for the Dew.  So now the point of this post is to repent of my willingness to prefer another drink instead of Cherry Dr. Pepper,  or even the original DP.

So unless you are a diehard Dew fan,  skip Live Wire.  Forget that I've said that it's like drinking a carbonated orange.  Now reach for that black can of Dr. Pepper! Enjoy.

Dragon Rice Bowl (Updated)

UPDATED: The method Mr Chen used did not work for us. I don't know why. I have gone to old fashion way of making my sauces. Scroll down, if you wish to skip the anecdotal story. 

The other night, my bride was watching videos. One from Mike Chen came across the screen. It grabbed my attention when I hadn’t yet realized that I needed to watch this video for inspiration. (He is “Strictly Dumpling” on Instagram. I think I will follow him.) Now you must be asking, why did you, Steven, need to be inspired?

Well, I am so glad that you’ve asked, so I will tell you. I am a huge fan of church dinners. I think it’s something that is taught in one of the ministry courses at Ozark Christian College. I think it might even be a four-credit course, Church Dinners and Other Food Sourcing for Ministers, or something like that. But I’ve taken the rabbit trail. Let me resume.

I love Church Dinners. But the last church dinner I participated I had decided to make Papa’s Slop Joes for dinner. Someone else in the church had made their own sloppy joe concoction. Both were popular. Both were about 2/3 gone. But the other person didn’t want to take home leftovers and didn’t trust me to bring back the slow-cooker. So the logical choice? Combine them! Why not? They taste practically the same.

Let’s stop there. They were different. I liked my rendering. I didn't like the other rendering. I didn’t eat the leftovers. My food was contaminated. Rant over.

Today is another church dinner that we will celebrate to bring in the new year, albeit a bit early because we will be home long before midnight. I didn’t want to risk the same event happening so I needed something unique. Then I saw Mike Chen’s “Big Tomato Rice in a Rice Cooker” video (his title, not mine). He talked about jazzing it up with asparagus, mushrooms, potato, and jalapeño Spam, with seasoning and garlic.

EUREKA ! No one will make something like that for church dinner. That’s what I will do. But I don’t like jalapeño Spam. I love Spam, but I try to keep a low sodium diet. So I thought, I also love sausage. And since this is the eve of church dinner, I need to make a couple of other adjustments. I don’t have any ripened tomatoes. There’s not enough time for a tomato fresh from the store to soften. My solution was canned diced tomatoes, not the petite diced. Then there is the double starch, potato and rice. I’ve never liked double starched because the textures are just different enough to be gross for me. If they were quite different, or if they were the same texture, then double starch me. That means no potato. I also don’t like asparagus, unless it’s fresh, lightly steamed in a butter sauce. This dish isn’t that. Asparagus had to go. Mushrooms? I guess this would have been triple starch. I prefer my mushroom swimming in marinara or covered in cheese. (Do oriental dishes have cheese? I’ll have to look into that because my mother in law never used cheese for her cooking.)

After all is said and done, I was inspired. I didn’t copy the recipe, per se. He said we have the freedom to use whatever. So I thought to what I did like. Hopefully it will be good. I am eager to try some tonight at the church dinner. I’ll even post a picture.

Old Update: I tried the dish, and followed my instructions that were his instructions. This is my second and final failed attempt at rice-cooker cooking. Here is what I am saying. For me, rice cooker cooking is not an option. I envy and applaud those who are able to make the recipe work. I will post the results when I change up the cooking method. Stay tuned. 

Here’s the recipe:

4 cups of Cal-Rose Rice (very short grain white rice), rinsed and drained

1 pound sliced, smoked sausage (why use Spam when you can use this?)

1 15 ounce can diced tomato, do not drain

1 10 ounce bag of California mix veggies

4 tablespoons hot soybean paste

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons sliced chestnuts

1 tablespoon sesame seed oil

1 splash of soy sauce

1 splash of balsamic vinegar

1 pinch cilantro

1 pinch mint

1 tablespoon sweet basil

Generous amounts of water

Step 1 – The Sauce

Heat olive oil in Dutch oven. Sauté chestnuts and then toss in sausage to caramelize cut edges. Use one tablespoon of basil during this process. Once everything looks good, add balsamic vinegar for few more minutes. Add California/Normandy mix, add remaining seasons and can of diced tomatoes, undrained. Turn heat down to “4” on your electric stove (equivalent guess for gas stove). Cook for 20 minutes, or until veggies are to preferred texture.

Step 2 – The Rice

Cook rice, using your preferred method. Rice cooks differently and affected by grain type, elevation, and humidity. We use automatic rice cookers for this reason.

Step 3 – The Plating

Mix cooked rice into sauce and serve. Or serve sauce over bed of white rice.

I will tell you that the aroma is quite pleasant. The sausage tastes great. I’ll update soon. Enjoy this, my Dragon Rice Bowl.  

Chicken Parmesan

EDIT - another 9 years has passed since i last cooked this meal.  This is for my bride's birthday dinner. I've also moved the original story to follow the recipe. 

Here's what I used and how I prepared it:

Marinara Sauce:
1 29 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 29 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup of water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons Italian spices
1 teaspoon crushed mint
1 teaspoon cilantro

Chicken:
Buttermilk
1 box of panko crumbs
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Pam spray
1 pound of your favorite pasta. We use angel hair. Prepare according to package.

Preparation:
Put the ingredients for marinara sauce into medium sauce pan, bring to boil on high heat for about 5 minutes, covered. Then reduce heat to low for another 15 minutes, remaining covered. Set aside.

For the chicken at least a couple of hours to the day before, cut and place into a bowl. Fill the bowl with enough milk to fully cover the meat. Refrigerate until ready to prepare.

For the breading, place all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take a 11x16" cookie sheet and coat with cooking oil. Pull out the chicken, shake off excess milk, press down into crumbs. Flip and press, then shake off crumbs. Repeat until all the chicken is placed on the sheet. (You will have the chicken packed close without overlapping.) Sprinkle remaining crumbs over chicken.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, pour marinara sauce over the chicken, bake for another 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

Plating:
Place a bed of pasta on the plate, drizzle marinara sauce, place chicken pieces, sprinkle with your favorite Italian cheese. Mozzarella and Parmesan are the two I use.

Hey, buon appétito!

(The original story follows.)

Tonight, I'm writing about Chicken Parmesan. It's something I've cooked before. Yet two observations: 1) it's been 7 years since last I cooked this, Mother's Day lunch at church, and 2) I fried the chicken strips the first time. My sous chefs were the men seven years ago, and my wife this evening.

The reason this is being blogged is that I've recently realized something about myself. Yesterday, my brother had us watching his boys. And to help out he brought over Little Cesar's Pizza. I like pizza. I love marinara based dinners. So this is my observation, that when I eat tomatoes that are too ripe, or if I eat tomato based foods after 8, then I'm up all night in gastric discomfort. And though the pizza was lunch and I wasn't up all night, (perhaps it was the spices of LCP,) I realized that there will be a day that I will need to stop eating marinara altogether.

This has inspired me to experiment. I use mint in my cooking because of the soothing effects I've seen in the past, especially with tomatoes. I also use cilantro as a balance to the mint.

So far, three hours have passed since I had my late dinner. By this time, I'm usually feeling quite a bit of discomfort, but instead I'm enjoying an evening watching TV with Carol as the kids are in bed. It seems my experiment is a success. The amount of mint and cilantro I used for tonight's sauce is equal to the amount I usually use when I make 2 gallons of sauce

Beef Stroganoff - Remastered

After learning to cook spaghetti as a kid, Beef Stroganoff was the next meal for me to learn. In the early days, I would use a couple of family size cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, add it to ground beef and some choice spices (Italian Seasoning in everything was always my choice as a kid) and then serve it over wide egg noodles. (Dad would use the leftovers over toast, so I did too.) I kept this recipe well into my marriage years.

It wasn't until we decided to cut out as much as the processed foods that I revisited this recipe. But of course, after consulting with Carol, I've not made this dinner since we lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico before we had children. 

The reason we cut back on the processed foods is mainly to avoid the sodium levels, and to a lesser extent, the preservatives and other neat things that making freshly made foods tend to lack.  The last time I made Stroganoff from scratch, it wasn't something that I wanted to share with you all. It was bland, horridly so. It did inspire the beginning of this blog, but just didn't make the cut. So I made it again a couple of nights ago. It's that recipe I will be sharing. The only problem is that I didn't take a photo. So I've cheated. The picture is not from a couple of nights ago, but a couple of months ago. The recipe is from a couple of nights ago. It was a hit, and the leftover gravy tasted great over whole wheat toast!

Here's what you'll need:

2 pounds of ground beef - you can use thin stripped round steak

20 ounces of beef consomme (beef broth or stock if you must) - this is the sole source of salt

1 pound sliced mushrooms

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic crushed

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup all purpose flour

3 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons ranch dressing powder/seasoning

2 teaspoons cilantro

2 teaspoons marjoram

2 tablespoons General Tso's sauce

6 twists of black pepper mill

1 bag of extra wide egg noodle.

In a large wok, heat olive oil. Once hot, add just the garlic and onion. Fry until golden brown. Add mushrooms. Once the mushrooms have all darkened, remove wok from heat and set aside.

Fry up meat in large dutch oven using 1 teaspoon each of marjoram and cilantro with 3 twists of the the pepper mill. (Remember, I cook for a family of 7. For a normal size family, half the portions and use appropriate size pans and kitchen tools.) Once browned, add 10 ounces of the consomme and the General Tso's sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

While waiting for the 15 minutes to pass, in a small mixing bowl, add the flour to the consomme while whisking it to avoid clumping. (Do NOT heat!) For those pesky clumps that will not break apart, use a strainer when the time comes to add the mix to the dutch oven. Once meat has cooked for 15 minutes, add consomme/flour mix, keeping the heat no higher than medium. Stir while bringing it to lite boil. Add the mushrooms and onion mix. Once the mix is to boil, add cream and ranch seasoning, as well as remaining cilantro, marjoram, and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low or simmer and then cover for 10 minutes. Serve over your preferred pasta. We do prefer the extra wide egg noodles ourselves. 

Bon Appetit!