Ultra Gooey Stovetop Mac and Cheese with Broccoli
This one-pot stovetop mac and cheese with broccoli is creamy, fast, and perfect for cold days. No extra steps, just real comfort food done right.
Hatch Green Chile Beef Picadillo (Rainy Day Food)
Some meals feel like they were designed for gray skies.
The kind of dinner that fogs up the kitchen windows a little while something simmers on the stove.
The kind of food you spoon into a bowl, maybe with rice and beans on the side, and suddenly the whole house feels warmer.
This is that kind of meal.
It starts with onions cooking in bacon fat with cumin and adobo seasoning. Then beef. Then potatoes. Then tomatoes. Then six Hatch green chile flavor bomb cubes from the freezer doing what they do best. Recipe here
Nothing fancy.
Just a pot of honest food that tastes like comfort.
And on a rainy day, that’s enough.
Hatch Green Chile Beef Picadillo Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 russet potatoes, peeled, 1/4ed and thinly sliced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2–3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- Water (fill the empty tomato can once)
- 6 Hatch green chile flavor bomb cubes
- 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon chicken paste
- 1–2 teaspoons cumin
- Adobo seasoning, to taste
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1 spoonful leftover bacon fat (or oil)
Instructions
1. Build the flavor base.
Heat a large skillet or wide pot over medium heat. Add the bacon fat, chopped onion, cumin, and adobo seasoning. Cook for a few minutes until the onions soften and the spices bloom in the fat.
2. Brown the beef.
Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up like chili, until browned and cooked through.
3. Add the vegetables and broth ingredients.
Stir in the sliced potatoes, minced garlic, diced tomatoes, Hatch green chile flavor bomb cubes, and Better Than Bouillon chicken paste.
4. Add the liquid.
Fill the empty tomato can with water and pour it into the pot. Stir everything together.
5. Bring to a boil.
Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a boil.
6. Cover and simmer.
Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
7. Taste and adjust.
Once the potatoes are cooked, taste the broth and adjust with salt and black pepper as needed. The potatoes absorb seasoning as they simmer, so this final adjustment matters.
8. Serve.
Spoon into bowls and serve with Mexican rice and refried beans.
Rainy Day Food
There are meals that impress people.
And then there are meals that make people quiet because they’re too busy eating.
This is one of those.
Brothy, savory, a little smoky, potato-soft, Hatch chile warm in the background.
Rain hitting the windows.
Big bowl.
Maybe seconds.
That’s the kind of food I want when the day feels cold and gray.
The weather doesn’t have to be exciting.
Dinner can be.
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