Pancho Villa Omeltte

Legend has it that the famous outlaw insisted on having this omelet every morning for breakfast. He claimed it had a magic which kept him one step ahead of his foes. On the day of his capture, it is said that Cookie substituted cheddar cheese for the cream cheese.
2 Tbl butter
3 eggs
2 tsp cream
1/2 c cream cheese
2 oz chopped green chili
Melt butter in an omelet pan on medium heat. While butter is melting, combine eggs with cream and beat until frothy. Pour egg mixture in pan and cook until the top starts to solidify, then turn. Spread evenly with cream cheese and chili, cover and cook for one minute. Fold and serve.
Serves 1.

Yellowstone Clam Chowder

When the aspen leaves turn gold in the fall, it is the signal to move the cattle down out of the mountains before the first snow flies. The work is hard, but enjoyable, especially when you get down to the few animals who refuse to be found. A friend of mine once made the analogy that “its just like hunting elk, only you have to bring them in alive.” Since the crews used to gather often number ten or more you need enough to feed a lot of people, and this recipe fits the bill for
gathering crews or holiday parties.
7 - 16 oz cans white potatoes
5 lb diced ham
2 large onions
1 gallon milk
1/4 lb butter
5 - 12 oz cans evaporated milk
11/2 lb muenster cheese
1 bunch celery
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbl black pepper
4 bay leaves
Chop onion and sliver garlic into small pieces. Sauté onion and garlic in butter until clear. Chop celery while onion and garlic are sautéing.
When onion and garlic are clear, add remaining ingredients, reserving cheese. Cook over medium heat for 35 minutes, stirring every five minutes, making sure soup does not boil. While soup is cooking grate cheese. After soup has been cooking thirty minutes, stir in the cheese and continue cooking until cheese has melted.
Makes approximately two gallons.

This recipe is an excerpt from my cookbook The Gourmet Cowboy, available on Amazon

Poor Man's Stew

As broke as the last year left everyone, and as cold as it is in much of the country, Poor Man's stew is an economical way to warm you up from the inside out! Not only will you start out the new year a bit warmer, the flavor will make you smile as well
Half gallon water
1lb hamburger
1c chopped green chili
4 potatoes
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1T salt
Peel and chop onion and garlic, then place in a one gallon pot with hamburger on medium heat, until hamburger is browned. While hamburger is browning, peel potatoes and chop into half inch pieces. When hamburger is browned, add remaining ngredients. Turn heat to high until mixture begins to boil. Reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.
Serves 4.

Coyote Goulash

No Coyotes were used or harmed in the development of this recipe!
In Montana, one of the winter activities is hunting coyotes, who not only cost some ranchers thousands of dollars in lost livestock, but whose pelts, in a good year can bring as much as $250 apiece. With the invention of the snowmobile, hunting these critters has become sort of a dual sport. To test your abilities for flying a sled, you chase a “yote”, getting as close to it as possible. To test your shooting ability, you then stop the sled, unsling your rifle and attempt to shoot the yote which is running away from you as fast as thirty five or forty
miles an hour. Not many yotes are taken in this manner, but you surely get an adrenaline rush trying. This recipe is dedicated to Rex (I’m sure he wants his last name to remain anonymous). It seems Rex was spending an enjoyable outing with his parents when he spotted a yote. Since he was in a large clearing, he was up to sixty miles an hour and on his quarry instantly. The only problem was that the yote jumped on the sled with him. Needless to say, Rex made a hasty retreat, the yote learned to drive a snowmobile, and Rex’s parents had a ball telling everyone in Wilsall of Rex’s encounter.

½ lb boneless chicken breast
½ lb beef cube steak
¼ lb smoked ham
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
5 oz sliced Spanish olives
5 oz Chablis
4 oz diced green chili
5 green onions
2 Tbl butter
Cut chicken, beef and ham into bite sized pieces and brown in butter. While meat is browning, drain olives and chop onion. When meat is browned, add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over rice, noodles, corn tortillas or toast.
Serves 4.

Spinach Souffle

Here is another recipe from The Gourmet Cowboy. Happy eating!
1 c finely chopped spinach
4 oz cream cheese
½ c cream
3 eggs
2 Tbl butter
1 clove garlic
½ tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375. Place butter into an eight inch cake pan and place in oven to melt butter. Place spinach in a large mixing bowl. Place eggs, garlic and salt in a mixing bowl and mix on high for one minute. Slice cream cheese into small pieces, add to the egg mixture and mix on high for two minutes. Combine egg mixture with
spinach, stirring slowly by hand until all ingredients are well blended. Remove butter from oven and swirl cake pan to evenly distribute butter, then pour batter into the pan and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Serves 4

Santa Fe Kiev

You don’t live in New Mexico for long without becoming addicted to chili. Sometimes it seems as though nothing tastes right unless it has chili in it. Therefore, while working on a ranch near Santa Fe, the chili "accidentally" wound up in the Kiev. This simple but elegant recipe is perfect for that intimate holiday meal!
4 Tbl butter
1 Tbl minced onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 Tbl diced green chili
4 boneless chicken breasts
2 oz cream cheese
Melt butter over low heat, then sauté onion, garlic and green chili until clear and remove from heat. Using a meat mallet, pound bone side of breasts until they are flat. After flattening breast, spoon equal amounts of sautéed ingredients, reserving 2 Tbl of butter mixture. Place 1/2 tsp cream cheese on each breast, roll and secure with toothpicks, and place into a pie pan. Pour remaining butter mixture over the breasts, cover and refrigerate eight to twenty-four hours. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Serves 2
This recipe is in my cookbook, The Gourmet Cowboy available at Amazon. Just click on the link below!

Gravel Road Banana Pie

If nuts are good on a banana split, then why not in a banana pie?
This is a question which plagued Socrates, and one which he could
not find a chef to adequately answer. After trying this pie, you will find
that the answer is that there is no reason.
1-9inch pie crust
8 oz cream cheese
6 eggs
½ pt cream
½ c sugar
½ c flour
2 bananas
4 oz walnut pieces
Preheat oven to 375. Melt cream cheese in a microwave
or double boiler. While cheese is melting,
beat eggs and cream until foamy. When eggs
and cream are foamy, slowly add flour, sugar and
cream cheese until all ingredients are well mixed.
Slice bananas and spread them evenly over the
bottom of the pie shell, spreading the nuts evenly
over them. Pour the batter into the pie shell and
bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted
into the middle comes out clean.
This recipe is another original recipe from the Gourmet Cowboy now on sale for only $7 plus shipping This will make someone (maybe more than one) a great Christmas gift!

Nut Crescents

This is another recipe donated by my mother which is a family favorite. It is a good one to let the kids make as it is almost foolproof. (I say almost, because there is always the chance that somewhere, somehow, and sometimes, even the simplest things may go awry.)
½ cup shortening
½ c butter 1 ¼ c ground walnuts or almonds

2 c sifted flour
1Tbl water
1Tbl vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325. Combine butter and shortening until it attains a creamy
texture. Gradually blend in ½ of powdered sugar. Mix in nuts, and then gradually blend in flour. Add vanilla and water and mix well. Using 1Tbs of dough per cookie, shape into crescents on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake for twelve to fifteen minutes at 325. Roll in remaining powdered sugar while still warm. Cool on cookie racks.

Thanksgiving Outlaw Breakfast

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pancho Villa Omelet

Legend has it that the famous outlaw insisted on having this omelet
every morning for breakfast. He claimed it had a magic which kept
him one step ahead of his foes. On the day of his capture, it is said
that Cookie substituted cheddar cheese for the cream cheese.
2 Tbl butter
3 eggs
2 tsp cream
1/2 c cream cheese
2 oz chopped green chili
Melt butter in an omelet pan on medium heat. While butter is melting,
combine eggs with cream and beat until frothy. Pour egg mixture
in pan and cook until the top starts to solidify, then turn. Spread
evenly with cream cheese and chili, cover and cook for one minute.
Fold and serve.
Serves 1.

Thankful Turkey

The fear of all turkeys is that they will wind up dry, resembling a dehydrated “just add water” meal, without the water, rather than the moist delicacy enjoyed by the Pilgrims. To help alleviate this fear, and have the turkeys flocking to your house for Thanksgiving dinner, just follow this moisture guaranteed recipe.

20 lb Turkey
750 ml bottle Chablis Blanc
14 oz pkg bread stuffing mix
1/2 lb butter
8 oz pkg sliced mushrooms
1 c walnuts
1 onion
2 Tbl honey
2 Tbl dried summer savory
1/2 tsp garlic juice
1/2 tsp onion juice
The night before cooking the bird, pour the Chablis into a saucepan, wrap summer savory in a coffee filter and secure with a piece of thread. Cover for the night. Remove summer savory from Chablis (reserving savory for stuffing ) and add butter, garlic juice, onion juice and honey to Chablis. Inject this mixture evenly throughout bird. Melt remaining butter over low heat.
While butter is melting chop onion. When butter is melted add onion and sauté until clear. When onion is clear combine this mixture with stuffing mix, walnuts, mushrooms and summer savory. When this mixture is well blended, loosely stuff body and neck cavities of the bird, tie legs together. Cover and roast for 5 hours on 350. After 4 hours, remove cover and cook for an additional hour or until the wings remove easily when pulled.
Serves 8 to 10.