Layered Italian Salad

As a boy I helped out on farms and ranches around my parents’ place in northern California. Most of the people owning these places were of Italian descent and would make their own salami, which was delicious by itself or in a salad. This salad was inspired by these neighbors,and by a beautiful lady who challenged me to make a low-fat salad dressing for it.
16 oz plain yogurt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbl minced onion
2 Tbl mayonnaise
½ tsp sweet basil
½ tsp oregano
(Combine the above ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.)
1 head iceberg lettuce
12 oz dry salami
2 tomatoes
10 oz package frozen peas
6 oz grated romano cheese
Shred the lettuce and chop the salami into bite sized pieces. Slice the tomatoes thinly. In a bowl, place a layer of lettuce then salami, followed by a layer of peas. Cover this with a layer of tomatoes, then dressing and top with a layer of cheese. Repeat these layers, cover and refrigerate 2 to 4 hours.

This recipe is from 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.

Rosebud Shrimp

Coming up with new recipes can be fun, and easy. This gourmet meal came about when I noticed dried rosebuds in the grocery store on Christmas eve.I just started grabbing a few more ingredients, took it home and had dinner made in under half an hour.  Serve it over the pasta of your choice.
1 lb fresh peeled shrimp
1/2 pt fresh cream
4 oz Feta Cheese
3 cloves garlic
4 bulb onions
1/2 C chopped parsley 
1/4 cup crushed dried rosebuds
4 T butter

Slice onion and garlic into slivers and saute over medium heat  in butter until clear. Add shrimp and parsley, and saute until a few shrimp begin to turn pink. Add cream and parsley, stirring frequently. Once cream begins to boil, add crushed rosebuds and feta cheese, stirring constantly. Once mixture has begun to thicken, remove from heat and serve.
Serves 3

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

Alaskan Pepper Shrimp

I discovered this genuine Eskimo dish while working for the government.
It seems there were too many moose in Alaska, so the government
contracted me to drive the excess moose into Canada, as they
did not have their green cards.
8 oz fresh peeled shrimp
8 oz extra fine egg noodles
¼ C water
½ green bell pepper
½ red bell pepper
¼ tsp horseradish powder
½ tsp crushed hot chili pepper
Cook noodles as per package instructions. While noodles are cooking, chop bell peppers. Place water and shrimp into a sauce pan on high. Sprinkle shrimp with horseradish and pepper; stir until shrimp are pink and remove from heat. Drain shrimp and noodles. Combine all ingredients and serve.
Serves 2.

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!

Cowboy Breakfast to warm up with

Cowboys have one important meal of the day...Breakfast! Pancho Villa Omelet is guaranteed to fill up any cowboy and keep them warm all day. 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.

Great Warm up drink for Thanksgiving

Cowboy Cheap Chip Shot
A great drink whenever you are really cold. I was introduced to this one after spending nearly fourteen hours in sub-zero weather. Of course this is the cheap cowboy version. A great "warm up" drink for the "holidaze" season too!

1 oz peppermint schnapps
10 oz hot water
3/4 pkg instant hot chocolate

Mix hot water with your favorite instant hot chocolate mix, add schnapps and drink.

Serves 1
The Gourmet Cowboy makes a great Christmas present and is available at Amazon!

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.