Cuban Birthday

For a little adventure on Patrick's 22nd birthday,

he wanted to go off-roading by the Little Miami River:

It was really fun and the weather was beautiful!

The Jeep got really dirty- polka dotted with mud:

So while he washed the jeep, I started on the Cuban meal...

The dish was a Garcia family recipe called Picadillo:

*Brown 2 1/2 - 3 lbs of ground beef

While browning the meat...

*Saute in olive oil the following:

onions, 8 cloves garlic, 1 red bell pepper, 2 tsp oregano, 1/8 tsp cumin, 1-2 bay leaves

*Take 1/4 of the sauteed mixture above and

*Add to 2- 16 oz. cans of black beans (undrained)

* also add 1/4 cup of red cooking wine

*cover and simmer this until the rest of the meal is ready:

Add the following to the other 3/4 of the sauteed mixture:

*3 1/4 oz. of capers, green olives, and 3 oz. pimentos...

*In the meantime, start making the yellow rice...

I used 2 of the saffron yellow rice mixes below

and the instructions are the packages:

Now back to the sauteed mixture with olives and capers...

*Add 2- 14 oz. cans of tomatoes or tomato sauce

*Spoon Ground Beef into sauteed mixture

*Stir in 1/4 cup of red cooking wine

*Cover and Simmer 20-30 minutes

(This is great to make in the morning and put in a crock pot.

The longer it simmers, the better the flavor)

Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top

and serve to the birthday boy with some toasted garlic bread :)

Then we ended the evening with a walk to Starbucks...