Oxtail Soup

This is a Filipino recipe that I grew up with. It's really good for good evening.

Ingredients 

• 2 lbs - 3 lbs oxtail
• can of diced tomatoes
• tamarind soup base mix 
• salt and pepper to taste

Wash and rinse 2 lbs - 3 lbs of oxtail. Place the oxtail in a pressure cooker pot.	Fill the pot with water until the oxtail is all covered.
Bring the water to a boil. A meat foam will form on top. This foam will need to be skimmed off.	After the foam has been skimmed off...
Place the cover of the pressure cooker and lock into place. ****USING A PRESSURE COOKER IS DANGEROUS, DO NOT USE IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED OR DO NOT KNOW HOW TO USE A PRESSURE COOKER****	I set the pressure cooker to 15 lbs of pressure and cooked under pressure for 45 minutes. ****USING A PRESSURE COOKER IS DANGEROUS, AS AN ALTERNATIVE, YOU CAN USE A REGULAR POT AND COOK FOR 3 TO 4 HOURS OR UNTIL THE OXTAIL IS FORK TENDER***
After 45 minutes, turn off the heat to the pressure cooker. Wait until the pot is no longer pressurized before opening it. The oxtail should be fork tender. ****OPENING THE PRESSURE COOKER BEFORE THE POT IS DE-PRESURIZED IS DANGEROUS AND WILL CAUSE SERIOUS HARM OR WORSE****	Add water to the pot to cover the meat.
Add a can of diced tomatoes...	Bring the soup to a boil...
This is tamarind soup base. It gives a sour/tart flavor. A more popular brand of this is Knorr brand.	Add salt and pepper to your desired taste. Add the tamarind soup base mix, 1 tsp at a time. Mix the soup and taste the soup. If desired add another tsp of soup base. Taste the soup again. Continue to add soup base until reached desired taste, tasting the soup each time.
Add one head of chopped cabbage.	Bring the soup back to a boil. Boil until cabbage is just soft. For a lack of a better word, until the cabbage is al dente.
The soup is great for a cold night. Very tasty, meaty and sour soup. And the meat is tasty and soft.

Triple Cheese Bacon Ranch Pull-apart Bread

We made this for a Super Bowl get together at my cousin's house. It's very yummy, cheesy and buttery bread!

Ingredients 

• Sour dough bread loaf
• bacon
• sharp cheddar cheese
• monterey jack cheese
• parmesan cheese
• sweet onions
• butter
• ranch dip mix

Ingredients: Sour dough bread loaf, bacon, butter, sweet onions, ranch dip mix, sharp cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, parmesan cheese (not pictured)	Place bacon on a rack on a baking sheet. Place in a 400° pre-heated oven until bacon is crispy, about 20 minutes.
The crispy bacon comes out of the oven.	Chop up the bacon into small bits.
Mince the onion, place in a frying pan with some oil over medium heat until lightly caramelized.	The caramelized onions
Cut a grid into the sour dough loaf. Cut deep into the loaf without cutting thru the bread. Leave about 1/2 inch at the bottom of the bread uncut so that bread remains whole	Melt the butter and mix with the ranch dressing mix and put in a squeeze bottle
Assemble the bread. First use the squeeze bottle to pour the ranch/butter mix along the cuts in the bread. Then stuff bread, along the cuts with the three cheese, onions and bacon. Stuff one layer at a time. We put the onions first, then cheddar cheese, monterey jack, then the parmesan cheese. We then topped with bacon and then poured more of the ranch/butter mix. Note that we stuffed the bread along all the cut lines of the bread, both up and down cuts. Wrap the bread in foil and bake for 25 minutes in a 350° oven then open foil and bake another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.	You get a very cheesy, gooey, buttery and bacon bread. Just grab and pull a piece off and enjoy!

This was inspired by a recipe from http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/07/cheddar-bacon-ranch-pulls.html