Beef it Up.

So this is the traditional beef stew... it is a husband pleaser. I'm not a stew fanatic, but it is a hearty meal. Not to mention- super easy (if you have a crock pot.)

I don't have a "result" photo, but I bet you guys can use your I M A G I N A T I ON to picture what it looks like.

Beef Stew

2 lbs Beef Round cut into 1" cubes (salt and pepper)

1 lb small round potatoes (the itty bitty ones, so you only have to halve them)

16 oz baby carrots

16 oz chopped celery

1 can of Condensed French Onion Soup (Campbell's)

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 T. Worcestershire sauce

2 T. of corn starch whisked in with 4 T. water (for LATER)

Mix all the meats and vegetables with the soup, 1/2 C. of water, and worcestershire sauce. Cook in crock pot on LOW for 5 hours, then add the cornstarch mixture and cook on high for another half hour.

Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Tasty, tasty.

Fondue: 3 Courses

This year, due to lack of extra money to spend on love- we decided to stay in and have fondue. Jack was at a Valentine's Party (thank you, Elisha) so we had a few hours alone. To his own embarrassment, Josh watched The Bachelor with me and we leisure had three courses of fondue. It was really, really good, and less than half the cost of Melting Pot.

Beef Broth Fondue:

1 box of Swanson's Beef Broth

1-2 cloves of minced garlic

1 T olive oil

1/2 c. red wine

Sprigs of thyme

In a sauce pan, saute the garlic and the oil. Once the garlic is turning golden, add the broth, sprigs of thyme and the wine. Transfer to fondue pot and bring to a boil. We used a package of beef tips from Harmon's, the recipe ready kind for stroganoff. They were small so it only took a minute or two in the pot for them to cook. Yum. We also had broccoli, mushrooms and zucchini.

Cheese Fondue:

I cheated here, and bought a box of cheese fondue. They have them at Harmon's, Target and probably other places. This saves time and is totally delicious. We dipped all the veggies above and some french bread.

Chocolate Fondue:

This could be anything really, but I had a half bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and a quarter bag of white chocolate chips, and some milk chocolate Valentine's candy. I threw it all in and added 2/3 cup of heavy whipping cream. It was so good- ALONE, but we dipped strawberries, banana's and mini Nilla Wafers.. mm.

Jaime Oliver's Pot Roast Meatloaf

main courses | serves 4-6
A good meatloaf with freshly made tomato sauce is great comfort food. I think this also makes a tasty change from the British Sunday lunch and I flavor it and treat it as if I’m roasting a big joint of meat. I used to make this a lot for staff dinners at the restaurant. It’s made along similar lines to meatballs and burgers, and trust me – people love this just as much.

To make your meatloaf
Preheat the oven to full whack (475 degrees). Peel and finely chop one of the onions—don’t worry about technique, just chop away until fine. Place in a large frying pan on a medium high heat with 2 lugs of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the ground cumin and coriander. Fry and stir ever 30 seconds for around 7 minutes or until softened and lightly golden, then put into a large bowl to cool. Wrap the towels in a kitchen towel and smash until fine, breaking up any big bits with your hands. Add to the other bowl of cooled onions with oregano, mustard and ground beef. Crack in the egg, and add another good pinch of salt and pepper. With clean hands, scrunch and mix up well. Move the meat mixture to a board, then pat and mold into a large football shape. Rub it with a little oil. You can either cook it straight away or put it on a plate, cover and place in the refrigerator until needed. Place the meatloaf in a Dutch oven-type pan or baking dish, put into the preheated oven, and turn down the temperature immediately to 400 degrees. Bake for a half an hour.

To make your meatloaf sauce
Peel the other onion and chop into 1/4-inch pieces. Peel and slice the garlic. Finely slice the red chile. Place the onion, garlic and chile in a large pan on a medium high heat with 2 lugs of olive oil, the paprika, and a pinch of the salt and pepper. Cook for around 7 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until softened and lightly golden. Add the Worcestershire sauce, garbanzo beans, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down and let it slowly simmer for 10 minutes. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper if needed.

To finish off and serve your meatloaf
Pick the rosemary leaves off the woody stalks and put them into a little bowl. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and pour all the fat from the pan over the rosemary leaves and mix up well. Spoon your sauce around the meatloaf. Lay the slices of bacon over the top of the meatloaf and sauce. Scatter over the rosemary leaves. Put the pan back in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the bacon turns golden and the sauce is bubbling and delicious. Serve with a mixed leaf salad and some wedges of lemon for squeezing over—this will add a nice sharp twang.

A new take on Steak and Potatoes

One of my new years resolutions is to have more dinner parties. I like making dinner, but I like to make an event out of it rather than just eat it myself. And I love making food look pretty and sitting at a table and having conversation with people I like. So this year I am inviting people I like to eat with me twice a month. So far, so good.

We started out with some warm pita bread and dip. The dip is essentially plain Greek yogurt with grated cucumber, grated garlic (I don't mess with a press) fresh lemon juice and mint (or dill if you want). Make sure you buy the Greek pita bread -- not pocket pita.

Who doesn't like a good steak (not counting vegetarians)? This is a flank steak and the marinade is the BEST marinade I've ever tried. I actually got the recipe from my friend Scott.

Flank Steak marinade:

1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup soy sauce (preferably tamari)
1/3 cup lime juice and zest (about 2 limes)
1 tsp freshly grated ginger root
steak seasoning

(marinade over night, if you can, turn the steak halfway through marinade time).

I don't have a grill, so I broiled this. Each side, about 6 minutes. The trick is not overcooking it. You want it to be pretty pink in the middle.

Most people I know love mashed potatoes and gravy. I don't, but I'm pretty sure it's the gravy I don't like. I don't have a problem with potatoes, but they need a good flavor. My flavor of choice happens to be horseradish, and horseradish goes great with beef, so this worked.

I'm not going to bother with a recipe for the potatoes because I honestly don't know how much of everything I put in here. Basically I boiled the potatoes, added some butter, half and half and a teaspoon of horseradish. Salt and pepper (garlic salt if you want).

My friend Annie made this salad. The key to good salad (if you ask me) is quality ingredients and a good dressing. I prefer to make my dressing from scratch. You save a lot of money that way and it's so much better for you.

Salad:

Green leaf lettuce
avocado
orange slices
cranberries
blue cheese

Dressing:

olive oil
orange juice
white wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Oreccheitte with Broccoli, Sausage, and Roasted Peppers:

First of all, this plate...I've had for over ten years. It used to be the server ware at Food For Thought -- a small restaurant where I worked. When I went off to college the owner gave me the old plates because she was buying new ones.

Anyway, this dish is really easy. In fact, I went home for lunch and made it in an hour AND cleaned up the kitchen. My friend Ilene made this for her family when I went to visit her in July. She even used broccoli from her garden. Impressive. I emailed her for the recipe later.

It's great if you and your kids like broccoli. And the roasted peppers you can buy in a jar at Sunflower Market on sale right now. Clearly, I didn't use oreccheitte, but only because I already had bow tie pasta and I didn't see the point in buying a whole different type of pasta for this:

Oreccheitte with Broccoli, Sausage, and Roasted Peppers:

-Salt

-1 lb orecchiette

-4 ounces sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (I think five sausages come
in a typical pack and I usually use three for this dish and freeze the rest
to use when I make this again).

-9 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (3 tbsp total)

-1 cup jarred roasted red peppers, cut into 1/2 inch squares (I just buy the bigger jar of the peppers and use half and save the other half for when I make this dish again)

-1/2 tsp ground black pepper

-2 lbs broccoli florets cut into 1-inch pieces (you could also cut up the stalk but I don't because I am a floret snob).

-1/2 cup water

-1 tbsp olive oil

2 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated (1 cup; I use parmesan because that is what I typically have on hand)

1. Bring 4 qts water to a rolling boil. Add 1 tbsp. salt and the pasta to the boiling water and stir to separated the noodles. Cook until al dente. Drain and return the pasta to the pot.

2. While the pasta is cooking, cook the sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it into small pieces with a spoon, until browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, red peppers, 1/2 tsp salt, and black pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Increase the heat to high, add the broccoli and water, cover, and cook until the broccoli begins to turn bright green, 1-2 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring frequently, until the water has evaporated and the broccoli is tender, 3-5 minutes longer.

3. Add the broccoli mixture, 1 tbsp olive oil, and cheese to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

The Best Sunday Dinner

This meal is sort of our signature meal at our house. It is so good. It originated when I went to dinner at my friends house and she cooked this spectacular meat, I thought she was some sort of chef goddess. When I called her and asked her for the "recipe", she said "Morton's of Omaha.... at Costco."

Ever since, whenever we share this meal with others (which we usually do, because this is a big hunk of meat and we are only a wee family of three) they go on and on and on about how delicious it is. So this isn't so much as a recipe, as an idea. But I'll give recipes for my sides, cause they were good, and I totally take credit for them.

Tri-Tip with Potatoes and Rolls

One Morton's of Omaha pre marinated tri tip from Costco

(You can borrow my membership if you don't have one..)

Tri tip is yummy barbecued, as long as it's a good barbecue, and a good barbecuer.

We started cooking it in the oven, as to not mess it up with our crappy BBQ.

Preheat oven to 450.

Tri tip takes 1 hour to cook, and will continue to cook inside if left sitting after coming out of the oven. We like ours a little medium- so maybe 50 min is good for us. All preference on how you like your meat. We pour some worschester sauce on ours to keep it nice and moist and add a little bit of garlic salt.

Potatoes

5-6 Yukon Gold potatoes

Seasoning Salt

Garlic salt

butter

water

Slice potatoes into thick slices. Put them into a large skillet and melt 1-2 T of butter. Stir to coat the potatoes. The seasonings are all preference. I like about 1-2 T of seasoning salt, and 1 T of garlic salt. The potatoes will cook on med-low heat and you will need to stir occasionally and add 1/4 c. periodically to keep them moist and keep them from sticking. Continue to stir and add the water till potatoes are nice and tender.

Buttermilk Rolls

3 cups Buttermilk (room temperature)*

3 cups flour

1 T. yeast dissolved in ¼ cup warm water (first let rise a few minutes)

½ cup sugar

3 eggs, beaten with a fork

2 tsp salt

5 cups flour (sometimes you need a cup more--it should not be too sticky)

½ cup oil

1 tsp baking soda

Dissolve yeast in ¼ c. warm water and let proof a few minutes. Mix the buttermilk, 3 cups flour and yeast together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Let this stand at room temperature until double in size, about 2 hours.
Add sugar, eggs, salt, 5 cups flour, oil, and baking soda. Mix well and kneed for 7-10 minutes. Roll out what you want and place the rest in the refrigerator, covered. The next time you want some fresh baked rolls, take from the bowl what you want and again put the rest back in the refrigerator. It will keep for 7 days. (This is perfect for Sunday meals because you don’t have a lot of mess to clean up and it’s quick.)
Let rolls rise on baking sheets until double in size. Time depends on the room temperature, usually 1½ - 2 hours. Dough from the refrigerator will take longer because the dough is cold.
Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. Brush with melted butter if you like.

Makes 2 dozen rolls. (I halfed it, when making for my little family..)

*I used buttermilk substitute, which is 1 T of lemon juice to each cup of milk. Worked just great.