Jennifer's Week Twenty-Four Recipe: Good Eats Meatloaf

So, last week Friday I spent the night at Chez Velander (along with Katie) to assist Erin with her small ones. (At one point, I was carrying both children up the stairs: Amber is too young to get much out of it but Lily thought it was great fun!) Erin made this meatloaf for dinner and I thought it was tasty and I live with carnivores. (A loaf? Made of meat?! Perfect!) It also has a slightly spicy/Mexican flavor to it and I thought I would test our theory that Erik loves Mexican food. Yes, it is yet another Alton Brown recipe and I promise I will get a recipe from someone/somewhere else next week!


Good Eats Meatloaf

6oz garlic-flavored croutons (At Super Target, all brands of croutons come in 5 oz bags!)

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp dried thyme (Penzeys FTW!)

1/2 onion, roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and broken (or use baby carrots like Erin and I)

3 whole garlic cloves

1/2 red bell pepper

18 oz ground chuck

18 oz ground sirloin

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 egg


For the glaze:

1/2 cup catsup/ketchup

1 tsp ground cumin (Am I the only one that thinks cumin smells like body odor?)

Dash Worcestershire sauce (I know I used more than a dash)

Dash hot pepper sauce, i.e. Tabasco (see above)

1 Tbs honey

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a food processor bowl, combine croutons, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme. Pulse until the mixture is of a fine texture. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, carrot, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture, ground sirloin, and ground chuck with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the kosher salt. Add the egg and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing the meat.

Pack this mixture into a 10-inch loaf pan to mold the shape of the meatloaf. Onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, turn the meatloaf out of the pan onto the center of the tray. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. Set the probe for 155 degrees.

Combine the catsup, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce and honey. Brush the glaze onto the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes.

This was a HUGE hit with Erik. "Mommy you need to make this for dinner EVERY night!" Really, what better praise is there. Thanks Erin!

Jennifer's Week Sixteen Recipe - Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

So, Chad and I have been together for 9 years. One of Chad's favorite foods is pot roast. I had never made a pot roast before... until today. I know, what kind of wife am I?! I figured it can't be too hard, but I wanted to do research (quiet, Chris) to make sure the roast didn't dry out. What should I use as a liquid in the slow cooker? So I found this recipe on the ever-handy allrecipes.com. I used it as a guideline and finally made a pot roast!



Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Ingredients

• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1 1/4 cups water (I used beef stock)
  
• 5 1/2 pounds pot roast (I used a 4 pound chuck roast and that was plenty big!)
  

Directions

1. In a slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.
2. Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.

I seasoned the roast with kosher salt, pepper and rosemary. I then seared it with a bit of olive oil before putting it in the crock pot. After letting it cook for 2 hours on high, I added some onion, baby red potatoes and carrots and turned it down to low for about 4-5 hours.


Would I make it again? Well, Chad has demanded a repeat performance next week.

Karin's Week Nine Recipe: Ground Beef/Venison Stroganoff

This week's recipe turned out rather interesting. Mostly because I decided to see what happened if I combined a few recipes to make one. Hamburger Stroganoff is a frequent visitor to our house in the winter months, as it's easy to make and I usually have all the ingredients on hand. Generally, I make a quick recipe from the Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two Cookbook(circa 1964). This time, however, I decided to see what the Joy of Cooking(circa 2006) said about the same recipe.

True to form though, I decided to substitute ingredients for what I had on hand. So, what I decided to do was post the two original recipes, and the recipe for what I actually ended up making. All of these are served with cooked egg noodles and make 3 very generous helpings. Here goes:

Betty Crocker's Hamburger Stroganoff

1/2 c minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c butter
1 lb ground beef
2 T flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 c sour cream
parsley

Saute onion and garlic in butter over med heat. Stir in meat and brown. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and mushrooms. Cook 5 min. Stir in soup. Simmer uncovered 10 min. Stir in sour cream. Heat through. I usually also add about 1/4 c of Worcestshire sauce, and about 1-2 T of sage with the soup.


Joy of Cooking's Beef Stroganoff

2 lb fillet of beef, top loin, or sirloin tip, cut into 2x 0.25" strips
salt & pepper
2 T olive oil
3 T butter
1 onion or 2 shallots, chopped
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
2 c beef broth or stock
(2 T Cognac)
1 c sour cream
1 T Dijon mustard
(2 T chopped dill)

Season meat with salt & pepper to taste. Heat the oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add meat in batches, cooking just until browned, about 2 min. Remove to a plate and melt the butter in the skillet. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 3 min. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until the liquid the mushrooms released evaporates, about 8 min. Add the beef broth and Cognac, if using, and simmer for 10 min. Stir in the sour cream, mustard and the meat with its accumulated juices. Heat through. Stir in dill if desired.

Karin's Version of Stroganoff

1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 tsp garlic
1/2 c butter (as the venison is much leaner than hamburger)
1 lb ground venison
2 T flour
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper
1.5 c beef broth
2 T port (because we didn't have cognac)
2 T Worcestshire sauce
1 c sour cream
1 T spicy brown mustard (again, not having the Dijon)
2 tsp dried dill

Melt butter in large skillet. Add onion and garlic and saute for about 3 min. Add ground venison and brown. Stir in flour and mushrooms, and about 3 twists of a salt grinder and 3 twists of pepper grinder. Cook until mushrooms look cooked. Add beef broth, port, and Worcestshire sauce. Simmer for about 10 min. Stir in sour cream and mustard. Cook until heated through. Stir in dill.

Verdict: We liked the consistency of the beef broth version better than the condensed soup version, more saucey and less coagulated. We did not like the dill, and would revert back to using sage, as originally stated. Also, neither of us noticed that the port added any real difference in flavor, maybe the cognac would? Or, maybe use a Stout beer? So, all in all, I might substitute the beef broth for the soup in the Betty Crocker recipe, but continue to use that one.

Jennifer's Week Eight Recipe: Hungarian Goulash

There are certain dishes that I will always associate with my grandmother. Meat pie; pork ribs, sauerkraut and homemade dumplings; apple pie; homemade fudge and caramels at Christmas; goulash. The recipe below is not hers; I did not have time to get a hold of her and I wanted to try something new. You know, so I could post something here. (Note: I made Karin's Lobster Risotto this week (with shrimp) but since that is already posted, I figured it didn't count.)

Recipe is from Allrecipes.com, found here.



Hungarian Goulash (I halved this recipe since the original - below - serves 8)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

3 onions, sliced (I finely chopped mine since Erik doesn't like onions - when he sees them)

2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika (I was generous with this because I love paprika. Penzey's as become a favorite place to shop. Thanks to Karin and Chris for their glowing reviews of the place.)

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

1 1/2 cups water

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt (I omitted this since it seemed like there was enough salt already)

Egg noodles, cooked (I used thin egg noodles that have a specific name that I cannot remember other than it begins with a "K")

sour cream, to garnish

NOTE: I added 1 chopped bell pepper and a small can of whole tomatoes (which completely fell apart as they cooked, yum!). The bell pepper came from other goulash recipes I scouted and the canned whole tomatoes is something that my grandmother puts in hers, but she must add them toward the end since they always arrived to the table whole.


1. Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook onions in oil until soft, stirring frequently. Remove onions and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine paprika, 2 teaspoons salt and pepper. Coat beef cubes in spice mixture, and cook in onion pot until brown on all sides. Return the onions to the pot, and pour in tomato paste, water, garlic and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until meat is tender. Serve with egg noodles and garnish with sour cream.


Oh yes, I will make it again. It has a very strong "comfort food" vibe to it. It's a heavy dish, so it will probably be something I make during the colder half of the year.

Karin's Week Five Recipe: Carbonnades a la Flamande

The title of this recipe is the fancy way of saying I made "Beef and Onions Braised in Beer". I like the French version much better, don't you? Although, I didn't use beef, I used a venison roast. We have a lot of venison in our house, and this piece had been meant for the stew pot last week, but the stew pot got full and this did not fit in. So, as it was thawed, I needed to cook it, and this recipe sounded perfect for a wintry day. It is from the legendary Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume One.

I got the two volume set for Christmas, and already I've been inspired just by reading through the first volume. Do you ever do that? Just read a cookbook as if it were a regular book? It can give you all kinds of inspiration, ideas, and how-tos. I have been having a lot of those a-ha! moments with this book, as I always have wondered how to make the fancy sauces that all the chefs seem to know.

I will do my best to set down this recipe as Julia did. Right down to the necessary pots and pans.

Carbonnades a la Flamande

3-lb piece of lean beef (chuck or rump roast) *I used the venison roast.
2-3 T rendered fresh pork fat or good cooking oil
A heavy skillet

Preheat oven to 325deg. Cut the beef into slices about 2x4" across and 1/2" thick. Dry on paper towels. Put a 1/16" layer of fat or oil in the skillet and heat until almost smoking. Brown the beef slices quickly, a few at a time, and set them aside.

1.5 lb or 6 c sliced onions *I know this seems like A LOT of onions, but trust me, it works out.
salt and pepper
4 cloves mashed garlic

Reduce heat to moderate. Stir in onions into the fat in the skillet, adding more fat if necessary, and brown the onions lightly for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. (Our onions did not really fit into our skillet, but rather mounded up high. Have faith though, they will reduce in the 10 min and eventually fit into the skillet as promised.) Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper, and stir in garlic.

9-10" fireproof casserole about 3.5" deep
salt and pepper

Arrange half the browned beef in the casserole and season lightly with salt and pepper. Spread half the onions over the beef. Repeat with the rest of the beef and onions.

1 c strong beef stock or canned beef bouillon (I used canned stock)
2-3 c light beer, Pilsner type (I used just short of 2 bottles of a lightish beer called Farm Girl that no one wanted to drink.)
2T light brown sugar
1 large herb bouquet: 6 parsley springs, 1 bay leaf, and 1/2 t thyme, tied in cheese cloth (I used 6T of dried Penzey's parsley, 1/2t Penzey's dried thyme, and the bay leaf)

Heat the stock/bouillon in the browning skillet, scraping up coagulated cooking juices. Pour it over the meat. Add enough beer so the meat is barely covered. Stir in the brown sugar. Bury the herb bouquet among the meat slices. (I just mixed in my dried herbs with the liquid.) Bring casserole to the simmer on top of the stove. Then cover and place in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate temperature so liquid remains at a very slow simmer for 2.5 hours, at the end of which the meat should be fork tender.

1.5 T arrowroot or cornstarch
2 T wine vinegar (I used red wine version)

Remove herb bouquet. Drain cooking liquid out of casserole and into a saucepan, and skim off fat. Beat the starch and vinegar mixture into the liquid and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Carefully correct seasoning. You shoul dahve about 2 c of sauce. (I had more like 5 c of sauce, and so did the thickening step again to get it to a sauce consistency.) Pour the sauce back over the meat. *Can be prepared in advance to this point.

Parsley potatoes or buttered noodles

When ready to serve, cover casserole and simmer slowly for 4-5 minutes until meat is thoroughly heated through. Either bring the casserole to the table, or arrange the meat on a hot serving platter, spoon the sauce over it, surround with potatoes or noodles and decorate with parsley.

I would definitely make this recipe again. It had amazing flavors. The venison was fork tender, which can be a challenge for such a lean meat. The onions were sweet after such a long cook time, and the beer didn't really have a distinct flavor. We used Farfalle pasta shapes and served it over buttered noodles. My mom and I made this for a family get together of 7 people, and we had leftovers - it is supposed to feed 6. Everyone agreed that it was an excellent dish. The one challenge with this recipe was that it took 2 of us an hour to get the prep done before the dish went into the oven. Tasty, but time consuming to make.

Jennifer's Week One Recipe: Ginger Beef Stir-Fry

From Better Homes and Gardens Big Book of Healthy Family Dinners - the best $10 bargain book I have ever purchased, it is going on 6 years of faithful service to our family.

Ingredients

8 oz beef top round steak, trimmed of all separable fat
1/2 half cup beef broth

3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (I used ground ginger since I did not have fresh on hand and did not feel like shelling out $5 for the amount needed.)

Nonstick cooking spray

12 oz asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (2 cups)

1 1/2 cups sliced, fresh mushrooms

1 cup small broccoli florets

4 green onions, bias-sliced into 1-inch lengths (1/2 cup)

1 tablespoon cooking oil

2 cups hot, cooked rice


*Assemble and prepare all of the ingredients before you start top stir-fry. If you like, you can even do this up to 24 hours ahead and chill each ingredient separately.

1. If desired, partially freeze meat. Thinly slice meat across the grain into bite-size strips. Set aside. For the sauce, in a small bowl stir together beef broth, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar, and ginger. Set aside.

2. Spray an unheated wok or large skillet with nonstick coating. Preheat over medium-high heat. Add asparagus, mushrooms, broccoli, and green onions. Stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove from wok.

3. Add oil to hot wok. Add the meat; stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until desired doneness. Push meat from center of wok. Stir sauce and add to the center of wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

4. Return vegetables to the wok. Stir all ingredients together to coat with sauce; heat through. Serve immediately with hot, cooked rice.

Makes 4 servings


Would I make this recipe again? Yes. I made a bit more than the recipe above calls for; my attempt made around 6 servings. Since the steak I purchased was close to the full pound, I used all of it and more vegetables, made a bit more sauce, etc. Remember, with cooking you do not need to be precise with measurements (baking is a different animal). Like more vegetables? Add more. Want more meat? Add more.

A Newish Recipe to Share (not my official entry for the week)

Since Tricia and Chris have both posted, I felt as if I should post something as well. This is a recipe I have made only once before (and am making again today per Chad's request). This is not my official entry for the week - that I am making for dinner tomorrow night. This is one of those recipes I feel that needs to be shared, as if it is some moral imperative. (Yes, in my opinion, it is that good.)



Irish Beef Stew (from simplyrecipes.com)

* 1/4 cup olive oil (I used extra virgin, or EVOO for you Rachael Ray fans)
* 1 1/4 pounds well-marbled chuck beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces (NOT extra-lean)
* 6 large garlic cloves, minced
* 6 cups beef stock or canned beef broth (I use beef stock)
* 1 cup of Guinness beer
* 1 cup fine red wine (I use a Shiraz I enjoy. Rule of thumb: if you'll drink it, use it.)
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 tablespoon dried thyme
* 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
* 2 bay leaves
* 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter - the real stuff, none of this vegetable oil spread- either salted or unsalted, I use what I have on hand
*3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
*1 large onion, chopped
* 2 cups carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I used baby carrots since we have those on hand and you don't have to peel them)
* salt and pepper to taste **
* 2 tablespoons parsley either dried or fresh, whatever you have on hand

1 Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Lightly salt the beef pieces. Working in batches if necessary, add the beef (do not crowd the pan, or the meat will steam and not brown) and cook, without stirring, until nicely browned on one side, then use tongs to turn the pieces over. Continue to cook in this manner until all sides are browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add beef stock, Guinness, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

2 While the meat and stock is simmering, melt butter in large pan over medium heat. Add potatoes, onion and carrots. Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes. Set aside until the beef stew in step one has simmered for one hour.

3 Add vegetables to beef stew. Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Tilt pan and spoon off fat. Transfer stew to serving bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with parsley and serve. (Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

Serves 4 to 6.

** "to taste" means just that - taste the stew before adding salt and pepper. Only add if you think it needs it. If adding salt and pepper, taste again (with a different utensil!) after adding. Remember, others can always add more salt and pepper to suit their tastes when the stew is in their own bowl. Also, try to encourage the practice of tasting the meal before dumping pepper and salt all over it. (Sorry, pet peeve.)