Mmmmm, Roast Beast-A.K.A. Pot Roast

Today’s Menu: Pot roast, mashed potatoes with gravy, steamed broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce and homemade buns.

I love Sunday dinner.  Growing up, Sunday dinner was always something a little fancier than what we would have during the week.  Monday through Saturday, dinner was always good, but it was usually something simple, like macaroni and cheese (ALWAYS Kraft Dinner), or soup and grilled cheese, both foods I enjoy to this day.  But Sunday was a different story.  Sunday was a day for a “proper meal” of meat, potatoes, some sort of veggie, bread with butter, and if we were good (we being myself and dad), mom would treat our sweet tooth with a pie from the market.  Roast beef, pork chops, chicken and some sort of roast were always on rotation, and special occasions were usually lasagna, pot roast or Newfie dinner. 

For our pot roast Sundays, I’ve got a super simple recipe that makes the best gravy for the mashed potatoes, leaves the meat fork tender, and best of all, makes for excellent sandwiches the next day.  The best part of this recipe is that not a lot of work is needed to make this dinner, and most of the ingredients are probably already sitting in your cupboard right now.  Here’s the recipe:

• 4 -5 lbs chuck roast
• 2 (10 1/4 ounce) cans cream of mushroom soup (if you don’t like mushroom soup, cream of celery soup works just fine).
• 1 (1 1/4 ounce) envelopes onion soup mix
• 2 medium onions, peeled and sliced thin
• Seasoning salt
• Garlic powder
• Pepper
• 1 1/2-2 cups water

Preheat oven to 350°F. Season the roast with the dry seasonings (don’t overdo).  Sprinkle the dry soup mix onto the meat.  Spread mushroom soup over the top and add onions.  Add water and cover tightly with foil.  Bake for three hours.  Add any desired vegetables (potatoes, carrots, etc) during the last hour of cooking.

Happy Eating!

Who Needs Meatloaf When You Can Have Meatballs?

Today’s Menu:  Meatballs with mushroom soup sauce, served with rice, corn and peas

As a kid growing up, I’m pretty sure I gave my mom and dad a lot of grief when it came to dinnertime.  I wasn’t a picky kid per se, just difficult.  If dinner was something involving ground beef, I got particularly stubborn.  Are hamburgers on the menu for dinner?  Awesome! I loved food I could eat with my hands.  Meatloaf?   Not so much.  To me, it just seemed odd that meat would look like a loaf of sliced bread.  So, instead of meatloaf, mom made meatballs.  Perfect for spaghetti, or served as a main course, this is a comfort food that I still enjoy to this day.

Typically served with mashed potatoes, gravy and a vegetable side, along with bread and butter, I’ve changed things up a bit.  I prefer my meatballs topped with a mushroom soup sauce, served with rice and two vegetables.  Okay, not much of a change, but a change nonetheless. 

The recipe is simple, and you can adjust it to your own tastes by adding garlic, Worcestershire sauce, steak seasoning, etc.  If you follow the recipe and want to preview what the final product might taste like, mix up your meat and seasonings, and then make a small little patty and fry it up so you can taste what it will be like in the end.  Seasoning not quite right? Adjust and try again-just remember not to make your sample patties too big or else you’ll need some more ground beef.  Here’s the recipe:

•    2lbs ground beef
•    1 cup breadcrumbs (I substituted finely crushed cracker crumbs this time)
•    1 tsp salt
•    ½ tsp pepper
•    1 can cream of mushroom soup
•    4 tbsp chopped onion
•    2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix the ground beef, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper together.  Form into extra large golf ball size meatballs, and place in a baking tray.  Cook in a large skillet until inside is no longer pink (the time will vary depending on how big your meatballs are).  Meanwhile, in a medium sized frying pan, sauté up chopped onion in a bit of butter and cook until soft.  Add can of mushroom soup, and your Worcestershire sauce, and heat until combined.  Serve meatballs on bed of rice, or alongside mashed potatoes and top with mushroom soup sauce gravy. 

Happy Eating!

Perogies: College Comfort Food and a Ukrainian Staple

Today’s Menu: Perogies, College Style

Today’s dinner brings back memories of college days when perogies were a gourmet dinner and almost revered as a dinner celebration.  I first experienced perogies my first year of college when the lady I was living with invited me to join her for dinner.  Having never tried them before, I was more than willing to give them a try-after all, a free meal is a free meal when you’re short on cash and long on appetite!  It’s quite a simple dish, nothing more than a boiled dumpling of unleavened dough, typically stuffed with a mashed potato filling.  The dumpling itself is the base for the dish, and can be prepared a number of ways, ranging from the very basic salt, pepper and some butter, or topped with hot mushroom soup (condensed soup with no milk or water added, heated with a bit of garlic powder), to the more fancy version that I happen to love best-topped with bacon, onion, cheese and served with sour cream on the side. 

The all mighty dumpling has its origins in Slavic cuisine, and was a staple dish for Eastern European families after World War II, and was commonly stuffed with ingredients that were available to the families at the time.  Canada has the second largest market next to the United States when it comes to perogy consumption, due in part to a large eastern European population, mainly in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Admittedly, I have yet to make perogies from scratch, so I fall back on the perogies that I find in my grocers freezer.  Although they are not as tasty as homemade, grocery store perogies will do in a pinch. 

It’s a pretty simple recipe, and, as with a lot of my recipes, not much measuring is done.  It’s pretty straightforward and not much in the way of ingredients and cookware is needed.  Here’s the recipe:

•    Perogies (your choice of flavouring, brand, etc)
•    ½ lb bacon, cut up into small pieces (or you can use a package of real bacon bits if you don’t feel like frying up bacon or don’t have any on hand-I recommend Oscar Meyer, found in the salad toppings area of your grocery store)
•    2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
•    ½  large onion, diced
•    1 Tbsp. butter
•    Salt and pepper to taste
•    Sour cream, optional

Prepare perogies according to package directions.  Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, fry up bacon until crisp; drain bacon in paper towel (if you are using the package of real bacon bits, you can omit this step). Pour off the bacon fat from frying pan.  Add butter and diced onion and fry up until onion is golden.  Once onions are cooked, add back in your perogies and your bacon and toss gently to combine.  Add in your cheddar cheese, and heat until cheese is melted.  Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream on the side.

Happy Eating!

Beef Stew With Dumplings-Great Comfort Food All Year Round!

Today’s Menu: Beef stew with dumplings, and homemade buns.

There’s something to be said about the simplicity of a beef stew.  No fancy ingredients, easy to make, and oh so tasty.  The recipe that I enjoy the most calls for no more than 8 ingredients, and very few steps to pull it all together.  I prepared my stew in my slow cooker yesterday, and reheated it in my Dutch oven this afternoon.  The one advantage to doing it this way is that when the stew itself cools off, all the fat floats to the surface and you can easily skim it off before reheating and serving it.   Here is my basic recipe, but feel free to adjust it as you wish-more vegetables, more meat, and so on.

•    4lbs stewing beef
•    3 tbsp. flour
•    Pinch salt
•    Pinch pepper
•    3 tbsp. oil, for browning beef
•    8 cups beef stock (or, if you choose, you can use 2 packages of beef stew mix and 8 cups of water)
•    Two large potatoes, cut into ½ inch cubes
•    Two large carrots, cut into medium sized pieces
•    Two stalks celery, cut into medium sized pieces

In a large zip top bag, add in flour, salt and pepper, and stewing beef.  Shake bag to coat beef.  In a medium sized frying pan, heat oil on medium high heat.  Brown the stewing meat on both sides and place into slow cooker.  Add beef stock or water and beef stew mix to slow cooker, and set on low.  I let mine cook for approximately 5 hours, until the stewing beef fell apart and was fork tender.  At that point, you want to add in your potatoes, carrots and celery and let simmer for another few hours, until potatoes are fork tender but not mushy.  At this point, once the potatoes are cooked, you can turn off the crock pot, let it cool and put into the fridge overnight, or if you’re preparing it on the stove, you may want to thicken up the stew with some cornstarch and water (take 2 tbsp cornstarch and 1 cup of cold water and mix together-add this to the beef stew as it comes to a bubble, stirring to prevent lumps).  If you’re using the slow cooker, skim off the fat, place into stock pot and reheat, adding your cornstarch mixture to thicken.

Now, the topping of the stew are the tasty dumplings.  These are completely optional, but definitely make a great addition to the stew and are quite simple to make.

•    1 ½ cups flour
•    ¾ tsp salt
•    2 tsp baking powder
•    ¼ cup butter or margarine
•    ¾ cup milk

Combine flour, seasonings and baking powder in mixing bowl. Cut in the margarine or butter and then mix in the milk to make soft dough. Separate into 5 to 6 pieces and place carefully into stew.  After adding dumplings to stew, cover with lid and let steam for about 15 minutes.  Top each bowl with a dumpling.

Happy Eating!

Inspiration Found In An Open Air Market

Today’s Menu: Maple mustard chicken with rice and peas, served with homemade cheddar jalapeno bread and zucchini loaf for dessert.

Today’s dinner was inspired by ingredients that I found when I was at the market today in St. Jacob’s.  With produce being at its peak, and so many vendors selling delicious foodstuffs, it’s a great time to pick up some new things that are going to be a lot fresher than what you may find at your local grocery store, and you support the hardworking farmers of St. Jacobs, Elmira and the surrounding communities at the same time-a definite win-win arrangement all around.  If you can’t make it out to this neck of the woods, definitely visit the market from afar by checking out the St. Jacobs Farmers Market website.

Now, I have made a few adjustments to the chicken recipe, but only its cooking method, the recipe remains true to its ingredients.  The recipe for the chicken calls for grilling.  I opted to bake my chicken in the oven at 350F for approximately 30 minutes.  Here’s the recipe for the chicken.  This recipe is courtesy of Lynda Ebel and was found on allrecipes.com

•    1/2 cup maple syrup
•    3 tablespoons cider or red wine vinegar
•    2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
•    1 tablespoon vegetable oil
•    2 garlic cloves, minced
•    3/4 teaspoon pepper
•    6 (4 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breast halves

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients; mix well. Reserve 1/4 cup for basting; cover and refrigerate. Pour remaining marinade into a large resealable plastic bag or shallow glass container; add chicken and turn to coat. Seal or cover; refrigerate for 4-8 hours, turning occasionally. Drain and discard marinade. Grill the chicken, uncovered, over medium heat for 3 minutes on each side. Grill 6-8 minutes longer or until juices run clear, basting with the reserved marinade and turning occasionally.

For the first time on my blog, I’m making dessert.  With fresh zucchini in hand, I went on the hunt for a very tasty zucchini loaf recipe and I managed to find it.  It’s simple, straightforward, and I think for all of those people who think they won’t like zucchini in the form of a dessert, you’ll definitely be pleasantly surprised.  This recipe is courtesy of ~Leslie~ and was found on food.com

•    3 eggs
•    1 cup oil
•    2 cups sugar
•    3 cups shredded zucchini
•    2 teaspoons vanilla
•    3 cups flour
•    1 tablespoon cinnamon
•    1 teaspoon baking powder
•    1 teaspoon baking soda
•    1 teaspoon salt
Optional
•    1 cup raisins
•    1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F and grease two loaf pans.  Mix eggs, oil and sugar and beat until creamy.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour into greased loaf pans and bake for 60-70 minutes.

Happy Eating!