Facebook Food

Of all of the things on Facebook right now my favorite to see are the various recipes.  I have several friends that love sharing the yummy treats they see...my stomach says yes, my hips say no...I have pinned several of them on my Pinterest boards including the Shepherd's Pie Potato Skins!

Photo from Tip Hero

Cream of Whatever

One of the items I tend to stock up on is Cream of Mushroom with Garlic for cooking, and Cream of Chicken with herbs...well I needed a can and guess what?  Yup, no cans of cream of anything...well that wouldn't do because taking the wee one back out just for ONE thing just seemed crazy.  So I did some searching and found a recipe for making cream soup substitute.  And the best thing is I had everything on hand already! Of course I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  Mainly because the recipe I needed the cream soup for was a beef recipe and the original recipe called for chicken stock....so I changed it up a little. As the original recipe states, this makes the equivilant to one 10.75oz can of cream of ______.

It's 'da bomb!

I have been wanting to do a bacon bomb for quite a while now.  Just never took the time to do one.  Until now!  This is a fairly simple process, and you can put whatever you want in one.  I have a pound of hamburger thawed, and about 2/3 of a pound of ground pork that is begging for something spectacular....So I decided to do a Smoky Applewood bomb with cheese!

This is why you should plan ahead!

Last year we purchased a quarter of a cow.  I was sooo sure that we would go through that in a years time...well this last year has flown by and we still have quite a bit of meat in the deep freezer.  So I pulled the brisket out of the freezer because the sky is getting dark and it's gonna rain...so no grilling!  I found a recipe I wanted to try (click here) and I realized that making a brisket is an easy 24 hour process!  I used my microwave's defrost mode to get it started defrosting and gathered the rest of my ingredients.  I did not follow the recipe exactly, I substituted a lot of the seasonings.  I used onion powder, celery salt, Durango Hickory Smoked Salt, minced garlic and a secret ingredient.

Every recipe I read said to line the pan with foil, and I used three layers to make sure that cleanup would be easy.

< Meat goes in the pan

Then cover with liquid smoke >

and sprinkle on the rest of the seasonings.

then cover with foil and let it marinade overnight...the next day pour off the liquid smoke and add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. And by a few dashes I mean cover it with liquid.

This gets put in the oven at 250 for six hours, I cooked mine from 8:30am till 4pm, 7 1/2 hours total

The original recipe says to  pull the foil off, pour a bottle of BBQ sauce on it and bake it for another hour . But I didn't want BBQ, so I left it off and as I stated before, it was baking for over seven hours.

So yummy I couldn't stop tasting this!!!

I used the liquid that was left from baking it as a gravy, and served this delicious meat with mashed potatoes, corn and toast.

Enjoy!

Baby, it’s cold outside!

The weather took a turn for the colder this week.  So tonight I decided to make a hearty andsmoky beef merlot stew.  Althoug I don’t know if I can really call it a merlot stew, because I used a cabernet saviginon.  I don’t usually drink red wine, but I do love cooking with it!

And of course you can never go wrong with a recipe that starts with “chop and brown bacon”

Cutting the beef chuck roast took the longest, but it was cheaper than buying stew meat pre-cut.

After the bacon is nice and crispy spoon it out of the pot and set it aside.  I know the recipe says to do the beef and bacon in a secondary pot, but why do more dishes than necessary!!

Brown the beef in the bacon fat.

Sprinkle with Spice Agent Smoky Durango Sea Salt, pepper and about 2T of flour and stir to coat…

Then add the water, wine, thyme, and garlic.  I also added some beef bullion, because I love the beefy taste!

Cover and cook over low for 1 hour…yeah one hour…

While the beef is stewing, the onions need a quick 3 minute bath in boiling water so they are easier to peel.

Also, it's a good idea to go ahead and chop the rest of the veggies...the carrots and mushrooms that is...

Add the pearl onions and cook for 20 minutes,

Add the mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread for dipping!!!

ENJOY!

It's not your mama's meatloaf

Inspiration strikes again!  Tonight I decided to make Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf.  Not a new recipe to me, it's been a while, but I had the energy to make it so here we go!

Start by browning 10 pieces of bacon, if it's thick cut you can use 5.

Then take your beef (or whatever ground meat you want to use) and combine the eggs

bread crumbs

mayo

shredded cheddar cheese

and the Worcestershire sauce

in a big bowl with the salt and pepper.  At this point I realized that I was STILL out of ketchup...so I used BBQ sauce, and omitted the mustard.  Make sure your hands are clean and take any rings off...then mix and mash it all together.  Form it into a loaf shape, spread more BBQ on top

and bake at

for 40 minutes, or so...

Then top it off with the french fried onions!

Cook another 10 minutes, and it's ready to eat!

ENJOY!

It's a good day for a pot roast

This week marks a new beginning.  I was offered a job today.  Very exciting news, and also a change to the way I do things!  The crock pot will now be my friend, and freezer meals will be essential!  So, today to celebrate I decided to make a pot roast!  It's a new recipe, Balsamic Onion Pot Roast, and yes I have an obsession with Balsamic Vinegar.  Maybe one day I will be able to afford the super expensive sweet stuff to use on desserts!

Start browning the roast

Cut up the onion and line the bottom of the crock pot

Wash the mushrooms and set aside

In a sauce pan boil the 1 cup of broth to reduce

Once meat is browned, place in the crock pot on top of the onions, surround with the mushrooms and I added some carrots.

Pour sauce over the top and cook on Low for 6-8 hours.

While I'm waiting I'm going to make some Croutons, and an Enchilada Casserole.

After 6-8 hours, remove meat, and vegetables, scoop out as much of the fat that you can, and put the liquid in a pan, reduce and thicken if you want, serve on the side, or pour right on top of the meat!

Enjoy!

Oh the things to come!

My neighbor bought a dehydrator so we could make chicken treats for our dogs (it's being shipped and will be here next week hopefully).  They love them and store bought ones can be dangerous, and of course expensive!  Making dog jerky is simple; slice and dry.  They don't need the extra flavorings, nor should they really have the extra seasoning...

All this talk about making jerky for the dogs gets me craving it for myself.  Doesn't help that my DH has been getting some at work and talking about it.  I'm sure he would share it, except it is apparently very spicy, which is why he gets it by default.  I started researching jerky making, there is a LOT of information out there!  So far I have found the best cuts of meat for pork and beef for making jerky

Pork:
Tenderloin
Loin
Fresh Ham
Butt
Sirloin
Cushion meat


Beef:
Top Butt Sirloin
Flap Meat
Flat Iron/Top Blade
Top Round
Flank Steak
Rump Roast

Approximately 4 pounds of meat will yield 1 pound of jerky.  There are also various marinade mixes you can go out and purchase to make jerky at home, but what fun is that?  I did find several variations of jerky marinade that I do want to try, although my end goal is to create my own mixture of flavors for some awesome jerky that I can truly call my own. 


So, stay tuned for some meaty goodness.  I plan on tackling beef, and pork jerky (bacon style) and maybe some other proteins.  And of course other delicious snacks made possible with a dehydrator!

Balsamic and Onions and Mushrooms! OH MY!

Sundays are a great time for pot roast.  Especially since mother nature has decided to give us an ACTUAL winter, at least a weeks worth of winter weather.  So this morning while I am making fresh blueberry muffins I'm also starting tonight's dinner!

My DH loves blueberries.  And as luck would have it his parents brought us a Valentines bag of fresh fruit, which included a pint of blueberries!!!  The muffins I made came directly from the 1976 Betty Crocker cookbook, the orange one.  I love this cookbook, my mom has it, and when I found it for $12 I had to buy one too!  The consistency was dense, but overall good flavor and super yummy still warm!

On to the main event! Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast!

I tried to follow the recipe as closely as I could, but bottom round roast was much cheaper than chuck roast, so I am using the round roast.  All of my other changes are noted in the recipe.  (see above link)

I have also decided that I need a sous chef...because trying to do all of the steps, and photograph is next to impossible for some recipes...this one is included.  I did manage to get a picture of everything IN the Crock-pot.

Dinner was wonderful, I am glad I added the extra tomato sauce, the balsamic was almost overpowering, also could be that my balsamic isn't the highest quality...But in the end this recipe recieved the thumbs up from DH.  And a "you can make this again" too!

**Last night after eating this delicious meal complete with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, we both almost passed out on the couch from overeating...which is why I'm posting this now...

Two pot pasta meal.

What started out as quick pasta night quickly turned into me rushing to the store for more Mushrooms, as the ones in the fridge were slimy. :(

Oh well, glad I have my mushrooms!  I also get to use my new pan (again) to make more of a pasta casserole!  I kinda made this recipe up as I went.

1 sweet onion chopped
1 lb hamburger
8oz sliced mushrooms
1 box pasta (your choice)
8oz ricotta cheese
16oz shredded pizza cheese or mozzarella cheese
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
Italian seasoning (to taste)
1 tsp minced garlic

In a large pan (that is oven save) brown your hamburger, onion, mushrooms and garlic.  Also start your pasta water to boil.  And cook pasta as directed.

Drain the juices off the hamburger mixture.  Add to the pasta with the sauce (about half the jar), ricotta cheese and half the shredded cheese, stir to combine.  I found it was easier to mix all of this in my pasta pot then transfer back to the large oven safe pan, a lot less messy this way.  

Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over the top; I also used some Parmesan cheese.

Pop in the oven at 350° for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and dish is well heated thru.

 

Serve and Enjoy!

Trials and the Errors of My Ways

Creating any new dish or desert is definitely Trial and Error.  I found a yummy looking recipe for my Christmas treats on a blog with a similar title.  Cream Mints, the kind you find at weddings, baby showers, etc.  I really LOVE those things.  So of course I had to add them to my list of “to-do.”  Today was that day.  I read the recipe three times, went back to the blog, and read through the comments.  Their recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of Cream cheese, mint extract, food coloring (optional) and 4 - 4½ CUPS of Powdered Sugar.  After just one and half cups my mixture was more of a powder…ugh, and no I didn’t take a picture of that particular disaster.  One of the comments on the blog said the commenter added a total of 3 ounces instead of Tablespoons.  So I promptly dropped the remainder of my cream cheese in my mixer, and another cup and a half of powdered sugar.  This is the consistency I was thinking when I read the blog,

I also didn’t have any superfine sugar, but being soooo ingenious I remembered that you can put regular sugar in a coffee grinder or food processor and make your own.  I also added some colored sugar so it  was pretty like the mints!

And then finally, once I QUIT eating the dough, they were done!

After taking some mints to my neighbor for testing I decided to make popcorn, using a new method, brown bag in the microwave! Sounds great right? EPIC Failure, I had a major blowout in the microwave! 

I left it in and waited for the popping to slow, bad idea, the middle somehow burned and filled my kitchen with smoke.  And to top it off I had company witness the disaster.  I will try this again, but with 1/4 cup...but I need to go get more popcorn.

After a “quick” trip to the store, and let’s face it, no trip to the store is EVER fast…I am back home, and popping popcorn in the microwave once again!  Using just a 1/4 cup this time!  And in true male fashion, my boyfriend comes in and asks “So, what’s for dinner?  Do you have a plan?” Oh yeah…dinner…um…and in a flash of brilliance I remember that pound of hamburger I have in the fridge…the mushrooms we just bought at the store.  So we are having what I’m going to call “Not a Shepherd’s Pie”. 

You will need:
Tater tots (oven bake these, don’t fry)
1 lb hamburger
8oz fresh sliced mushrooms
12 oz jar savory Beef Gravy
Minced Garlic to taste
Onion powder (or fresh chopped onions) to taste
Cheese, whatever flavor, whatever quantity makes you happy

Put Tots in the oven to bake.  In the meantime, combine mushrooms, hamburger, garlic and onion in an microwave safe dish and cook until hamburger is brown.  Drain. Add beef gravy and microwave for another 2 minutes or until gravy is hot.  

Once tots are done, put on plate or in a bowl

layer beef and mushroom mixture, 

top with cheese and enjoy!   

Hooray!  FTW!

Back to the popcorn, surprise mom!  I’m making some Cinnamon popcorn for you!!!  3/4 cups of kernels later I had enough popcorn (with un-popped kernels removed) to move on to the next step.  Mixing the ingredients, being VERY careful with the Cinnamon Oil, yes oil, you have to go to the Pharmacy and request this, it is not on the shelf.  It’s between $10-15 depending on where you get it and the quality.  It goes a long way, we have had ours just over two years, and still have PLENTY!  Click here for the recipe.

 

And on that note, I’m going to eat some popcorn, and get off my feet.  Tomorrow expect more wonderful desserts, and hopefully no disasters!