Hobbit Stew

I have several friends that are really good cooks, at least their pictures of food look AMAZING!  And sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a recipe! Today is one of those days!  My friend Derek has made this stew before and I'm pretty sure I drooled on my phone and begged for the recipe....yesterday he wrote it out and tagged me in the post!  So tonight we are eating Hobbit Stew!

Cooking enough for an army.

Maybe it's the time of year, or maybe it's just me being pregnant and knowing that in a few months I'm not going to want to do much cooking....but I have started putting together some freezer meals that can just be pulled out and cooked, or reheated.  I'm also making some to take up to a neighbor that has recently had her first child.  Pinterest is full of yummy recipes, and I am starting to re-organize my "food stuffs" board into categories like Poultry, Beef, Pork and Venison.  Today I am making Slow Cooker Kalua Pig which when done will give me several servings to eat, and to freeze!  This recipe is also from the Paleo diet if that matters to anyone.

Sorry Betty, we're not gonna kick it old school.

I think fall is officially here to stay! Yeah! That means it's soup weather. My favorite soup is chicken and noodles. The thick homemade noodles are the star of this dish so JoMama and I are making homemade noodles!!!  JoMama made the chicken stock and chicken in her crock pot yesterday so we get to concentrate on the noodles.  

The only noodles JoMama and I have ever made are the one from the Betty Crocker cookbook.  

But the pasta roller set I own has a different recipe....

The biggest difference is the use of the full egg, and less salt in the new recipe, which is why we are not gonna kick it old school!  Waste not, want not.  We went to get Farm Fresh eggs from The Farm Wife's Table here in Smithville and when we got there the owner had just picked up three duck eggs...so we traded three of our chicken eggs for the duck eggs for our egg noodles!!!!  If you are local, or semi local visit her Facebook page and you too can get some farm fresh eggs!!!  Tho they probably won't be duck eggs they only have one duck and until today they didn't know the duck would lay!

Duck, duck, duck...chicken?

Cracking the eggs was a bit difficult, they have a much harder shell than chicken eggs...who knew!  They also have a different smell, you can tell they are egg-ier...gonna be yummy in the noodles!  At first the dough was very dry and crumbly....

And JoMama said she wanted to add more water, but I told her to wait and see the magic.  I have seen pasta made on Food Network.  After the initial mixing, and two minutes with the dough hook it was time for 1-2 minutes of hand kneading....It's a wrist breaker, but soo worth it, and much easier than Betty's recipe which is all by hand....no thank you!

And then time to let it rest for 20 minutes.

Once it's rested, cut into four sections and then it's time for the magic to happen!  The first attachment is the flat roller and you start with a 1 setting to knead the dough some more until it's pliable and has the right texture.  You will know when it does!

Then set to the second setting and continue...

You will want to cut the pieces in half before changing to a thinner setting.  Otherwise the pieces will get very long and unwieldy

Keep changing the setting on the roller to the thickness you want, then it's time to slice the sheets into the length you want the noodles to be....and then change out the roller for the pasta cutter!  

You can see we just let the noodles drop onto a towel we put underneath the machine, then spread them out a bit.

We did half of the noodles as thick noodles, and half as thin.

There were quite a few more thin noodles, as expected.  And it was so fun and easy we may never buy store bought noodles again!  These can be dried for an hour, then either refrigerated or frozen.  Or you can cook them up fresh.  They don't take as long to cook when they are fresh.  But as you can see it makes a LOT of noodles, so I have some in my freezer for the next time I'm ready to make soup....but part of it we are going to enjoy now in our home made chicken and noodle soup!

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!

Can't go wrong with Pork!

The heat has invaded again, well temporarily anyway.  Tomorrow is supposed to cool down again.  In the meantime I’m ready to mix up some magic in the kitchen!  Today’s offering is BrownSugar & Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin. It is luckily for me done in the crock pot!  So minimal house heating!

Put your spices in a small bowl to mix

Open your pork loin and rinse it

Rub with the spices

Put it in the crock pot with 1/2 cup of water

Cook 6-8 hours!

About an hour before the time is up combine the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan and stir and heat until thick. It will have a syrupy consistency.

Brush the loin 2-3 times during the last hour with the glaze.

I’m serving with fresh cast iron rolls, mashed potatoes, and leftover sauce as the gravy!

ENJOY! 

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...

Friends and Food

There is an old saying, "Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they are there!"  Last night one of our friends is came to dinner, and to hang out.  Of course I’m sure it helps that I’m cooking.  Long before I decided to cook more, and do more creative cooking (including this blog) I’ve been regarded among our friends to be a good cook. 

On this fun occasion I decided to make pot roast, cause it’s a classic, and perfect for the weather (currently 42° F, low tonight is 31° F) is perfect for crock pot cooking and fresh rolls.

I have been craving what my extended family call’s “Peggy Rolls”.  These have been a “must have” for holiday gatherings for as long as I can remember.  And a “must have” for any other dinner type gathering that is fancier than a standard dinner.  

This morning I got up and started the pot roast, in the crock pot of course, as we still have some Christmas shopping to do.  My recipe is simple, roast, carrots, little red potatoes, onion, Montreal Steak seasoning, beef soup base, my Spice Agent Extra Bold Smoked Salt, and the Applewood Smoke Powder.  Place carrots in the bottom of the crock pot, put roast on top of that, surround with potatoes and onions, crumble soup base with the potatoes and onions, sprinkle the rest of the seasonings over the meat and veggies, add water but don’t quite cover the beef.  Cook for 6-8 hours. EASY!

I also prepped the stuffed Mushrooms.  They were also quite simple, 3 ½ to 4 ounces Cream Cheese, bacon syrup, onion powder and garlic powder, shredded cheddar cheese, and hot smoked paprika.  

Pull out the stems,mix cream cheese bacon syrup, onion and garlic powders together until combined, fill the mushroom caps, generously sprinkle cheese over them then sprinkle the paprika over everything.  

 This can be microwaved, but be careful to not overcook, try 3 minutes at half power but watch to make sure the filling doesn’t bubble over and out of the caps.

  

After I was done we decided to do more Christmas shopping, knowing that we needed to be home around 4 so I could get the rolls made and cooked, and the rest of the dinner put together.  After braving several shopping centers and getting coffee to bolster our nerves further we headed for home, two stops later we were running behind schedule…because of this I do not have any pictures of food from this point…I was a bit frazzled.

The recipe I have for the rolls says 5 ½ cups (plus ½ more maybe) yeah, I should have used more.  I also attempted to make Hollandaise sauce, from scratch, epic fail, and something to put on my “will conquer” list.  Fortunately the rolls turned out, the pot roast was great, the mushrooms disappeared and there were enough leftovers for Monday’s lunch.  All in all we had a great evening.