Monthly Archives: January 2015

Recipes - Entrees

Stuffed Baby Yorkies

Yorkies with mashed potatoes and au jus
Yorkies with mashed potatoes and au jus

While snooping through my fridge this morning, I was delighted to find another container of left over roast beef.  The largest part of it will be for the Beef Barley soup that has been food whispering in my ear, but I also wanted something quick and easy for tonight’s supper. The recipe below is what developed.  Using only 4 oz. of roast beef and flavored with horseradish, Stuffed Baby Yorkies are a mixture of a hot roast beef sandwich (my style), plain Yorkshire pudding, and a batch of delicate popovers.

The batter is extremely thin and  does benefit by mixing early and allowing it resting time of at least 30 minutes while your oiled muffin pan heats in a hot oven.  I used less oil in each cup than called for in the original recipe after reading the recipe reviews, just 1/2 T. per cup.   I had batter left over even filling my muffin cups 3/4 full so if you want 12 pieces that is possible, too, by filling the cups only half full.  I sauced my two pieces with hot au jus also left from cooking the roast and topped each with peppered mashed potatoes tonight, leaving the table feeling that nothing at all was lacking.  I’ll take two popovers without the potatoes and au jus for mama and me to snack on tonight; they are jolly good, mate!

Stuffed Baby Yorkies

1 cup flour
1 t. salt
4 eggs
1-1/4 cups milk
Wesson oil
4 oz. cooked roast beef, thinly sliced/shredded
1/4 c. prepared horseradish
1 cup au jus, heated
Mashed potatoes, optional

Directions

Stir the flour and salt  in a mixing bowl; beat the eggs quickly and add to bowl; add half of the milk and continue whisking well until the mixture is smooth and glistening.  Add the rest of the milk and whisk well again.  Set aside to rest for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place 1/2 tablespoon oil in each cup of a muffin pan. Place the pan in the oven while the batter is resting. Return and whisk the batter briefly. Remove the pan from the oven, and immediately fill each cup 3/4 full with batter. The oil should be sufficiently hot so the batter sizzles and begins cooking.  Spoon about 1 T. roast beef and 1/2 T. horseradish into the center of each cup. Immediately return pan to the oven, and bake until puffed and golden, about 15-20 minutes. Top with mashed potatoes, if desired, and drizzle with heated au jus to serve.

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Recipes - Side Dishes

Southern Spoon Bread

cold, with syrup
cold, with syrup

Southern Spoonbread was a practical, and tempting, choice for supper tonight after spending the better part of the day cleaning and organizing the pantry. This simple dish, easily prepared any time with ingredients normally on hand, makes a fine side dish at any meal. Eaten warm, just out of the oven, it is best described as a spoonable cornbread pudding. The center is creamy with a top that browns and thickens enough to give texture.  Eaten cold, as a midnight snack, drizzled with maple syrup, the texture had firmed and it tasted a little like bread pudding.  With only a teaspoon of sugar, the dish is  not overly sweet, but it is rich with eggs and cornmeal.

There are dozens of versions of this classic Southern recipe and today I modified the one I normally use because I didn’t have corn meal other than the self-rising variety and that wouldn’t do for this dish. I used boxed Jiffy Mix as a substitute, and though the souffle was not as dry as when using plain white corn meal, the texture was still satisfying. The top will crack as the souffle bakes and that is fine. The hardest thing about making this is resisting the urge to eat it right out of the pan. I managed to do so only by walking out of the kitchen and occupying myself elsewhere for 15 minutes. This is comfort food at its Southern finest.

Do beat your egg whites separately and until they are stiff and firm and fold them into the batter gently to lighten it. This could easily be baked in a 2-qt. souffle dish also.

Ingredients

5 T. unsalted butter, softened
4 cups milk
1 cup fine-ground white or yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. sugar
4 eggs, separated
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions Preheat the oven to 400. Butter a 1-1/2 quart soufflé dish with 2 T. of the softened butter; set aside. In a large saucepan, heat milk until just below boiling. Slowly whisk in cornmeal; bring to boiling. Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat for about five minutes or until the mixture thickens and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat; transfer to a large mixing bowl. Cool 10 minutes. Whisk in the remaining 3 T. butter, salt, and sugar. Beat in egg yolks until well blended.

In a separate large mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with a clean large whisk until they form soft glossy mounds. Stir one-third of the beaten egg whites into the cornmeal mixture to lighten. Gently fold in remaining egg whites. Gently turn into prepared soufflé dish; the batter will nearly fill the dish. Bake 30 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Cool five minutes at least before serving.

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Recipes - Side Dishes

Fried Apples & Raisins

Fried Apples & Raisins

When asked last week what she’d enjoy for a snack this week, mama just didn’t know, she just didn’t know, but when I suggested fried apples, she quickly said, “Oh, yes, that would be good!” True to form she clearly knows what hits the spot on a winter day.

This recipe from my cookbook collection is simple to prepare. Use a cast iron skillet and cook the apples until just tender. You want them to hold their form and be fork-tender, not mushy. Today I used Jonagold apples and dark raisins because I didn’t have the golden raisins I prefer and dark raisins work just as well really.  Don’t take too long sautéing the apples, 7-8 minutes is fine, in melted butter, over medium-high heat. I did add a teaspoon of bacon grease to my skillet today knowing it would add contrast to the sweet butter I used.  Flavor with brown sugar, thicken with cornstarch and water, and add just a splash of lemon juice before serving.   All pau!   Ready!

 

Fried Apples & Raisins

Ingredients

4 lg. tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4” thick
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 tsp. lemon juice, to taste

Directions Prepare apples. Melt butter in large skillet; add apples. Cook and stir over medium heat 6-7 minutes or until almost tender. Dissolve cornstarch in water, add to skillet. Add brown sugar and raisins and bring to a low boil. Boil 2 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and season with the lemon juice to taste.

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Recipes - Soups, Stews, & Chowders

Vegetable Beef Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup to serve

One of the nicest things about preparing an Italian Beef Roast, aside from it being used for French Dip Sandwiches the first time around, is using the leftover roast for Vegetable Beef Soup. You can use your roast for another meal by preparing this hearty soup, and, if the day is overcast and chilly, all the better, for this soup will definitely warm your tummy AND your kitchen.

I used the recipe from my cookbook today to prepare this soup but did add 3/4 cup of the left over au jus broth from the roast for added flavor since it was available and I knew it would enhance the store-bought beef broth listed in the recipe; I also added a can of stewed tomatoes, snipped small, because I wanted to stretch my servings as the soup is for sharing tonight with my mom and her friends. Because the meat was already cooked, it didn’t need to be sauteed before beginning. Once the soup finished cooking, a quick stirring up of my favorite garlic and red pepper-flavored croutons, using French bread also left from this week’s dinner party, found both lunch and supper ready, waiting, and tempting.

You can substitute vegetables of your choice as the V8 juice base of this soup allows for many possibilities. I sometimes add lima beans, corn, or peas but today wanted to follow the cookbook recipe as closely as possible. You might also like a pan of cornbread in place of croutons; just about anything you fancy works easily with this recipe. Thirty minutes of prep work and thirty minutes of cooking and you can call everybody to the table!

Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients

1 T. vegetable oil
3/4 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak or beef top round steak, cut 1/2” cubes
3 cups V8 100% Vegetable Juice
1-3/4 cups beef broth
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup potato, cut into cubes
1/2 cup carrot
1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced thick
Shredded cabbage, to taste

Directions Heat the oil in a 4-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until it is well-browned, stirring often. Pour off any fat. Stir the vegetable juice, broth, thyme, pepper, potato, carrot, onion and celery in the sauce pot and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the vegetables and meat are tender. If you want a thinner broth, add water as soup cooks.

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Recipes - Salads

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Strawberry Pretzel Salad finished

Another dish from last night’s party.  Like the Copper Penny Carrots, making the dish a day ahead allows the flavors to take an overnight mingle. The pretzel crust is the salad’s best feature providing plenty of texture and contrast to the other layers.

Not a hard dish to prepare, quickly finished after the gelatin mixture thickens, this salad provides  big results.  A three-layer salad, it has versatility for serving alongside your entrée, or, as a sweet dessert treat.  The crust, a baked mixture of crushed pretzels, brown sugar and butter, provides the dish its chewiness, and the cream cheese middle layer its creaminess.  Add a topping of sweetened gelatin with fruit and how could you go wrong? The result is a pretzel salad  with an awesome blend of flavors and texture.  Added bonus (because we are into that around here) you can present this in small squares and serve at least 18 people, and you can do it easily because the concoction is rich and satisfying enough to allow for it.

It will take an hour to complete this always popular salad but  30-minutes of that hour is waiting on the  gelatin mixture to set and thicken so the cook gets a break before putting the layers together and then it goes right back to the fridge and all pau!

Big Win-Win!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
5 T. brown sugar
2-1/2 cups crushed pretzels (not too finely crushed)
1-(6 oz.) pkg. strawberry gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 small pkgs. frozen, sweetened strawberries or container to equal 20 oz.
1 cup sugar
1-(8 oz.) block cream cheese
1-(8 or 12 oz.) container Cool Whip, thawed

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Combine butter, brown sugar, and pretzels and stir until the ingredients are thoroughly combines. Press into a buttered 9×13” glass dish. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; cool. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. In large bowl, combine frozen strawberries and the gelatin mixture, stirring often. As berries thaw, stir to blend well and snip the berries into smaller uniform, pieces if desired. Keep stirring until mixture is thoroughly combined then place bowl in refrigerator and chill until slightly thickened. In large bowl, combine the sugar and cream cheese and use a wooden spoon to thoroughly cream ingredients; add the Cool Whip and beat on low speed with electric mixture until just combined. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the cooled crust then top with cold thickened gelatin mixture, spreading each layer to the sides of the pan. Refrigerate overnight, covered. Cut into small squares for serving.

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