Pot roast...my way...

Pot roast...yummmm

I was inspired...or determined to not be outdone...

We had pot roast at the Dish in Charlotte NC.  My guys proceeded to tell me it was the best pot roast ever. So, I took that as a challenge I guess.  I determined to make it just as soon as I could.  That ended up being today.  I have made beef stew before but never attempted a pot roast.  I read some recipes online and read the reviews attached to them.  What I came up with is not any single recipe but a conglomeration of several.  That makes me feel I can just call it my recipe.  Here goes...

Pot Roast in the Slow Cooker
4 pound chuck roast
2 onions peeled and cut into eight pieces
1 bag mini carrots (already prepped for you, how perfect)
4 cloves garlic just smashed with the knife
2 cans beef broth
2 sprigs fresh rosemary and thyme
2 bay leaves
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Olive Oil
salt, pepper and garlic powder

Put one Tbs of olive oil in your skillet and heat it to medium high.  Have your roast at room temp or as close as you can.  Pat it dry and then coat it with the Montreal Steak seasoning, salt, pepper and garlic powder on both sides.  When your pan gets hot, sear off all the parts of the meat you can.  I let it cook for three minutes each side and then stood it on its side one at a time and seared them as well.  Put the meat in the slow cooker when you have it seared.  Put a little more oil in the skillet and throw in the onions and carrots and let them cook about five minutes.  Put those in the slow cooker around the meat.  Add one of the cans of beef broth to the skillet and wisk up all the stuff on the bottom of the pan.  Put that in the slow cooker. Add the garlic, rosemary, thyme and bay leaves.  Add enough of the second can of beef broth to cover the meat.  It took the whole can for me but it all depends on the size of your roast.  Make sure the herbs are submerged so the flavor goes all through the broth and not just on the meat.  I put the slow cooker on high for the first hour and then turned it down to low for the rest of the cooking time.  A total of seven hours is what I did.

I made some of my garlic smashed potatoes and cut off a hunk of rosemary potato bread and called it dinner.

I was very satisfied with how this turned out.  Not bad, if I say so myself...

Sorbet for dessert...satisfied and full!  It sure is nice to be back in the kitchen!!

The perfect bite...

The Guy Fieri tour continues...

I've been gone for several day.  Had a mini-vacation from the stove.  (A couple of nights doing the take out thing makes you appreciate good home cooking again.)

On Saturday we went to Charlotte NC to the yearly pilgramage of Geekdom also known as HeroCon.  I love every minute of it.  Being new to the geek world nothing is passe.  Anyway, that has nothing to do with food but it is the reason I was in Charlotte and got to eat where I got to eat. My darling husband/best friend has quite the surprise for me when dinner time came around.  He is a Food Network watcher for my sake and we watch a lot of Guy Fieri.  Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is one of my (and the budding young chef, Nick's) favorites.  My darling husband/best friend did some research and found two sites in walking distance of each other in Charlotte.  We have managed to eat at one other site, Hillbilly Hot Dogs, and went to The Central City Cafe in Huntington,  but they were closed.  We will go back there during business hours someday.  

We had dinner at the Dish.  It was a blast.  The food was secondary to the fact that we were at establishment that Guy had been at.  The dinner at the Dish was good food.  For appetizer we had the cajun meatloaf sliders. Not bad, meatloaf with a kick, cheese and a pickle on a small ciabatta roll. The DHBF and I had the southwestern burger, he had squash and onions for a side and I had collard greens.  The collard greens were the bomb. Mike had the bacon cheeseburger with chips and mac n cheese and Nick had the pot roast platter with mac n cheese and mashed potatoes.  The pot roast got top votes. Even Mike liked it.  We didn't have the signature dish that Guy had (didn't know what it was til we got home) the chicken n dumplings.  If I ever go back, that is what I will have.  You will be seeing an attempt at collard greens in the near future. Perhaps a new green I can introduce into the repertoire.

My Guys at the Dish!!

Nick and I standing under the Guy Fieri head...

Cool retro sign!!

Nick and I outside the Penguin

The dessert menu is not huge at the Penguin.  DHBF and Nick had a Cheerwine float, Mike had a chocolate shake and I had the banana pudding.  I was so happy the pudding was made just like I make it.  No instant pudding here.  Yay!!!  We were all so full we could pop.

What a delightful surprise to end a wonderful day!!!

Chipotle Pepper Chicken Tacos

It's chicken night.  I had to freeze a couple pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast last week because the pack I bought was just too big for one meal.  I always worry about using chicken that's been frozen.  I didn't just want to cook the usual, rosemary chicken, from frozen so I started looking for a new recipe. My darling husband/best friend really likes spicy so I went looking for it.  And, boy, is this recipe spicy.  I had to tweak it a bit to fit with what I had and the servings amount. The original recipe fed about six and I just wanted enough for the two of us.

Chipotle Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 onion sliced

2 cloves garlic sliced

2 tomatoes

2 ounces of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce

1/2 tsp chicken bouillon granules

1 onion thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic minced

Put the chicken in a pot and just cover it with water.  Add the1/2 onion and 2 cloves sliced garlic and bring it to a boil.  Cook it about 25 minutes or until no longer pink.  Take it out of the pot and set it aside to cool.  When it is cool, tear it apart into shreds, either with two forks or with your fingers.

Put the two tomatoes in the boiling chicken water after you take the chicken out and boil them until the skins split, about three to five minutes depending on the size of your tomatoes.

Put the one thinly sliced onion and the 2 cloves garlic minced in a Tbs of olive oil in a skillet and cook until the onions are tender.

In a blender put the chipotle peppers and chicken bouillon granules and the two tomatoes when they are done and blend til smooth.  When blended put it in the skillet with the tender onions and garlic.  Add your shredded chicken and heat through.

We had corn tortillas,which I warmed up in a dry skillet on medium high about 15 seconds each side.  We topped our tacos with tomato, lettuce and mexican blend shredded cheese.  I think the next time I make this, and there will be a next time, I will have some sour cream on hand to cool it down a little for me.  I'm a wimp.  I admit it.

Full and satisfied.  I love it when a new recipe works out.

Flank steak and rosemary potato salad

Flank steak, potato salad and asparagus.  It's what's for dinner!!  I had half a flank steak left from the Father's Day dinner and a desire to use rosemary in some potato salad and needed a green.  I tried a different marinade for the meat today and I really liked it.  And the rosemary potato salad is what I made yesterday evening so the flavors could "marry" overnight.  The asparagus is the bacon asparagus recipe from many posts ago.  It is our new favorite way to have asparagus and I am just not tired of it yet.  There are only two really reliable green veggies that get a smile from my darling husband/best friend, asparagus and green beans, so we have them very often.  I really like brussel sprouts and spinach but they were not met with rave reviews.  Still working on them and him.

Marinade for Flank Steak
1 Tbs Montreal Steak seasoning
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used the less sodium one)
1 Tbs honey
1 tsp red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic chopped fine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp canola oil
2 scallions chopped

I cut two pounds of flank steak very thin across the grain.  I have never had any luck with cooking a whole flank steak but sliced always comes out good.  I put the slices of steak in the marinade for 20 minutes and then cooked them a few at a time in a skillet on medium high in just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Just a minute for each one, you want it to still retain a bit of pink.  After I got it all cooked up I put all the steak (and the juices on the plate) back in the pan off the heat and put some tin foil over it until we were ready to eat.

Rosemary Potato Salad
5-6 potatoes cubed and boiled until fork tender (careful not to overcook)
1/3 cup chopped red onion (just as fine as you can get it)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs red wine vinegar (I used a garlic flavored one)
2 Tbs mayonnaise (I use light mayo)
1 Tbs dijon mustard
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste (eight grinds each with my grinder)

Let the potatoes cool some before you mix it with the dressing (which is everything else in the recipe) and I prefer to let things like that set overnight.  You can eat it the same day and when I tasted it warm it was pretty good.  Darling husband/best friend does not like any kind of potato salad warm...

I was really happy with the meal.  The original plan was to have chicken as the protein but things happen.  I think all the flavors were good together.  The meat was spicy and the potato salad cooling and the bacon asparagus...well, the bacon asparagus is just GOOD.

Happy and full!!! and satisfied...

Lazy day...

The Monday blahs have struck...

What do you have for dinner when you don't want to cook?  I had bought some cajun roast beef at the deli over the weekend and had some texas toast left from Saturday's breakfast so sandwiches were the obvious answer.

This panini is cajun beef and provolone cheese with leaf lettuce and tomato and a light schmear of light mayo.  Some baked Lays on the side and call it dinner.  Glad my darling husband/best friend likes roast beef sammi's.  I didn't have to do much talking to get this simple menu cleared.

I do believe I will have some more sorbet for dessert.  Lazy day...

Tomorrow I will be back to the kitchen whipping up something new.  In fact I already have a head start because some things just taste better for the wait.  Come back tomorrow to see what it is...

Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Today was a special day for my darling husband/best friend.  I wanted to make it a special food day so he got to select the menu.

This morning we had chocolate coffee and biscuit & gravy from Tudor's.  He had the fried potatoes also.  We really like Tudor's breakfast.  Especially when I am too lazy to cook breakfast.

Since that was really a brunch we simply had some watermelon for a snack.

I asked him to think about what he wanted for dinner on HIS day.  He narrowed it down to the Rice Noodle with Flank Steak or Kung Pao Beef.  I love Kung Pao Beef so that is what I made.  Since I have already shared that particular recipe with you in the second post I won't go into all that.  Just refer back if you would like to try it.  It really is our favorite go to meal.  I always have everything on hand that I need and is really simple to make.

Love the crunch of the peanuts...

We rounded out the night with sorbet.  Black cherry and blood orange.  We both love black cherry anything so it was a no-brainer.  The blood orange looked interesting and I must say, I really liked it.  I really liked them together because the black cherry was sweet and the blood orange tart, very good combination.

All in all, a very good meal day and I hope a very special day for my favorite guy...Love you honey.

Pizza!!!

PIZZA!!!!

Want some?

 It was guy day again and the budding young chef decided we were going to make some pizza.  We normally use Naan bread as the base that we purchase at World Oasis in Blacksburg.  I think I have mentioned this store before.  Love it!!!  We discovered the Naan bread last year when my darling husband/best friend and I were wandering around the store trying to think of things to do with what we saw.  You can't just pick up stuff without having a plan or it will just sit there and go bad.  We saw the bread in the cooler and immediately thought...pizza!!!  Unfortunately, we have not been to World Oasis for some time now.  No time to go, it's a little over an hour to get there and then you have to have shopping time and then the trip home...just no time.  So, Nick and I went on a crust search.  I had bought Naan bread at Kroger one day, and even though it was not as good as what we bought at World Oasis, I thought it might do for today,  They didn't have it.  The nice girl that worked there in the bakery said it was an occasional item.  Darn.  We then went to Walmart because I had seen Naan in the Bluefield Walmart bakery, but, no luck.  The Princeton Walmart does not carry as much specialty bread as the Bluefield store.  We proceeded to buy two ready made crusts and a pack of crust mix.  I also decided I would go online to see if I could find a recipe for the dough that did not require a stand mixer or bread maker.  I found one.  Alex Guarnaschelli, thank you very much.

Pizza Dough
2 1/4 tsp yeast (one pack)
1 1/2 cups of water at 110 degrees
combine and let them sit for at least 5 minutes

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
and we added 1 Tbs red pepper flakes and 1 Tbs italian seasoning

(I can tell you after haven eaten the pizza, we will do more "spicing" of the dough next time we make it.  We are big fans of flavor and it was just a bit too bland.  More of the red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning and a bit more salt too.)
add half the flour to the yeast mixture and mix.  Add the seasonings and mix.  Then add the rest of the flour gradually.  It will get sticky and hard to mix.  You want to drizzle in some olive oil and maybe add small amounts of water until you get it all incorporated.  Turn it out onto a floured board and knead it for 5 minutes.  Make it smooth and well incorporated.  Turn the ball into a well greased bowl and cover it with saran wrap for 1 1/2 hours.  It will more than double.  Turn it out of the bowl and split it into 2 or 4 pieces depending on the size pizza you want to make.  Roll each piece into a loose ball and allow that to sit about 15 minutes.  We got impatient and only waited 10 and it worked out fine.  Make sure you oil you pan well and then just take your time and stretch the dough out to the thickness you like.  We baked it off for 5 minutes at 425 degrees and then topped it.

The topping for the pizza are always the same.  We have made them enough that we know what we like.  We take about two pounds of ground sirloin and add three cloves of chopped garlic and one tablespoon of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and cook that up.  Sliced green peppers, I used what was left of the tri-color peppers I had and two cloves of garlic chopped and two onions sliced thinly, cook that up in olive oil.

Instead of pizza sauce we use roma tomatoes sliced as thin as you can get them as the base.  You want to salt them and let some of the moisture out of them before you put them on the pizza crust.  I have olive oil with red pepper flakes in a spray dispenser so we sprayed the crusts with that so the toppings wouldn't make it too mushy and then put the toppings on.  The final ingredient is shredded mozzarella cheese.  Yummmm

 Just a small note about breakfast.  We didn't take any pictures today but the menu was almost exactly the same as the last time we talked about it.  The only difference?  I found some apple fritter bread at the Walmart bakery (dang that bakery...) and made some french toast with it.  It was too good.  And I mean that.  Too good for my own good.  Dang that bakery!!!  And yes, we will probably do that again.  Dang!!

All in all, a very good food day.  Happy camper!!!