Part 3 - Weekend Cooking

This is the third of the series from a weekend o cooking about a month ago.

In PART 1 we described how it all came about and prepared "Chicken in Sherry Cream Sauce". In PART 2 last week we shared the recipes for "Pork Chops In Mustard Sauce" and "Beef & Spinach Patties" and discussed how we prepped the food for freezing and reheating.

Today, two of my favorites from the weekend:

"GROUND BEEF AND MACARONI MEDLEY"
This will make 4 servings and can be halved or doubled
(when doubling use liquid form 1/1/2 cans of tomatoes)

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 small onion - minced
1 can (1 lb 12 oz) tomatoes with liquid
1/2 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1 pkg (10oz.) frozen mixed vegetables
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. pepper
grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in large skillet

Crumble ground beef into skillet

Cook over high until meat is no longer pink

Add onion and turn heat to low

Add tomatoes with liquid

Add macaroni and stir to mix

Heat to simmering

Add mixed vegetables

Cover and cook until vegetables are done and macaroni is tender - about 20 minutes

Sprinkle with salt, oregano, basil and pepper

Serve in bowls with grated Parmesan cheese to spoon over servings.

This is great for a mid-day snack for the kids...for dinner with some nice crusty rolls and a green salad.

Simple and quick...and freezes easily. Frozen in the Food Saver bags, I put this in lightly boiling water for 30 minutes and it was ready to go.

"STUFFED FLANK STEAK"
Makes 4-6 servings

1 Flank Steak about 1 1/2 lbs butterflied

NOTE: You can have the butcher in your local grocery store do this for you

2 tbsp. dijon-style mustard
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 medium onion - minced
1 large garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cups cornbread stuffing mix
1 egg, beaten
1 pkg (3 oz.) pepperoni
1 can (2 oz.) sliced ripe black olives
1 can (4 oz.) diced green chiles
NOTE:(I used a combo of chiles and jalapenos to kick it up a tad)

You have to plan this one out to allow it to marinate at least 4-hours, but ideally overnight

Rub flank steak with mustard, thyme, salt and pepper on both sides.

Place in a large baking dish and pour in wine and oil.

Cover with cling wrap and let marinate 4-hours or overnight

The next day, saute onion and garlic in butter until soft.

Remove from heat.

Add cornbread stuffing and egg to skillet and stir until mixed thoroughly.

Remove flank steak from baking dish and place on cutting board or counter (spread wax paper on the counter to allow for easy of cleanup).

RESERVE MARINADE!

Open flank steak.

Arrange pepperoni on entire surface of meat.

Spread the stuffing mixture over pepperoni. Sprinkle with olives and chiles.

Starting from the long end, roll up the meat, jelly-roll fashion.

NOTE: some of the stuffing will seep out the ends, no worries about that.

Tie with butcher string in 4 or 5 places.

Return the meat to the baking pan with the marinade and cover with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for 30 minutes longer basting with the marinade at least 4 times.

Remove from the oven and recover with pan with foil and let stand 10 minutes.

Slice into 1/2" slices

I served it with some steamed green beans and rice.

Be back next week with the final chapter in this day of cooking!

Part 2 - Weekend Cooking

We spoke last time of preparing a number of meals at one time for freezing and today we continue that story.

To recap, we cut all the vegetables needed for all the meals and prepped all ingredients prior to beginning.

Today we will focus on the next two dishes prepared that day...

"Pork Chops With Mustard Sauce"
This makes 8 large servings or 4 smaller servings,
depending upon your appetite, and can be halved or doubled easily

8 boneless loin pork chops, 3/4 inch thick, all fat trimmed away
(the package I bought had 9 pork chops)
1 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp all-spice
2 tbsp. butter or margarine
2 tbsp. minced green onion
2 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup dry white wine or 6 tbsp. water and 2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup undiluted canned beef broth
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt
freshly ground pepper

Mix flour, salt and all-spice

Dust pork chops lightly on both sides with this mixture.

Heat 1 tbsp. of the butter in large skillet

Add pork chops and cook over medium heat for 6 minutes per side or until pinkness is gone when cut in center.

Remove pork chops and keep warm.

Increase heat to high and add remaining butter and the onion

Saute 1 minute while stirring

Stir in the cornstarch.

Slowly add the wine and broth, stirring briskly.

Cook until thickened and smooth.

Stir in the mustard.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour sauce over Pork Chops and serve.

I served them with a nice baked yam and sauteed artichoke hearts...yummo!

When cooking in bulk, you must be able to freeze the meals for future use.

There is no better way to freeze food than with the Food Saver System. I am advocating the use of this tremendous machine without any compensation whatsoever. I have owned one for many years, but for our wedding we received the newest model and the company must be credited with their innovations.

The new machine is vertical, so it takes up very little counter space. It has two different speed settings, so you can now seal softer foods without squishing them. It also has a moisture setting which recognizes the presence of moisture and cuts the vacuum off and seals without sucking the liquid into the machinery.

I have found putting the sauces into the small snack size zip-lock bags works wonderfully. If you just put the sauce into the same bag as the meat, the sauce gets absorbed into the meats and you do not have enough when serving the meal.

In this case, I made of 3 packages containing 2 Pork Chops each with a zip-lock of sauce and then 3 packages with one Pork Chop and sauce.

When you are ready to eat, you can remove the bag from the freezer and work one of two methods...

The first is to let the meal defrost and then you can either put the meat into a casserole and put it into the oven at about 300 degrees to warm or you can put the pouch into a pot of water that is simmering on the stove and let it heat for about 15 minutes.

When you are ready to serve, take the gravy out of the small zip-lock and put it into a small bowl, stir and microwave for 60 seconds.

The second method, for when you do not have time to defrost is to put the whole pouch into a pot of lightly boiling water on the stove for about 30 minutes. The meal should be defrosted and warmed. Once again, take the sauce and put into a bowl, stir and microwave before pouring over the meat.

Another meal made that day was:

"Beef & Spinach Patties"
This recipe makes 4 servings and can be halved or doubled.
When doubling, only use 3/4 cup of red wine.

1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 lb. finely chopped mushrooms
3 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 egg
1/2 cup soft french bread crumbs
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 cup well drained, thawed frozen chopped spinach
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
chopped parsley for garnish

Saute the onion and mushrooms in 2 tbsp. of the butter in a large frying pan until soft and lightly browned.

Remove from heat and mix in the garlic

Beat the egg and then blend in the bread crumbs, onion mixture, ground beef, spinach, 2 tbsp. of the red wine, the salt and pepper.

Shape into 4 oval patties, each about 1-inch thick.

Using the same frying pan add the remaining 1 tbsp. butter and brown the patties about 4 minutes per side until well browned, turning only once.

Remove the patties to a platter and keep warm.

Add the remaining 6 tbsp. red wine.

Cook stirring to mix in all those most excellent drippings left in the pan.

Boil about 30-seconds and pour over the patties and serve.

This goes great with roasted potato wedges and sweet corn sauteed with bacon...

As we did above with the Pork Chops, We put two patties into each Food Saver Bag and half the red wine sauce into a small snack size zip-lock bag and then sealed them for freezing.

Next week, I will share two more of the recipes from that Saturday of cooking...

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"Mangiare Bene e Piacere"

Part 1 - Weekend Cooking

Taking a whole day and preparing meals for a month's worth of eating is something I have always enjoyed. It has not been possible since I moved South, as I have not had the necessary freezer space for this event to make sense.

Recently, my bride and I had a garage sale after combining our households and after it was over we purchased a 7.2 cubic foot chest freezer.

As a wedding gift, we also received the newest Food Saver which has settings for moist foods and is more automatic than the older models. I love my Food Saver and have had one for many years.

They allow you to freeze food and then, when you are ready, to eat a meal that tastes as fresh as the day it was made.

On this particular weekend, with the assistance of my bride, we were able to prepare the following:

Chicken in Sherry Cream Sauce - (4 portions) - prepared Friday evening
White Bean & Sausage Soup - (5 portions)
Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce - (9 portions)
Spinach Beef Patties - (4 portions)
Stuffed Flank Steak - (6 portions)
Macaroni & Beef Casserole - (6 portions)
Layered Casserole - (6 portions)
Sesame Soy Pot Roast - (6 portions) prepared overnight Saturday

That is 47 individual main courses (and in the case of the two casseroles, a full meal), and the entire food bill was under $80.00 for all of the meats. We did go to Costco for the meats, to take advantage of their discounts on larger portions.

We had much of the vegetables and spices needed to complete all of the meals, so that saved on costs. Additionally, I boned my chicken breasts thus saving the additional costs associated with buying the chicken boneless.

First step in this whole process is to make sure you have at least two cutting boards. One for your meats and one for your vegetables.

Then cut up all the veggies for all the recipes. Every recipe I made called for onions in some form. I had a big bowl and I chopped the onions one at a time and put them in the bowl separated by a piece of wax paper. This way I grabbed one layer for every onion required.

I did the same for the celery, peppers, mushrooms, potatoes and all the other veggies and herbs needed.

Then I began to work with the meats. Having reviewed all of the recipes, I put them in a very loose order for prep based upon cooking methods, times, and temperatures.

The Chicken was prepared Friday evening, so we will address that first and then in our next edition we will deal with half of Saturday. In the final part, we will address the remainder of Saturday and the storage of all the meals.

"Chicken In Sherry Cream Sauce"

2 whole chicken breasts- split, boned & skinned
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/2 lb. fresh white mushrooms - sliced
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup sherry (chicken broth can be substituted)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Brown the chicken in butter over medium high heat about 5 minutes
While the chicken cooks, marinate the mushrooms in the lemon juice
Add the sherry to the pan - turn the chicken over and cook another 5 minutes

Do not over cook the breasts - it will ruin this or any other dinner

Remove chicken to a warm platter
Turn heat to high and let liquid mixture reduce down to 1/4 cup
Add the mushrooms and saute until their liquid evaporates
Add the whipping cream and boil over high heat until it reduces
Lower the heat

Return the chicken to the pan and simmer until the chicken is rewarmed completely

You can reduce this time by letting the chicken rest in a
170 degree oven in a cake pan until you need it again

Sprinkle with cheese

We served it this night with rosemary roasted potato wedges, steamed green beans and - OF COURSE! - crusty bread!

"Mangiare Bene e Piacere"

Clay Pot Pot Roast

Welcome back...

Been a while, but I have also been stocking up on some posts, so I will be more active...MAKE ME POPULAR!!! LOL

Today is CLAY POT POT ROAST...the clay pot is an underused cooking vessel, but I have found a renewed interest in using mine...

Here is a recipe I had in an old binder that has followed me around for years. If I see a recipe I like, I cut it out of the newspaper or magazine and shove it in this binder.

First tip when cooking with a clay pot...remember to soak it for about a half hour before cooking with it. Submerge both the bottom and the top in water.

Also, you always begin cooking with a cold oven. The clay pot needs to warm up with the oven to work properly - well and to prevent it from shattering and spilling food and chunks of clay all over your oven.

Nothing ruins a meal like having to wipe it out of your oven.

3.5 to 4 lb. Blade Roast (Chuck)
4 ribs celery, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
4 medium onions, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, peeled, smashed
2 t. dried thyme or 2 large sprigs fresh thyme
10 stalks fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
About 2 c. red wine
6 boiling potatoes, cut in half or quarters, or left whole, depending on size
2 parsnips, peeled, cut lengthwise in half or quarters, depending on size - DID NOT USE
1 lb. small carrots, peeled
Salt and pepper

Submerge Clay Pot, both parts, in water for 15 min. (1 hr. first time).

Trim excess fat from meat. Dry well. Salt and pepper generously, dredge with flour.

Place chopped onion, celery, carrots, and garlic in bottom
of soaked clay pot. Scatter herbs over. Salt and pepper generously.
Place meat on top. Pour red wine around edge,
enough to cover vegetables, but not meat.


Place covered clay cooker in cold oven, set to 425°.
Cook for 1 1/2 hours. Add carrots, potatoes, parsnips around edge of meat.


Continue cooking about 1 hour, until vegetables and meat are tender.
Remove meat, carrots, potatoes, parsnips
(those added for the last hour of cooking)
to a serving platter, keep warm.


Mash chopped vegetables into juices in a skillet over high heat
to reduce and thicken. Strain, then de-fat juices,
and taste for salt and pepper.
Serve over meat, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips.

Y'all need to have extra biscuits for this one!

"Mangiare Bene e Piacere"

Olive Garden's Chicken Crostini

A few weeks back on The Radio Happy Hour, we were joined by Mr. Ron Douglas. Mr. Douglas is the author of “America’s Secret Recipes – Part1” and the follow-up “America’s Secret Recipes – Part 2”.

In these cookbooks are recreations of the meals you can buy in restaurants around the country. The biggest ‘news’ is the KFC chicken recipe…that is the one that gets most of the noise, but there are some other favorites in there that people can enjoy in the comfort of their own home.

Additionally, Mr. Douglas maintains the website RECIPE SECRETS.NET where you can sign up and have recipes emailed to you. I signed up for the email recipes and have received a few over the last few weeks.

Let me state upfront, I have only been to Olive Garden once in my life. After we made the recipe, I saw the new ad for Olive garden where the mom takes the son to dinner to find out if he is boffing his girlfriend bond with him one on one.

The featured dish on the commercial is their “Chicken Crostina”. Now, if I had noticed the commercial before attempting this, I would have pounded out the chicken breasts and cut them into little formed pieces (NOT!).

I did not even pound the breasts, as I wanted to keep them big and plump for this attempt. I think next time I would pound them out but not real thin as the commercials show.

The recipe is really simple and does not take a whole lot of preparation. The one thing I will do differently next time is double, if not triple the sauce recipe. I hate when you only have enough sauce to barely cover the food.

Next time your family is thinking of heading to Olive Garden, head to the grocery store instead, and spend about $30.00 for 6 servings of Chicken Crostini…

Serves 6
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups & 1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp pepper
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp roasted garlic, minced (you can buy this jarred in the grocery store or roast your own)
1 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb linguine
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup roma tomatoes, cored & diced
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

Potato Crust
1 1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 small potato, peeled & grated
Salt & pepper to taste

Procedures
MIX all ingredients for Potato Crust in a bowl and set aside.

MIX 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning in a shallow dish. Dredge chicken in the mixture, shaking off any excess. Heat 3 Tbsp oil in a large skillet. Cook chicken breasts 2 at a time over medium-high heat until golden brown and crisp, or until internal temperature reaches 165F. Add more oil for each batch as necessary.

PLACE cooked chicken breasts on a baking sheet or dish and top with potato crust mixture. Transfer baking sheet to a pre-heated broiler until golden brown (1-2 minutes).

COOK pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

HEAT 2 Tbsp oil in a sauce pan. Add roasted garlic, cook for 1 minute. Stir in 1 Tbsp of flour and wine and bring to a boil. Add cream, parmesan cheese, 1 Tbsp parsley, and tomatoes. Sauce is done when it is bubbling throughout and begins to thicken.

COAT pasta with sauce, then top with chicken and remaining sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley

As it was just Nancy and I, we ended up with 4 breasts as left-overs, so we bagged, sealed and froze them for another day.

This really was very tasty. Head over and sign up for Ron’s email recipes…we have a few more to try, like; Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits; Jack Daniel's Grilling Sauce; Blueberry Brioche Bread Pudding from Daniel in NYC (see it is not all mid-level restaurants, this is a 5-star eatery; and Applebee's Crispy Orange Chicken Skillet.