Beef Stroganoff

(inspiration taken from Paula Deen's recipe and my mom's)

*Note on the ingredient amounts: The amounts on everything but the broth, flour, onion, and cream of chicken soup were eyeballed. I have included my best guesses.

Ingredients:

1-2 T olive oil, separated

1 medium onion, sliced

1 New York steak (about a pound)

2 T flour

½ T salt

½ T garlic powder

½ tsp black pepper

1 can beef broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

½-1 cup sour cream (to taste)

Directions:

1. Sauté the onion in a pot with 1/2-1 T olive oil.

2. Cut up steak into small bite-sized pieces and add to the onion.

3. Add flour, salt, garlic powder, and pepper.  Stir until combined.

4. Add another 1/2 T or so of olive oil to moisten things up a little.  

5. Put lid on the pot and cook until meat is cooked through.  You will need to stir it occasionally because the meat will start to develop delicious crunchies on the bottom of the pot that will burn if left alone the whole time.  

6. When meat is cooked through, add broth and cream of chicken soup.  Stir until combined.

7. Put lid back on the pot and simmer for about 30 minutes.

*If you like your stroganoff thicker, simmer covered for about 20 minutes and then remove the lid until it's as thick as you like it.

8. Before serving, add sour cream and stir until fully incorporated.

9. Serve over noodles.

10. Try not to freak out - it's delicious.

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Cranberry Chicken: Adapted

As I was considering what to make for dinner this morning, I decided I was in the mood for cranberry sauce and chicken, but not my normal cranberry chicken recipe.  I looked around for a recipe online but didn't see anything I liked, until I ran across one that suggested including apples.  I didn't use that recipe, but I used the apple idea to make this one up.  It turned out pretty tasty! 

Cranberry Chicken: Adapted

chicken (I used two boneless skinless chicken breasts)

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 tiny onion, quartered

2 gala apples, cut into slices

a couple dashes cinnamon

a couple tiny dashes all-spice

a couple splashes lemon juice

Serve on rice and with some lime juice if you want.

Make a "plate" for the chicken by laying one apple's worth of slices on the bottom of the crockpot.  Put chicken on top, followed by a "lid" of the second apple.  Dump in the can of cranberry sauce, followed by  a quarter of the onion in each corner of the crockpot.  Dash on the cinnamon, all-spice, and lemon juice.  I didn't even stir it!  Cook on High for 4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.  Wait in anticipation to see if it turned out well...

Crockpot bags. They're best thing ever. And here's how it looked before cooking... sorry I don't measure spices :)

Yumalicious!

RESULT:

I thought it was really great, and Joel loved it!  Definitely going to make this again.  It would be better, in my opinion, with firmer apples, because the texture got a little too mushy for my preferences, but it still tasted delicious with galas.  The leftover juiciness also makes a very tasty sauce for rice.  

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Absolute tastiest syrup of all time

(from allrecipes.com)

This is the most delicious syrup of my life.  No probably about it.  It literally tastes like eating a cinnamon roll.  However, you need to cook it in a pot larger than about 1.5 quarts because when you add the baking soda, it will probably overflow.   It gets HUGE.   And that stuff is not fun to clean up.

as posted by KarenP on allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1 T vanilla

1 T corn syrup

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Bring butter, sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, corn syrup, and cinnamon to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. 

2. Once simmering, whisk in baking soda and cook for 10 seconds before removing from heat. 

3. Serve warm.  

4. Probably die because it's so good. 

5. Try not to feel guilty for maybe drinking some of this without any pancakes because it's just that good.  Or at least wanting to drink it.

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Baked French Toast

Last week our ward had a barbecue and we ended up with all the leftover hamburger buns, so we had French toast for dinner tonight!  Only I wasn't in the mood to watch the stove, so I thought I'd try baked French toast. I found this recipe from www.nashvillefork.com and also used a picture from that website since I didn't think to take my own :)

Baked French Toast (from nashvillfork.com, with some alterations)

Ingredients:

5 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I used a dash of cinnamon + dash of all-spice instead)

1 teaspoon vanilla

cinnamon sugar to taste

Directions:

1. Mix together eggs, milk, sugar, salt, nutmeg (or substitute) and vanilla.

2. Lay slices of bread in a greased 9x13 pan. (better with thick and/or crusty bread)

3. Pour the egg mixture.

4. Generously sprinkle cinnamon sugar on both sides of the bread.

5. Let bread soak in the egg mixture. 

(I don't like super mushy French toast and soaked mine for an hour -> perfect!)

6. Bake at 425 for about 10 minutes per side.

7. Don't freak out after the first ten minutes if it looks gross and mushy.

Serve with:

syrup

fruit

whipped cream

other tasty toppings

We ate ours with apples that I cooked on the stove in a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon sugar. Yum! And way easier than stovetop French toast!

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BEST GRILLED CHEESE EVER

Holy cow.  If you ever want to surprise someone with the most delicious sandwich they've ever eaten, make them this one!  Also, it uses a bunch of leftovers.

Instructions: 

Make a sandwich with bread,

carne asada (leftover smoked chicken)

poblano chili pepper (leftover peppers from stuffed peppers yesterday)

pickled red onion** (leftover)

deli ham, sliced into small squares

manchego cheese

Also I think there are some pan-cooked caramelized onion pieces. (leftover)

Cook it like you would a grilled cheese.

Die because it's so delicious.

I'm sorry sometimes these recipes are pretty guesswork-y.  I wish I did know exactly what everything was, because I would eat this sandwich everyday at home.  

**To make the pickled red onion: Boil a pot of water. When it starts boiling, put in some red onion for just a few seconds.  After a couple of seconds, dump out the hot water and let the onions sit in cold water. We're just boiling them to make their color more vibrant.  Then soak them in "juice of a bitter orange."  

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Carne

Ingredients:
thinly-sliced pork, seasoned with salt and fried
garlic
black pepper
onion
green pepper
sliced tomatoes
shredded lettuce
refried black beans
green salsa
tortillas

Suggested beverage: horchata

Using the pork from yesterday, cut into strips and fry with garlic and pepper.  When it's warm/cooked, remove from pan.  Using the same pan, sauté onions and green peppers.  When they are cooked, add the meat back in.  Serve with sliced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, refried black beans, green salsa, and tortillas.  Eat like a burrito.

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Alison - Mexico lunch - day2

Pork:
pork
salt
oil

Rice:
2 cups rice
about 1 1/2 cups water
about 1/2 cup oil
1 can Mexican-style seasoned, diced tomatoes
very little onion - about 1/4 of a full slice
1 clove garlic

Serve with:
shredded lettuce

Cooking the pork: Cut the pork into as thin of sheets as you can.  My mamá used two pork tenderloins which she cut into thirds and then each third she cut into one long sheet.  (Slice it in half almost all the way.  Unfold.  Cut the top almost off each side.  Unfold.  Continue until it is an almost see-through sheet of meat.)  Season with salt on each side.  Fry in oil.  The meat should be thin enough that you only need to flip it once.

Cooking the rice: In a rice cooker or a pot, combine the water, oil, diced tomatoes, onion, and garlic.  Cook until the rice done.

Serve about two pieces of pork, rice, and shredded lettuce with some green salsa.

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