¿Que hay de comer?

What's for supper?

This is one of my favorite recipes. It is excellent and easy. Try it!

Puntas de Filete

2 T canola oil
1 ½ lbs tender boneless beef diced in 1-inch cubes (I use London broil)
2 T butter
1 medium onion
3 fresh Serrano peppers, minced (these are the little green ones)
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 32oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 whole small can of beef broth
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste

In a Dutch oven or large saucepan, warm the oil over high heat. Brown the meat in the oil, turning frequently for 4 or 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the meat and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter. When the butter is melted, stir in the onion and sauté until soft. Add the serranos and garlic. Continue to sauté for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, bay leaf and salt. Simmer the sauce for 10-15 minutes. Then add the meat and heat through. Serve hot with rice. Serves 4.

This recipe is from the The Border Cookbook by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. It is a book of the authentic home cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. I diddled with the original recipe a smidge for ease.

I love Easter.

I love that the Hyacinths, opening in the warmth of the house, fills each room all the way to the basement with the smell of spring.

I love the little wicker baskets stuffed with wisps of green cellophane grass and foiled-covered treats.

I love sharing my table with my loved ones at this first feast of the barely budding new season. 

 
I love the bright plastic eggs lovingly stashed in the crevices of rock walls by the Easter Bunny.

I love the ham, Au Gratin potatoes and asparagus with Hollandaise that we eat every year without fail.



I love the set of springtime dishes that grace the table with their gold rims and flights of butterflies, dragonflies and other winged things.

I love that there are 2 little people that look forward to coming to my house for Easter and start to pester their parents months in advance.

I love that this is the day that we celebrate our faith. Without the crucifixion and resurrection we would not be Christians.

I leave you on this Easter Sunday with my Aunt Evelyn’s recipe for Herb Rolls. She made them for every holiday when I was growing up.

1 pkg dry yeast
3 ½ C. flour
2 tsps. celery seed
¼ tsp. sage
1 tsp. parsley
1 ¼ C. milk
¼ C. shortening
¼ C. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg

In a bowl mix together the yeast, 1 ½ C. flour, and the herbs. Heat together the milk, shortening, sugar and salt until just warm (not too hot), stir to melt the shortening. Stir wet into dry. Add the egg and beat at low speed for 1 minute, then move to high speed for 3 minutes, scraping the bowl constantly. By hand, stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Grease a large bowl. Put in the dough, turning it over to grease all sides. Chill 2 hours covered with a damp cloth. (Don’t do it overnight, the dough grows too much in the fridge and oozes out of the bowl, then does not rise well when cooked. Been there, did that.) Pinch off a piece of the dough and roll it in the palm of your hand to make a 1 ½” ball. Put 3 dough balls in each opening of a greased muffin pan. Let rise about an hour until doubled in size. Bake at 400F for 12-15 minutes. Makes about 18 rolls. These can be made the day before and put hot into aluminum foil, sealed tight and refrigerated. Pop the unopened foil package into the oven, after the potatoes come out, for about 15 minutes. Set out the butter lamb to soften at the same time. One of my favorite things. I love these. Enjoy.

Perfect End-of-Winter Fare

While most of my friends are adventurous eaters, thank God, I still have requests for “regular” food now and then. (Picture eye rolling and head shaking at requests for regular food). As a result of my outside the box cooking (it happens when you take classes at the CIA), I haven’t made braciole for years. (I don’t know that I have ever made it in this house.) I saw a package of the beef at the store weeks ago and it triggered a memory of dinners past with friends. When a spontaneous dinner party came together yesterday, I immediately thought of browned beef with a lovely turkey cheese stuffing wallowing in a thick brown wine sauce with creamy risotto with mozzarella and parm accompanied by asparagus with mushrooms. Perfect end-of-winter fare. And to bring a touch of spring, fresh strawberries with zabaglione.

I do not stuff my braciole and instead of pork filling I use ground turkey. Let me give you the Robertsonian method.

Buy the cut of meat called braciole at the local market. It is large very thin slices of beef. Prepare the stuffing with a package of ground turkey, a handful of Parmesan cheese-about 4 Tbs, another handful of chopped parsley, 4 cloves of chopped garlic, S&P and 2 eggs. Mix it together and then spread it on the slices of beef. Roll the slices up and tie them with kitchen string. Coat the bundles with flour and brown them in 2 Tbs of butter and 2 Tbs of olive oil—more or less depending on how many braciole you are making. When they are browned nicely, pour in ½ a bottle of white wine and scrape up any brown bits. Cook them for about an hour. Take out the bundles and thin or thicken the sauce as needed. Put the braciole on a platter then pour the sauce over them and put any extra in a gravy boat. Enjoy!

Lazy Italian Sausage and Potatoes

I have just gotten back from a business trip to California and I was on vacation for 2 weeks before that. My flight yesterday was diverted to another city and delayed 6 hours because of high winds. I did not end up getting home until midnight. I fell into an exhausted sleep and woke up to the time change. I feel out of it.

There is nothing in fridge to eat and I am too tired and lazy to go back down the mountain to the store. Knowing I was going to be away, I have not bought anything fresh for weeks.

After scrounging around in the freezer and pantry I give you a spur of the moment, throw it in a pot dinner.

Italian Sausage and Potatoes

1 package of slightly freezer-burned luganega (a type of small Italian sausage. You could even use breakfast links) cut into small pieces

2 onions sliced thin

3 cloves of garlic sliced thin

Cook everything in a frying pan with some olive oil over low heat until the onions are wilted and tender, then turn up the heat and brown them.

Dump in 1 large can of tomatoes and a few bay leaves (I used 4). Cook for a while-like 15 minutes.

Add 3 or 4 peeled chunked potatoes (snap off any growing eyes and use 'em anyway). Cook until they are fork tender. Add salt and pepper.

Hearty. Easy. With stuff hanging around the house. Enjoy!

There isn’t enough room in the oven

I have been listening to food talk for weeks. The menu options for Thanksgiving have swirled around my office, my house, even my car.

“Roasted brussels sprouts or steamed; should we have rolls or not; there isn’t enough room in the oven for roasting fennel; I tried something new; No green beans this year; my son wants fettucine alfredo; my sister is serving quail and pheasant instead of turkey.”

All this, and I am not cooking. I love to cook and I entertain a lot, but not at Thanksgiving. I have a close group of friends and I know their extended families well. I am blessed to be invited to someone’s house every year.

This Thanksgiving I spent with the Malkins. The food was excellent, the wine free-flowing, the company congenial (maybe a result of the wine…) and the kids well-behaved. I was the happy recipient of the most amazing soup with small floating raviolis to take home. I left as stuffed as the bird. On the ride home I listened to the first of many Christmas songs on my ipod. Happy sigh.

The holidays are upon us.

What's for Dinner?

I hate leftovers. Ok. I've said it.

I cannot tell you how many times I end up looking in the fridge for something to eat and shutting the door only to be standing there again within an hour. I am just not in the mood for whatever is in there.

This is huge problem since I love to cook. I have tried to fool myself by waiting a few days and then “discovering” them in the fridge. I have tried telling myself it is really better the next day. I have tried buying extra Chinese food to have something to take for lunch. (This works so long as I have not opened the little white carton.) Mostly I end up throwing everything away at the end of the week. What a waste.

The best ploy is cooking on the weekend and freezing everything in little baggies. This seems to work for me. For some reason I do not think of all those little baggies of dinners and lunches as leftovers. I see it as time saving, cost-effective--frugal even.

Sigh. Who am I kidding? It would have to be in the freezer for months to cross over the leftover line.

What do you do about leftovers?

Halloween Howl

My family has a tradition of throwing Mystery Dinners. No. There isn't any murder.

How it works is that after the guests are seated, they are given a menu from which they have to select 4 courses of 4 items each. Included in the selection is the first course, main course, dessert AND the utensils and napkin. If you end up with the soup, a knife, an olive and a piece of pie, oh well. You do not get another course until you have finished the first one. It has led to much buffoonery and hysterics.

I give you a Halloween Howl Mystery Dinner.
Elphaba’s Ride
Died So Young
Crusty Shroud
Stained Harvest
Bleeding Ground Dweller
Mummy Remnant
Zombie Snack
Poltergeist Musical Instrument
Ripper’s Victims
Every Devil has one
Terrifying Tidbit
Mold in the Making
Cauldron’s contents
From the Grave
Full Moon Rain
Mackie’s Back