Italian Drip Beef

This is not my recipie, but you must make it. It comes from www.thepioneerwoman.com
( http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/drip-beef-two-ways/)
Prep Time: 5 Minutes Cook Time: 6 Hours Difficulty: Easy Servings: 10
Ingredients

* 1 whole Beef Chuck Roast, 2.5 To 4 Pounds
* 1 can Beef Consomme Or Beef Broth
* 3 Tablespoons (heaping) Italian Seasoning
* 1 teaspoon Salt
* ¼ cups Water
* ½ jars (16 Oz) Pepperoncini Peppers, With Juice
* Buttered, Toasted Deli Rolls

Preparation Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot or dutch oven. Stir lightly to combine seasoning with the liquid.

Cover and bake in a 275 degree oven* for 5 to 6 hours, or until meat is fork-tender and falling apart. **If meat is not yet tender, return to oven for 30 minute intervals till it’s tender!**

Remove from oven. With two forks, completely shred all meat, leaving no large chunks behind. Serve immediately, or keep warm over a simmer on the stove.

May make the day before, then store in the refrigerator. Remove the hardened fat from the top before reheating.

Serve on buttered, toasted rolls. Top with cheese and melt under the broiler if desired. Serve with juices from the pot.

Berry-good whole wheat buttermilk pancakes

I love pancakes. Real buttermilk makes this recipie, accept no substitutions!! Yes, I know there is powdered buttermilk and mixing vinegar and milk but neither do pancakes justice. Splurge the $1.50, buy the quart of buttermilk - it lasts quite a while and once you taste the pancakes you'll need to make more.

1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2-3 Tbs sugar

Whisk the dry ingrediants together - if you have a large glass measuring cup with a spout use that because you can pour the batter out later. to the dry ingrediants add:
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 egg
3 Tbs vegtable or canola oil

mix well. Add milk or buttermilk as needed to achieve batter consistency (usually around 1/2 c). Here's a second key, *let the batter rest for about 15 min* Let the griddle heat up, put the ingredients away, etc. pour our the batter, watch it puff up, when the bottom is golden brown, flip and watch them puff further. Amazing.

Top with maple syrup or berry sauce (below)

Berry Sauce:
1 c frozen mixed berries
3 Tbs sugar

microwave the berries until hot, and smash with a fork. Mix in sugar to taste and serve over the pancakes.

I love macaroni and Cheese

Not that you've never made it but I took pictures.


The usual suspects: about 1 lb elbow macaroni, chopped broccoli, a variety of shredded cheese - about 2 cups and mostly colby-jack

Cook the pasta until al dente steaming the brocolli ontop for a multi-tasking award.


Melt 2 Tbs butter in the bottom of the pan. Add 3-4Tbs flour and stir constantly over low heat to make a roux. When flour browns, start adding milk slowly- about 2 cups in all. Stir constantly until thickened. Add 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp sirachi hot sauce and a generous dose of salt and pepper (very generous)

****BREAKING NEWS 11 FEB*****
Rich pointed out I never told you to add the cheese to the sauce. I belive that would make it just white sauce rather than cheese sauce. If you want Cheese in your macaroni and cheese it is recommended that you add the cheese at this time.
***** This concludes the breaking news, thank you*****


Pour the sauce over the macaroni and brocolli and mix well.


Feed to nearby hungry mouths!

Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic cheese spread

This was my own invention based on ingredients (mostly on hand) for a W(h)ine and Cheese party at work tomorrow. Rob almost didn't let me take it out of the house.



The secret ingredient- homegrown garlic!

8oz cream cheese
1/2 c sour cream (I used fat free since I had it)
1/3 c grated Parmesan (real- not a shaker!)
1 tsp Italian seasoning mix
3-4 cloves garlic - 1 very small bulb
1/2 a red bell pepper
olive oil

1.preheat oven to 350. Coat a cookie sheet (or part of) with a generous dose of olive oil.
2. Slice the red pepper into strips and put on the cookie sheet. Cut the ends off the garlic cloves and put some (2 tsp?) olive oil down inside them and place them cut side down on a cookie sheet. Cook until the garlic and peppers are tender (40 min?)
3. microwave the cream cheese for about 1-2 minutes until soft. Add the sour cream, Parmesan, and italian seasoning and mix well.
4. Take the peppers and garlic out of the oven and chop finely. Add to the cream cheese and mix well.
5. serve with a sprig of parsley in your best tupperwear

Wedding Cake v1.0

I may be making another wedding cake so I had to try it out. The results were yummy and awsome. Chocolate cake (see prior post on America's Test Kitchen classic chocolate cake), Mocha filling, a thin coating of buttercream, and then marshmallow fondant. Here are some recipies

Mocha Filling
2oz unsweetened chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter
6 tsp instant Coffee
1 Tbs water
3 cups (approx) powdered sugar

Beat the butter until fluffy. While that's beating, melt the chocolate in the microwave with a dot of crisco or vegtable oil.

Add the melted chocolate to the butter and beat well. Having the chocolate not ridiculously hot is desirable or the butter melts.

Combine the instant coffee and water into super-strength coffee extract in a small bowl. Mix well to ensure no coffee crystals are left and then add to the butter and chocolate.

Then add powdered sugar. I'm guessing around 3 cups. Less than in normal frosting. It will probably need to be chilled because undoubtedly you put the chocolate in while very hot and half the butter melted in a mess.

Marshmallow fondant
There's a whole website devoted to this. In summary.
1 lb package mini marshmallows
4 Tbs water
2 lbs powdered sugar
Heat the marshmallows and water in the microwave (around 2min) stopping often to stir until they are melted.

Add about 3/4 of the confectioners sugar and mix well.

Grease the counter and yourself (crisco, not butter). Heck, coat the entire kitchen with crisco while you're at it, this stuff sticks! knead in the rest of the sugar like it was bread dough. keep kneading until you get a smooth dough (about 5-8min) double wrap in plastic and put in a freezer bag in the fridge overnight.

use cornstarch to keep it from sticking when you roll it out.

Daal Palak a la Margaret

This is an Indian curried lentil dish. The spices are critical so take a moment to search around your neighborhood store to find them. This recipe serves 6-8.

For the rice:
1 1/2 c brown rice
2 1/2 c boiling water
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp salt

For the Daal:
1 1/2 c red lentils
3 1/2 c water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp grahm marsala
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 Tbs chopped fresh ginger

1 box frozen spinach
1/2 cup plain not low fat yogurt
1 tsp grahm marsala


1. Put the rice in the bottom of a glass 9x9 pan and pour the boiling water over it. Add the oil and salt and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 375F for 1 hour. Yes, I know you don't usually make rice this way. Trust me, it works better and it's not hard!

2. Combine the lentils and the water in a heavy bottomed pot and allow to soak for 20 min.

3. Add the salt, tumeric, chili powder and cayenne to the lentils and bring to a boil for 15-20 minutes or until lentils are soft

4. In a frying pan, heat the oil and add the onion, cumin, garlic, ginger and graham marsala. Cook over medium heat until onions are translucent

5. when lentils are soft, add the spinach, onion mixture and remaining tsp of grahm marsala and bring back to a boil. remove from heat, stir in the yogurt and serve over rice.

Christmas Bread

For eating Christmas morning with Cheese, and a variety of meats - salami, hot capicola, etc

1 cup milk
1 cup warm water
4 Tbs melted butter
4 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs Yeast
1 Tbs ground Cardommomme
1/2 c currants
flour (6 cups?)

Heat milk, water, butter, sugar in a saucepan until butter is melted and it's warm. Add the yeast and Cardomomme and mix well. put in a mixer or big bowl , add 1 cup flour and mix well. Add the currants. Add flour until it forms a ball. Knead for 5 minutes to form a smooth ball. Put in a greased bowl and cover with Saran wrap and let rise until double in bulk. punch down. Divide into 2 pieces, one with 1/3 of the dough and one with 2/3 of the dough. Divide each of the 2 pieces into a further 3 pieces. Roll each piece into a snake and braid each set of three. Place the larger braid on the bottom and the smaller braid on top and allow to rise for 30min on a parchment paper coated cookie sheet. Bake 350 degrees for 25min or until just browned.

Bak
Heat the milk