So much food, so little blogging

I haven't forgotten about cooking, I've just forgotten about the blog. Luckily, I have a million things to do around the house today and, since I am looking for a reason to procrastinate, I remembered I haven't visited the old Vox site in a while. So, here I am, typing away in an office that needs a MAJOR cleaning.

At any rate, I made a nice dinner last night for two friends who recently celebrated birthdays. Unfortunately, I only remembered to take a picture of the very first thing to come out of the oven (stuffed mushrooms). Doh! So, last night we had:

• Stuffed mushrooms
• Goat cheese-marinara bake with garlic crostini
• French Onion soup
• Filet of beef bourguignon with mashed garlic redskins and roasted asparagus
• Chocolate lava cakes

 

Stuffed Mushrooms

I have made these a few times and everyone always loves them. The best part (for me) is that there is no crab in there since I am not a seafood kinda gal. And who doesn't love bacon?

4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
5 slices bacon
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
10 oz. fresh spinach
1/3 c. heavy cream
12-16 large stuffing mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a cookie or baking sheet (or just use a silpat)

2. Cook bacon, drain, and crumble. Set aside.

3. Remove stems from mushrooms. Arrange caps in baking dish and finely chop stems.

4. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in saucepan over medium heat and add onion. Cook 2-3 minutes before adding garlic and spinach. Cook spinach down and make sure garlic and onion are tender.

5. Mix in bacon, chopped stems, and cream. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Mix in cheese, salt, and pepper.

6. Stuff mushroom caps generously with mixture. Drizzle 2 tablespoons melted butter over. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

 

 

Goat cheese-marinara crostini

Probably one of the easiest things ever to make, and one of the best. Pat a log of goat cheese until it is slightly flat, and put in a small, shallow baking dish. Pour homemade or your favorite jarred pasta sauce around the sides of the cheese, coming just up to the cheese (but not covering it). Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes or until it starts getting bubbly. During the last 10 minutes, toss in a baking sheet with some slices of French bread that you have brushed with extra virgin olive oil so they become nice and toasty. Once the crostini are out of the oven, rub them with a fresh head of garlic.

French Onion Soup

I have made a creamy onion soup before, but never a plain old onion soup. I looked at a couple recipes and each seemed as though it was missing something, so I made up my own and it was delicious! The other good thing was that I was able to make this earlier in the day and refrigerate it until it was ready to reheat and pop in the oven. The added bonus, of course, is that soups always taste better after they have been resting for a bit.

This makes about 6 bowls of soup (I used the standard oven-proof bowls so I could melt the cheese on top).

7 medium yellow onions, sliced

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (I only keep unsalted in my fridge)

4 thyme springs, leaves stripped

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup dry sherry

4 cups beef stock

2 cups chicken stock

French bread croutons (did the same thing I did for the crostini, above)

Gruyere - 2 cups shredded or 6 slices

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions, bay leaf, and thyme leaves and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to turn golden brown--about 25-30 minutes.

Add the sherry and cook until it is almost evaporated and onions turn brown, about 15 minutes.

Add the beef and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle the soup into the oven-proof bowls. Top with a French bread crouton and a handful (or slice) of the gruyere. Bake at 450* until cheese is bubbly and starts to turn brown, about 8-10 minutes.

 

Filet of Beef Bourguignon

I used Ina Garten's recipe. It was great, primarily because it uses such a great cut of beef ("the Cadillac of meats" as the butcher called it). It was tender and flavorful. The only problem I had is that there it too little sauce. Between the deglazing and simmering of vegetables the sauce reduces quite a bit so I would probably 1.5x the liquid if I were to make this again.

I served this with some mashed garlic redskins [boiled the redskins until cooked, drained. To to the warm pot, added some butter (to  melt) and some roasted garlic. Re re-added potatoes and mashed. Added salt, pepper, and a little parmesan cheese] and roasted asparagus.

Chocolate Molten Cakes

I used Dave Lieberman's recipe (sidenote: I *puffy heart* Dave) but did half semi sweet and half  bittersweet chocolate. I  undercooked them a little (because I was so afraid of OVERcooking them) but they were still yummy. And, it's pretty much a given Iwill never make a perfect dessert since I don't like to bake.

 

PHEW. So, onto (or back to?) last week. Well, I don't really remember when we had these meals, but over the past week or two we have eaten...

Italian beef sandwiches

 

For "crockpot Friday," I just put a 2.5 lb. beef chuck roast in the crockpot after searing it a little.  I heated up some beef broth (I would say to use about 1/2 cup for every pound of meat) and to that I added: 3 cloves minced garlic; 1 tablespoon oregano; 1 tablespoon basil; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 1 bay leaf, 1 tablespoon dried minced onion; 1 tablespoon parsley and a little salt. Poured that over the roast, cooked it on low all day while I was at work.

When I came home, I shredded the beef and let it continue to cook on low, uncovered (to thicken up/reduce the juices a tad) for about another hour.

I know the traditional way to serve these is with peppers, but I prefer a pepper cheese instead. So, I toasted up some sub rolls that I made into garlic rolls by adding a little butter, garlic and a spray of EVOO, and added cheese the last minute they were toasting.

 

Chicken with mushrooms, prosciutto, and cream sauce over egg noodles and with peas. Honestly, even ith modifications, I thought this was kinda "eh" at best. I think in general I am not a huge fan of sauces made with sour cream (despite loving sour cream) but I thought I would give it a whirl because we  had leftover sour cream.

 

 

 

 

 

Beef Stew

This is one of those dishes I love experimenting with, be it changing up the ingredients, or cooking it in a crockpot versus an oven. The recipe below can easily be put in the oven instead of a crockpot. I just like the ease of the crockpot, and that I don't have to be home while it cooks. While this takes a lot more prep than a normal slowcooker meal, if I am making this on a weekday where I have to be at work, I do all the prep (vegetable cutting, etc) the night  before. If you like a more tomato-y stew, you could throw in a can of diced tomatoes. I used to make this without tomato paste but realized even adding a tbsp or two really added some depth of flavor, so I do that, now.

If you make this in the oven, cook it in a covered dutch oven at 275-300* for about 2 hours. Stir the frozen peas in at the end, the same way you would for the crockpot version.

 

2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
4 cups red wine, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced, divided

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2-3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1.5 cup sliced carrots
1.5 cup sliced celery
4-5 potatoes, cut in fourths or eighths depending on size
1/2 cup frozen peas
8 oz. sliced mushrooms, stems removed and cut in half
2 bay leaves (or 1, if it's bigger)
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
1.5 tsp. dried thyme
1.5 tsp. dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste 
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon butter
2 small or 1 medium onion, sliced 
2 Tbsp tomato paste

1. Place meat, 2 cloves garlic, and 3 and 1/2 cup red wine in a container. Refrigerate for a couple hours, or overnight.

2. In a large plastic bag, combine flour, 1 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper. In batches, add meat and shake to coat.

3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add stew meat, and cook until evenly browned on the outside. Cook in batches if necessary so as not to crowd the meat.

4. Place the potatoes, carrots, celery and mushrooms on the bottom of the crockpot. Top witb browned meat, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.

5. In the same skillet, melt butter and saute onions until softened. Add the tomato paste and cook off a bit and stir in garlic until fragrant. 

6. Pour remaining 1/2 cup red wine and beef broth into the skillet, deglazing the pan and scraping the brown bits. Reduce slightly before pouring the mixture into the crockpot.  

7. Cook on low for 7-9 hours or if I am home I like cooking on high for one hour and then on low for 5 or 6

8. When done, stir in peas

 

Damn, Gina! I think that finally gets up up to speed.