2 tablespoons oil
2 lbs beef sirloin tip, cut into one inch cubes
1 half onion diced
1-2 cloves garlic
1 can (10 1/2 oz) condensed beef consommé
1/2 cup red wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 half teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 quarter cup water
3 cups hot cooked rice

In a large skillet brown the beef on all sides. Add onion and garlic cook
till softened. Stir in the consommé, wine, soy sauce and salt.
Heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer one hour or until meat is
tender.

Blend water and cornstarch; stir in gradually into meat mixture. Cook,
stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir one
minute.

Serve over rice.

Add a side of peas or green beans or broccoli or green salad to increase
veggie intake!

Mom’s Chicken Adobo
Ingredients
2 lbs. chicken
1/4 c soy sauce
1/3 c vinegar
5 cloves garlic, crushed
pepper to taste
1-2 bay leaves

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot. Bring soy sauce and vinegar to a boil before stirring/basting. Let boil for a few minutes before putting it on medium-low heat. Add more vinegar and soy sauce to taste. Let evaporate until saucy (not soupy).

Serve with rice.

Well… this one certainly wasn’t our best performance.

Things started well, but as we made the sauce with the onions and the flour whatnot…. well, we ran into a problem. After adding four cups of chicken stock (an entire package), we found out two things: One, we don’t have a big enough pan and Two, we’re somehow making soup. At this point, it was time to call mom with a big old fashioned WTF. Long story short, we determined that my email client thinks that 3/4 (when formatted with super and subscript) is best displayed as an asterisk. And when I saw that, I figured “oh, what a simple typo. She said * but she meant 8.” We had plenty of ingredients to remake the sauce but there wasn’t quite enough. We should have either made more sauce or removed some noodles, but we were already taking forever and wanted to be done with the cookings. It came out dry and spicy (my fault for the spiciness) but at least it was edible and we all learned something about email.

Tuna casserole post pending.

A casserole
One bag extra wide noodles cooked and drained per instructions (large pot and colander)
One 6oz can of chunk light tuna well drained
Onion, Butter, Flour, 8 cup chicken stock & Milk
Cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to taste
One 3oz jar of pimentos (optional)
Soda crackers and butter

Sauté 1/4cup onion in 3TB of butter until translucent. Add a scant 3TB of flour in pan. Cook and stir for tree to five minutes. Add warm milk and chicken stock to desired thickness. I’m not exact on the milk but at least a cup. You’ll want a thin white sauce but not runny because you still have to bake it. Add your spices, tuna, noodles and pimentos. You decide at this time if there’s enough white sauce. Just make a little more white sauce using less butter flour and milk and add it in. In a separate pan sauté the crushed crackers in butter till brown; top casserole. Bake casserole at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes or until bubbly.

At Russell’s suggestion, we made pot pie, this week. However, instead of your typical chicken pot pie, we decided to make a cheesy pizza pot pie, from this recipe.

It turned out quite yummy, but we had a lot of leftover filling. So much leftover filling that I suspect we could have made twice as many mini pot pies. And Ben and I didn’t even bother with the cubed ham! We also agreed that it could have used more pineapple… and that our mushroom slices were a little too chunky.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir fry mushrooms for several minutes in oil or butter.
3. Combine cooked mushrooms, pepperoni, pizza sauce, pineapple and cheese in bowl.
4. Separate Pillsbury Grands in half. There should be a smaller top half and larger bottom.
5. Take the larger bottom and roll out into circle on a floured surface with a rolling pin to fit into a greased muffin tin or 6 oz custard cup. Make sure the biscuit round is large enough to overlap the tin.
6. Fill with meat and cheese mixture.
7. Take top of biscuit and flatten out enough to cover top.
8. Pinch the top and bottom of the biscuits together.
9. Brush top of pot pie with beaten egg.
10. Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees or until crust is a deep golden brown.
11. Let stand for 5 minutes before removing from muffin tin or custard cups.

Why is it necessary to use a wooden spoon? Or… is it really necessary to use a wooden spoon?

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. For pastry, in a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Stir in flour with a wooden spoon until combined. (If necessary, knead mixture with your hands.) Press a 1.5 to 2-inch ball of the pastry dough evenly into the bottom and up sides of each of 18 ungreased 2.9 inch muffin cups. Set aside.

2. For filling, in a small saucepan over medium heat, bring milk and soup mix just to boiling. Remove from heat; cool for 5 minutes. Stir in buttermilk. Add cheese, eggs, mustard, salt, and pepper. Spoon filling into each pastry-lined muffin cup.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until filling is puffed and both the pastry and the filling are golden. Carefully remove from muffin cups.

Ben suggested lessening the salt and adding crumbled bacon to it, but we’ve yet to try it. It’s a heart-attack in a cup, but what a way to go!

Week 03

I need to leave for work in a few minutes, so I’ll be brief.

Ben says the glaze was either to sweet or too lemony. I kind of wish we’d let the chicken sit in it overnight. I couldn’t get enough of it. Either way, they were juicy birds. Also, next time we must remember to prepare some rice or stuffing.

From now on, it’d probably be a good idea to pick a recipe by Tuesday, do the shopping on Wednesday, and the actual cooking on Thursday. The first time we did this, we didn’t wind up eating dinner ’til 11. This time, we got it down to 10:30. Ben gets home around 6:30-ish at best, we don’t leave to shop ’til almost 7 and we start preparing at 8. We could at least shave an hour off that if we shop in advance. We probably would have shaved off two hours if we didn’t have to defrost the hens, tonight, also. Alas, our lack of forethought.

Or perhaps we ought to try something that doesn’t require an hour or so of baking.

Nonetheless, week three has come and gone with no fires, yet. So far, so good.