Kabob'n Grill-less

Recipe: Mini Beef & Colorado Potato Kabobs

Source: Fun Summer Food, June/July 2003

Time: 1 hour (does not include marination time)

Ease: 4

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: 7

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer, but for ease's sake, forget about the kabobs! 

These past two weeks seem to be the weeks of marination.  I did not mean for them to be like this, but somehow it happened that way.  

I was so excited to try this recipe out because I had bought beef chuck to make stew with and then the cold season, well, never happened and I wanted to use my beef chuck in a seasonally appropriate way.

I have to warn you, just the pictures of these skewers have me salivating so much, I might have to break down and heat up some leftovers for myself.  And that never happens!

The great thing about this recipe is that the marinade for the beef is super simple and super easy to create on your own.  In essence, it is a balsamic vinegar marinade.  This mixture of balsamic vinegar, oil, and fresh herbs enhances the meat's already scrumptious flavor.  The recipes said to let the meat and veggies marinate several hours or overnight.  For starters, I'm very picky, so I marinated them separately.  Second, I did not want to marinate overnight.  I made the marinade in the morning and let it sit in the fridge for about eight hours.

A little secret, I did not use Colorado potatoes like the recipe said to.

Egads, I know!

However, I did bake my potatoes a little too long.  They ended up super soft when I went to thread them on the skewers.  So, I recommend baking your potatoes only about 30 minutes and then chopping them up to put onto the skewers.

I thought I had a pretty good system for loading the skewers, but it was also a pretty messy system too.

You be the judge.

Once the skewers were all set, and since my grill isn't up and running (my grill which I don't know how to use anyway) I broiled them for about ten minutes.

They were perfect.

The kabob thing and the mess it left is the reason that next time I would marinate the meat and then just fry the meat and veggies together in a skillet.  It'll turn out almost the same...just, without the kabob part.

They do look pretty though.

My Slow-Cooker is My Friend

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Sweet-and-Sour Brisket

Source: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-sweet-and-sour-brisket-10000001875691/

Time: 5 minutes prep time, 5-10 hours in the slow cooker

Ease: 1

Taste: 8

Leftover Value: 6

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

My friend Traci gave me this recipe one day as I was in her kitchen commenting on the delicious aroma that was wafting gently through the air.  She instantly gave me the recipe and told me that it was ridiculously easy.  

Slow-cooker recipes are usually like that.  

That's why I love my slow-cooker.

(Slow-cooker or crock pot?  What name do you like more for referring to such a home appliance?)

Lucky for you, I found the recipe listed online.  

By the way, I'm really not sure the 'rules' about typing out a recipe that is from a cookbook, so I'll always let you know the source/cookbook.  If I can find the recipe online, I'll give you that link as well.

I was so hungry, I almost didn't take this picture.

Traci was right, slow-cooker sweet-and-sour brisket was ridiculously easy and filled with such incredible flavor.  Before this, I'd never had brisket before, but seeing that it was red meat, I knew I'd be in love.

I like to serve it with bow ties because it reminds me of my mother's goulash that we always eat with bow ties.  The meat looks mighty fancy on top of bow ties, doesn't it?

My favorite part of a good slow-cooker recipe is leaving the house for a few hours and then coming back just a little before it is done.  Before I'm even in the front door the scent has coated the porch and I'm already drooling.

My brother and his fiance came over to enjoy the delicious brisket.  I decided since I didn't have more pictures of the brisket, I'd show you some happy faces eating.

Joel looks pretty good, I guess.

Mallory wasn't quite ready for the camera though.

There we go!  A little over dramatic, but I'll take it!

Donuts without the Dunkin'

Recipe: Chocolate Doughnuts

Source: Stonewall Kitchen Chocolate Doughnut Mix

Time: 50 minutes total

Ease: 3

Taste: 10

Leftover Value: 10*

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer:  Keep it in the Strainer!

In order to tell you about this awesome dessert, I have to tell you about an awesome store.  The last time I was in Atlantic City hubby and I went into The Tropicana to shop.  There we found 'The Old Farmer's Almanac General Store'.  It was incredible.  For those aspiring after country decor for their home, this shop is heaven.

Therefore, I was on cloud 9.

You might recall that after Christmas this year I bought a mini donut maker and was in search for the perfect chocolate doughnut recipe.  Basically, I was looking for a chocolate cake donut.  Think the double chocolate donut at Dunkin' Donuts.  

My mini donut maker really is pretty wonderful.

By the way, I'm really confused on how to spell donut for this post.  The doughnut maker I have is spelled 'donut maker', and the donut mix is spelled 'doughnut mix', and spell check sees doughnut as spelled correctly, but does not like the spelling of donut.

Sorry.

In that store of my dreams, they had packaged mixes for doughnuts and muffins, jams, honeys, etc.  There was a magnetic attraction which instantly pulled me over to the chocolate doughnut mix and told me I must buy it.

The magnetic attraction is called my wonderful hubby.  In fact, he told me to buy two.  However, after looking at the $11.95 price tag, I instantly said no.

I'm so mad at the me back in March.

Because this right here is something incredible.

I've already scoured the internet so that I don't have to drive all the way to Atlantic City for my fix.  Amazon is taking care of me now: $18.78 for two boxes!

This little donut is getting iced.  It's a very exciting process.

Mixing the additional ingredients with the prepackaged mixes was very simple.  The only tricky thing is filling the donut pan with the batter.  I learned how to do this when I first got my donut maker.  I just poured the batter into a ziploc bag, cut off the corner of the bottom of the bag and used it as a pastry bag.

The recipe directed to use a donut pan and to cook the donuts in the oven for 10-12 minutes.  Using my donut maker, each batch was done in 5 minutes.  I had 24 mini donuts total.  Not that I ate.  That I made.

I had to set a few donuts aside so we could taste them leftover the next day.  They were so delicious that if I hadn't done that first, there wouldn't have been any left a few minutes later, let alone the next day.

*Hubby said the doughnut had a stronger cakey texture leftover and that if it's your style you might need a glass of milk with it.  Of course, if you gobble all the doughnuts down the instant you make them this won't be a problem for you.  I had coffee with my leftover doughnut.  It was marvelous.

I'm not sure if there is anything more tempting than a yummy chocolate donut!

Oh, the Things that Catalina Does!

Recipe: Pan Roasted Steak Dinner
Source: Kraft Food and Family Magazine, Winter 2006
Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes (include marinating time)
Ease: 3
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: 6
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

There isn't much that can be done to ruin a good cut of steak, but, there definitely is much that can be done to enhance it's natural goodness.

Enter Catalina.

Once upon a time, Kraft used to mail out this magazine titled, "Food and Family" for free.  I guess a lot of people subscribed for free, because now it costs $13.98 a year and it no longer shows up in my mailbox.

Back when I received it, I would always tear out the recipes that looked worth trying and store them with my other recipes.  This one, I never actually got to.  Perhaps it was out of laziness, cheapness (sirloin is stinking expensive!) or abhorrence to marinating...but it has sat with my other recipes for six years untouched.

The good news for you is that you can still find this recipe at www.kraftrecipes.com and hopefully make it sooner than I did.

Because it's delicious.  Then again, when is steak not delicious?

This time, I was prepared for the marinating.  Therefore I did not have to groan mournfully as I started this meal.  The Catalina was just the trick for making the steak look absolutely beautiful.  Look at the color.  It is so vibrant, so inviting, so artistic!  

Yes, we are still talking about steak here.

It was fairly easy to prepare.  After the marinating time was over, I started my rice.  The recipe called for brown rice, but I'm a bit of a rebel and went with white rice.

I was in such a hurry to smell the aroma of steak that I forgot to spray my skillet with cooking spray.  However, it didn't cause any problems.  After frying the steak a little, I added the veggies and prepared to put the skillet in the oven.

I'm dreaming of owning a cast iron skillet so that what I describe next never happens again.

I don't know for sure if my skillet is an ovenproof skillet.  The recipe says, regardless if it is ovenproof or not, to just wrap the handle in tin foil and use extra layers if the skillet is not ovenproof.

If you read my other blog, you know of my plastic melting in the oven experience.

Therefore, I was a little bit hesitant about putting heavy duty plastic that was wrapped in tin foil in my oven.

I kept picturing black plastic melted into my skillet, onto my seven dollar steak, and all over my oven.

It didn't help that I began imagining a plasticy scent throughout my house 15 minutes into the steak being in the oven.

Needless to say, I took the steak out early and did not cook it the extra five minutes the recipe suggested.

It still turned out magnificent.  As great as the steak was, the dressing coated veggies mixed with the white rice were just as glorious.  It was a perfect combination that made my mouth dance joyfully.

Blueberries and Sour Cream

Recipe: Wild Blueberry-Sour Cream Muffins
Source: The Old Farmer's Almanac: Everyday Recipes
Time: 30 minutes total
Ease: 2
Taste: 8
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the strainer!

I'm supposed to go blueberry picking at some point this summer.  I had hoped to have fresh blueberries hand picked with love from a local farm for the first time I made this recipe.  Unfortunately, I had to go with farm fresh blueberries packaged up at our local farmer's market instead.

Same thing, they just weren't picked with love.

This recipe is fantastic.  But then again, what recipe including sour cream isn't fantastic?  It gives that perfect amount of moisture to any baked delight.

And to think that I wrinkled my nose to sour cream during my years as a youngster.

What I particularly love about the page this recipe is found on is that on the opposite page there is a section that gives a formula for making "Muffins As You Like Them".  So, you could choose to make an awesome recipe like the Wild Blueberry-Sour Cream Muffins, or you could create your own masterpiece of a muffin recipe.

More to come on that later, perhaps.

The recipe for the blueberry muffins was simple and quick to do.  If you're being leisurely, perhaps it could take you 45 minutes total, but being leisurely is totally overrated for me.

The recipe said it yields 12 muffins.  I made 12 muffins, plus had enough batter left over to make about 12 mini muffins.

Mini muffins are good.  They have less calories, even if you end up eating exactly 10 zillion of them, like I did.

Shhh, that's our little secret.

The Twin Dinners

Recipe: Ranch-Style Chicken

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier

Time: 2.5 hrs total (includes marinating time)

Ease: 2

Taste: 8

Left over Value: 9

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the strainer!

*For additional information about my rating system go here.

Raise your hand if this has ever been you.  You're looking for something to cook for dinner.  Of course, it's only an hour before dinnertime because usually you are a great planner, but today you're slacking just a little bit.  You find what appears to be the perfect recipe.  You go ahead to get started preparing it and realize the meat needs to marinate for a million years before you can cook it.

Ok, so maybe that isn't exactly what I recently faced, but I sure came close.  

Monday, my sister-in-law, Kristina, invited me to go out to lunch and since I am constantly looking for any way to get out of eating lunch alone at home I jumped at the suggestion.

Three hours later, we both realized we would eventually have to make dinner for our husbands.  

Kristina leafed through The Pioneer Woman's newest cookbook to 'Ranch-Style Chicken', a recipe that had been on my list of "Meals to Make", and we both said, "Yes!".

Then we read the fine print declaring that the chicken needed to marinate for two to four hours and I ran out the door to get home and get started.  

Kristina's was done about a half hour before mine, and she instantly texted me pictures of her beautiful dining table:

(I was a little jealous of the corn on the cob).

And a close up of the delicious chicken cooking:

It actually ended up being a pretty simple and tasty meal.  The concoction that the chicken marinated in included honey, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, paprika, and red pepper flakes.  I was worried the lemon might be over powering (because that's just how lemon is sometimes...) but it wasn't.  The flavor was perfect and the little addition of bacon and cheddar cheese was the icing on the....chicken.

I was just a little bad and fried my chicken extra long in the bacon grease before putting it in the broiler.

What can I say?  I'm a rebel.

Yes, those are home made french fries in the background.  I'll have to tell you about them another time.

Beautiful Garbage

I made roasted corn salad a few days ago as my first official summer food of the summer.  I found just as much inspiration in the trash of the salad as I found excitement for eating the salad.

There is something simply artistic about this trash.  

The salad was simply delicious.  It is one of those recipes that makes you realize healthy eating can actually be enjoyable too (Gasp, I know!).  The flavor that comes from some fresh veggies tossed with oil and balsamic vinegar is absolutely mystifying.    

Now, it's out with the garbage.  This blog is dedicated to sifting through recipes and finding promising household staples worthy of being passed down through the ages.

I am making it my mission to try a brand spanking new recipe every single day and to then post about it. 

Please enjoy all the theatrics that go along with my ever changing kitchen.