Taste of Home

*This photo WILL NOT rotate!  Haha.  Oh Well!

            One of the first cookbooks I purchased for myself after starting out on my own was Betty Crocker’s Cooking Basics.   The Subtitle promises that you can “learn to cook with confidence.”  I would say that this is not too extreme of a claim, as this cookbook has really helped me quite a bit.  It includes recipes with simple ingredients, easy preparation, photo examples, and they are all delicious.

            Now, being that Betty knows best, many of the recipes in this cookbook have a “down home,” hearty feeling to them.  Meals like this are so great on these fall evenings when the air is brisk and it begins to get dark earlier.  Chris and I enjoyed a simple recipe for beef stroganoff recently, and it was all that we hoped for.  The preparation took about 20 minutes, and the recipe serves 6.  So if you are a sack lunch person like me, you will have plenty of yummy leftovers! 

            Confession time-I omitted the mushrooms in my version as I HATE mushrooms.  Chris said, “I think the one thing this recipe is missing is mushrooms!” To that I replied, “it was so weird, I couldn’t find any at the store for the recipe!”

Recipe:

-1 ½ pounds beef boneless top loin steak

-2 tablespoons margarine or butter

-Cooked egg noodles

-1 clove garlic

-1 ½ cups beef broth

-2 tablespoons ketchup

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 medium onion

-1/2 pounds mushrooms

-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

-1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Preparation:

-Cut the beef into strips

-Melt the margarine in the skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook the beef into the margarine for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown.  While the beef is cooking, prepare the egg noodles according to package directions.

-Peel and finely chop the garlic.  Reserve 1/3 cup of the beef broth.  Stir the remaining broth, the ketchup, salt and garlic into beef.  Heat to boiling over high heat.  Once mixture is boiling, reduce heat just enough so mixture bubbles gently.  Cover and cook about 10 minutes or so until the beef is tender.

-While the beef is cooking, peel and chop the onion and cut the mushrooms into slices.  Finish preparing the noodles.

-Stir the onion and mushrooms into the beef mixture.  Cover and cook about 5 minutes until the onion is tender.

-Shake the reserved 1/3 cup beef broth and the flour in a tightly covered jar or container.  Gradually stir this mixture into beef mixture.  Heat to boiling over high heat, stirring constantly.  Continue boiling 1 minute, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Reduce heat just enough so mixture bubbles gently.

-Stir in the sour cream.  Cook until hot, but do not heat to boiling or the mixture will curdle.  Serve over noodles