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

A Rave Review!

           When your husband tells you during and following dinner multiple times that dinner was “really great,” you can feel confident he enjoyed the meal.  When that same husband goes on to explain that he “loves fish, loves tacos, and even these onion thingies” you can be confident that you just earned a rave review.  That, my friends, is just what I got following the serving of my version of Real Simple’s fish tacos.

            Now I love fish tacos too, and often order them when we are out.  One version I tried recently had this delicious cilantro lime rice that was so amazing.  I asked Chris for his thoughts on my adding something like that to this recipe next time, and he insisted that “simple is better” and that if I “get too crazy with it I will ruin it!”

            I think that I will take his advice to keep it simple, as this recipe took only the amount of time it took to cook the fish in the oven.  During that time, I was able to slice the onion, and set the table.  If you are in need of a quick meal and enjoy fish tacos, try this one tonight!

Slainte!

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/fish-tacos-10000001046910/index.html

Enjoy!

*Photo Chris snapped of me putting the tacos together :)

Pumpkin and Spice and Everything Nice!

            This time of year, many could consider me to be a pumpkin addict.  I frequent coffee houses more, in search of that pumpkin spice latte fix.  I can’t wait for Thanksgiving so I can get my hands on a good slice of pumpkin pie.  So when I found this recipe for pumpkin cupcakes on the Real Simple website, I purchased the ingredients and made them immediately.

           They were so incredibly easy and turned out great!  The only thing that I would change would be to wait to put the candy corns on top until I was ready to serve them.  For some reason, the coloring on the candy corns ran down the frosting of the cupcakes.  When I ate one after this happened, the candy corn was a bit mushy.  Other than that they were great!  I took them to my office to share with my co-workers, and received some very positive reviews.  After all, what is that old adage?  The best way to spread fall cheer is giving pumpkin for all to share…something like that!           

Slainte!

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pumpkin-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting-00000000021359/index.html

Enjoy!

Dinner Swap?

            As I returned from the grocery store this afternoon, armed with the groceries to prepare the meals on the menu this week, I started thinking about my need to pre-prepare meals and have them frozen and ready in my freezer for evenings or weeks when I just don’t want to cook.  This made me think of this concept I read about in the September 2010 issue of Real Simple magazine.

            The article was titled “The Great Dinner Swap” and detailed the idea of a group of people coming together to share meals.  For example, if 6 people/families were involved in the group, each person would prepare 6 easily frozen meals to share with the other members.  Then, following the swap, each person/family would have 6 different meals! 

            It seems to me that this can be an ongoing thing, or occur just once.  I think it would be fun to do once a month or bi-monthly to allow for a random assortment of meals.  I think that it would also be important for the swappers to live in Lincoln, and perhaps even find a common drop location to exchange the meals.  Is anyone interested in trying this out?  If so let me know!  My email is hkmcquillan@gmail.com.  Email or comment and we can discuss ideas/details.  Below I have added links to the Real Simple article and the tips given for a successful swap. 

Slainte!

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/great-dinner-swap-00000000039507/index.html

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/5-steps-successful-dinner-swap-00000000039528/index.html

Spiced Shrimp!

            This week we enjoyed spiced shrimp with green beans and lime, and I do not think I can accurately describe how much we both liked it!  It was so delicious, I nearly scalded my tongue on the skillet trying to lick it clean.  You’re right, I’m exaggerating!  But it was almost that good.  I don’t think we had a single morsel left when the meal was over.

            From the moment I saw this recipe, I couldn’t wait to pick up the ingredients and try it.  It looked so simple, and I always love a good shrimp dish.  I was thrilled when I found a perfect sized bag of shrimp at Target that boasted it was “large, peeled, and deveined.”  The preparation was very simple.  In fact, typically when a recipe says it takes 20 minutes, I can tack on at least another 15 for my slow preparation speed.  This one, however, took not one single moment more than 20 minutes!  If you love shrimp, try this one immediately!

Slainte!

Recipe:

-1 cup long-grain white rice

-1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-1/2 pound green beans, halved crosswise

-4 cloves garlic, chopped

-1 to 2 red jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced (I couldn’t find these, so I omitted)

-1 ½ pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp

-1 ½ teaspoons chilli powder

-1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Preparation:

-Cook the rice according to package directions; fluff with a fork and fold in the cilantro

-Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the green beans, garlic, jalapenos, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook, tossing frequently, for 3 minutes.

-Season the shrimp with the chilli powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper.  Add them to the skillet and cook, tossing occasionally, until opaque throughout, 3 to 5 minutes.  Stir in the lime juice and serve over the rice.

Enjoy!

Quesadilla Casserole!

            Quesadilla casserole, you ask?  Would I lie to you?  Of course I wouldn’t, but I must admit that I was just as skeptical until this tasty delight (now it sounds as if I am describing a Chinese dish) touched our lips.  It was SO good.  I think that this would be one the kids would enjoy as well.

            I made my version in a large baking dish, and was very glad that I did as I had tons of leftovers, which makes my lunch time infinitely more enjoyable.  It must be noted that for some reason the onions didn’t make their way onto my grocery list, so I substituted a red bell pepper, which I thought was a nice addition/substitution.  In fact, I think that if I make this again I will do both onion and red pepper. 

            I was also a bit concerned that my version looked quite a bit different than the picture on the Real Simple website, but was relieved when it was so yummy.  I still need to go back over the recipe with a more fine toothed comb to see where I strayed that resulted in the difference in appearance.  Try this one for yourselves, and if someone can save me the time of identifying where I strayed…let me know!

Slainte!

For the recipe and instructions for preparation go to:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/quesadilla-pie-10000001587000/index.html

Enjoy!