Juice

This morning's juice:

Carrots
Green Apple
1/2 a beet
a little ginger

Potato Famine or German Comfort casserole

This is a thing of beauty for a cold night.

Peal and cut about 6 potatoes (1-2 per person)
Boil and mash with 
-2 tbs cream cheese
-1/2 cup of dairy of choice (sour cream, milk, cream)
-pinch of parsley (to pretend you are having your vegetables 

While the potatoes are doing their thing:

Sweat one onion diced and as much garlic as you like (I like a lot and used 4 cloves)

Cut up your Kielbasa.  I used a beautiful organic, no antibiotic, uncured partially cooked Kielbasa.  (Not this one, but this is close.)

Shred 2 cups of white cheddar.  (Orange cheese is so wrong)

Once the potatoes are mashed add the potatoes and the onions, garlic and kielbasa, and 1 1/2 cup of cheese in a casserole dish of your choice.  Mix well.  Put the last of the cheese on top.

Bake for 35-40 min at 375 or until bubbly and impossible to ignore.
This would be perfect with roasted cabbage.


Eat like a German!  Have a beer.  Feel food love.

Here's some nice German music (Yes, angsty goes with any food.)

Menu or the Week

Poverty Casserole 

Chicken Breast Sandwiches with Fries and Corn

Spaghetti and Meatballs with Blanched Spinach

Savory Spaghetti Squash for the Gluten Free Cook (Recipe to Come)

Left Overs (Someone has to eat them)

Broccoli Chicken Supreme

Lemon Artichoke Chicken with Rice and Blanched Spinach

Brisket with 36 Cloves of Garlic with Potatoes and Cumin Carrots

Tortilla Soup

2 chicken breasts either baked or grilled.  Shred it up.

1 onion
3 cloves of garlic

Sweat in the soup pot

Add:
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of whole tomatoes

Add:
1 cup of corn ( I used frozen)
1 1/2 quarts of chicken broth.

Add chicken.

Stir in:

2 tbs chili powder
1 tbs oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
1 adobo pepper (or more for more spice)

The heat is sneaky, so be careful with your peppers.

Serve with avo, sour cream, jack cheese, and a hand full of crushed up tortilla chips.

Yum.

Beef and Barley Soup

1 lb stew meat cut small
1/2 cup cooking sherry

Braise meat, then de-glaze pan with sherry.  Move to soup pot.

a bit of olive oil.
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
3 large carrots - diced or minced
3 stalks celery - minced

Sweat in the same pan as the meat, move to soup pot.

2 quarts beef broth
1 cup of pearl barley
1 cup copped celery

Add these things to soup pot.

1 cup of shredded cabbage

Pinches to taste:
Oregano
Rosemary
Parsley
Thyme
Salt
Pepper

Then these things too.

Cook at low to medium for 1 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is to your liking.

The barley sort of expands.  I did find I had to add a bit of water to the left overs.  This is an extremely filling soup.

No short cut crock pot stroganoff

When I found this recipe for crock pot stroganoff I knew it had promise.  Here is how I changed it up:

Ingredients:

2-3 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 small yellow onion - diced (or diced big if you like onion)
A little butter
A little olive oil
1 1/4 lb flank steak cubed
A little salt and pepper and flour (to dredge meat in)
1 lb baby portobello mushrooms - thickly sliced or just cut in half
cup of a water and 2 tsp bullion paste
a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Pinch of thyme
Pinch of parsley
1/2 cup of sour cream

Sweat onion and garlic in a pat of butter until a little see through

It is super easy to put the flower and salt and pepper in a zip log bag and throw the cubed meat in there and mix.  I do it in a bowl.  Coat the meat lightly in olive oil.  Dredge in flour.

Put the garlic and onion aside and braise the meat in a bit of olive oil until seared but not done.  It will cook plenty in the crock pot.  Put the meat in the pot.  Braise about half way and then throw in the mushrooms.  By this time there are some great pan bits,  deglaze the pan with a bit more water with the bullion stock in it.  Don't go nuts on the water.  (Wine would be good here too.)  Mushrooms are full of water.

In the crock pot combine onion, garlic, spices and hot water with the bullion paste in it.

Leave it all alone in the crock pot for 5-6 hours.
Right before serving, gently fold in 1/2 cup of sour cream.
or if it's too thin, make a roux of flour, and butter.  Add before the sour cream.

Serve with wide egg noodles, some sort of green veg, and a nice roll.

Food Quotes

"We have to convince the little housewife out there that the tomato that ate the family pet is not dangerous!" - Al Sklar in The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes