Burgundy Beef Stew-Slow Cooker

This is a tasty beef stew with vegetables, herbs, wine and a touch of brandy.  It’s easy to fix in a slow cooker and tastes so good when eaten in a warm, cozy kitchen or maybe in front of the fireplace.

• Servings: 4
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½ lb. chuck steak, fat removed, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tsp. olive oil, divided
1-½ cups chopped onion
6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
16 baby carrots, cut into ¼ inch slices
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tblsp. quick-cooking tapioca
1 cup Burgundy wine
½ cup beef broth
¼ cup brandy
1 Tblsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
½ tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
1 cup mushrooms, sliced

In a medium skillet over medium high heat, heat 1 tsp. oil and brown chuck steak cubes on all sides – do not cook through.  Set aside

In a 3-½- or 4-quart slow cooker place chopped onion, potato cubes, carrot slices, garlic.  Sprinkle tapioca over the top.

Place beef on top of vegetables.  In a medium bowl, whisk together wine, broth, brandy, tomato paste, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Pour over ingredients in slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low heat for 8 to 10 hours or on high heat for 4 to 5 hours.

Near the end of cooking time, in a small skillet, cook mushrooms in the remaining 1 tsp. of oil over medium-high heat until browned.  Stir mushrooms into beef mixture.

Makes 4-6 servings

 

Mother’s Swiss Steak and Catsup Gravy

My mother was married and cooking for her family while she was still a teenager in the years of the Great Depression.  She made simple, low-cost meals with a minimum of ingredients and fuss.  My father wanted mashed potatoes with practically every meal, so her Swiss Steak and Catsup Gravy went perfectly with his mashed potatoes.  I personally didn’t like mashed potatoes – except when they were served this way with gravy that was rich and deep flavored from long, slow baking.

Mother & Daddy, 1933

• Servings: 4-6
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• 1 lb round steak
• Sprinkling of salt
• Grating of black pepper
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1-½ cups catsup
• ½ cup water

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

Remove any large pieces of fat from steak and place in 9 inch casserole dish.  Sprinkle with seasoned salt and a grating of black pepper.

Slice onions and spread on top of steak.  In a two-cup measure, mix together the catsup and water.  Pour over meat and onions.

Cover and bake @ 300 degrees F for 3 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes.

4-6 servings 

My father would have liked creamed peas and sliced tomatoes with a dab of mayonnaise to go along with this dish.

Chuck Steak Stew with Corn Cake

I got the inspiration for this recipe at Debbi Does Dinner Healthy, but changed it quite a bit.   This makes an easy and hearty meal using lower-cost chuck steak with vegetables in a slow cooker and serving it with a baked corn cake.  Delicious and satisfying.

• Servings: 4-6
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(Slow Cooker)

• 1-½ lb. chuck steak
• 1 tsp. chile powder
• 15 oz. can of pinto beans, undrained
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 small/medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 10 oz. can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles, undrained

Trim any visible fat from the steak and cut into large pieces that will fit in the slow cooker.

Cook on low for about 8 hours.  With a wooden spoon, shred meat and stir to combine.

Serve with a warm Corn Cake.

CORN CAKES

•  1 egg
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk
•  1 cup yellow corn meal
•  1 cup flour
• 1 Tblsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

This recipe will make 19 one-inch-thick corn cakes.  Use two 12-cup muffin tins or bake in two batches.  I happened to have 5 antique mini-pie tins that I wanted to use.  You could also use custard cups, but the cakes are harder to get out.  Oil muffin cups or pans.

In a large mixing bowl whisk the egg, then add the sugar, oil and milk, whisking until smooth.

In a small bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to the egg mixture and stir just until all of the dry ingredients have been absorbed.  Divide among the prepared cups in the muffin tins.

Bake @ 400 degrees F for about 12  minutes until tops are golden brown.

Let cool in the pans for 3-4 minutes, then loosen the edges and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Serve one or two cakes warm with the hot Chuck Steak Stew.

Servings:  4 to 6 

The Corn Cakes are nice served warm with any kind of soup or salad.  They also freeze well, as does the stew.

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Sunday Roast Beef Dinner

A blogger friend recently asked me how I make the Roast Beef Dinner that I mentioned in one of my posts.  It’s nothing special  – just a roast the way my mother always made it, carrots the way my mother-in-law fixed them, mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus with my version of a light Hollandaise sauce, and homemade yeast rolls.  For dessert, some kind of homemade pie.  For what it’s worth, this is how I cooked my roast beef dinner this past Sunday.

SUNDAY ROAST BEEF DINNER FOR 6 (with some leftovers)

I like to buy a 4 lb. Regal Rump beef roast.  The meat is lean, juicy and easy to slice.  I pour about 1/4 inch of water in the bottom of a roasting pan, place the meat on a rack and surround it with about a pound of baby carrots.  I sprinkle the roast and carrots with salt and pepper, cover the pan and bake in a 350 degree F oven for about 3-1/2 hours.  We like our beef well done, so you can adjust the time to get your roast just the way you like it.  Allow time to remove the roast from the pan, place it on a platter and cover with foil for about 15 minutes before slicing.

While the roast is in the oven there’s time to set the table with my vintage Jadeite dinnerware.  Before we left our country home 10 years ago, I had a dining room, but now we gather around the kitchen table.

GRAVY

After the roast has been cooking about two hours, tip the roasting pan and ladle out 1/2 to 3/4 cup of broth.  Place the broth in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  In a small cup, dissolve 2 tsp. cornstarch in  1/4 cup cold water.  Whisk this into the broth and continue whisking until gravy starts to thicken.  My husband hated pale gravy, so I always add a few drops of Kitchen Bouquet for color and a little flavor enhancement.  Add salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate until time to reheat it for dinner.  This saves some time when you are trying to get everything on the table.

MASHED POTATOES

Peel and quarter 6 medium red potatoes.  Cover with cold water and cook over medium high heat until potatoes are done – about 20-30 minutes.  Drain potatoes and place in the large bowl of an electric mixer with paddle beater.  Beat until potatoes are broken up, then add 2 tablespoons butter and 2-3 tablespoons of milk, a little at a time, and beat to desired consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.

A lot of people like lumpy mashed potatoes, but I grew up with a mother who used an old-fashioned potato masher and yearned to have creamy, smooth mashed potatoes.  When she was finally able to get an electric hand mixer in the 1950s, she never went back to the old-fashioned masher.  My family expects mashed potatoes to be whipped smooth with no lumps.

ASPARAGUS

I buy one pound of asparagus and break the spears at the spot where they break easily, discarding the lower portion.  This will help avoid having stringy, tough asparagus.  Break the upper portions into 1-2 inch pieces.  Steam until fork-tender, about 10-15 minutes.

I serve the asparagus with a lighter Hollandaise Sauce.

MOCK HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

HOT YEAST ROLLS AND BUTTER

Because of limited oven space, I bake my rolls the night before or use some of my supply from the freezer.  I put the rolls (thawed if from the freezer) on a baking sheet, cover with foil, and warm in the oven in the last 10 minutes or so before the meal is served.

Easy Potato Yeast Rolls

Everyone liked the dinner very much.

PIE FOR DESSERT

I usually have home-baked pie with a Roast Beef Dinner.  The kind of pie depends on the season and/or what I feel like baking that day.  Today, I decided to make a Kentucky Lemon Chess Pie, which we try to have at least once during the winter.  I made the pie early in the day before the roast went into the oven to allow ample time for the roast to bake and for the pie to cool.

Kentucky Lemon Chess Pie

There may be variations in the green vegetable or the pie, but basically this is the same dinner I’ve been fixing about once a month for almost 60 years.

Easy Beef, Rice and Beans

This is an easy, satisfying dish that I first put together a few years ago, using a package of flavored rice mix.  This time I used Knorr Cajun Sides Garlic Butter Rice mix, but any kind would do.

• Servings: 4
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• 5-6 oz package of flavored rice mix
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 lb. round or chuck steak, baked, cut into cubes*
• 1/2 cup hominy, drained
• 1/2 cup black beans, drained
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes with juice
• Grating of black pepper
• 1-1/2 tsp ground cumin

In a large skillet, cook the rice mix and water, bringing to a boil.  Lower heat, cover and simmer from 5-7 minutes according to package directions until rice is tender.

*I had baked the chuck/round steak earlier in the day, covered, for about 2 hours in a 300 degree oven. I used half of the cooked beef in this dish and put the remainder in the freezer for another night’s supper.

Add remaining ingredients, mixing well, and let simmer for 20 minutes until everything is piping hot.

Yield:  4 servings 

I have a note in my recipe binder:  “2/18/03 – very good – David (my husband) took seconds.”

For dessert, I fixed an old favorite – Grandma Martha’s Banana Pudding.

It was a nice weekday supper.

Fairground Food

The midway – Carthage Fair, 1932

When I was growing up in the 1930s-40s, the fairground was a fun place to go with the family in the summer and fairground food was cotton candy, fried fish sandwiches, taffy apples and ice cream candy.  When my father was growing up in the 1920s, a fairground was his home for much of the year.  My grandfather was a blacksmith and horseshoeing was his trade…

My grandfather and my father, ca 1914

He took his business on the road during the county fair season and his large family came along.

Grandma Lillian, Annie, Frank, a neighbor, my father – Johnny

My grandmother (the original Lillian) did the laundry in a washtub outside the barn…

…and cooked the family meals on whatever kind of stove she could rig up.   My father brought along the memories of fairground meals when he married my mother in 1932.

I still make these two dishes today at age 77.

FAIRGROUND PANCAKES

• Servings: 2
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• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 Tblsp. vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add the oil and milk, mixing well.  Cook on a hot griddle until bubbles form on the surface.  Flip and continue cooking on the reverse side.  Serve hot with butter and syrup.

This makes six 4″ pancakes or as my father would have made them, two large griddle-sized flapjacks.

My father would have used bacon drippings or lard instead of oil and the milk would have been diluted evaporated milk.  He made syrup by mixing the right ratio of dark brown sugar and water (which I’ve never perfected) and boiling until of  syrup consistency.  And the meal would not have been complete for my father unless there were two sunny-side-up eggs on top of the pancakes, everything liberally sprinkled with black pepper.

My oldest daughter and I always have a pancake and egg breakfast, called our Fairground Breakfast, before we start out on a long trip.  It’s sure to hold us until lunchtime.

Another of my father’s fairground favorites was his chili.

FAIRGROUND CHILI

• Servings: 4
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• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 large can of kidney beans
• 1 medium can of tomato puree
• Water to fill one kidney bean can and one puree can
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. salt
• Grating of black pepper

In a large pot, brown the ground beef and onion until no pink shows in the meat and the onion is tender.  Add the kidney beans, puree and water from the two cans.  Simmer on the stove for at least one hour.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.   Serve hot – 4 servings.

My father liked his chili with lots of chili powder and saltine crackers.  He usually broke the crackers up in the chili.  One of the favorite aromas of my childhood was of beef and onions frying in preparation for chili.

I continued to take my children (and now my grandchildren) to county fairs.  Back in the 1960s, I took my three young children to the Owensville (Clermont County, Ohio) fair and stopped in a trailer parked on the fairgrounds to visit my father’s cousin and his very large family.  Bill was also a blacksmith and hauled his family around the fair circuit to make a living.  Inside the small trailer, 5 or 6 little kids were seated at a table and Bill’s wife, Mary, was at the stove frying mush in a big cast iron skillet.  She would slice the mush, throw it into the hot grease, flip it and then put it on one of the kids’ plates.  For the 15 or 20 minutes we were there, she never stopped flipping and serving slices of hot mush – there was always an empty plate and a hungry child yelling for more.  She invited us to have some, but we said no thanks and left her there to feed her kids.

So, when you hear the term, “Fairground Food”, it’s not always an expensive treat out on the midway – it could very well be somebody’s favorite meal.

Mini Beef Wellingtons

My oldest daughter’s favorite birthday meal is Mini Beef Wellingtons with mashed potatoes, mushroom sauce and asparagus with Hollandaise.  It’s not a difficult meal to prepare, but time-consuming.  I make the pate and mushroom sauce the day before and cook the beef early in the day of the dinner to allow time for it to cool for easier handling.  I used to buy a beef tenderloin but found it easier to simply buy the filet mignons wrapped in bacon that my store handles.

• Servings: 18 portions - 9 servings
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• Five 6 oz. portions of filet mignon
• Sprinkling of salt and pepper
• 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed (Pepperidge Farm)
• 2 Tblsp. milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

Allowing time for the meat to cool well enough to handle, place the filet mignons in a baking pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cover and bake @ 300 degrees F for approximately one hour, depending on how  you like your meat (my family likes it well done, especially in this dish).  Allow to cool.  My filet mignon comes wrapped in a slice of bacon.  Remove the bacon.  Cut meat into 18 small portions.

Set oven to 350 degrees F

Cut the 2 sheets of puff pastry into 9 sections each.  Place one section on a floured board and roll thin (like pie crust).  Place one portion of meat in the center of the pastry.  Top with about a teaspoon of Chicken Liver Pate (recipe below), bring up edges of pastry to cover the meat and  seal.  Place on an ungreased baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining sections of pastry and beef/pate.  Brush the tops of the pastry with milk and bake @ 350 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

Serve hot with Beef Mushroom Sauce (recipe follows).

Makes 18 mini Beef Wellingtons

CHICKEN LIVER PATE

• 1/4 lb. chicken livers
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 slice bacon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 of a hard-boiled egg
• 1/2 Tblsp. butter, melted
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• Grating of black pepper
• 1 tsp. dry sherry

Rinse and drain chicken livers and cook in broth over moderately low heat for about 15 minutes until no pink shows in the livers.  Drain and set aside.

Cook bacon for 5-7 minutes until crisp and golden brown.  Remove bacon and in the remaining fat cook onions for about 7 minutes until soft but not brown.

Combine the cooked chicken livers, bacon, onions, egg, butter, salt, pepper and sherry in a mixer or food  processor and blend until fairly smooth.

Refrigerate until ready to use.  Makes about one-half cup of pate.

Adapted from Redbook Cookbook.  First made to use with Beef Wellington in 1989.

BEEF MUSHROOM SAUCE

• 8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tblsp. butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups beef broth, divided
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 1/2 tsp. salt (depending on saltiness of broth)
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper

In a small skillet, saute the mushrooms in butter until they are just beginning to brown.  Set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour and 1/2 cup of beef broth.  Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, place remaining one cup of beef broth, wine.  When mixture is hot, whisk in the flour/broth mixture.  Bring to a boil and let cook for 2 minutes, whisking.  Stir in mushrooms, salt and pepper.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce to pour over the Wellingtons and/or potatoes. 

Asparagus is good with this meal and we like this Mock Hollandaise Sauce.

For dessert, a big frosted cake from our favorite Cincinnati bakery,Servatii’s.

Beef Stew and Orange Tapioca Pudding

One of my favorite busy-day recipes is Gone All Afternoon Stew.  I first found this recipe in 1994 in a cookbook binder distributed among my youngest son’s fellow engineers at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) – Bits & Bytes. It is easy to throw together and bake in a slow oven for the afternoon.

GONE-ALL-AFTERNOON BEEF STEW

• Servings: 4-6
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• 1 lb. round or chuck steak, trimmed and cut into small pieces
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 medium carrots, sliced (I use 9 baby carrots, sliced lengthwise)
• 2 large potatoes, sliced
• 1 tsp. salt
• Grinding or two of black pepper
• One 10-3/4 oz. can tomato soup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 10 oz. package frozen peas (add during last 15 minutes of baking)

Preheat oven @ 275 degrees F for 4 hours’ baking time or 250 degrees F for 5 hours’ baking time.

Put all ingredients except peas in a large casserole.  Mix well, cover and bake in preheated 275 degree F oven for 4 hours or 250 degree F for 5 hours.  Add peas during the last 15 minutes of baking.

Yield:  4-6 servings 

This makes a thick, delicious stew.  If the stew is too thick, it can be thinned with a little bit of water.  I like to serve a good homemade yeast roll with this dish.

After a hearty dinner, it’s nice to have something lighter for dessert.  I had come across a bargain on oranges this week.  They were super-large and I had way more than I would be able to eat out-of-hand, so I went looking for a dessert to use some of them.

I found this recipe for an easy tapioca pudding that sounded just right.

ORANGE TAPIOCA PUDDING

• Servings: 4
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• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tblsp. quick-cooking tapioca
• 1-1/4 cups fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp. orange zest
• 1-1/4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed (divided)

Mix sugar, tapioca and orange juice in a medium saucepan.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

Heat mixture to boiling over medium high heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes.

Stir the tapioca mixture, then fold in 1 cup of the whipped topping until smooth.  Divide mixture between 4 serving dishes and top each with one tablespoon of the reserved topping. 

This is such a pretty dessert with a bright, fresh flavor.

It was a good meal.

Beef Stroganoff and Rice Pudding

My youngest daughter is a busy stay-at-home mom who always finds time to get together with me on Fridays for lunch.  I try to make meals that are tasty, quick and easy, and reduced in fat and calories.  Here is the meal we had this week.

I first made this Beef Stroganoff in 1976 and it became one of our family’s favorite dishes.  In moderation and using low-fat ingredients, it’s also a good entree  when one or more of us is trying to lose weight.   The original recipe was from a Crisco cookbook, but over the years I eliminated the Crisco altogether and lightened anything I could.  It’s a traditional meal after having roast beef on Sunday.

MY ROAST BEEF STROGANOFF

• Servings: 4
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• 1 can low-fat cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup light sour cream
• 2 Tblsp. catsup
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1 Tblsp. dried minced onions
• 1 cup leftover roast beef, cubed

In a large skillet, place soup, sour cream, catsup, Worcestershire Sauce, pepper and onions, stirring well, and bring to a simmer.  Add leftover roast beef and continue simmering until mixture is bubbly and heated through.  Serve over noodles.

Yield:  4 servings 

Based on 4 servings of Stroganoff and 1/2 cup of cooked noodles per serving, the nutrition count per DietPower software is:  209 calories, 8.74 g fat, 49 mg cholesterol, 276 mg sodium, 615 mg potassium, 15.2 g carbohydrate, 1.44 g dietary fiber, 2.5 g sugars, 14.4 g protein.

Weight Watchers Points Plus:  5

My mother’s rice pudding was not only a childhood favorite, but an essential dish when I was sick or pregnant or otherwise indisposed.  I could eat this pudding when I couldn’t eat anything else.  I liked it with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of evaporated milk (or cream for everyone else).   My youngest daughter loves anything with lemon, so now I make a lemon sauce to spoon over the rice pudding.  Delicious and not too bad calorie-wise.

GRANDMA MARTHA'S RICE PUDDING & LEMON SAUCE

• Servings: 6
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• 2 cups cooked medium grain white rice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 beaten egg

In a medium saucepan, place the rice, salt, sugar, milk and egg and mix together well.  Bring mixture to a boil, then lower heat and continue to cook for one minute, stirring constantly.

Spoon pudding into 6 dessert dishes.

LEMON SAUCE

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tblsp. cornstarch
• 1 cup water
• 4 Tblsp. butter
• 3 Tblsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. grated lemon peel

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan.  Add water and heat mixture, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If mixture appears lumpy, whisk until smooth.

Remove from heat and stir in butter, lemon juice and lemon peel.  Serve warm  over Grandma Martha’s Rice Pudding (warm or room temperature is best).

Sauce will be quite stiff when cool.  It can be warmed in the microwave or in a pan over hot water.

Yield:  1-1/2 cups sauce.  Also good over pound cake, apple cake, pie, etc.

A note in my recipe binder reads:  “From Favorite Recipes for Quilters.  We like this with Grandma Martha’s Rice Pudding.  First made 2/23/95.”

Nutrition count per DietPower software based on 6 servings of pudding and 2 tablespoons of sauce per serving:  228 calories, 5.7 g fat, 40.1 g carbohydrate, .8 g dietary fiber, 4.4 g protein.

Weight Watchers PointsPlus:  6

Mediterranean Zucchini Casserole

Back when we lived in lovely Blue Jay on the Ohio/Indiana border, I spent my whole summer trying to make good use of all the tomatoes and zucchini my husband planted and harvested.  In 1995, I found a recipe in the newspaper that used a lot of zucchini, tomatoes and basil to make a big 9×13 pan of Mediterranean Zucchini Casserole.  I have a note in my recipe binder, “Large amount, but David and I ate 3/4 of it for supper along with hot rolls and a tossed salad.  Excellent.  We both liked this.”

Now that I’m alone, I cut the recipe down to fit a 9″ pan and still ate on it for three days.  It was delicious each day.  The good part about this dish is that there is not a lot going on to interfere with the fresh flavors of the vegetables and basil and the baking time allows the vegetables to be at their tender best.  I only make this casserole in the summer when I can use good farm market vegetables and my own fresh basil.

• Servings: 4
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• 1/2 lb. lean ground beef (I use Laura’s Lean 4% fat beef)
• 1/2 cup of chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Grind or two of black pepper
• 3 slices of sturdy bread (I use homemade Italian bread)
• 3/4 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 Tblsp. olive oil
• 1-1/2 medium zucchini cut into 1/4″ thick slices (3 cups)
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Saute the ground beef, onion and garlic until beef is done and onion is tender.  Season with salt and pepper.

Tear bread into chunks and put into food processor with basil leaves.  Process until crumbs are fine.

Oil bottom of 9″ baking pan.  Arrange half of zucchini in the bottom of the pan, spread half of cooked meat/onions/garlic over the zucchini.  Top with half of tomato slices.

Sprinkle half of the bread cumb mixture over the tomatoes.  Drizzle olive oil over the top.  Repeat with layers of zucchini, tomato, crumbs and olive oil.

Bake @ 350 degrees F for one hour.

Sit down and enjoy the flavors of summer!