Beef and Vegetable Pot Pie

Meat, veggies, and bread. This is a whole meal in one. I love the fluffy biscuits on top and Chris loves the hearty filling. This is a great way to get a lot of vegetables into one meal.

Ingredients:

Filling:
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 lbs carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
2 lbs mushrooms
Salt and Pepper
2 lbs ground beef
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas

Biscuit Topping:
2 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon of baking powder
6 tablespoons of  butter
12 oz sharp cheddar cheese shredded
1 cup of milk


Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Cook all vegetables until soft in 4 tablespoons of butter.
Add ground beef, thyme, and rosemary. Cook on med. high heat until the meat is no longer pink and the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes.

Stir in 1/4 cup of flour and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the milk and broth. Simmer until it thickens about 5 minutes.

Stir in salt and pepper and place in 9 x 13 baking dish.

Biscuit Topping:

In another bowl add the flour and cut in the butter until it resembles corn meal. Add the cheddar cheese. Stir in milk.
Place the dough in mounds over the meat and veggie mixture.

Bake for 40 minutes. If you have a broiler (we do not) you can broil the dish for 1 minute to brown the biscuits. Let the pot pie rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Grape Juice

Last summer we were given 16 lbs of grapes. That is a lot of grapes and we had limited fridge and freezer space. We decided to make grape juice out of them. 

Rinse 3 lbs of grapes. It is okay to leave in the seeds. Place them in a crock pot. You can fill it to the top with grapes. Add 1/2 cup of water and let simmer for 8 hours. Then drain all of the pulp out the pot and drain the juice into another bowl. Let the juice cool, then pour it into plastic bottles. This juice is delicious and will last in the fridge for about a week. Throw it out when it starts to taste like wine. 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Chris and I do our shopping on Sundays after church. I have found that often on Saturday I have a bunch of left over vegetables from the week that are about to expire. So I make what I call "Saturday Soup." I just throw all the vegetables in the Crockpot and hope it turns out well. Chris calls it "Wife Soup." Well one weekend I found that I had a whole lot of left over mushrooms and not much of anything else. So what do you do with a whole lot of mushrooms, some onions, a lemon and 1/2 cup of cream. I made cream of mushroom soup.  The really long vegetable in the picture is green onions. For some reason they are sold really big here and we usually have to fold them in half to make them fit in the vegetable drawer.

4 small green onions or 1 large, sliced

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tsp thyme

1/4 cup of butter

2 lbs mushrooms, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup of cream

Cook the onions, garlic, lemon and thyme in the melted butter until the garlic is golden, about 1 minute. 

Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms are soft about 2 minutes. 

Add the flour and cook for another minute, stirring constantly. 

Remove from heat and add the broth. Return to the heat and cook on low for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Wisk in the cream, heat until warm. Do not let it boil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve. 

Roast Chicken

The flavor in this chicken was amazing. I didn't have fresh herbs so I used dried and it still came out great. 

Ingredients

1 roasting chicken

Salt

Black pepper

2 tablespoons dried thyme or 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs

1 lemon, halved

6 pieces of garlic

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted

1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced

4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks

2 tables spoons dried fennel or 1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges

Olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with ½ the thyme, lemon, and garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 1 tablespoon thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove from oven and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. 

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Stuffed Acorn Squash

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large Acorn Squash
4 cloves of garlic
1 med onion, chopped
1 lb hamburger
1 lb mushrooms
1 med zucchini
1/2 cup red peppers, diced
1 (15oz) can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon curry
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a 9x9 pan add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Place squash skin side up. I sliced off a thin layer of the bottom of my squash so that it would sit flat when I stuffed it. Add 1 inch of water. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

Stuffing:
While the squash is baking brown hamburger with garlic and onions.  When the hamburger is brown and the onions are translucent, add peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, thyme, curry and nutmeg. Cook down then add diced tomatoes.

When the squash is done, turn them face side up and stuff with stuffing. Place back in the oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the squash and vegetables are soft and ready to eat.

If you have left overs of the stuffing it is great over pasta for a second meal.

Coffee Cake

Coffee Cake

1 cup butter (room temperature)

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups sour cream or plain yogurt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar*

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon nutmeg

1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan. I rub butter along the bottom and the sides. Then I use my fingers to rub the butter into the edges where the cube could not reach.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. (This is the sugar mixture)

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Stir in the sour cream/yogurt and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and beat until smooth. 

Spread half of the batter into the 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle a layer of the sugar mixture, then spread the remaining batter and top with the rest of the sugar mixture. Spread the melted butter over the top.

Bake for 1 hour  in the preheated oven, until cake springs back to the touch, or if you insert a tooth pick or chop stick in the exact middle it comes out clean.

Let the cake rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. While the cake is cooling is the perfect time to make a pot of coffee to go with it.

* I didn't have confectioners' sugar so I blended white sugar in a blender until it was powdery.

Banana Bread

When I visit my sister Regina she often says "Sis, I have some old bananas, please make me some banana bread." The bread is the best answer for those last few bananas that are over ripe. Don't throw them away. Make this banana bread or peel them and place them in the freezer until you are ready to make the bread.

Ingredients:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°f (175°c). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Makes one loaf. You can freeze this bread and reheat it later. It makes a great snack. Sometimes we will eat it for breakfast. 

Baked Roast and Vegetables

1 Roast

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 lbs of sliced potatoes

2 sliced carrots

4 chopped garlic cloves

Season salt

Brown the roast on all sides in the olive oil to lock in the juices. Place in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Add chopped onions, carrots and garlic. Sprinkle with season salt. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour. 

Green Beans and Mushrooms

Chris and I are trying to add vegetables into our diet. He gave me a funny  look when I grabbed the giant bag of frozen green beans at Costco for Thanksgiving. Then one night he brilliantly came up with this simple recipe that we both love.

1 lb of frozen green beans
1 package of giant mushrooms, sliced into large chunks
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons of season salt

Heat oil in frying pan, add mushrooms and green beans. Heat on medium until mushrooms are done. Add season salt to taste.

This recipe is great served with Skillet Salmon

Home Made Tortillas

1/4 cup butter

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup hot water

Blend the softened butter with the flour until it looks like the consistancy of cornmeal. Add the salt. Pour in the hot water a little at a time until you have the right consistency. (Doughy but not sticky). At this point you could let it sit for 20 mintutes, but that is optional.

Seperate the dough into six balls. Take each ball one at a time and roll it out on the counter. Make sure you place plenty of flour under the dough and on the rolling pin. (If you don't have a rolling pin use a clean bottle in your cabnit). As you are rolling out the dough, flip the dough and roll it out until it is the shape you want. You want to get them as thin as possible with out it ripping.

Once the dough is rolled out, place them one at a time into a hot skillet. Turn constantly until the tortilla is slightly brown like the picture above.

These are real easy to make but make a big mess, so I like to make a double batch and use them for several recipes. Tortillas freeze well.