Preserving Herbs

I ordered some rosemary and thyme and garlic this week from Fresh Direct. They always give a nice bunch, but they use these crappy vented bags which essentially render the herbs useless within a day or 2. Less than a day for delicate herbs.

I wanted to use these on a roast beef, and maybe the rest later in a white bean dip. I plucked the leaves from the rosemary and the thyme stems, and washed them. I popped them in my mini chopper with a head of peeled garlic and probably about a 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil.

I took half and spread it on my roast beef and set it to marinate. The remaining half I spooned in 2T portions in ziplock sandwich bags, which I then popped in a freezer bag. I seriously hope these frozen bits work well in the future. I really hate throwing away food.

Have you done anything to preserve cut herbs for use in the future?

Suzee's Beef Stroganoff Soup

As a part of the Tastemakers Program with Foodbuzz, I was able to replentish my supplies of Lea and Perron's Worcestershire Sauce. I got my coupons for freebies, and shared them with my family.

My cousins, Denise and Ginny, always have great beef recipes using this really uniquely flavored condiment, and I think their mom, my Aunt Beth, would use this a lot too. It's that little something that makes you go hmmm.... yum! What is that??

I also like to make soups of the flavor of things that may be too rich to eat as just a dish. Adding water gives me more bites of delicious flavor :) So this experiment came out pretty good :)

Ingredients:
1 32 oz carton of Rachael Ray Beef Stock
1/2 lb browned ground beef
1 1/2 minced onion
10 oz package of button mushrooms, minced and sauteed
8 hefty shakes of Lea and Perron's Worcestershire sauce
1/2 C red wine
1/2 C brown rice (uncooked)
2 C water

sour cream to stir in at serving time.

Add all together and allow to cook for a few hours on low. It worked best for me to pop the pan in the oven on 300 and let it go :)

I read an interesting article from the magazine which is associated with America's Test Kitchen. They tested a number of beef broths, and the Rachael Ray Beef Stock In A Box won by a mile - she actually uses 2x the beef products to make the stock. I think it also really made a difference in this dish.

I like to leave the sour cream out until you serve it as then you can determine how much you want to add, and then of course it's easier to reheat as well :)

Enjoy!!

Suzee's New England Shepard's Pie

There is no lack of Irish Pubs serving Shepard's Pie in NYC, but none are the same dish Rick and I ate in the school cafeteria or that our mom's made when we were kids. Out and about this classic is made with carrots and peas (hello? where is the corn?), but perhaps that is because corn was a North American thing?

At any rate, if we want some of that original deliciousness, we gotta make it at home. And that's ok, because it is a homey meal :) This recipe serves 2, but you can easily make a larger portion and reheat for leftovers. Our problem would be we would eat it all if I made more than 2 servings!

Ingredients:
1/2 lb low fat hamburger
1 small or 1/2 large onion
1 can cream style corn
2 large or 3 small potatoes (I like yukon gold best for this)
1t olive oil
1T butter (salted please)
1/4 C milk or whatever you put in your coffee
1/2t garlic powder, divided

Method:
Peel the potatoes, and cut into similar sized pieces. Put them in a pot with water covering them, and boil while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Mince the onion small - you want a few onion pieces to be in every bite

Sautee the onion over low heat in the olive oil - allow it to go for a 1/2 hour or so, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and sweet

Move the onions into a bowl, and start browning the ground beef. Add almost all the garlic powder to the meat as it is browning. Once the meat is cooked through, add back the onions, mix and put the mixture in the bottom of the casserole (I use a 2 quart dish).

Check your potatoes - if they are cooked, turn off the stove, drain, and add the butter and milk to the pan along with the cooked potatoes. Put the top on the pan to keep warm.

Add the creamed corn over the beef mixture in the baking dish.

Mash the potatoes in the pan, and top the casserole with the potatoes.

I actually put the casserole in the fridge at this point, but you could pop it in the oven for 20 minutes and serve.

Since I took it out of a cold fridge, I baked for 50 min, covered at 350. It was really tasty :)

If I were to make any changes, it would be to add more corn to the mix - it adds this sweetness to the savory beef - really good!

Pig Roast at the King Farm

This weekend was the pig roast at the King Farm, and most unfortunately, I missed it :( My mom took these photos as she knows I'm interested in learning how all this is done.

A 132 lb pig was roasted starting at 4:00 AM on Friday, and served on Saturday afternoon with a few kegs of beer, and a plethora of side dishes and desserts brought by guests who live and work in the area. Now to give you an idea of the number of people, my father thought there were no leftovers from the pig. At all. My mom squirelled away 4 portions as I asked her to so we could taste it when we visit in October. I'm planning to pop it out of the freezer to make a mexican pork stew.

At any rate, I am going to guess that means there were at least 75 people there - so at least 25 of the best local side dishes. My mom made her potato salad, which everyone always loves. My father said that he tried everything on the buffet and then went back for seconds because it was all so good. He can't do that too often these days as his diabetes doesn't allow for it, but he's back on the wagon today.

After visiting and playing yesterday, and not going to bed until after 1:00 AM, they both sounded a little tired today, but I have a feeling it's a happy tired.

I need to plan to make it out there for next year's party so I can watch the entire pig roast process! Sounds like FUN! And maybe I'll be able to get some of those prize winning side dish recipes too!

Suzee's Chipotle Pumpkin Soup with Beef

I made a pot roast last night - one like my mom used to make. Put the meat and cold water in a dutch oven, bring to a simmer, pop into a 350 oven and leave it there for 2.5 hours or so, then add green beans (she used whole fresh beans and I used frozen french cut beans, and cook until the beans are done. The beef fat coats the beans in a way unlike anything else. Sprinkle them with salt and they are devine. Do try it :)

I wanted to do something different with the left overs. Good beef broth is tough to find and impossible to buy in my opinion. I thought about it a lot of the day today (oh the joys of unemployment), and came up with this absolutely delicious soup! I can't wait for Rick to come home and try it too ;)

About 6 cups of beef broth
a 28 oz can of pumpkin puree
2 or 3 cups of shredded beef (not long shreds - short enough to fit on your spoon)
a cup of green beans in bite sized pieces
1t ground smoked chipotle pepper
1/2t fresh ground black pepper
1/4t ground cayenne pepper
1t cumin
1/2t sea salt
1/2t cinnamon
4 packets of splenda (you know, what you use in your coffee)

Heat the broth, and add in the pumkin puree (you know better than to use pumkin pie filling - I trust you!), and mix/melt it together. Once the consistency is smooth, add all other ingredients, and heat everything through. Taste and enjoy the smokey, sweet, spicy goodness! Good amount of fiber too!

Suzee's Tex Mex Butternut Squash Soup

I made a roast beef a couple of nights ago, and after 2 very similar dinners of roast beef, I decided tonight should be a soup with some of the leftovers. We love butternut squash soup, and I usually make it pretty simply with chicken stock and some pepper and puree it with an immersion blender. Tonight I wanted something different. Here's what you'll need for this spicy sweet treat!

4 cups or so of roasted, cubed butternut squash

2 cups of roast beef, cubed small

4 cups of chicken stock

1 T Better'n Boullion Beef (you could leave this out if you don't have it)

1/2 cup of tomato paste

1/2 cup of green chiles, canned

1 cup corn

5 oz fresh spinach ( you could sub frozen easily enough)

1/2t garlic powder

1/2t ground chipotle

1t ground cumin

Pop everything except the spinach into a dutch oven, simmer and mix, heating everything through. Wilt in spinach. Taste to adjust seasonings. Enjoy!

Oxtail

My parents dropped off some of their famous grass fed beef when they came to drive me to NH. My Mom mentioned that the butcher had included some Oxtail - did I want some? Hell yeah! Must be something cool to do with it, right? I'm on the look out for an interesting braise or soup recipe for this special cut. If you have any pointers, please do leave a comment :)

King Farm - Grass Fed Beef and Hay

The welcoming front porch and back porch. Wait! Is that one of those 5 gallon buckets?? No, not 5 gallons, but filled...with elderberries... Someone is looking for elderberry flapjacks...

After sorting through the elderberries, I added some sugar, and a little flour and cooked them on the stove top. My father said he liked them, but I thought the seeds were too bitter.

Mom helped me make salsa - she peeled aaalllllllll the tomatoes. I added purple onion, jalapenos, cilantro, freshly squeezed lime juice and a little bit of yellow bell pepper for color. Very pretty :)

We ended up with alot of salsa, and even left a few tomatoes for snacking!

Every Friday is fishday - we went to East Brady near the river and got some fish - yum yum :)

OK - ready for a ride back to the big city with that salsa, and a new refrigerator!