French Dip Pizza

Ok, I got a little creative.  It was a good thing.

What you'll need:

1 24 hour pizza crust (split the dough in half for small, or use the whole thing for a medium-large size pizza.  This will be a half size.)

1/2 cup mozzarella (grated or sliced, your choice)

1/4 cup gouda  (grated or sliced, your choice)

1/2 cup caramelized onions and mushrooms

1 - 2 cups left over roast beef sherds and pieces

2 cups au juice 

7 or 8 fresh basil leaves

Prepare pizza crust to these instructions and preheat pizza stone to 450 to 500 depending on how hot your oven gets.  Saute about 1/4 of an onion and 3 or 4 sliced button mushrooms in a little butter.  In a small pan, make up au juice and place roast beef pieces into juice.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat, let simmer until ready to use.  

Once dough is stretched, make sure it still slides easily on the board.  If not, add a little more flour. Brush the outer rim with olive oil.  Layer onions and mushrooms, roast beef straight from the au juice (don't shake it, get some of the juice on there), cheeses and basil leaves onto curst.  You can do what you wish with the left over au juice.  Slide pizza off cookie sheet or cutting board onto pizza stone.  Bake for 6-7 minutes.  Be sure to remove pizza from stone once done or it will continue to burn the crust.  Let rest for 3 minutes before slicing.

This was so good, and we had just enough roast beef left over that we had this for dinner the next night too.  Its kind of a make it when you can type of pizza.  It's not everyday that you have roast beef laying around.  But, next time you do, keep this in mind!  You will be happy with yourself if you do.  Enjoy!

Vegetable Beef Stew

Two things. 1) I got an immersion blender a while back and I am now obsessed with it and 2) after the holidays I feel the need to eat copious amounts of veggies.  So with that said, this isn't your traditional stew.  The thick broth (I really want to call it stew juice) is made just from veggies and not thickened with flour.  The only thing about this recipe is that if you don't have an immersion or regular blender, your out of luck.

Vegetable Beef Stew
What you'll need:
1 roast (fairly lean, size is up to you.  Mine was really big, but I only used half for the stew)
4 cups beef stock (take as much of this from the slow cooker juice as you can.)
1 large parsnip
5 cups carrots diced
3 cups small yellow or red potatoes quartered
2 cups celery diced
1 cup onion diced
1 medium crown broccoli
1 medium to large celery root, peeled and diced (Ugly little vegetable, I took pictures on how to deal with it)
3-4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

In the morning, place your roast, season with salt and pepper into your slow cooker.  Cover it with as much of the onions, potatoes, carrots and celery as you can fit and set to low.  You probably won't be able to fit even half, but thats ok, you'll cook those later.

After at least 6 hours, when beef is falling apart, remove vegetables from slow cooker and place in a large bowl.  Place the roast onto a plate and break up into quarters to allow to cool enough to handle.  Add 4 cups beef stock, spices and remaining uncooked vegetables into a large pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling vegetables are fork tender, remove some of the parsnips and as much of the other remaining vegetables you'd like and add to the bowl, these will be the vegetables in the stew so you'll want a good variety.  You want about 5 cups cooked vegetables set aside and about 5 cups left in the pan.  Just eye ball it though, it doesn't have to be exact.

Remove any extra beef stock so that the liquid is at an equal level with the vegetables, reserving about a cup.  Using your immersion or regular blender, pulse vegetables until smooth.  If it seems too thick, then add the reserved broth until desired consistency (think stew!).  When meat is cool enough to handle, break up into bite size strips and pieces.  Depending on the size of your roast, you probably won't need all of the meat.  I added about 4 cups, you use as much as you'd like.   Add cooked vegetables and meat and mix into stew.  You may want to reheat on medium for a few minutes, just make sure you gently keep stirring it so it doesn't burn.  Done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I feel like that was a really weird process to explain.  I hope it all makes sense.  As for the stew...it was AMAZING!  I really loved the fact that it was just as thick and yummy as normals stews that you would use flour as a thickener, but instead it was all veggies.  I made a tikka masala in a similar way the other day and it was amazing.  I used all the normal spices and tomato paste but skipped the butter and flour.  I might just make it again soon and share that with everyone too!  Plus I have SUPER yummy recipe to share later that I did with the left over beef.  Enjoy!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I pretty much just sewed and cooked all weekend.  Although I did sneak out on Saturday for a little trip to Hancock Fabric, who was having a 60% off sale.  I scored some pretty floral prints for cheap!  Like $2 per yard cheap.  Yay me.  Not sure yet how I'm going to put outfit posts together yet to show you my creations, but I've got one skirt finished to share already!     Oh and I guess we did go on an awesome hike sunday.  We saw lots of deer and moose tracks, I will post a few photos from that adventure too.  I guess I have a lot of stuff, I'd better get busy!  Have a great Monday!  4 more days until another glorious weekend!

Balsamic Glazed Meatloaf

I love meat-loaf!!!  No shame in admitting it.  None.  Meatloaf sandwiches, probably in my top 10.  I have to share tho... I remember when I was a kid and my mom would make meatloaf sandwiches for my dad, I thought that was the NASTIEST!!! thing you could ever ever... ever make for someone.  Well, I was MISS'N OUT!  Now I make meatloaf just for the sandwich.  I went out on a limb and tried something new with this one, no regrets, it was perfect!

Balsamic Glazed Meatloaf
1 pound ground pork
1 pound lean ground beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large carrot grated
2 stocks celery chopped
1/2 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 turnip chopped
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons balsalmic vinegar
1 cup bread crumbs
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons sweet hot mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Glaze:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon worcestershire
1 teaspoon hot sauce

Add olive oil to a pan and heat over medium heat.  Add carrot, celery, onion and garlic and saute until veggies are tender.  Set aside and allow to cool.  Preheat oven to 350.  Add remaining ingredients into a large bowl.  Once veggies are cool enough to touch, add to bowl and mix with hands until well combined.  Spray loaf pan with cooking spray.  Place meat into pan and form into a large mound being sure to leave at least 1/2 inch  on the sides from the top of the pan.

Place all glaze ingredients into a small bowl and whisk until combined.  Pour half over top of meatloaf being sure to cover the top evenly, most of it will run down into your moat.  Bake for 60 minutes.  Place remaining glaze into a small sauce pan.  Just before timer goes off, reduce glaze by half over medium high heat, stirring fairly frequently.  Once timer goes off, add a little of the thickened glaze to top of meat loaf and bake for another 15 minutes.  You can use a meat thermometer of you'd like to check doneness, ours was perfect.  Use remaining glaze as a dipping sauce.

This baby was AWESOME!  There was enough left over for sandwhiches the next day (my fav) and for some random meatloaf soup I whipped out.  The glaze is soooooo packed full of tangy sweet flavor, it was heaven.  So make it now! Enjoy!

ps. sorry for the weird photos, lovely winter light!

Hawaiian Burgers

So I was at the grocery store buying the pineapple, ham and havarti to make my hawaiian burgers that I have been planning for about 2 months now.  The dude at the check stand surveyed my purchase and said..."Pizza?!"  I said nooo, hawaiian burgers.  He was surprised like he had never heard of a hawaiian burger before and jealous at the same time.  He then replied "that sounds amazing."  I said it will be!  And they are!  The soy, honey and ginger make a really good burger as is, then top with a little ham and pineapple....mouth heaven!

What you'll need:
1 pound super lean ground beef or turkey
1 egg
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon fresh ground ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
deli ham slices (1-2 per burger)
pineapple slices ( I used fresh)
havarti cheese slices
lettuce
buns

In a medium bowl, combine beef, egg, bread crumbs, honey, soy sauce, ginger and garlic.  Mix together and let sit in fridge for a half hour to an hour.

Prep pineapple if using fresh.  Cut off sides, core, and slice as thin as you can.  For the buns, I had made some wheat pizza dough a while back and didn't like how it stretched for pizza.  I took one of the dough balls from the freezer, split it into 4 pieces and flattened them out to bun size.  Then I grilled them just as I would pizza crusts.  I grilled the buns first to give them time to cool.  Remove meat from fridge and form into 4 patties.

Preheat grill to medium high (if you haven't already from grilling buns) place burger patties, pineapple slices and ham slices.  The ham will grill the fastest, once its a little browed on both sides either place on upper rack of bbq or remove from grill.  Pineapple and burgers will take about 5 minutes on each side.  Just before you remove burger patties, lay ham slices on patty and then top with cheese.  Let cheese melt and top with pineapple.  Plate up!

Pineapple art.  duh.

I ate my burger with just these ingredients, nothing else.  Kam added some mustard and mayo to his bun.  You could also add lettuce and tomato.  Maybe a little bbq sauce instead of mustard or mayo would be good too.  I prefer it simple.  Enjoy!

Marinated Flank Steak

I usually go more to the sweet rout when I marinate flank steak.  I have my go to recipe, but I decided to try something new.  The recipe that I used as a guide for this was a Moroccan marinated.  It was different, but absolutely delicious.  There is something magical about cinnamon when used with the right combination of spices.   


What you'll need:
1 flank steak (as big as you want)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice (about half a lemon)
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley


Combine everything into a large zip lock bag.  For a smaller flank steak, marinate for about 3 hours.  For a larger steak, go overnight.  Preheat grill.  Grill to your liking.  We like out meat medium rare and I had a huge flank steak.  I grilled for 10 minutes on each side and it was perfect.  

If it looks a little yellow, its from the turmeric.  If I ever have to dye something yellow, I'm definitely using that spice!  It stains my nail polish even.  What are we having for dinner tonight?  Leftovers!  Enjoy!

Ground Steak Sandwich Goodness

So Kam and I had bought a pack of these nice looking round steaks, little fat, not too much.  6 in the pack, we bbq'd 2 for dinner one night and they were so tuff that we had to figured out what to do with the other 4.  So Kam came up with the idea that we should cook them up and grind them for sandwiches.  So thats what we did.  I even made some beer rolls to top of the deliciousness.  Plus I haven't really eaten in 4 days, so lets go all out on the last day of a dull 4 day weekend.  With the Nutella you can substitute the grinder for a food processor, I really don't think you can do that here.

What you'll need:
Cooked Beef (a roast, crap steaks, whatever you have.  Except ground beef.  Its got to be a whole chunk.  You could even use turkey or ham.  As long as you have around 2 pounds, use what you have)
3/4 cups mayo
3 tablespoons mustard (we used this sweet and spicy brown mustard.  It has a bit of a horseradish flare to it)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup sweet relish or chopped sweet pickles

We smoked our steaks with this little smoker box we have for our bbq.  You can't cook meat until its fall off the bone smokey goodness, but it will give it a little extra flavor.  You can cook and season the meat however you like for this sandwich meat, ours was lightly salted and a about medium.  Let it cool, cut into pieces, then grind it all up.  After all your meat is ground, run a slice of bread through the grinder to get all the loose bits of meat out.  It will just mix in.  Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix.  Done.  Slap as much as you'd like onto some bread.  Add a few more condiments, or don't.  Personally, I think its perfect as is.  Today I made patties with it and grilled them.  Then I toasted the beer rolls and we ate it like that.  Usually we aren't that fancy, just plain old soft bead is all you need.  Or just a fork.

 Don't mind that piece of pork, that ended up being a failed experiment. We smoked the steaks on the top rack.  They look a lot pinker from the smoke, the meat was much more done that it appears.

On the left is the grinder bit for the Nut Butter and the right is the size for meat.  I even have another with 4 teeth that would make an even chunkier grind.  Might try it for salsa.

See the bread.

Little dab of homemade Ketchup!

If do come across a grinder, be sure and place a bowl on the floor underneath just incase it drips.  You can also make really good razor clam fritters with one of these babies. This ground meat is seriously delicious.  This is childhood heaven.  Enjoy.