You're my heart....

Long live the mock TV dinner

I apologize for my absence. What with the brain crisis and the home buying and what not, it's been a dull food month. However, I made a TV dinner tribute last night - Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and peapods. R demurred on the peapods, as they are green and, therefore, evil.

I relied on an Emeril recipe. You basically make little meat patties full of beef, pork, onions, bacon, and lovely flavorings like Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, garlic, etc. You make a mushroom gravy. You make luscious mashed potatoes. And then you eat it.

I must admit, I wasn't wild on the Salisbury steak itself. It was a bit too burgery - a little tough. If I were to make something like this again, I'd make it more like a meatloaf - a little more egg, add some breadcrumbs, lighten it up a bit, so the gravy can actually permeate the meat. Now, the gravy - that I did enjoy. It was a bit too mushroomy at first, but with some additional beef broth and a dash of Worcestershire, it was delish.

Chicken braid

Thanks to Miss Elle for the lovely chicken braid recipe. I am sure she can school me in the future on "braid" construction, as you can see, it looks a bit odd, but it tasted VERY good.

For the braid, remove two cans of crescent rolls from their tubes - press the seams together and form two rectangles of dough - press the two rectangles together and roll into one long rectangle. I found it easier to fold the place one rectangle on top of the other, and then roll them out together into one long one.

For the filling, mix 2 c cooked chicken, 1/2 c shredded cheese (I used more like a cup), 1/2 c mayo, 1 small chopped red pepper, 1/2 small chopped onion, 1 finely minced clove garlic, 1 tsp dill, salt, and pepper together.*

Place the filling down the middle of the crescent roll rectangle. Cut strips about an inch wide on the sides of the rectangle, and brain them across the filling. Brush with egg wash.

Bake at 350 deg. for 25-30 min until golden.

When I get my master class on braid construction, I will update.

*The original recipe calls for broccoli and no onion. R's deep personal hatred of broccoli led to the substitution.

New Year's toast

Miss M and I toasted in our new year at a fab fun party, crowned with lovely prosecco and mango sorbet drinks. Thanks for the suggestion, Nigella!

Mmm...chicken beast

I have only few pics, but Miss M and I also prepared a lovely roasted chicken with sides of steamed broccoli and welsh rarebit sauce (thank you Stouffer's!) and the Barefoot Contessa's roasted mustard potatoes.

For the chicken, we got a 4.5 lb roaster and shoved 1/2 an onion, some garlic, and half a lemon in its unmentionables, salted/peppered the outside, then brushed with olive oil and roasted for about 1 1/2 hours in my janky 425 deg. oven, occasionally brushing with butter. The chicken rested on a bed of the other 1/2 onion and lemon and more garlic. It produced an insane amount of juicy goodness, so we made gravy with the dripping. Very moist and tasty.

For the potatoes, we cubed about 3 lbs of Yukon gold potatoes, then tossed with 2-3 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp whole grain mustard, salt, and pepper. They roasted at the same temp as the chicken for probably 65 minutes or so. Again, my oven is janky.

The broccoli was steamed and doused with cheesy goodness. Mmm.

Pomegranate cosmos

Lovely Miss M from Buffalo came to visit over the weekend and we had a very brief flurry of cooking. To buck us up for cooking ('cause we're Buckeyes!), Miss M prepared some lovely pomegranate cosmopolitan drinks. She'll have to verify the recipe, but I know that they included vodka, pomegranate juice, some OJ, and lime juice. They were delish. Pomegranate juice is VERY sour without some sort of sweetener, which is why we used orange juice.

Note the random items in the pic - whole grain mustard, s/p, sponge, etc. We keep a tidy kitchen.