Channeling my inner Latina...

Hahaha...that's a laugh. I'm about as Latina as Tony Blair. Anyways. Mr. R requested that we make Cuban sandwiches, so that we did (with store bought mac salad on the side - v. fancy).


First, we fail to turn our picture around AND put mustard on some hoagie rolls


Then Swiss cheese


Then some grilled pork - well, only on his - I didn't really feel like pork.



Then ham (HAM!)


Then slices of dill pickle


Then onto the panini press


And served so daintily sliced with the mac salad


I really like these sandwiches - I know the mustard will horrify some (you know who you are) - plus the pickle and what not. But I think they are kind of tartly refreshing.

Channeling my inner eastern European...

Mrs. Elle and I embarked upon an afternoon of pierogi making on Monday. Perhaps to celebrate the presidential inaugural or perhaps because we like to kill our backs. Either way...we made some pierogi(s).

First, Mrs. Elle models her fashionable apron as we begin to make the pasta dough in the lovely Kitchenaid.


Here is said dough - flour, water, eggs, margarine. Fairly straight forward. This blob made about 8 dozen (ish) pierogi. Now it rests.


Meanwhile, we played with the potato filling - 5 lbs of potatoes, 2 bricks of cream cheese, a stick of margarine, salt, and pepper. Very simple. V. not low fat.

I skipped about a billion pics at this point - we had a pasta roller to roll out the dough, which was KEY. Here is Mrs. Elle stuffing the sauerkraut pierogi. They were tart.



Here are some of our creations awaiting their turn in the boiling water.



Post boiling water - dribbling yucky innards onto Elle's kitchen table.


We had to try one - Elle availed herself of melted butter as a dipping sauce. Kind of like lobster I guess.


Meanwhile, back home at my casa (notice the Kroger root beer?), I pan fried some of these puppies up - here are some kraut ones (segregated from Mr. R's portion because he is afraid of the kraut)


And some of the less perfect looking potato pierogi -having been flipped in the frying pan, are now coasting to a light crispy state.


These were pretty good - the kraut, as I said, were a bit tart. Mrs. Elle also made cheese filled pierogi (cottage cheese, egg, onion, salt, pepper) and they weren't my thing as compared to the potato which are the ultimate in pierogi goodness in my book. It was a fun day (apart from the back killing) and I hope the recipients of the pierogi are pleased with our efforts.

Leftover stir fry

Ok, apparently R and I can't handle a 3 lb roast so there was a lot of leftover beef. I decided to make a stir fry with it, as I heart the vegetables, I do.

First, the sauce - soy, chicken broth, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, garlic (obviously), black pepper, red pepper flakes, a tiny bit of pineapple juice, and some brown sugar.


I wanted to use mushrooms, but sometimes their flavor gets a bit lost in the stir fry, so I roasted them first - single layer on a sheet pan, 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.


Chopped up the meat...


And got 2 small onions and a bell pepper sizzling in the pan...


Jumping ahead, adding in the meat, about 1/2 c of pineapple tidbits, frozen snap peas, frozen green beans, and for me, broccoli


Sorry about this pan - must add the color changing sauce...

Served with rice - it was really tasty! I liked the cheesy additional of pineapple - not v. classy, but tasty! I did not add an insane amount of broccoli, it just all hung out on the top of my dish for some reason.


A lovely new year meal.

New Year's Dinner

I decided we needed a mildly flashy New Year's dinner, and since I'm a beef kick, we had a roast beef. I've made this before and have surely blogged about it, so suffer through it again!

First, I lay a nest for the beef - garlic, onion, carrot. I'm using my cast iron skillet because I'm trying to be better about using it.


And then, the 3 lb eye of round roast can be nestled on its nest.


That baked at 325 degrees for about an hour and a half - I pulled it out when it hit 130 degrees. I drained the pan, taking out the veg and random herbs, and put the pan juices back in. I added a hefty pat of butter.


Meanwhile, the beef rests. Hello there Mr. Beef.


I added flour to the fat in the pan, and got a roux working, then added in some beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Oh, and a tiny dab of Dijon, because I thought the gravy tasted too fatty.


Then I sliced that beef and served it up with some potatoes, roasted asparagus, and a roll. Because we're fancy like that.

It was quite tasty and Miss Daisy enjoyed licking a lot of pots!

Frozen Christmas Salad

A family tradition around the holidays is the Frozen Christmas Salad. I'm not sure about the recipes's origins. All I know is that I LOVE it in all its weird glory.

First, here's a cup of whipped cream. Or rather, a cup of whipping cream that has been whipped. Ha-whipped.


And back in the mixer, we have cream cheese (8 oz), mayo (2 tbsp), pineapple juice from the can of pineapple (2 tbsp), 1 large can of pineapple, and 2 c of mini marshmallows. The recipe calls for halved grapes, but I was lazy.


Then we FOLD the whipped cream into the other mixture. Gently!


Then we prepare our pan - in my case, I do not own a jello mold or a sufficient number of custard cups, so I lined a bundt pan with plastic wrap. And then you put maraschino cherries in the bottom (which will be the top). I like a lot of cherries.


Then pour the mixture over, layer over the plastic wrap, and freeze.


Voila. Ignoring the fact that the cherries look like something gross and anatomical, it tasted delicious.