Stroganoff Magic

Prior entries regarding this lovely Crockpot stroganoff recipe are hereby updated in stunning detail (ha!)

First, we must mix key ingredients - mushrooms, onions, meat, and the always-present-in-a-Crockpot, cream of whatever soups. Here is it cream of onion AND the lovely cylindrical can of cream of mushroom.
Everything goes into the trusty red Crockpot. I heart you red Crockpot.
Here is the mixture prior to a day of slowly simmering...
And here we are after, a glimmer of fat on top.
Standing by are the dairy products - not for the faint-g.i.-tracted.
Blobs of cream cheese go in to melt...
Then the smooth sour cream goes in too...
Serve over some lovely noodles. A blah, brown dinner, but a tasty one.

Snack time

I happened to turn on an episode of Good Eats regarding popcorn, and after about 3 minutes, decided I wanted some. 20 minutes later, I had a bowl of it. My kernels were a bit old, I think that's why it took FOREVER.

Pork 'n' Potatoes

Another monthly menu favorite, kielbasa and potatoes. I've spoken of the gloriousness of the mustard-roasted potatoes on several occasions, here they are in action.

Here we have about 2 1/2 lbs of potato hunks - mostly Yukon golds, but some russet action as well. Salt and pepper.
Add a sliced onion.
And a blob of whole grain mustard and some olive oil.
Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and put into a 400 degree oven (I kept cranking it up towards the end to get dinner moving)
Meanwhile, I sliced up my kielbasa into chunks. It goes into the oven for the last 25 minutes or so.
About 50 minutes later, golden browness.
And a meal to inhale. Yum.
This really is a lovely way to make potatoes. The mustard and onions become almost sweet amidst the potatoes - the potatoes get a lot of flavor and crunch.

An in-depth look at chowder

Cheddar Corn Chowder, that is. And yes, I know I've blogged of it before. But it is good. And this is another meal from my monthly meal chart, so away we go!

Cook bacon. Away from dog.
Chop onions. Lots.
Cook onions in bacon fat and a bit o' butter.
Chop potatoes. Lots.
Meanwhile, add seasonings to onions - salt, pepper, and the much-needed tumeric, which adds a lovely color and scent.
Then flour - give the flour time to cook up.
Then we add chicken broth (from a box, as you can see)
Then we add back in the chopped bacon - the recipe says to leave it as a garnish at the end, but I like the bacony flavor.
Meanwhile, get the corn ready.
And the dairy products.
Add the corn and let the soup return to a bubble.
Add cheese in batches, let it melt. Then add in half 'n' half.
Let it bubble, then serve with some crusty bread. Boo..ya....

Ice Cream fun times.

Ever since buying me a bunch of vanilla pods for my birthday, Mr. R has been dancing around about making homemade vanilla ice cream. So, we built off an Emeril recipe and went about our business.

Here is the vanilla pod, bursting with scent and flavor, ready to be split.
Here is Mr. R splitting said pod. It was trickier than the chefs make it looks.
The innards of the pod, along with the hollowed out pod itself, were mixed in with the cream/milk/sugar mixture (we had cream and milk, instead of half 'n' half, sue me)
Once tempered, egg yolks were added until the mixture was thick enough to....
Coat the back of the spoon.
After spending several hours chilling in the fridge, the custard was poured in the ice cream maker and given its half-hour to freeze.
And there is the soft-serve consistency of the ice cream. It is now really an ice cream, not just a custard. Pretty tasty at this point.
It needed to be shown off a bit - so a fancy plate and some leftover brownie from last week did the trick. Voila!

Fancy schmancy dinner

R and I decided that we needed a fancy dinner on Saturday night. We often decide this. We had a hunk of tenderloin in the freezer and that fancy pasta from Miss S. We decided to join the two. But first, I had to make a bernaise sauce for the beef.

First, I took some vinegar, white wine, salt, pepper, tarragon leaves, and green onions (I didn't have a shallot! I thought this would work sort of!) and heated them until the liquids had reduced.
Meanwhile, the egg yolks and more tarragon chill out in the blender.
You let the reduced wine mixture cool slightly, then add it to the egg yolks. Then blitz the mixture and slowly add in some hot melted butter. That's your sauce.
Here are the lovely filets, waiting to be griddled.
And here is the lovely pasta and sauce of choice for the evening. We knew the steak would take less than 10 minutes, and ditto for the pasta, so we started cooking the pasta once the steak was done cooking, so the meat would have time to rest. I will warn that the pasta's direction indicated a 2 1/2 to 4 min cook time, and it really took closer to 5 minutes - I like it as al dente as the next person, but crunchy is pushing the line.
Resting...resting
Finalement. Steak...pasta...lovely marinara sauce....lovely bernaise (which R mixed with his pasta and said was delicious, randomly). R pointed out that the pasta looked like worms, which, of course, did me in on the pasta, but it was quite a delicious meal, worm-appearance notwithstanding.

MORE Buns of Joy

Yeah, I know I've blogged of the cinnamon buns many times. But this entry is a step by step into the bun-making...a tour of where the magic happens, etc. Plus, they are just so dang tasty, I wanted to make them again and take pictures. Because I love them!

So, you start with the butter, milk, sugar, salt mixture.
You let the sugar dissolve and the butter melt over low heat, until you are left with this yellow pool:Meanwhile, bloom your yeast in some warm (NOT HOT!) water. It looks v. beige and blah but smells divinely yeasty.
The ingredients are united! Slightly cooled butter mix, plus yeast, plus flour, plus eggs. Action shot on the dough hook.
Then, the mass must rise for an hour. Meanwhile, I made the filling. Here we have some lovely pecans, intact and full of life.I crush you pecans
And they are mixed with butter, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of salt
Now the happily risen dough is rolled out to approximately 10x30 inches. Approximately, because, I'm not a good judge of length/width, etc.Then the filling is lovingly spread out on the dough and eventually rolled.
And sliced into buns, which have to rise again.You see, they get bigger. They want to touch each other in the pans.
Bake until golden brownI knew I was forgetting something. Those poor babies look naked. Mix powdered sugar with a dab of milk
And pour that oozing glory over your hot buns.
Seriously - what could be nicer on a cold, wet day?