Steak House Dinner

I love, LOVE, sauteed mushrooms and these were some of the best I have ever made! The steak was grilled, this past week we had 70 degree temperatures in the middle of October! The potatoes are a winter staple in our house, I love roasted root veggies. The key with potatoes is to just leave them alone, don't stir, you stir and they won't crisp up for you. Then for whatever reason, and I did feel a little guilty because I knew they came from too far away, my local grocery store had asparagus on sale. So we had grilled asparagus even though it wasn't spring time, and oh where they good! All in all it was a fabulous meal in my book.

Pepper Crusted New York Steaks with Glazed Mushrooms
4 New York strip steaks
3 tablespoons black pepper
2 teaspoons coarse salt
3 tablespoons butter, plus more for steaks
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
8 ounces sliced button mushrooms
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Heat grill to medium-high heat.
[1] Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper.
[2] Grill steaks to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to plates and top each steak with a dab of butter.
[3] Meanwhile, melt remaining butter in large skillet over medium heat. Stir in Worcestershire sauce and mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes until wilted.Sprinkle with salt and remove from the heat.
[4] Divide mushrooms among steaks and serve.

Spicy Oven Roasted Red Potatoes

1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 cup olive oil
5 medium-large red potatoes
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
[1] In a small bowl, combine the salt, cayenne, paprika, coriander and parsley.
[2] Wash and cut the potatoes into long strips and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes and turn to coat. Sprinkle with the spices.
[3] Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

*Asparugus are grilled and tossed wtih olive oil, salt & pepper.

Thanks to Relish for the recipe.

Roast Chicken Sunday Supper

On Thursday my husband was working First Thursday at our business (in the downtown area on the first Thursday of the month all the art shops open and give out free drinks and appetizers, Brian didn't stay too long so Molly and I stayed home). We were on our own for dinner so I did end up having the ragu from awhile ago (froze it) it was a great dinner.

So my new thing is to have a great Sunday Supper a la 1950's, retro style. Tonight's dinner was the good old fashioned Roast Chicken. I did a slow cooker recipe and then pulled it out and popped it the oven to crisp up the skin. I am going to try and use the broth from the crock pot to make chicken noodle soup tomorrow.

Slow Cooker Roasted Rosemary Chicken

Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: ON LOW 8 hours

10 garlic clove(s), minced

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary

2 celery stalks, quartered

2 carrots, quartered

5 pound roasting chicken

1/4 cup orange juice

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 tbsp or less of butter

 [1] In a small bowl, combine the minced garlic and chopped rosemary, clean and cut up celery and carrots. Set aside. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Rinse the chicken with cold water and pat dry.

[2]Put carrot and celery inside chicken cavity.
[3] Loosen the skin from the chicken by inserting fingers and gently pushing between skin and meat.
[4] Rub some of the garlic mixture under the loosened skin. Place the chicken, bone side down in a slow cooker and spread the remaining garlic mixture over top. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour orange juice around chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Cook on low 7 1/2 hours.
[5] Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the chicken breast section from the slow cooker, and drumsticks place in an oven proof roasting pan smear a tiny amount of butter over skin on breasts and drum sticks. Set in oven for 15-20 minutes until skin is a nice golden brown.

Serve with a tossed salad, and roasted potatoes. We had corn from our CSA that needed to be eaten so that is what we had.

Tried a new roasted potato tonight:
Savory Roasted New Potatoes

Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes
1 1/2 pounds new potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
 Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
[1] Place the potatoes in a large baking pan and sprinkle with garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. Toss to combine.
[2] In a small bowl, combine the Worcestershire and olive oil and drizzle over the potatoes. Toss to coat and bake in lower half of the oven, stirring occasionally for 30-35 minutes.
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Brats with pineapple salasa and burgers on the grill with CSA goodies...

So this first recipe is another Relish recipe that as I was making it I said  to myself, really, you want me to put that in it? But knowing it was a relish recipe, and often they do this to me, I have learned to follow the recipe regardless of how weird I might think it is. I pre-cooked the brats in some beer and water on the stove and then Brian finished them off on the grill. The sweet potato fries were cut with my mandolin but they were in the oven a bit too long, about 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes is a more appropriate time. The sweet potato fries had some thyme and salt & pepper on them.

Pineapple Salsa
1/2 fresh pineapple, cut into small chunks
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of half a lime
1/2 jalapeno seeded and minced (I didn't have this so I added a few dashes of Tabasco)
1/2 tsp cumin (this is what I questioned)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
1. Mix all ingredients together and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving

Now my husband didn't want to try this pineapple salsa at all and instead slathered his brat with ketchup, but as soon as I tried mine I was swooning. Somehow the tangy salsa cut the richness of the brat, and added a freshness that was much needed. I convinced Brian to try a bite and then he was bummed that he ruined his brat with the ketchup instead of trusting me with the salsa (by the way it was just the brats on a bun with the salsa no other condiments) it was really good and I will probably make it again.

CSA Booty (booty like a treasure not the other kind -cheeky cheeky!)

 From one end of the counter to another, we have five ears of sweet corn, five apples - this is one of the reasons I love the CSA so much, they tell you stories about the family and farm and you really feel like you know them, these apples for instance probably 50 years ago won the great grandma of the farm first price in the local county fair for her apple pie, which is sweet to know that history- a bag of tomatillos and 3 heirloom tomatoes, 2 yellow onions, a big bag of green beans and basil thrown in, another bag of beans - which I need to go back to the CSA e-mails and figure out what the heck these beans are because they aren't familiar- pickling cucumbers, 2 zucchini, 4 yellow summer squash, a bowl of cherry tomatoes that by the time I took this picture my daughter had decimated! Carrots, a bunch of garbanzo beans (these are a pain in the butt to shell) a bunch of red new potatoes. 

3 huge cucumbers, a bunch of little leeks, and patty pans (this is the first time we have gotten this squash I know that they grow this squash every year but they usually sell it at the farmer's markets instead of putting it in our bag so I am excited to use these) 

This was an impromptu dinner (I often revert to burgers when I don't really want to cook) I was looking at all of this food that I had from my CSA bag - the above is two weeks worth too so don't think I get an obscene amount, we were just camping and I haven't had a chance to get to all of it. You can see why though that I don't really have to go to the grocery store except for some meat and basic staples like milk and butter!

So we had grilled potatoes and carrots, look at how my hunny has perfected this on the grill! Again, we use a cast iron grill pan on our grill so that these little beauties don't fall through and they get extra seasoning from the pan! We also had sweet corn from the CSA bag, and I was able to use a tomato and onion from the CSA bag too, so I was able to put a small dent in the produce with just this one meal!

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First Meal to Blog

Tonight I came home from a very hectic/productive day and realized that I needed to check my recipe for tonight's dinner as I wasn't sure on the cooking time. Sure enough it was roasted chicken with potatoes and fresh asparagus. Roast chicken would take some time, so instead of changing into my PJ's and veggin' out with my daughter waiting for Brian to come home I started dinner. With very little prep work, yet a lot of waiting (I bribed Molly with pickles - she loves pickles- upside she is so cute when she says, "pickle" downside she smells like a pickle for a good while afterword!) I had dinner on the table. It was a very good meal with a glass of white wine.



Molly ate asparagus earlier in the week but didn't want to have anything to do with it tonight, which was interesting. Otherwise she ate the chicken, potatoes, rice, and some of the salad. I hope she continues to eat this well for the duration of her life, I don't think summer, our CSA or our community garden could be coming at a better time! Fresh fruit and veg, here we come.


Used seasoning on the chicken, the potatoes baked with it (dutch gold, very good) used lemon and rosemary toward the end (the rosemary just perfumed everything) and the lemon added a nice tartness to cut through the richness. The salad was fantastic; mixed greens, strawberries, thinly sliced red onion, feta, pecans, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.