Category: Cooking

Maribeth’s Marvelous Meatloaf

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Ingredients:

• 1 lb hamburger
• 1 lb ground pork 1 egg
• 1 tbs olive oil
• ½ onion finely diced
• ¼ cup finely diced green pepper
• ¼ cup finely diced red pepper.
• 2 tsp Cumin
• 2 tbs spicy mustard
• 3 sliced Italian bread
• water
• ½ cup dry Italian bread crumbs. (you may need slightly more) 3 slices of bacon

Directions:

• First take the 3 slices of Italian bread and place in large bowl. Add as much water as it takes to cover them.

• Meanwhile, in saute pan using 1 tbs olive oil, saute onions, and peppers until the onions are translucent. Set aside to cool.

• In separate bowl, beat egg, Cumin, and mustard until well mixed. Set aside.

• Take Italian bread and squeeze out all the water and pour all the water out of the large mixing bowl.

• Add ground beef and ground pork.

• Add soggy bread that you have mashed up.

• Add the egg mixture

• Add cooled onion and pepper mixture.

• Mix thoroughly with your hands. Add the dry bread crumbs and mix well. You may need slightly more or less. Make sure mixture is well mixed and evenly mixed.

• Place in large loaf pan sprayed with PAM.

• Place bacon over the top lengthwise. Tuck edges down the side of the meatloaf.

• Place in 375 degree oven and bake for 1 hour.

• Turn heat up to 400 degrees and cook for 15 more minutes.

• Remove from stove. Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.

• Carefully place on platter. Slice into potion size as needed.

• Serve with a salad, mashed potatoes and gravy.

• Makes great sandwiches the next day!

A quick and easy dinner that everyone will love.

MEAT MIXTURE
1 pound Lean Ground Beef
1 tsp butter
1/2 small onion diced
1/2 cup Seasoned Breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons Dry Mustard
1 cube Beef Bouillon, Crumbed (or Powdered Beef Base)
4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon Ketchup
Salt And Pepper
Gravy
1 whole Onion, halved or quartered and thinly sliced
2 cups Beef Broth
4 dashes Worcestershire (additional)
1 Tablespoon Ketchup (additional)
1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet (optional)
1 teaspoon Corn Starch Mixed With A Little Beef Broth To Make A Thin Paste
Salt And Pepper, to taste
More Broth If Needed For Thinning
Mashed Potatoes, For Serving
Buttered Peas, For Serving
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil, For Frying
1 Tablespoon Butter, For Frying

Preparation Instructions:

Cook onion in 1 tsp butter until soft and translucent. Cool.
Combine all the ingredients for the meat mixture and knead until all combined. Form into 4 to 6 oval patties, then make lines across the patties to give them a “steak” appearance.

Fry in a skillet with oil and butter over medium-high heat on both sides until no longer pink in the middle. Remove from the pan and pour off excess grease.

Reduce the heat to medium and add in the sliced onions. Stir and cook for several minutes, or until golden brown and somewhat soft. Add the beef stock, Worcestershire, and ketchup. Stir and cook to reduce.

OPTIONAL: Add Kitchen Bouquet, which will give the gravy a deeper color and a bit more flavor.

OPTIONAL: Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of the cornstarch/broth mixture to give the gravy a little gloss and to thicken it up a bit without lightening it (as flour would.)

Return the steaks to the gravy. Spoon gravy over the top and let them simmer and heat back up for a couple of minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes and peas!

Last night I decided to redeem myself after Sunday’s french fry and onion ring disaster. I had a wonderful pork roast and wanted to try something new. Hubby loved it, and so did I!  Here is what I did.

Roast Pork

Ingredients

• 3 lbs pork loin roast,

• 1/3 cup honey

• 1/3 cup Dijon mustard

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon rosemary & thyme

• 1 cup water, divided

• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place pork roast in a shallow metal pan.
3. Combine honey and Dijon mustard. (I also added the spices to this and poured it all over the pork)
4. Coat top and sides of roast with this mixture.
5. Sprinkle garlic powder and rosemary over entire coated surface.
6. Roast meat for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.
7. Remove from oven and add 1/3 cup water to the bottom of the pan.
8. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and roast meat for 35 minutes per pound or until meat thermometer reaches 175 degrees.
9. Check roast occasionally and add a little more water to pan to keep honey drippings from scorching.
10. When meat is done, remove from oven and place on carving board.
11. Scrape pan and enjoy the juices, by pouring over meat slices.
12. I served this with tiny pearl onions, baked potatoes and asparagus.

Hearty Beef Stew

This hearty beef stew tastes better if refrigerated overnight, making it the perfect make-ahead meal (overnight can be expanded to several days too!).
Ingredients:

• 2 pounds top round or chuck steak with all fat and gristle removed, cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup flour 2 teaspoons salt
• black pepper
• 1 medium onion chopped fine
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green or red pepper
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cloves garlic, mashed
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled
• 1/2 pound mushrooms sliced in thick pieces
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 8 – 10 pearl onions
• 1/2 cup petite peas
• 1/2 pound carrots cut into chunks
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 glass red wine
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• thyme and parsley
• Add 1-2 diced potatoes (I had leftovers)

Instructions:

• Dredge the meat in the flour mixed with the salt and several big grinds of pepper, coating it on all sides and using up all of the flour.
• Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a large Dutch Oven and brown the pieces of meat in the butter over a brisk heat.
• Turn the meat to brown on all sides and scrape the pan from time to time to prevent the flour from sticking. This will take 10 or 15 minutes.
• Toward the end of the time add the mashed garlic and bay leaf to the Dutch Oven.
• Then add diced onion, celery, peppers to pot. When the meat is browned, start to add other ingredients to your cast iron pot, with a tight-fitting lid.
• Cook the mushrooms in the skillet in the remaining butter and add to the Dutch Oven.
• Stir wine into the Dutch Oven with the tomato paste.
• Meantime, clean the pearl onions, and carrots and add to pot.
• Pour in about 2 cups chicken broth. Simmer slowly.
• Sprinkle the dish with dried (or fresh) thyme.
• Simmer gently for an hour. Add the potatoes and peas, wait for 15 minutes.
• Taste the stew for seasoning, arrange it so that an attractive array of vegetables is on top. Garnish with parsley or any other green herb. Cover it.
• Fifteen or 20 minutes before you are ready to serve the stew, turn the heat on and reheat it slowly.
• Take it to the table and remove the cover there, so that its aroma will be enjoyed by all.
• A bowl of rice makes a nice accompaniment.

Somehow Hubby had never eaten American Chop Suey in his life. It was a staple for many of us growing up, so I decided that Hubby simply had to be introduced to this easy to make, and also easy to eat, comfort food!

Maribeth’s American Chop Suey

1. 1 pound of hamburger
2. 1/2 cup of green pepper
3. 1/2 cup red pepper
4. 3 garlic cloves minced.
5. 1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce.
6. 1 tsp Oregano
7. 1 tsp Basil
8. 12 ounces of elbow macaroni cooked (more or less. See how it is when you stir it in to the tomato mixture. You want it to be nice and moist, so you may not use all the elbow noodles.

Cooked chopped onion, green and red peppers in a little olive oil. Once that is softened, add the hamburger. Cook until the hamburger is no longer pink and all broken up. Mince the garlic and add to this in the pot. Add the seasoning, and the tomato sauce. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat. Add the cooked macaroni, and stir well. Place in greased casserole dish. Bake covered for 30 minutes at 350* (F). Take out, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve. Yum.

Note: You can add more seasoning, salt or pepper to the sauce mixture. I always tell people to taste it to make sure it is to your liking.

I have searched high and low for a good classic Key Lime Pie recipe. Most were okay but nothing to write home about. So I started playing. I played and played with recipe’s until I got it right and here it is. For those of you who love this pie as much as I do and yet couldn’t find it outside of Florida you will love it. Of course for those with cholesterol problems, this is not for you. I have made it with both the fat free cream cheese and fat free condensed milk, but the egg yolks will still kill ya. A special note here. Use only Key Lime Juice. It can be found in some grocery stores bottled, and some specialty groceries will actually carry Key Limes. Regular Lime juice will not cut it! Anyway, save it and make it for a special occasion. I promise you will love it.

Key Lime Pie

1 graham cracker pie crust
8 ounce bar of cream cheese
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup Key Lime juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
pinch cream of tarter

Beat cream cheese until soft and smooth. Add egg yolks. Beat this until it is completely smooth. Slowly add Key Lime juice, blending well, then add the condensed milk and cream of tarter. Blend until this mixture begins to thicken just a bit. Then pour into pie crust. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until pie has completely set. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Garnish with whipped cream and a thin slice of lime.

Durgin Park is a well know restaurant in Boston. It’s been there forever, and the food is good old New England fare. Whenever we go, I always get their Indian Pudding. Here is the story behind it, and their recipe.

Durgin Park’s Indian pudding is the best there is. Dark brown with substantial gravity, it smells like roasted corn and tastes like the first
Thanksgiving. The long cooking time is necessary to soften the corn and for the flavors to meld. Although some restaurants add raisins or other
flavorings, the only traditional way to doll it up is with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting fast atop each hot serving. Tommy Ryan loves telling the
story about the time he was eating in New Hampshire-just a regular customer, unknown to the staff. He asked the waitress if they had any Indian pudding for dessert. “Well, we do,” she said reluctantly, but then she bent close and clued him into a secret: “Sir, if you want really good Indian pudding, I suggest you go to Durgin-Park.”

Just to keep the record straight: this is not a Native American dish adapted by the colonist cooks. Its name comes from the fact that early
settlers considered virtually anything made with corn to be Indian nature.

1 1/2 plus 1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup black molasses
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. In a bowl mix 1 1/2 cups of the milk with the molasses, sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, egg and cornmeal. Pour the mixture into a stone crock that has been well greased and bake until it boils. Heat and stir in the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk. Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F and bake for 5 to 7 hours. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Snickerdoodles

1 cup shortening (I use butter)
1 1/2 cups sugar
Creme with mixer thoroughly
2 eggs, unbeaten
add and mix well.
Sift together and stir in:
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. creme of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Chill the dough for about 1 hour. Roll into balls about the size of walnuts and then roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet, gently press each cookie to flatten. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or golden but still soft.
Makes about 5 dozen 2-inch cookies

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON

6-ounce chunk of bacon (unsalted and unsmoked. so basically pork fat)

9- to 10-inch fireproof casserole, 3 inches deep (large size)

1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil

Slotted spoon

3-4 pounds lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes

1 lb carrot cut into chunks

1 large sliced onion

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups of a full-bodied young red wine, or a Chianti

2 to 3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cloves mashed garlic

1/2 teaspoon thyme

Crumbled bay leaf

18 to 24 small white pearl onions, brown-braised in stock.

1 pound fresh mushrooms, quartered, sautéed in butter

Parsley sprigs

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Cut bacon into lardoons (sticks, 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long).
• Sauté the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is very hot, before you sauté the beef.
• Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Sauté it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.
• In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sautéing fat.
• Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour.
• Set casserole uncovered in the middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole and turn oven down to 325 degrees.
• Stir in the wine and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered.
• Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs.
• Bring to a simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.
• While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.
• (I skip this next part, choosing to make the gravy right in the Dutch Oven with the stew.) When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.
• Skim fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly.
• If it is too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon.
• Taste carefully for the seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.

• For immediate serving: Cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Serve in its casserole or arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice and decorated with parsley.

• For later serving: When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

Serves 6.

I didn’t think it could get any easier than this, but since I was making fresh applesauce, I decided to give this recipe a try. Hubby and I looked at each other over our plates and smiled! Wow! These are so good!

Ingredients:

• 2-3 lbs. boneless pork country-style ribs

• 1/2 large onion, thinly sliced

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup apple sauce

• 1-1/2 cups barbecue sauce

• salt and pepper

Directions: Lightly salt and pepper your boneless pork ribs on both sides. Add all ingredients to your slow cooker. Gently mix it all up. Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker.Serve.

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You can also mix all items, place them in a freezer bag and then take out later on to cook in your crock pot.