Perhaps one of the best purchases, or worst depending upon how you look at it, was a freezer for the garage. When we moved into our house we had a pathetic looking, very skinny, side by side refrigerator. The freezer side was so skinny, David had a hard time getting his beloved frozen pizzas to fit in there (single serving ones too). When we remodeled the kitchen, we went with a French door model with the freezer on the bottom. A step up but honestly, as someone who relies heavily on being able to pull meals out of the freezer for the weekdays, it still wasn't enough.
Enter the Freezerator. David had been coveting this thing from afar for years. It is actually listed as a garage appliance as it is made specifically for the garage. The top compartment can be either a refrigerator or a freezer and it boasts a heater so if you do use it as a refrigerator, the contents won't freeze during the Iowa winters. He finally went ahead and made the purchase when he heard that they were being discontinued. Best. Purchase. Ever.
I went through a spell this Fall where I really wasn't cooking anything. I was in a cooking funk. I'd go to the store, buy meat, end up not cooking in and into the freezer it would go. It got pretty bad around Christmas when I had to convert the top part of said freezer from a refrigerator, because I didn't have room to store my Christmas cookies. Part of my quest since the beginning of the year has been to cook exclusively from the freezer. All I've been buying from the grocery store is fresh fruit and vegetables and milk. It's actually been nice to have $40ish grocery bills for a family of 4!
I pulled a 3 pound package of ground beef out of the freezer on Friday. Honestly, I have no idea why I purchased a 3 pound package in the first place, but I do know that part of it will be used for a batch of Sloppy Joes. This is another recipe that come from the cookbook that helped my love my Slow Cooker, The Slow Cooker Revolution.
We really enjoyed this recipe. Making a panade out of the milk and bread really helps to keep the ground beef soft, especially since I lean towards leaner ground beef that what the recipe calls for. While there is some prep work involved, I love the fact that I can toss this in the crockpot for 6 - 8 hours and not be tied to the kitchen. Chop, brown, dump and then be free to referee the arguments all day. Or maybe catch up on my reading since I upped my Goodreads challenge this year.
Sloppy Joes
Yield: 12 1/2-cup servings
2 slices white bread
1/4 cup whole milk
2 pounds ground beef, 93%
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 small onions -- minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
4 whole garlic cloves -- minced
15 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
Mash bread and milk into a paste in large bowl using a fork. Mix in ground beef, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper using hands.
Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium high heat until shimmering. Add onions, garlic and chili powder and cook until onions are softened and lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
Stir in beef mixture, 1 pound at a time and cook, breaking up any large pieces until no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup tomato sauce, scraping up any browned bits; transfer to slow cooker.
Stir remaining tomato sauce, ketchup, sugar and hot sauce into slow cooker. Cover and cook until beef is tender, 6 to 8 hours on low or 3 to 5 hours on high.
Let meat mixture settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from the surface using a large spoon. Break up any remaining large pieces of beef with spoon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon mixture onto buns and serve.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
French Onion Soup
I really do like the winter. Snow falling from the sky means 'stay home' days, fires roaring in the fireplace and soup! Here we are, January 10, and we've only had like 5 snowflakes fall to the ground. What is that all about? Never mind that we've had several days in the 50's lately. It's grilling weather not soup weather!
Now before anyone start throwing anything at me, I'm not asking for a blizzard that keeps us house bound for days. I'm just looking for a nice little snowstorm, a foot ought to do, just enough to keep us stuck at the house for a day.
One of my favorite soups to get when we go out to eat is French Onion Soup. I've tried a few different recipes before I settled on this on as my favorite. I've been making this recipe for at least 10 years now and I'm not entirely sure where it came from. It is very easy to throw together and it just involves stirring it periodically so the onions don't burn. I did learn that you can't make a double batch of this recipe as the onions with literally take all day to caramelize. I use my cast iron Dutch oven to make this and it doesn't take nearly as long to get the onions caramelized.
French Onion Soup
3 pounds yellow onions
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 pinch sugar
8 cups water, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 sprig fresh thyme
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 whole baguette
8 ounces Gruyère or Swiss cheese, grated
Cut each onion into 1/8 inch slices (I make mine a little thicker so the onions don't all dissolve). Melt butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Once it has stopped foaming add the onions, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and sugar. Toss to evenly coat. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove cover, and cook stirring frequently until the onions begin to brown lightly, about 90 minutes longer. Stir every 5 minutes and add a couple tablespoons of water whenever the bottom of the pan crusts over with dark colored fond. Continue to cook as directed until the onions are an even dark walnut color, an additional 45 minutes longer.
Add the flour and stir for two minutes. Add 8 cups water and thyme to the onions and bring to a boil. Lower heat to maintain a lively simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Add white wine and simmer 10 minutes longer. Taste for seasoning adding salt as needed. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 325 degrees and adjust a rack to the upper middle position. Cut the baguette into 3/4 inch slices and arrange on a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake until the bread is dry, crisp and very lightly colored at the edges, about 10 minutes. Remove bread slices and set aside.
Heat broiler and place 6 heatproof bowls in a baking sheet. Fill each bowl with about 2 cups soup. Top each with two baguette slices and evenly distribute grated cheese over the bread. Broil until well browned and bubbly, about ten minutes. Cool for five minutes before serving.
Now before anyone start throwing anything at me, I'm not asking for a blizzard that keeps us house bound for days. I'm just looking for a nice little snowstorm, a foot ought to do, just enough to keep us stuck at the house for a day.
One of my favorite soups to get when we go out to eat is French Onion Soup. I've tried a few different recipes before I settled on this on as my favorite. I've been making this recipe for at least 10 years now and I'm not entirely sure where it came from. It is very easy to throw together and it just involves stirring it periodically so the onions don't burn. I did learn that you can't make a double batch of this recipe as the onions with literally take all day to caramelize. I use my cast iron Dutch oven to make this and it doesn't take nearly as long to get the onions caramelized.
French Onion Soup
3 pounds yellow onions
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 pinch sugar
8 cups water, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 sprig fresh thyme
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 whole baguette
8 ounces Gruyère or Swiss cheese, grated
Cut each onion into 1/8 inch slices (I make mine a little thicker so the onions don't all dissolve). Melt butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Once it has stopped foaming add the onions, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and sugar. Toss to evenly coat. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove cover, and cook stirring frequently until the onions begin to brown lightly, about 90 minutes longer. Stir every 5 minutes and add a couple tablespoons of water whenever the bottom of the pan crusts over with dark colored fond. Continue to cook as directed until the onions are an even dark walnut color, an additional 45 minutes longer.
Add the flour and stir for two minutes. Add 8 cups water and thyme to the onions and bring to a boil. Lower heat to maintain a lively simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Add white wine and simmer 10 minutes longer. Taste for seasoning adding salt as needed. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 325 degrees and adjust a rack to the upper middle position. Cut the baguette into 3/4 inch slices and arrange on a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake until the bread is dry, crisp and very lightly colored at the edges, about 10 minutes. Remove bread slices and set aside.
Heat broiler and place 6 heatproof bowls in a baking sheet. Fill each bowl with about 2 cups soup. Top each with two baguette slices and evenly distribute grated cheese over the bread. Broil until well browned and bubbly, about ten minutes. Cool for five minutes before serving.
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