the best beef stew you've ever had

before we begin i want to talk about taking your time. is this process we are about to embark on a bit on the time consuming side? yes. does it perhaps add a bit of work you could get away without? maybe. is it hands down the best stew i've ever had? yeppers. you betcha. so, if you're going for the over achiever award, here we go. chop one large onion, what ever color tickles your fancy, three large stalks of celery, three to four carrots, put them in a bowl, set aside. make sure you're beef stew meat is dry, and cut into reasonable size chunks. what do i mean by reasonable? go get one of your soup spoons. put a hunk of the meat in it. allowing for the fact that it will shrink a bit, will it fit in the spoon? will the spoon with the cooked meat on it fit in your mouth? will the others at the table leave or be sick at the site of the meat and spoon fitting in your mouth? well then. if you have to cut some of the pieces in half, try to go cross grain, it's more tender that way. season some flour with garlic salt and pepper, put a bit of oil in the bottom of your stew pot, or dutch oven and get it good and hot. dredge and brown all of the meat, removing it to a bowl, in batches. okay, i get it, it takes a while. don't crowd the pan! if you crowd the pan you ruin the whole point of this extra step and you may as well skip it. okay assuming you have all of your meat browned and in a bowl, put the veggies in the pot and let them cook down, stirring occasionally. we want them to brown a bit too. when they are brown around the edges sprinkle in your herbs, for us a bit of rosemary and thyme then add about 1/3 to 1/2 a bottle of red wine. merlot, cabernet sauvingon, any dry red wine. you don't need to go broke on it, but if you wouldn't drink it don't cook with it. let this cook down with the veggies with the lid off until it's reduced a bit and smells mellow. add the beef back in and put the lid on, turn the temp down to low and let simmer for about 30 minutes. chop some potatoes and add them after the beef has cooked for the 30 minutes, stir. this is your chance to adjust for liquid content. add one can of beef broth or stock, if it looks too thick, add a bit of water then cover and let cook for another 45 minutes to 1 hour stirring only once or twice. add frozen peas and corn, and if you like fresh green beans, stir and let simmer for 30 minutes again. serve with nice french bread, steamed dumplings, biscuits, or rolls.

tomato bread salad

for years i've been ignoring a multitude of variations on the same recipe. the one where you take stale bread and toss it with juicy tomatoes and call it salad. "don't you know stale=bad?" i'd rail while countless cooking shows and grocery store displays tried to sell me on it. well. last night i caved. i had the end of a loaf of french bread from the market and several tomatoes from the garden and one cucumber, but no lettuce. hmmm. we've all heard this story before, i used what i had at hand and.... hit a homer with the family. and myself, i might add. so, cut the stale bread (not as easy as it sounds, i know) into large cubes, one inch or so, put them in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. chop in large chunks your tomatoes and cucumbers, mix them in a separate bowl. salt and pepper to taste. this two bowl process is important because while i wanted the oil to be on the bread, and the bread to soak up the tomato juice, i didn't want the oil to ruin the fresh taste of my tomatoes. olive oil on tomatoes is all fine and well, but it's not what i was going for here. once the oil has soaked into the bread and the salt has drawn a good bit of juice from the tomatoes combine them and stir, let the salad sit about 30 minutes before you serve it stirring occasionally so that all the bread has a chance to soak up the juices. enjoy!

german-ish pork chops

we have already discussed my love for pork sirloin chops, a very versatile meat. when confronted with my husband holding a red cabbage at the grocery store the other day and saying "isn't there something they do with these, and maybe apples?" my first thought was, well actually, pork country ribs. however, though a bit cheaper country ribs have a tendency toward extreme fattiness that i was not in the mood to deal with. so, sirloin ahoy! the best way to do this is in a dutch oven, if you don't have one... get one. they're worth every penny and then some. so, a bit of oil in the old dutch to heat and season some flour with garlic salt, pepper, and mace. mace, in case you aren't familiar with it, smells a whole lot like pine sol. a little goes a long way, but don't skip it! so, cut the chops into reasonable sized pieces, dredge them in the flour, pat them a bit and brown them on both sides. put them on a plate and saute in the dutch one medium red onion, sliced, and one large apple, sliced. make sure to scrape all the tasty bits from the bottom of the pan. put the pork back in nestled in the apples and onions, and top with one small head of red cabbage, shredded. sprinkle with cider vinegar and a bit more mace and a pinch of salt. put the lid on and bake at 275 for an hour, at one hour the cabbage should be fairly wilted and the pine sol-vinegar smell should be morphing into deliciousness. poke about 5 potatoes into the top of the cabbage, don't stir it though. put the lid on and bake for two more hours. if your cabbage seems dry when you add the potatoes go ahead and pour in a bit of water, not more that 1/2 a cup. you'll end up with a wonderful purple meal of tart savory cabbage and pork chops in a sweet and sour apple gravy. i like green beans with this, and because this is a meal brought to you by pork, i went and sauteed mine in some bacon grease with almond slivers. YUMM!

i am remiss

if you have read all these rambling articles, you may have picked up on a theme of discontent having to do with my tiny, one cup food processor. it's subtle, but it's there. my husband, champion of hintery, killer of bugs, and all around good chap noticed this tiny thread of discord and for my birthday gifted me with a new 7 cup kitchen aide food processor. still my heart, he even got the red one! this not only goes on record as best birthday gift ever, it expands our culinary pursuits. no more let us quail at the produce stand, never again shall we hesitate with cook book in hand, no! we will boldly stride forth armed with the height of kitchen gadgetry and artistic nuance combined! we will pulse, or puree to our little hearts' delight! alas, my birthday was in june and i had forgotten until just now to post my official thanks, so here it is: thankyou husband, you should give lessons at what you do.

stuffed mushrooms

so we should all know by now, i hate mushrooms and eggs. an unkind fate, or at least one with a sick sense of humor gave me for the love of my life a man who loves nothing so much as mushrooms and eggs. go figure. the grocery store had a nice big box of nice big crimini mushrooms last week when we made the usual family foray to the market. what with my husband being the noble bread winner that he is, i have a general policy of letting him have whatever he wants for dinner. the only time this went seriously awry for me was when he presented me with a big, wobbly thymus gland from a steer and asked if i could use my julia child cook book for it. i did, and i may never be the same. by comparison, mushrooms now don't look nearly so bad. anyway, to the point: i made stuffed mushrooms for dinner and i'm told they were great. here's how it went: mince and saute together half of the stems from the mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, and tarragon in olive oil, i can't tell you how much because it depends on how many you're making. be brave, use your judgement, try to make equal parts stems, onion, and peppers. let them cool. combine in a food processor (or mixing bowl) the veggies, one or two italian sausage links (minus casings), one egg, some more olive oil, and either stale corn bread (don't toss the crusty leftovers in the trash, put them in the freezer!) or, about a cup of cornbread stuffing mix, moistened. mix together until evenly combined and sticky. take the stemmed caps and brush them with olive oil, inside and out, place them in a baking dish making sure they are not touching each other or the sides of the pan, fill with the stuffing so that each one is nicely rounded with meat mixture, brush the filling with olive oil and sprinkle them with bread crumbs. pre heat the oven to 350, right before you pop them in the oven pour about 1/4 to 1/2 and inch of marsala wine into the pan around the mushrooms. bake for two hours at 350 and serve with the reduced wine as the sauce. a note here: if you're only making two, an hour should do you. if you don't trust yourself to know when they're done, use a thermometer to check the internal temp after an hour, most of them have a meat loaf setting that would work fine for this recipie.

savory pork chops with orange relish

long time no type, it has already been said that life at the cottage is a whirlwind. due to this wind, as it were, last night dinner was a bit of a rush job. my husband says i should always cook under pressure, as new recipes are sure to result, i choose to take this as a compliment. so, last night i had some pork sirloin chops, one orange, one onion, and a bit of celery. the wine for the evening was to be Gewurztraminer, and the side dish steamed summer squash from the garden. a note here on pork sirloin chops: love them. my favorite way to cook them is dredged (or breaded if i feel like fussing with the egg), browned, covered and baked at 275 for about 3 hours. they fall apart under your fork and are heavenly topped with onions, fruit, or green chilies while they bake or left alone to finish. now that we have established the bliss of a well prepared sirloin chop, we return to the meal at hand. i diced 3/4s of the orange skin on (it was large), an equal amount of onion, and one stalk of celery these got to saute in canola oil with salt and a sprinkling of savory until everything was soft. i put this "relish" into the bottom of a baking dish and browned the chops in the pan with a bit of salt and pepper, then put them in on top. foil over the whole lot, then into the oven. ideally we'd go back to the bit about cooking at 275 for 3 hours but we were short on time so instead i settled for 350 for an hour and although we needed knives they were still juicy and wonderful. as leftovers i expect them to make wonderful bbq pork sanwiches.

kielbasa and rice

this is easy, peasy, fast, and tasty! chop up 2 stalks of celery, half a large onion, bell pepper (however much you want), and one kielbasa. throw it all in a large skillet that has a lid and let it brown in a few tablespoons of olive oil. once the sausage and onions have some crispy yummy brown edges add one package of mahatma saffron rice, stir. let this sizzle for a minute or two then add one can petite diced tomatoes, fill the can with water (not quite to the top) and pour into the skillet. bring everything to a low boil then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 18 minutes. viola, dinner is served! with crackers and franks hot sauce.