Korean-Style Quick Beef and Veg

So, I promised to get back to blogging recipes. And as much as I love cooking and eating and all things food related, this is ending up being a much more difficult task for me than it has any right to be. So, be gentle on me as I slog through this.

You see, it's been a crazy few years for me. Growing kids with increasingly hectic schedules, family members dealing with life-threatening issues, job changes, and to top it all off, a move. Don't get me wrong, things aren't dire or anything. In fact, they're quite good, knock on wood. But it just makes for the type of situation where here it's coming around to the end of 2017 already and I still haven't sent out last year's Christmas cards with our change of address. THAT kind of crazy.

The other thing that I find complicating is my own sense of perfectionism. I have a difficult time doing things if I don't feel like I can do them the way I think they should be done. I like to show you pictures of all the steps of the recipes I make. I like to have a lighthearted banter in the way I write. I like the food to be easy to make and also delicious. Most of the times, those are not a problem, but right now, the first of those is giving me stress. In the house we moved to, the kitchen is really great, in terms of functionality and usability, and while it needs some renovation, that's probably about 5 years or so down the road at this point. But it's in the center of the house. And while our kitchen has always been the figurative center of our home, it wasn't the literal center before. Which may not seem like it's a big deal, or something that would affect my blogging, but...

...There's no natural light in my kitchen. Which suuuuuuuuuucks for taking pictures. Typical house lighting makes for weird shadows and altered coloring, and I'm not yet really great at photo editing. So I either have to skip all the pictures (Nooooooo! But maybe work with fewer...), take food I want to shoot to other rooms that have natural light (awkward, but yes), deal with shoddy pictures (ugh, hopefully not too often), learn how to preform miracles in photoshop (working on it), get a lightbox or other tools to enable better pictures (on my Christmas list), or just deal with that the pictures kind of are what they are and still forge ahead with the blogging while looking for ways to improve the photographic situation.

So, that's what I'm doing. Like I said, be gentle with me.

And now, back to the food!

Ooh-La-La Lentils

I'm not sure if it's something that comes with age or what, but I'm totally finding new love for simple foods.  A decade ago, I would have found bread and butter dull and lifeless.  I wouldn't have thought that a good broth could be an experience.  I would have told you that lentils were bland and boring.  And I would have been wrong on all three counts. Quality ingredients prepared with a patient hand and a seasoned palate can elevate even the simplest of dishes.

Let's go back to those lentils.

Lentils have iron, protein, folate, fiber...they're pretty much a super food.  They've been cultivated and eaten by cultures around the world for pretty much forever, providing nourishment to our ancestors.  They are plentiful and affordable.  And, on top of all that, they are delicious.

There are many different types of lentils, but for this dish, I go for French green lentils.  They're a little harder to find than brown or even red lentils, but they have a great size and texture, and their flavor has a little something extra that I just can't get enough of.  This is basically my version of what I call "Stanley Tucci's Lentils", because his lentil recipe in The Tucci Table inspired me to enjoy them more often. You can serve this dish over rice or with a nice baguette on the side, or just eat them as is on their own.  I like the baguette route, because it mentally transports me to a European countryside, where I can sit enjoy the fresh air as I eat a rustic bowl of lentils.

First, chop up an onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a stalk of celery, and a carrot.  Heat a good couple of glugs of olive oil in a large pan, then saute the veggies over medium heat until they are soft.  Try not to let them brown at all.  Lower the heat if needed.

Rinse 3 cups of lentils, then add them to the pan, tossing so the the olive oil covers them.

Cover the lentils with chicken stock until they are fully covered by at least 1/4 inch.  You can use water too, but I like the flavor that the stock adds.  Sprinkle in a bit of cumin, some fresh ground pepper, about a teaspoon of salt, and a bay leaf.  Give it a stir and bring it all to a boil.

Once the lentils are boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are the texture that you want.  I prefer a bit al dente, but not crunchy.  Check the lentils to make sure that the liquid has not all boiled out, and add water if necessary.

Chop up some parsley and zest a lemon, and toss all that into the cooked lentils.  Take out the bay leaf.  Taste and season as necessary.  I like to squeeze a wedge or two of lemon in mine.

This is a hearty side dish, a great nutritious small meal, or even a healthy snack.  It reheats like a dream, so if you make plenty, it can last you a while.  You can also take leftovers and simmer them up in some more broth with some chopped tomatoes for a fantastic lentil soup.  Looking for something with a little more crunch?  Mix leftovers with some seasoned breadcrumbs and an egg and then pan fry spoonfuls in olive oil to make lentil fritters.

So...how do you feel about lentils?

CSA - Summer Week 3 and Summer Veg Empanadas with Kohrabi, Kale, and Summer Squash

Week 3 of the summer CSA was a huge haul:

Kohlrabi, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, potatoes, onions, lettuce, basil, and kale.  Leaning towards the green side this week, but I had some immediate thoughts as to what would be made in the kitchen.

Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day - Garden Zucchini Burgers

Yes, you read that right.  And yes, it's a real thing.  August 8th is Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day.  Seriously.  At least, here in America.  Google it.  I can't make this stuff up.

So...what are you going to do when you find those green garden zuccs on your porch?  

Well, you could whip up some lemon zucchini muffins, or maybe gingered zucchini carrot bread...

Or, you could make yourself these awesomely delicious Garden Zucchini Burgers.  

Slow-Cooker Blueberry Pulled Pork

It's almost blueberry season again!

Which means that I can finally stop clinging onto the last of my frozen blueberries, because in a couple of weeks, we'll be out there picking fresh berries to refill my freezer stock!

One of my favorite "out of the box" recipes for pork is a blueberry sauced pork tenderloin that I make once in a while.  It's savory and unexpected, but there are a couple of things that I don't like about it.  It takes a while to prepare, and pork tenderloin isn't always affordable.  Luckily, I figured out a way to get all that fabulous flavor in an affordable, easy crockpot dish!

Spring (Grilled) Chicken

Sometimes, fate works in mysterious ways.

And sometimes, fate does its work in unusual places, like, say, at Binny's Beverage Depot.

Maybe I should explain.  Give a little background.  You see, the hubs and I have had a lot of fun visiting local distilleries, but obviously, we can't buy everything at every distillery.  Sometimes there are gems that we leave there for another visit.  And sometimes, the flavors of some of those spirits left behind stick in my head.  Haunt me, if you will, in a good way.  This is the story of one of those.

One of the distilleries that we have recently visited is Journeyman Distillery in Three Oaks, Michigan.  They make some fantastic whiskeys, gins, rums, and other spirits.  We walked out with a bottle of their Ravenswood Rye Whiskey, which my husband really enjoyed.  But the drink that stuck in my head was their Humdinger Jalapeno Spirit.  It had really surprised me!  I'm usually pretty sensitive to spicy, and tend to prefer things on the mild side, which jalapeno is usually not.  The Humdinger had all the clean, fresh flavor of a jalapeno, but somehow avoided the burn that I usually dread.  It sounds cheesy, but after that day, I continued to play back the flavor in my head, imagining the possibilities.

Sticky Chicken

I confess, I'm pretty lucky when it comes to feeding times at my house.  My kids are pretty open to trying new things (with the obvious exception of Mr. Picky), and they generally enjoy my cooking.  But it's not often that a new recipe gets a reaction like it did tonight.  My girls were practically fighting each other for more chicken...it was the Hunger Games From Scratch style!

Am I glad they enjoyed a good healthy dinner?  Absolutely.  But I'm even more thrilled because it happens to be a super-easy dinner to make.  Just takes a little planning ahead, and a little under an hour in the oven, and boom: dinner.  I've had this recipe for Sticky Bourbon Chicken with Rice on my Pinterest for a couple of weeks, and I was really looking forward to trying it.  I changed it up a little, cutting back on the soy sauce and upping the ginger, but it's a keeper for sure!

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

One of the most frustrating thing about being a good home cook is that I try so many recipes that a lot of times, even if my family completely loves a dish, they forget about it.  That's why, when there's a dish that they request, or that they get excited when I mention, you know it's a winner.  My homemade chicken pot pie is one of those dishes.  I'm pretty sure it is on the list of reasons that my husband asked me to marry him.  It's just that good.

The story behind the origins of this recipe are funny.  Both haha funny and odd funny.  You see, in high school, I worked at JC Penney...in the housewares department.  Most teens would prefer to be surrounded with trendy clothes, but I was in my happy place seeing all the new kitchen gadgets, designing displays matching dishes with table linens, and restocking small appliances.  But, to be honest, it was slow a lot of the time, and there's only so much cleaning, restocking, and straightening that can be done.  So, if I had finished all that and was still bored, I would flip through the cookbooks.  That's where I found the original chicken pot pie recipe...in one of those cookbooks.  And I copied it down on a piece of spiral paper that traveled with me to college and to my first house with my husband, adding notes and tweaks along the way.  Of course, that was many years ago, and all I remember about the cookbook now is that it had something to do with farms.  I changed the recipe quite a bit too, with all my "tweaks", but the method stayed the same.

Just-Like-Rotisserie Chicken

Roast chicken is one of those things that just screams "home cooking" to me.  And it's not hard to make well.  But it's also really easy to grab a rotisserie chicken at the store for a few bucks.  Which is a lot quicker and easier.  Very tempting.  Especially when you can grab one for, what, like five bucks?

Until you start to do a little research about those chickens.  Turns out, some of them are there because they were the rejects of the meat counter to begin with.  A nice way of not wasting the meat coming close to it's "sell by' date.  Others are specifically designed to be rotisserie birds, injected with a solution so that they can stand those hours under the heat lamps waiting to be bought without losing that extreme juiciness of the meat.  And the list of ingredients on most rotisserie birds is long and full of scientific names.  Sodium tripolyphosphate, anyone?  Starts to get a little creepy to realize that it's more of a Frankenchicken than Grandmama's delicious dinner's relative.

Savory Simmered Beef Ribs

I buy cows.  Well, parts of cows.  Halves, quarters...  It's a good way to go to get high quality beef for an affordable (in the long run) price.  I've always meant to do a post about buying the cow, and I swear, I'm going to get there, but not today.  But it relates to today's post because when you buy a half or a quarter cow, you might get some cuts that you aren't as familiar with, and the best value is to use all the parts.  So, with that in mind, beef ribs.

My vegan friend posted something on Facebook the other day that said something like, "So, you say you are humane because you use the entire animal?  You know who else does that?  The animal."  I get it.  But if you're reading this post after seeing the title, you probably aren't vegan.  And if you are a meat-eater, it really is responsible to not let parts go to waste.  So, on with the recipe:

Pot Roast and Beyond

You readers know how much I love my grass-fed beef.  I mean, I don't have 2 extra freezers in my house just for ice cream...although that would be pretty awesome too!  And one of the easiest, most delicious ways to cook up that beef is a good old fashioned pot roast.

Easiest thing in the world.  Peel and quarter a few onions, cut some potatoes into large pieces, peel some carrots and cut them into large pieces, put a beef roast in the crock pot, toss the veg around it, sprinkle it with salt and pepper or whatever seasonings you like, pour a half cup of water over it all, cover and cook for 4-6 hours on high, 8-10 on low.  Bam.  Pot roast.

As much as I love pot roast, I've come to love it even more for the leftovers.  Because...pasta.

Paprika and Pierogi: Hungarian Chicken Stew

Baby, it's cold outside.  Really, really cold.  Which makes it stew weather.

Stews are great.  They are warm and filling, like a cozy blanket for your insides.  I love curling up with a bowl of savory goodness and watching the snow fall from the comfort of my warm kitchen.

This chicken stew is one of the favorites around my house, as far as stews go.  Probably because of the pierogi.  I mean, you can't go wrong with a good pierogi.  They're potatoes wrapped in pasta...I could practically live in them and die of carb happiness.  I'm not going to lie to you here, homemade pierogi are amazing.  I used to work as a teacher in an area in the city that had a large concentration of Polish immigrants, and I have tasted some fantastic pierogi.  Thank goodness for cultures that like to feed the people who teach their children!  However, also from personal experience, making homemade pierogi is not the easiest process.  And, as much as I like spending all day in the kitchen, I also like meals that you can get on the table in a decent amount of time on busy days.  Fortunately, there are a lot of good natural brands of pierogi in the freezers of grocery stores these days.  Not quite as good as homemade, but still pretty darn delicious.  Peter and Pat's pierogi are the ones I've been using lately, after discovering them at a Sam's Club exhibit thing.  For this recipe, I would go with either onion or cheddar pierogi.

Okay, I got a bit ahead of myself there.  Let's get to the stew.

The Funniest Word You'll Ever Eat...AKA Swedish Meatballs

Svenska köttbullar.

Köttbullar.

It cracks me up.

Immature?  Maybe.  Fun to say?  Definitely.  When your family asks you what's for dinner, or what smells so good, wouldn't you love to be able to reply, "Svenska köttbullar"?

Tuscan Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup

Cold weather is on its way.  I mean, unless you live somewhere near the equator, where it's pretty warm all year.  Or if you're reading this in spring, for some reason.  Or if you've totally bought into global warming so much that you don't think it gets cold anymore.  Or if you're somewhere like Australia, where the seasons are opposite ours here in the American Midwest.  Here, cold weather is on the way.

You need to have some soup recipes in your back pocket.  Soup is amazing.  It can be warm and soothing, and while you can spend a whole day (or more!) on building flavors, there are some great soups that you can make in that 30-minute time frame that everyone's so enamored with.

The Best Things You Probably Aren't Eating Yet: Garlic Scapes

Behold the garlic scape.  Small yet mighty, beautiful but with a bite, simple in look but intense in flavor.  Garlic scapes and I were introduced through my CSA the first year we joined it, and I fell in love at first taste.

Spring CSA Week 1

I've had a grin on my face all day.  Because...

Today was the first day of the year for our veggie CSA!

We got a newsletter beforehand telling us what to expect, and since I saw bok choy and harukei turnips on there, I decided to set the rice cooker before we went to pick up, because I could throw together a mean stir-fry with those field-fresh veggies.  After doing that, the kids and I headed to the farm...which happens to be about 5 minutes away, smack dab in the middle of the Chicago suburbs.

Here's what we got:

Jammy Chicken

Some days, you just need a delicious but low-maintenance dinner.  A dinner that it's really hard to screw up. A dinner that doesn't need chopping or stirring or babysitting.  A dinner that's ready for the table in 30 minutes.  A dinner that you can make with what you already have.

Here's a dinner like that for you:

You'll need salt, pepper, some jelly or jam, some balsamic vinegar (Okay, that's probably optional...any liquid that goes well with the jelly flavor is fine.  Or even water.), pepper, and some boneless chicken breasts.  Oh, and a little oil or cooking spray to grease the dish.  That's not pictured.

So, a funny thing happened on Facebook the other day...

The following is a true story.  I'm the suspicious blonde character.  My friend lives a zillion miles away, in Arizona.  She is amazing, and has 2 sets of twins and a baby and still manages to keep a fantastic sense of humor and be awesome in every way that matters.  I just love her.  This went down, and she told me I should blog it.  So I am.  I took out the names and the pictures of others to protect the innocent, but other than that, the best way I can explain this is to just copy the "conversation".  Enjoy!

Crock Pot Pepper Steak

Thursdays are crazy.  Have I mentioned that before?

Today was no exception, especially because the rest of my week has consisted of getting back from a weekend ski vacation, a holiday off school, a midnight trip to the ER with my husband, an unexpected snow day, and a full-day field trip with my daughter's class.  I barely know which end is up.

I've mentioned before that I'm not the best at planning ahead, and that's probably one of the reasons I don't do a lot of crock pot meals.  Well, that, and honestly, a lot of them just don't have a lot of flavor to me.  But I do have a handful of good, tasty crock pot meals in my arsenal.  And tonight, one of those is on the menu: Pepper Steak.

I love Chinese food, or at least the Americanized version that we can find at restaurants on almost every major street around here.  Pepper steak is pretty much one of those dishes that you feel safe ordering from those places.  I think the reason for that is that, while the flavors are awesome together, they're also easy.  Peppers.  Beef.  Onions.  Bam.

Easy Picadillo Dinner

Need another quick family dinner?

Here's one that I threw together this week after gymnastics.  When we get home from gymnastics, it is T minus 2 hours until bedtime, so dinner has to be quick and easy.  Sometimes I have it together enough to have a crockpot dinner going.  But not usually.

So, here's what was on the menu this week: picadillo.  Fun to say, right?  Peek-a-dee-lyo.  Try it.  It's fun, I swear.  It's basically a Cuban version of my creamy beefy veggie stuff, in that it's made with ground beef and veggies, and we like it served over rice.  Picadillo comes from a Latin base meaning "minced" or "chopped", so get ready for some knife work.  Different Latin cultures make it differently, some even add raisins, but this is the one that I know and that my family enjoys.