Food, Glorious Food

Some say that it was Duke Wellington’s favorite dish, and hence is called Beef Wellington. Others say it is of Irish decent, from a dish called steig Wellington of Ireland. Heck, the French even have a version somewhat similar called “fillet de boeuf en croute”. Personally, I don’t care to ever argue food history, especially when it comes to “what is an authentic blah blah blah”. Bollocks to all that, this is what it is – a fillet of beef, wrapped up with mustard and mushrooms, foie gras pate (if you like that kind of thing) and finally wrapped in puff pastry. Call it Shirley if you makes you happy…more

From: The Gastronomers guide

Now and then I have a craving for red meat. And when that craving comes I want a meal that’s fast and easy to make. Steak au poivre is my answer. It’s a French-restaurant favorite. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who can dispute that. It’s one of my absolute favorite dishes and I almost always order it if I see it on a menu. But it’s so simple to make at home when I feel like staying in. It’s quickly cooked in a pan followed by a luxurious sauce that includes brandy and white wine. This recipe can be made for a quiet romantic dinner for two or even doubled or tripled for an elegant dinner party…more

From: Real mom kitchen

Here is the second recipe that I tried from Stephanie Ashcrafts 101 Things to Do With Meatballs. This one used an interesting combination of ingredients. However they really do work together. The cinnamon is a nice addition to the flavors. This does have some zip to it, but it wasn’t too spicy for my family and we aren’t a really spicy food family. Of course another good bonus, it can be done in the crock pot, but if needed you can cook it on the stove top. Now I only used 1 pound of meatballs because I was serving it over rice and wanted to have plenty of sauce. I also used pineapple apricot preserves because that is what I had in my house. These also would be great as appetizer…more

From: Elly says Opa

I decided to go with a bolognese to kick off my year with Nigel—well,
“a really good bolognese” according to  him.  I’ve only made bolognese
once before (I tend to stick to Greek kima,
or meatsauces with less veggies), but I love how comforting dishes like
this are. I don’t normally indulge in things like pancetta and cream
during the week (nor do I normally make things that have to simmer for
two hours on a Monday…), but what the hell.  I even bought some fresh
pasta to make this even better, since I  haven’t made my own pasta yet…more

From: laylita.com

Laylita says: Daube is a classic French beef stew from the south of France, it is all
about long slow cooking, you start early morning and finish for lunch
time; daube is one of Bernard’s signature dishes: he’s done it for
decades and is an expert at it. Bernard believes that the quality of
ingredients is very important: “when you have good ingredients it’s
hard to mess up the dish”. I’ve prepared this beef daube a few times
already, it is very easy to prepare, and makes such a wonderful dish
for this cold time of the year. Most daubes are made using beef but can also be made with lamb. We
went grocery shopping to Pike Place Market to the find the ingredients
for our daube, Bernard was trying to explain the exact cut of beef that
he used to make daube, which turned out to be shank – or the leg -,
while you can make daube with other types of beef cuts, Bernard likes
to use shank because it of that gelatinous consistency they have, it
helps thicken the sauce and since the meat is cooked for a long time it
gets very tender. Now, I discovered that at least in the
US, shank is not that easy to find, and even once we found a butcher
that had some in stock he had it in the back, he explained that it is
more common to grind it up and sell it ground than to sell it in pieces. The
good thing is that the meat was very inexpensive and it reminded me
that in Ecuador we use beef shank in a lot of soups, especially those
that are cooked for a long time, the combination of the bone and
collagen gives the broth a lot of flavor. Shank can be
bought either with the bone or boneless, both are good, I like it with
the bone because I really think that bones add a ton of flavor to any
dish, but my husband has this thing about bones and prefers it
boneless, so sometimes I please him and sometimes I don’t, either way
the daube turns out great…more

From: Gild the (voodoo)lily

Heather says: You love those Ikea Swedish meatballs so much, don’t you. Of course you
do, you’re not made of stone. You don’t, however, love driving through
traffic to circle the 50-acre parking lot, or swimming through the
crowds of mouth-breathers that hoved in from the suburbs to buy
exquisite plywood shelving with sleek birch veneers. What in the fuck
can you do, though? You love those meatballs.

So
make them your damn self already. Mix together some ground chuck and
ground pork (about 3:1, respectively, for about a pound total), an egg,
a half-handful of plain bread crumbs, a quarter of an onion (minced),
more nutmeg than you think you should (at least ten scratches across
your microplane zester), four or five good cracks of pepper, and a few
pinches of crunchy salt. Mix only until combined, and use a little ice
cream scoop to perfectly portion out meatballs onto a silpat. Roast
these at 400 for about 20 or 30 minutes, until they’re browned and
lovely…more

From: House of Annie

Tasting this dish, you’d never know that it had
something fermented in it. The final flavor is so smooth and almost
“peanuty”. I cooked this for one of my informal catering gigs, and they
were all trying to guess what the special ingredient was. Someone asked
if I had put in peanut butter. Nope, no peanuts in this so it’s safe for those with that allergy issue.…more

from: Dinners for a year and beyond

My kids love sauteed apples, and I make them frequently. Not one to
repeat many recipes, I tried roasting the apples in the oven instead. A
benefit of this method is that once the apples are ready to go into the
oven, they basically cook themselves. The center cut pork chops were
rubbed with cinnamon and seared in a hot pan. They finished cooking in
the oven with the apples. The chops were topped with a glaze of maple
syrup, shallots, apple cider vinegar, and a grind of pepper….more

From: For the love of cooking

Pam said:Mouth watering good! This has to be my husbands all time favorite dish.
I found a recipe years ago on the Internet for these tacos, it was good
but still needed some work. It took a while and many attempts, but I
think I finally have the perfect carne asada recipe. My children and I
love this as much as my husband does. It’s great to serve for company
and the leftovers (if there are any) make really tasty burritos…more