Shepherd's Pie

OK so I decided I wanted to make Shepherd's Pie. Beef? Good. Mashed Potatoes? Good. You get the idea.

So I went through every cookbook I have, and nearly every single one had a version of Shepherd's Pie. Some had lists of ingredients all the way down the page, others used completely foreign things like rutabagas (seriously? I don't even really know that those are). Some had interesting variations with cubed steak instead of ground beef, or the addition of red wine--no complaints there. But in the end, since I'd never made it before, I just wanted a quick and simple variation--so foodnetwork.com and Rachael Ray to my rescue! You know, she gets a lot of flak for not being a "chef", but as far as I'm concerned, neither am I! And if I can make it in 30 minutes... well then, that's just a delightful bonus.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm only making this with beef (some versions will mix ground beef and lamb, others will only be lamb)--it's quite simply because I won't touch the stuff. Mary had a little lamb...little lamb... Think Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Shepherd's Pie

2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 Tbs sour cream or softened cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup cream (or low sodium chicken broth)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 cup beef stock or broth
2 teaspoons Worcestershire, eyeball it
1/2 cup frozen peas
Salt, pepper, and paprika

Pre-heat oven to broil or 425-450 (we don't have very many dishes we can broil). Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and pour them into a bowl. Combine sour cream, egg yolk and cream. Add the cream mixture into potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth.

While potatoes are boiling, brown and crumble ground beef in a large skillet. Season meat with salt and pepper. Once browned, add chopped carrot and onion to the skillet. Cook veggies with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables. Stir in peas.

Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with paprika and bake until potatoes are evenly browned.

Like all casseroles, it may or may not turn out very pretty...but here we go! Just remember, beef? Good. Mashed Potatoes? Good.

Weekly Menu 2/21

Apparently lots of people find it funny that I create weekly menus for Bobby and I. If you don't already do this, I highly recommend it. It A) Saves you money B) Makes you less likely to eat junk food C) Gives you a meal to look forward to and D) Streamlines your grocery trip. So since it's late and I'm getting sleepy, instead of a recipe tonight I'm going to share our weekly menu and what you can look forward to being added to the blog.

Also, clearly I "redecorated" :-) If it's too pink, let me know!

Sunday: Salmon Caesar Salad (I've made the executive decision not to share my mother's Caesar salad recipe because otherwise what would I bring to potlucks and dinner parties to show off!)

Monday: BBQ Chicken Pizza (Spread pizza dough like Boboli or Pillsbury with your favorite BBQ sauce, top with LOTS of mozzarella cheese and add chunks of grilled chicken and diced red onion)

Tuesday: Shepherd's Pie (this is a new one for me, I'm excited! I'll post if it's good)

Wednesday: Smoked Salmon Fettuccine Alfredo and Red Velvet Cake (Happy Birthday to Bobby! I plan to post both of these)

Thursday: Leftovers :-)

Friday: Probably Palermo Viejo (our favorite restaurant in Louisville) to celebrate Bobby's birthday more officially

Saturday: Stuffed Shells w/ Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Sauce (yum! will post also)

In other good news the snow has melted for Bobby's birthday week! I consider this a "turning point" weekend for us in terms of weather. So it's my advice to others out there cooking to gather up your favorite cold-weather menu items (comfort food) and add them to your menus quickly! Soon will be the season for summer salads, fruit salsas, and margaritas! Oh wait...those are good in any season...

Grilled Salmon w/ Ginger-Orange Mustard Glaze

Coming to you again from the Complete Cooking Light Cookbook. Seriously, I'm just beginning to crack this powerhouse of a cookbook. This is quick and easy, and you can grill or bake. It recommends marinating for 30 minutes, but the sauce is pretty strong, so I think if you were really pressed for time you could heat the sauce over the stove and drizzle over your fillet. I also think this would be good with chicken--assuming most of you like chicken more than I do :)

Grilled Salmon with Ginger-Orange Mustard Glaze

1/4 cup orange juice1/4 cup soy sauce (go low sodium if you can)
1/4 cup sherry
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 Tbs grated fresh ginger (I used the kind that comes in a jar because I didn't feel like peeling any--but fresh ginger will always taste best)
2 Tbs honey
Salmon fillets

Combine first 6 ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Place salmon fillets into a plastic Ziploc bag, and pour marinade over them. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then remove from the bag to grill or bake (425 for 30 minutes in a tin foil "boat" to catch excess liquid). Pour remaining marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Serve over the fish, or on top of quinoa or rice for flavor.

I know there are many salmon purists in my family, and believe me I love fresh, grilled, Pacific salmon when it's in season. However, Bobby and I are still trying to eat fish 1-2 times per week and I've got to add some variety! Especially during the "down" months where you may get more previously frozen Pacific fish, or Atlantic. If you don't know the difference, then I don't want you reading my blog! Just kidding :) Kind of...

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Dear T&C,

This post serves no other reason than to remind you of what snow looks like.

Sincerely,
Your pale and pasty sibling counterparts

Scallops and Pistachio Pesto Pasta

Oh my goodness, I'm BACK! It was a long month of living in the dark ages while my PC was cleansed of an insane virus. I've never had a computer virus like that...and I lost everything that wasn't backed up. So now I'm just trying to slowly put my PC-life back together. On the upside, I now have Windows 7 and all of my pop up windows are pink :)

But that did leave you all with a month of unposted recipes. I'll do my best to make up for a few of them, and they'll certainly be out of order (based on what photos I re-acquire faster). So let's get it started with a bang and I want everyone to say "Pistachio Pesto Pasta" 5 times fast. This recipe comes from The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook, a book so large in size and scope I'm only just beginning to tackle it.
Scallops and Pistachio Pesto Pasta

1 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 Tbs chopped pistachios (good luck finding them unpeeled...but it gave Bobby something to do so he felt like he was contributing)
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
Pinch of salt
Pinch of paprika
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp olive oil (just eyeball it)
3/4 lb sea scallops (if you don't like large scallops, you can use bay scallops which are more bite-sized)
1/4 cup flour
Another pinch of salt
2 tsp butter
2 cups angel hair pasta or thin spaghetti

Place first 9 ingredients into a food processor (doesn't have to be a large one). Process until mixture is smooth and scrape the sides with a spatula to get everything. It doesn't look like enough when you blend it, but trust me it will be. Then, combine the scallops, flour, and pinch of salt in a large Ziploc bag--shake to coat. Heat butter in large skillet over med-high heat. Add scallops and cook for 3.5-5 minutes on each side until done. While scallops are cooking, boil pasta and drain. Move pasta into a mixing bowl and coat with pistachio pesto. Split pasta into serving dishes, and top with scallops. Sprinkle with remaining black pepper and parsley flakes for color.

And because this is a Cooking Light recipe, you should all know that it's 556 calories per serving and 15.2 g of fat. Overall it goes pretty quickly and you could have this done in under 30 minutes without a problem--thus just giving the illusion that it's fancy and you slaved away all day. It turned out that I don't like scallops as much as I thought--texture is a little funny and I couldn't tell they were cooked thoroughly--so next time I'll plan to use smaller bay scallops. Also worth noting that scallops are in season and can be found fresh until later in the Spring.

Ta-Dah! I'm back!

New Chocolate Chip Cookies

OK so usually I follow the Tollhouse recipe because I'm pretty plain and simple like that with my baking. But tonight unfolded an unusual "crisis cookie baking" situation...

I was trying out a new recipe in my crock pot "Easy Cheesy Chicken" from my AllRecipes.com iPhone app. I had read the reviews and they were good, but many who tried it recommended adding a bag of chopped broccoli and some mushrooms--two of my favorite ingredients. So I do, and when Bobby and I got home this afternoon we walk through the door and the apartment REAKS! I can't even describe it properly, but it was like stench coming out of every corner of the apartment! Bobby started gagging. Thank goodness I usually use crock pot liners (found with Ziploc bags at the store) so even though it was still hot, we could tie off the liner with our dinner in it, trash it, and move the trash to the balcony. We are so classy like that. But the whole apartment still stinks to the point of Bobby having to hide in his office. So I go to work with my Clorox wipes and lemon spray cleaning everything and lighting candles. And I decide to fight fire with fire...get rid of one stench by baking something that will smell really yummy!

Brilliant, I know, but turns out I don't have any eggs. So I yell to Bobby to Google me anything to bake without needing eggs, and he finds a Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. About halfway into it I discover I actually do have one egg hiding in the back of the fridge, and toss it in. Turns out, this recipe not only cures my kitchen of overcooked broccoli stench, but has won our hearts and is our NEW GO-TO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE. Seriously they came out huge! look! they're like the size of biscuits!
Anne's Adaption to Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4th cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 (few sprinkles) of salt
1/2 cup butter, softened (didn't have any of that either, so I used butter-flavored Crisco and still best cookies ever)
1/4 cup white sugar (used Splenda)
1/2 cup honey
1 to 1.5 cups chocolate chips (less if you don't like sweet cookies, more if you do)
1 egg!

Preheat oven to 300. In a small bowl combine the flour, soda, and salt with a wire whisk, and set it aside. With an electric mixer, blend butter, sugar, egg, and honey (I poured the honey straight into the mixing bowl and kind of eyeballed-it). Beat at medium speed until soft and scrape sides with a spatula if needed. Add flour mixture and chocolate chips, and mix until well blended.

Drop spoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes.

The recipe calls for 2 dozen, but I use a *little* more than a spoonful, and just made 12 giant cookies, as shown above. SO GOOD!

Gingerbread

I happen to think my gingerbread is delicious. Bobby on the other hand can be found eating fig newtons and Popsicles instead of the gingerbread. It has me doubting my abilities! But this recipe from my mom is a very good, simple holiday favorite that will have your nosy coworkers eying your breakfast saying "What's that...?" which really means "Why didn't you bring me some?" And the answer is, because I plan to eat it all!



Gingerbread

16oz apple sauce (I used No Sugar Added)
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup dark molasses (I had to ask the Kroger lady where it was!)
2 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1-1/3c sugar (or 2/3 cup Splenda)
2/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 325. In a medium saucepan bring the applesauce to a boil (who knew you could boil applesauce? it just never occurred to me). Once boiling, stir in molasses and baking soda. Set aside to cool. In a medium mixing bowl, mix flour, salt, and all spices. Then in the larger bowl of either you electric mixer, or whatever bowl you use your handmixer with, beat the eggs until they're light in color. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating until it's thick--then gradually add in the oil. Alternately fold in flour mixture and applesauce mixture. Once well blended, pour into a PAMed tube pan or bunt pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then let it cool for 15 minutes before turning it onto a cooling rack or beautiful Williams-Sonoma cake plate courtesy of T&C--thanks guys!

Sing with me now..."My gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread rocks...Gingerbread Yum and Gingerbread Fun..."