Beef Daube Provencal

Well lovely followers (or maybe just Talia), as you may or may not know, I love sweets (see my doughnut post here), so I do not blog as frequently about the non-decadent foods that I make.  However, in honor of my dear, sweet, loving grandmother celebrating another fabulous year on this earth, I had her over for a celebratory dinner the other day and made this lovely beef stew.  It was quite easy and well worth the (minimal) effort, so try it some time!  This recipe is courtesy of cooking light, so it is healthy, hardy meal that is good for the upcoming fall and winter evenings.

Your ingredients

Heat the oil and garlic until fragrant, then saute the meat until browned.

Remove the beef and deglaze the pan with the wine.  Add the beef back to the pot along with the remaining ingredients.  

Bring to a boil then cover and put in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Your finished stew after 2 1/2 hours in the oven.

 Beef Daube Provencal

Ingredients
2 teaspoons of olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil, which worked out well)
12 crushed garlic cloves
1 (2-pound boneless chuck roast), trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 cup of red wine (I used Merlot)
2 cups chopped carrots (I used 2 cups of baby carrots)
1/2 cup beef broth, low sodium (I used beef stock from Swanson)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (I omitted this because the store was out)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Dash of ground cloves
1, 14.5 ounce, can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bay leaf
**I also added portobello mushrooms to this dish and they turned out nicely**

Directions
1.  Preheat the oven to 300F.
2.  Heat the oil in a dutch oven or heavy bottom large pot over low heat and add the crushed garlic; heat for ~5 minutes until fragrant.  Remove garlic from pan and set aside.
3.  Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the beef to the pan.  Sprinkle the beef with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.  Cook for a total of 5 minutes, browning the beef on all sides.  Remove beef from pan and set aside.
4.  Deglaze the pan by pouring the wine into the pan, bring to a boil, and scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
5.  Add the garlic, beef, and remaining ingredients to the pan and bring to a boil.
6.  Cover and bake at 300 F for 2 1/2 hours.  Discard the bay left and serve.  I served this dish with mashed sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli.  You could also serve it over egg noodles or rice.  It would also pair nicely with a squash, which are coming into season soon!

Enjoy!

Turkey Pot Pie

So, I realize that I suck at this whole blogging thing.  Like my fiance says, bloggers start out strong, blogging daily or weekly and then give up after a while.  The funny thing is, I make all these things and take pictures of them but never get around to posting them.  Anyway, after way too much time, here's a post (finally)!

I used left over turkey from Christmas that I threw in the freezer for use another time.  I based my recipe on a chicken pot pie recipe from Paula Deen that can be found here.  The crust recipe was from Ina Garten and can be found here.  I did modify both of the recipes, which you can read!

Turkey Pot Pie Filling Modifications

1.  I roasted the carrots and potatoes as per the instructions, except I added extra virgin olive oil to the salt and pepper-they were delicious and I'd consider doing this in the future as a side dish that would go with a meal.

2.  I didn't have frozen peas, so I used a frozen veggie medley from trader joe's that included corn, carrots, green beans, and peas.  Because it had corn it in, I reduced the amount of frozen corn used and increased the amount of the mixed veggies.  It doesn't really matter what kind of veggies you use, as long as it equals the same total amount (1 1/4 cup).

3.  I didn't want to use heavy cream for health reasons, so I just used the milk I have at home, which was 1%.  It turned out okay, but I wouldn't suggest using skim milk--it would wind up being too runny.

Pie before baking!

Perfect Pie Crust Modifications

1.  I used two sticks of butter instead of 1 1/2 cups of butter and 1/3 cup of vegetable shortening.  I try to avoid using that product in general.  Otherwise I kept everything else the same.

Needless to say, the pie turned out great and the crust was SO GOOD.  I'll probably stay with this crust recipe for all my pie options! 

Pie after baking-look at that delicious crust!

Look at that filling!

I hope you enjoy this pie as much as I did.  Also, this recipe could be modified anyway you'd like it to be-it could be vegetarian or chicken and any combination of veggies can be used.

Enjoy!

Chicken with mushrooms, peas, and pan cream sauce

Hello to my few followers and welcome to any new readers (I hope)! Tonight I am posting a dinner which I made last week based on a recipe from the Food Network Magazine (which I actually got offline from their website). They call it chicken with creamy mushrooms and snap peas, but I changed a few things here and there, thus the name change as well. The unchanged recipe can be found here, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chicken-with-creamy-mushrooms-and-snap-peas-recipe/index.html, but I'll walk you through how I made the dish.

Ingredients

• 1-1.5 pounds of chicken breasts or cutlets
• 1/2 onion minced
• Garlic, to your liking, finely minced
• 8-10 ounces (again to your liking) of baby bella mushrooms, quartered
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1 1/4 c. chicken broth (alternatively, you can use equal parts of white wine and chicken broth)
• 3/4 c. heavy whipping cream

Directions

• Salt and pepper both sides of chicken and saute in a pan with extra virgin olive oil (or whatever else that you have on hand such as veggie oil or canola oil) until golden brown and cooked through.

• When chicken is cooked, remove to a pan and tent with foil. You can also keep the chicken loosely covered in a 200 Fahrenheit oven.
• Meanwhile, in the same pan, add approximately 1 T of butter and add the onion and garlic and saute until softened and transparent.
• Add the mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are soft. Add salt and pepper as needed at this point.

• Once the mushrooms are reduced in size, soft, and browned, add the chicken broth (or wine if using) to de-glaze the pan, making sure to scrape up any brown bits with a wooden spoon. If using the wine/broth mixture, add the wine first, scrape up the brown bits, and then add the broth.

• Cook until the liquid is reduced by half, which should be around 3-5 minutes.
• Add the cream and boil until the sauce thickens, about 3-5 minutes longer.
• Stir in the peas and heat through.

• Add the chicken and any juices from the plate back into the pan and heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve with mashed potatoes!

Notes: this sauce re-heats well and when we had leftovers, I added some cut up asparagus to the recipe, which was a great addition for this spring time veggie.