The kitchen at home has been busy. I'll start with pot roast; it was never a favorite of mine. However, since we buy a side of beef each year,
pot roast cuts are included, and I have to cook them. It has taken me a while to get a good and tasty version.
My preference is to keep the recipe simple and let the beef flavor be the highlight. To do this I use onions, salt, pepper, and beef broth as the flavorings.
In a Dutch oven, I brown the beef on all sides then remove from pot to a plate. Sliced onions are then sauteed in butter or beef tallow if I have that on-hand. Once the onions are soft, I put the beef back in the pot, top it with salt and pepper, and add beef broth until it fills the pot to half-way up the roast. Then put in a 325-degree oven for a few hours till tender.
When it is tender enough to be pulled apart with a fork, I take the roast out of the pot and onto a plate and cover with foil and place back in a warm oven until the gravy is done.
For the gravy, I simmer the broth and onions and then blend with an immersion blender. I will add heavy cream to lighten the color. If needed I will add a thickener, but usually that is not needed because the blended onions add thickness.
This is the blender I use, and I LOVE it! Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender Black Matte KHBBV53BM | KitchenAid I put the fork in the photo for scale. It is tall blender.
Pot roast can be never-ending since it's just the two of us. I will either freeze the meat once cooked or make different dishes like this one pictured right. I made a cream sauce from the gravy, added the shredded beef, and served with a large pasta.
Cooking is a creative outlet for me; I'm always thinking of ways to utilize the freezer full of meat cuts, most of which you might not buy at the store.
It's not all meat at the homestead, although there is a lot of meat dishes since we have freezers full of it. There is pizza, broth, soups, quiche, and casseroles now and then (only as a side, Whiskey does not like one dish casseroles as a meal 😁).
I made baked cauliflower & cheese, and it was delicious. We love cauliflower and I look for many ways to cook it.
Here is the recipe. Cauliflower Mac and Cheese - The Weston A. Price Foundation (westonaprice.org)
The recipe calls for "Optional-top with crunched pork cracklings." And of course, I have that. The topping you see is ground cracklings, not breadcrumbs. Wow, that added a great flavor.
We ate this for days; it reheats well in the oven. This is a good dish to serve for a large group of people or to bring to a potluck.
A pantry staple at home is canned coconut milk; I use it in soups, sauces, and as a dessert. One favorite way to use it is as a sweet treat as a chia seed pudding. Chia seeds are amazing, they create a gel which provide the pudding texture, it is a very hydrating. Here is one recipe. Coconut Chia Pudding {Easy, Healthy Recipe} – WellPlated.com
There are lots of ways you can flavor the pudding. My tip when using canned coconut milk is to open the can from the bottom and place contents in the blender to mix the solids and the liquid.
Yogurt, kefir, chia seed cups. As I mentioned earlier, the chia seeds make a gel when mixed with a liquid. I mixed chia seeds with kefir, yogurt, elderberry syrup and a touch of maple syrup in small jars. This is a nice probiotic snack.
Are you bored to death yet? If not, let's continue...
Pizza! Am now making my own dough exclusively. It is easy. Just need to plan ahead for the time needed for the dough to rise. After trying several dough recipes, I have settled on this one as my go to. The recipe will make two pizzas; I freeze one half of the dough.
I have been making the pizzas rectangular recently. We like it because the pieces are smaller and for those that don't like crust edges (Uh, Whiskey) the middle pieces are crustless.
Off onto a different direction...Liver! Here is a video of me making liver & onions and pate. Liver is not everyone's favorite. Read about liver benefits here and here. And there are many other places to read about liver.
Fish things next. Canned sardines (packed in water not oil) are another favorite that I keep the pantry stocked with. I was searching for ways to use sardines other than the usual spread that I make. I found a baked sardine and sardine cakes. Both were good and I served as an appetizer.
Smoked sardines are great for making spreads by combining with sour cream.
Whiskey loves haddock served parm style. For this, I don't fry the haddock, I simply sauté in butter, flip, top with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, then put in the oven for 5 minutes or less depending on the thickness of the fish.
A new favorite is ricotta cookies. I searched for a recipe since I had ricotta on hand and found this one. These are light, fluffy, and lightly sweet. For those of you that are familiar with the Italian wedding cookie, this is similar, but better (in my opinion) and easier.
As you can see, I have time on my hands to spend in the kitchen. Because I work very part-time in my interior design business (my choice) I make time for cooking. Fortunately, I love my kitchen and enjoy being in the kitchen. It is bright and looks outside on two sides. I took these shots on a snowy day overlooking the winter wonderland.
I keep a well-stocked pantry and look for ways to use the pantry items in different ways than I usually do. The internet provides an unending supply of ideas and recipes on how to cook using pantry items. Other things cooked recently.
Working from home means lots of lunches. I make staples for lunch such as grilled sandwiches and soup as shown in this boring video cooking on the wood stove.
That's all for now. I have to get back into the kitchen and get cooking. If you made it this far, thank you! Let me know what you've created in your kitchen recently that you loved.
Until next time, buon appetito!