Pot Roast and Mashed Potatoes

I love the Pioneer Woman. I had no idea I would be using one of Ree's recipes today, but I had thawed out a piece of beef I had in the freezer and really didn't know what to do with it. At first I thought I was going to do a roast in the crock pot, but I didn't have any potatoes and I'm not a fan of the crock pot for that because my veggies always seem to come out like mush. So after some google recon, I saw a link for the "Perfect Pot Roast" on the Pioneer Woman Cooks and gave it a click. Lo and Behold, her recipe went in the oven and called for only beef, carrots, and onion, all of which I had.

I really do like her site, you could say this blog is an homage to her of sorts, the pictures and step by step walk through of the recipes has helped me out tons of times.

The starting line up:

That piece of meat was half of a 3-4 pound hunk which I cut in half and tossed in the freezer, so it's 2 pounds at most. Here's my ingredients list:

• 1.5 to 2 lb of beef
• 1 onion
• 10 small carrots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 can beef broth
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp rosemary
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• kosher salt
• pepper
• Preheat oven to 275 deg

Chop your veggies, salt and pepper your beef on all sides, and add the olive oil to your pan. You'll want it hot (med-high) so as to sear the outside of the beef and brown the veggies.

Get to searing.

I'm so dedicated to searing I even got the sides. Once you have everything browned, you'll want to clear the pan for deglazing, so you can get all those burned/browned little bits off the bottom. You need to contribute "maximum effort" if you want maximum flavor.

By the way, go see Deadpool, but don't take the kids. Back to the cooking.

Okay, so at this point I added the chopped garlic to the pan right before deglazing. Ree gave it as an optional ingredient but didn't show where she used it in her walk-through. I feel like in most recipes you brown it first off for about a minute or two before adding everything else, so I tossed it in here and cooked for about 30 seconds before I deglazed with the can of beef broth. Now I'm not a garlic fiend by any means, but I had some on the shelf, so by god I am using it. I like to act like I know what I'm doing.

At this point I tossed in another can's worth of water. I'm not sure if I really needed it but whatever. Re-place your meat and veggies in your pan for a pre-roasting photo op.

Oh yeah, you'll want to add the thyme and rosemary before you cover and toss in the oven. I only used 1/4 tsp each because I didn't know how much Ree used and I didn't want to over-do it.

Now, at this point I had three hours to kill (275 degrees) so I followed Ree's link for the perfect mashed potatoes to go with the roast and I made a quick trip to the store. NOTE. This recipe was a little heavy on the butter and cream cheese for my waistline, so I cut those down to a little bit less than half.

The bench warming reserves:

• 2.5 lb of russet potatoes
• 3 Tbsp real butter
• 3 oz philly cream cheese
• 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 tsp season salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat a large pot of water. I had 3 large potatoes for this that I peeled and chopped into 1 to 1.5" inch pieces and tossed them in. Don't worry if it's not boiling yet. Set the timer on the microwave for 30 minutes but start checking for done-ness at 25 minutes. Once done, drain and return to the pot. Move to a new burner and set it on low heat. If you have a potato masher great. I used a fork cuz I'm gangsta.
 

Add in the butter, cream cheese, half-and-half, season salt, and pepper. MIX.

Butter a pan that can go in the oven and transfer the mixed fluffy deliciousness into it. Top with a little bit of butter.

Cover that bad boy with foil and transfer into the over. I put it in when the roast still had about 15 minutes left and cranked the temperature up to 350.

Once I pulled the roast out, I left the potatoes in for another 15 minutes.

Upon checking them, they still didn't look like Rees with a nice golden brown crust, so I moved them up a rack in the oven and turned on the broiler to brown the top of them. After 2 or 3 minutes, that did the trick and I pulled them out.

Time to eat!

Mom's Baked Chicken and Rice

So these days when you ask your Mother to send you a recipe, this is how you get it:

The standard picture text message of a 20 year old, faded notebook of recipes with her barely legible scribbles. I'm just glad I can make out most of it.

Rice w Chicken
Melt 1 stick butter in 9x13 pan
Add 1 box Uncle Ben's rice & 1 Cup minute Rice (no idea why we need to mix and match but OKAY)
Add 1 can French Onion & 1 Can Beef Consomme Soup or Beef Broth
Can of mushrooms if prefer
Add only 1 can water. Top with Chicken and bake 1 hr @ 350 degrees.

Boom. Now for this one, I don't have all the ingredients on hand. I'm not going to the store either, so I'm going to make due with what I got, which means one substitution (packet of onion soup instead of a can of the Campbell's french onion) and just going without mushrooms. Which sucks cuz I like mushrooms. Also I guess I have neither of those kinds of rice, but I have a random container of rice next to the stove and some kind of boil bag jasmine rice. Lets keep to the spirit of the recipe and mix 'em up and see what happens. Oh yeah, I'm assuming this is for a full package of chicken, which is a couple pounds, but I'm only using it with one large breast chopped in half.

The cast:

Start with melting the butter in the pan. I'm going with a short bus pan since I'm not doing a whole package of chicken. I tossed in the beef consomme soup too, no rhyme or reason. We're doing this on the fly here.

I was using the microwave to melt the butter. I bumped the pan pulling it out and liquid splashed everywhere and I made a mess. Maybe I shouldn't have added the beef consomme just yet.

Throw in the packet of onion soup mix and an empty can's worth of water to count for the can of french onion soup that I didn't have. This isn't really halving the recipe, but I'm going to leave out the additional can of water the recipe calls for. I am probably going to have too much liquid but we'll see how much the rice soaks up. I can always pour off the excess.

Add in the rice, I don't need it in the boil bag, so I went ahead and cut it open and bombs away.

Place chicken on top, throw in the oven at 350 degrees and find something to do for an hour.

So much for excess, that cooked up perfectly!

Steelhead Trout Baked with Honey or Maple Glaze

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 TBSP honey or maple syrup
• 2 TBSP brown sugar
• 2 TBSP rice vinegar (feel free to experiment with other types like cider)
• 2 TBSP Dijon mustard
• 2 TBSP Soy sauce

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Whisk in the ingredients.

Place the fish in the center of a rectangle of foil. Pour the glaze over the fish and fold the packet around the fish.

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. (This essentially allows the fish to marinate). If you're in a big hurry, start the oven before you make the glaze and just pop it in.

Bake for 10 minutes + 10 minutes for each inch of thickness. So, a one inch fillet would back for twenty minutes. 1.5 inch would be 25 minutes. Got it?

The recipe makes enough glaze for a little over two pounds of fish. It is easily halved or doubled.
This recipe could be done on the grill, but remember to not cook the fish over direct heat, unless you enjoy rubbery, dried out fish. On the grill it can be done in a foil packet as described or you may skip it. If you choose to grill, place it skin side up, first. Once the fish has cooked, it falls apart, the skin sort of holds it together, making transfer a little bit easier.

http://www.home-ec101.com/steelhead-trout-baked-with-honey-or-maple-glaze/

Pan Seared Halibut

Pan Seared Halibut with Herb Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Apple Butter Sauce and Grilled Pear Salad

4 –7 oz. pieces Halibut
12 large pieces Asparagus
4 oz. per person Herb Mashed Potatoes

Apple butter:
8 oz. Apple Juice
6 Black Peppercorns
4 oz. White Wine
2 Thyme Sprigs (whole stem on)
12 oz. Unsalted Butter
2 oz. Brown Sugar

Grilled Pear Salad:
2 Whole Pears
12 Dried Cranberries
8 sprigs Watercress
8 thin slices Red Onion
2 oz. Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
Dust the halibut with parsley, salt & pepper and lay skin side up in a hot skillet for approximately 2 minutes or until crust is created. Then place in 350-degree oven for 5 minutes. For mashed potatoes use your usual mashed potatoes recipe, but add some fresh thyme for flavor. As far as the asparagus goes; rub them with oil, salt & pepper, and place on the grill with low heat until they are soft enough to eat (beware of burning). Now for the sauce… first add juice, peppercorns, wine, thyme, and sugar all in a saucepan and reduce to syrup. Let cool to room temperature and then stir butter in with a whisk. The pear salad is easy, just cut your pears into slices. Brush with a little oil, salt & pepper; and grill for 1 minute on each side. Place all ingredients for Pear Salad in a bowl and mix.

http://www.columbusfishmarket.com/recipes.cfm#quickviewrecipe138

Broccoli and Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
Cooking spray
2 cups chopped onion $
1 cup presliced mushrooms $
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons butter $
1.1 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1/4 cup)
4 cups 1% low-fat milk $
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
4 ounces uncooked vermicelli, broken into 2-inch pieces
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded light processed cheese (such as Velveeta Light) $
4 cups (1-inch) cubed cooked chicken breast $
3 cups small broccoli florets (8 ounces) $
1 cup half-and-half $
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, mushrooms, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; add butter to mushroom mixture, stirring until butter melts. Sprinkle mushroom mixture with flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Gradually add milk and broth, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 10 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Add pasta to pan; cook 10 minutes. Add cheese to pan, and stir until cheese melts. Add chicken and remaining ingredients to pan; cook 5 minutes or until broccoli is tender and soup is thoroughly heated.
Holly Kapherr, Cooking Light
MARCH 2009

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-chicken-noodle-soup-10000001880025/

Baked Chicken Marsala

Marsala is Italy's most famous version of fortified wine and it makes an outstanding sweet sauce when used in this easy baked chicken Marsala recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup crushed Italian flavored croutons
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms (baby portabella is a favorite)
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Marsala Wine

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes

Preparation

Put thawed chicken breasts in a large ziploc bag and pound chicken into thinner portions with a mallet or rolling pin. Next, crush the croutons in another ziploc bag until they are fairly fine. Melt a half cup of butter in a saucepan with the crushed garlic clove. Then, dredge the chicken through the butter and place in the ziploc bag with the crushed croutons to thoroughly coat the chicken. Place the crouton crusted chicken into a shallow baking dish. Melt a little more butter and add a touch of olive oil to saute the mushrooms and add the sherry once the mushrooms get soft. Let it all simmer for another minute or so. Pour the sauteed mushroom mixture over the coated chicken breasts. Add salt and pepper and a dash of paprika if you like, and then bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with fresh parsley.


Source: http://wine.about.com/od/howwineismade/r/Chickenmarsala.htm