Pepper Steak

I had used extra meat from a Beef Tenderloin to prepare this Pepper Steak. I buy a whole tenderloin and cut it into filet mignons as it’s much cheaper that way. You have to do a little bit of extra work, but… hey why not? I save the scraps—I say scraps because they aren’t filets, just hunks of meat. I use them for stew or soups. A few of the bigger nicer hunks I use for other dishes, like Pepper Steak.

This recipe came from my brother-in-law Russ who passed away from cancer. He’s the same Russ who thought my meatloaf was the best he’s ever tasted. His pepper steak is pretty darn good too only I switched the kinds of peppers as I’m not a huge fan of green peppers. I prefer red, orange or yellow. And it's what I had on hand.

Russ’s Pepper Steak
round steak, green pepper, 1 can mushrooms, bouillon cubes, soy sauce, sugar, garlic salt, salt & pepper.
Cut meat in strips,

brown, drain (I didn’t drain and also cooked mine in a little butter). Add cup of water and 2 Tablespoons soy sauce and simmer til tender. Add 1 Tablespoon sugar, mushrooms, green pepper (I used orange and yellow), bouillon cubes, garlic, salt and pepper.

Simmer until cubes dissolve. Add flour and water to make gravy.

Serve over rice or noodles. (I didn’t have cubes, I used a jar of this bouillon paste and I cooked the dish until I felt the peppers would be the way I’d like them.)

Ingredients:
see above

Rating & Type: E/B

Changing Things Again

Here I go changing things again. Starting Monday, April 25 (the day after Easter) this blog will go weekly, and I’m going on a little hiatus until then.

Doing the food blog daily has been too time consuming and not leaving me much time for other things that I want to write, or other creative activities that I love doing—photography, gardening, and yeah, cooking.

I want to keep the categories that I had set up (see April 1, Some Ideas on This Blog). The categories: Monday Beat the Blues Comfort Food; Tempting Tuesday; Casserole Wednesday, Tasty Thursday, Featured Friday, Saturday Side Dish, and Sunday Soup/Scoops/Special. Each week I will be blogging on a different day. Monday, April 25 will be Comfort Food, the following week I will blog on Tuesday, May 3, the next week on Wednesday, May 11—it’s every 8 days.

Most folks don’t have time to read a blog every day unless they’re only following one and that’s all they have to read. Even that can be pressing sometimes. I don’t know about you, but as a writer I love to read, and my stack of books grows faster than I can get through them.

With that I hope you enjoy what you see here, hope you try some recipes, hope I give you some ideas of what to have for dinner, and hope you share your thoughts!

Bon Appetite every 8 days!

Feature Friday—Mr. Smeagol & Ms. Kitty

Probably should call this one Feline Featured Friday—with Mr. Smeagol (black and white) and Ms. Kitty (tiger).

Smeagol’s been in the family since he was about 5 or 6 months old. I think he’s about 7 now, I can't keep track. Ms. Kitty just moved in with her momma, Jessica. I think Ms. Kitty’s a little over a year.

Ms. Kitty and Jessica will be here for about 4 months. We all thought King Smeagol would go bizerk and not tolerate Kitty because he usually acts weird with any kind of animal. We allowed Ms. Kitty in so long as Smeagol didn’t start acting goofy. We'd give it two weeks. Two weeks are up and I think they are going to be okay.

Smeagol has been the calmer of the two. It must have had to do with that cat talk I had with Smeagol before Ms. Kitty moved in. I told him that he was going to have company and he needed to learn how to get along.

Smeagol let Ms. Kitty eat out of his dish, but before I could snap a picture, Ms. Kitty disappeared. It gave me the idea of featuring the two felines.

Smeagol can only tolerate Trader Joe’s Holistic dry cat food. We’ve tried all kinds of brands. Smeagol is a puker. He cleans himself so much, fur balls fly out like Jiffy Pop, especially after he eats. No, he doesn’t have something wrong with him. He’s been a puker since day one. When he was sick and vomiting something other than his normal, he was taken to the emergency room. Long story, extensive testing and $1500 later, they found nothing wrong. I joke that he’s bulimic and wants to keep his trim figure. He doesn’t bring up the food as much with Trader Joe’s Holistic, so we’re fans. It’s tiresome cleaning up cat puke on a regular basis.

Other than Smeagol’s food, I’m not sure what Ms. Kitty eats. Her food looks a little more colorful than the drab brown of Smeag’s morsels.

Ms. Kitty and Smeagol are working hard at being friends. They follow each other around and hiss and do a little paw punching, but no one has gotten hurt. The months will whiz by, they’ll be the best of friends and I’ll bet they’ll be sad when they have to part ways.

They recommend table scraps if the owners allow it as a nice little treat. Beg as much as you can get away with. They also recommend a nice nap after eating.

P.S. They now nap on the same bed. Progress.

Trader Joe's Orange Chicken

Remember when I said I need time lately—see post on Crab Cakes. Well, here’s another extremely easy meal that doesn’t skimp on taste—Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken.

If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your area, well then I’m sorry, you’re missing out.

Open the package, cook the chicken, add the sauce. Scoop it over Trader Joe’s organic brown rice (that steams in the microwave in 3 minutes).

It’s nearly as good as eating out at your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Rating & Type: EE/C

Beef Potato Casserole

A lot of these recipes I’m posting are for the benefit of my adult children who have asked me to share some dishes they remember from their childhood. This particular one came to mind that I used to make quite a bit. As a single parent, I was into easy, economical and something all three of them would eat.

I was late getting the casserole in the oven, so when my husband came home early from work, I told him I was a tad bit behind with dinner. He wanted to know what we were having.

“Beef Potato Casserole.” It doesn’t matter what I tell that man we are having, he’s happy to eat it. I love that about him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever made this dish for you, have I?” He didn’t recall. Wow, that means I haven’t made this dish in 13 years. I told him I used to make it all the time for the kids.

“Must be a poor man’s dish then.”

“Well, yeah, probably.” But sometimes the poor man dishes are some of the tastiest. By the way my hubby gobbled it up, I’d say I’m right.

He’d say, “You’re always right.”

I don’t try to be, but when it comes to stuff the two of us discuss, it turns out I really am always right. I seriously don’t get it though. But do get on this dish and have some poor man’s food and tell me what you think.

Peel about 4 or 5 potatoes and cube.

Add a pound of raw ground beef and mix with potatoes.

Make a cream sauce and pour on top of the ground beef and potatoes.

Top with shredded cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half.

Ingredients:
Beef
Potatoes
Cheese
Cream Sauce

Rating & Type: FE/F

Curry Chicken

This was my attempt to duplicate a dish at Monsoon’s Vietnamese Bristro. Monk Curry—with sweet potatoes, eggplant in a coconut milk curry sauce with your choice of chicken, tofu, beef or pork (I always get it with tofu). The combination sounds odd, but one bite and I was hooked. I won’t get anything else when I go there. I crave it.

I had some left over chicken tenderloins and debated what to make. I thought perhaps I could try Monsoon’s dish, knowing full well it wouldn’t be the same. I had a sweet potato but no eggplant. Too lazy to go to the store. I made do.

I stirfried the chicken pieces in a little butter. Cut up the sweet potato in little cubes and threw that in with the chicken.

I added half a can of Trader Joe’s Lite Coconut Milk and simmered until the sweet potatoes were soft and the coconut milk reduced by half. I sprinkled in curry until I felt it was the right color and taste.

I added the rest of the coconut milk, some more curry and about a teaspoon of honey.

I let that cook on low for 20-30 minutes or longer.

The one thing I learned from reading Mastering the Art of French Cooking that the slower and longer one cooks food, the more blended and the better tasting the dish seems to be. One can’t hurry good taste.

I wanted to eat with my daughter who was dropping by after coaching Lacrosse, but I couldn’t wait. This dish (at Monsoon’s) is my daughter’s favorite too.

I shoveled it in. There was something missing. Monsoon’s had a bit more of a bite to it, so I threw in a chili pepper. That’s probably not going to be enough time for the hotness to work in, but by tomorrow it should be near perfect. Not bad for making it up on my own. Now we’ll see if daughter agrees.

Daughter concurs. It’s a hit. Just needs a kick. And whatever calories or fat that's in this dish, it doesn't matter to me, I'll eat it anyway!

Ingredients:
Chicken
Sweet potato
Coconut milk
curry

Rating & Type: E/C

Fried Chicken

Now fried chicken is some kind of comfort food, yes? My mom made it quite often. She’d actually chop the head off of a real chicken, pluck the feathers and do whatever one does to prep a chicken for a meal. Although I never saw her chop the head off, I did witness my uncle do this. He let the chicken go and it ran around without its head. I then understood the meaning behind, Running around like a chicken with your head cut off.

I remember watching my mom fry chicken and so after she passed, I attempted to make fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy for my dad and little sister, Ruthie. What a fiasco. I was 12 and never cooked in my life. That should give you an indication of how it went.

In Ruthie’s words, “I’m not eating that! It looks disgusting!” I didn’t like her much then. What I had attempted was a lot of work and to have her whine was more than I could handle. My dad was a trooper, ate it with gusto, bragging about it, encouraging Ruthie to try it. She flat out refused. Seriously, I can’t blame her. I wouldn’t have eaten it if I were her.

I found out later, years and years later, that my dad confessed to puking it all up afterwards. Yet he boasted to my friends who would come over that “Lynn makes the best fried chicken!”

When I spoke at his eulogy I referenced that Fried Chicken is what came to mind when I contemplated on what I should talk about. I didn’t get it at first and then realized he encouraged me by pretending that I made the best fried chicken when really I sucked.

I kept on cooking and now I do make a mean fried chicken. Not really much of a trick to mine though.

Coat with flour whatever pieces of chicken you want to eat and fry it in some oil until it gets golden brown. Salt and pepper more than once while it’s frying.

Next time I make it, I’ll be sure to take pictures and show you step by step.