Leek & Collared Green Crock Pot Meatloaf

I know, I know, you're going...whu-what?  It sounds crazy.  And seeing as I absolutely did not intend for this to be a blog post, I have no pictures.  I was just trying to use up CSA veggies and did something absolutely bizarre.  My friends and family will freely admit to you that I may be perhaps even a little OVERLY adventurous when it comes to cooking.  But this was a resounding success.

This is the time of year that CSA baskets perhaps get a little repetitive.  And, perhaps contain things that certain spouses are not overly fond of.  In our house?  That is greens.  This was the third week in a row with them, and I've been coming up with many innovative uses.  Even the leeks, which I adore, had already been in potato leek soup, and the remaining ones are probably going into a quiche, so I needed something new.  (By the way, if anyone has some ideas for radishes?  AWASH in radishes right now.)

Also, life's been a little hectic, so the crock pot has been getting a lot of use.  Whole chickens, more soups than you can count, casserole type things, the whole gamut.  However, I had never made a meatloaf in the crock pot!  I was intrigued to try and here is the resulting recipe.

Leek & Collared Green Crock Pot Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 c dried parsley
1 cup parmesan
1 cup chopped collard greens
3 leeks chopped
1/2 tsp Lowry's seasoned salt
black pepper to taste
4 eggs
6 pieces bacon
1/2 cup barbecue sauce

Directions:

Crumple a piece of foil and put it at the bottom of the crock pot to raise the meatloaf off the bottom so it doesn't sit in the fat.  Take another piece of foil, folded a couple times, and lay it across the entire pot, to use as a "handle" to pull it out when it's done.  Spray everything with cooking spray.

In a bowl, mix everything except the bacon and barbecue sauce.  Put into the crockpot on top of the handle in as much of a loaf-type shape as you can manage.

Lay the strips of bacon on top of the loaf, then cover with barbecue sauce.

Cook on high for 6 hours. 

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Ground Beef Stroganoff...otherwise known as making do with whatever I can find in my fridge, freezer, and pantry.  It still tasted good, though, so enjoy yet another moment of me playing with what I have on hand.

Brown about a pound of ground beef with onions and garlic.

Create a sauce with beef stock, cream cheese, sour cream, and mayonnaise.

Pretty, right?

Add sauce, and a can of sliced mushrooms, serve over pasta.  How easy was that?

Ingredients

* 1 pound ground beef

* 1/2 cup chopped onion

* 1 (4.5 ounce) can mushrooms, drained

* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

* 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

* Salt and pepper to taste

* 1/4 cup sour cream

* 2 Tbl. cream cheese

* 1/2 cup mayonnaise

* 1/2 cup beef broth

* 1 (8 ounce) package egg noodles



Directions



1. Break up ground meat into a large skillet, and add onion, mushrooms, garlic powder, and mustard powder. Cook over medium heat until the meat is browned. Drain off excess fat if needed.

2. In a small bowl, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, cream cheese, and beef broth. Stir into beef mixture, and cook over low heat until melted and starting to bubble.
3. Cook pasta.  Serve sauce over the noodles.

Pumpkin Bread

Chris enjoys my part-time status because he can request absolutely irrational foods (time-wise) without guilt.  Not that pumpkin bread really is all that time-consuming, but it is more than I'd usually pull off on a work day.  I do have to say, that due to a lack of cinnamon applesauce, this is not how I'd normally make it, but it still turned out to be delicious.  And apparently Chris's office happily consumed a loaf today. 

Grease and flour 3 loaf pans.  Yes, THREE.  Feel free to cut back the quantity, but I assure you, we are onto the 3rd loaf on day #2.  Granted, the office got one.

2 cups of pumpkin puree.  I roasted a pie pumpkin when it was in season, pureed the flesh, and froze it.  A can will do nicely, too, though.

Add oil and eggs.  If I had cinnamon applesauce, I would replace 1/2 of the oil here.

And entirely too much sugar for this to be considered healthy.   

Beat all of this together.

 

Your seasonings.  I am a ginger fiend.  I will over-add ginger to everything.  My preference, doesn't have to be yours.

Seasonings mixed in a separte bowl with flour and baking soda.  Now, if you were smart, you would have mixed the wet stuff in the larger bowl so that the dry could go into wet...I failed.  Combine them anyway.

Split the batter between your 3 pans.

YUM!!!

Ingredients


* 2 cups of pureed pumpkin (or a can if you must)

* 4 eggs

* 1 cup vegetable oil (or 1/2 a cup of oil and 1/2 a cup of applesauce)

* 1/2 cup water (fresh pumpkin puree will be wetter than canned.  Adjust accordingly)

* 3 cups white sugar

* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

* 2 teaspoons baking soda

* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon  (if using cinnamon applesauce, this probably isn't necessary, but Chris would love if you put it in, anyway)

* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

* 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (ok...it may have been more)



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three loaf pans.

2. In your BIGGER bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil (or applesauce), water and sugar.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Split between your three pans.

3. Ok, here's the tricky part.  Depending on how evenly you distributed your batter, and the type of pan, cook time will vary.  That pan on the right?  40 minutes.  The other 2?  48.  Undercook if anything, because no one likes burnt edges.  Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Blurry Asian-Inspired Coleslaw

You'd think that after one of these horrible posts, I'd finally call Canon and look into getting my camera repaired.  Well, I haven't yet, so here is yet another out-of-focus post.  My dilemma was what to do with 1/2 a cabbage I had left from making Pad Thai earlier this week.  Obviously, you make coleslaw.  I'm very opinionated about coleslaw, though.  It should NOT be creamy.  Blame that on the lactose intolerance.  It also MUST have vinegar.  Now this is walking a fine line towards an item my husband would be unwilling to eat.  To the rescue?  Peanut butter.  Yes, peanut butter.

First, you should clean off your counters before taking pictures.  I failed.  Above you see a pasta scoop, coffee grinder, dog medicine, and Chris's new favorite wine next to the plastic bag I had stored the cabbage 1/2 in.  This picture will not be winning any awards.  However, slice up the cabbage, some carrots, and 1/2 an onion.  I will be putting it in a food processor later today because the strips were still a little big for our taste.  Usually I will run the cabbage through on the shredder, but for some reason, I decided to practice my knife skills.

See?  I actually can get everything quite fine...just not fine enough.  Ah well...easy to fix. 

This blurry number is what it would look like if you looked at the finished product after having your eyes dilated.  I mixed in the sauce here.  Just believe me on that one.  Or try the recipe below.  I do have to give you a heads up that it is NOT overly dressed, so if you like your coleslaw dripping, you might want to up the proportions.

Asian-influenced Coleslaw

Ingredients:
1/2 a cabbage shredded
About 10? baby carrots shredded or finely julienned
1/2 an onion finely diced (I hate raw onion, so I get it as small as possible to make my husband happy)

3 Tbl white wine  vinegar
3 Tbl vegetable oil
Drizzle of sesame oil
2.5 Tbl peanut butter
1.5 Tbl soy sauce (I'll always be heavy-handed with soy, though, and add more)
1.5 Tbl brown sugar
1/2 Tsp ground ginger
Tbl of diced garlic (I also like things heavy on the garlic)

1)  Mix together veggies
2)  Mix together sauce
3)  Mix together everything
4)  Enjoy

Some chopped peanuts wouldn't be bad on top either, so feel free to go to town.

Before I Forget: Spanish Rice

Alright, I know I need to move on, and let a new post take the first position.  I've been avoiding it.  In part because I can't find much to say.  However, I made a pretty fantastic version of Spanish rice this weekend, and while I was a terrible blogger, and failed to take a picture, I am going to try and recall what I did, so that I can recreate it in the future.

As a warning, you should know that I rarely follow a recipe exactly, if I attempt to follow one at all.  More often, I randomly start throwing things together that sound good.  It usually works out well, though.  There have been a few times that were complete disasters, too.  This one, was delicious, and will be kept for posterity.

Spanish Rice

Ingredients:

1 Tbl butter
1 Tbl olive oil
1 green pepper, chopped
2 small onions, fine dice
2 small hot peppers (not too spicy?  I grow these, and have no idea what they are.  Less spicy than a jalepeno), fine dice
1 ear of corn, kernels removed
1/2 a Tbl??? Emeril's Southwest Seasoning (approximate guess here)
1 tomato, chopped
1 cup rice
1 can V8 (soda-sized can?  is that like 12 oz?)
1 can black beans
Water

Directions:
Alright, I love risottos, so I took that style of approach.

1)  Melt the butter and olive oil in a deep skillet.  Add the pepper, onions, hot peppers, and corn.  Sprinkle liberally with the Southwest Seasoning, and saute until the onions begin to look translucent, and the veggies soften.
2)  Add the chopped tomato and the rice.  Allow the rice to heat a bit, but not burn before adding liquid.
3)  Add the can of V8, let it soak in a bit.  Add the can of rinsed black beans.
4)  Continue to add water about 1/2 to 1 cup at a time, and let it cook down on a slow simmer.  You should add more water when it starts to dry, and as long as the rice isn't cooked thoroughly.  This will usually take about 2 1/2 cups of liquid to 1 cup of rice?  Remember, the V8 is liquid, though won't be as much moisture as the water.  So...I may have added about another cup and 1/2? 

Alright, there's insight into how I cook.  Aren't you scared?  Little of this, little of that...sounds good.  Enjoy!

** Note for you meat-eaters:  The next day, Chris threw some cooked kielbasa into his portion and said it was wonderful.

"Katy" Food

Chris and I do not share a palate.  In my dream world, I would eat a largely vegetarian diet, heavy on the veggies, admittedly heavy in salt content, and few sweets.  Chris's ideal menu would have lots of meat, sweets, and a mix of traditional Americana, with some Slovene food thrown in.  It's a little bizarre, actually.  He's changing a bit but was never an adventurous eater.  Meat and potatoes...or, since his family immigrated within the past couple generations, stuffed cabbage and peppers, keilbasa, and a few other less commonly consumed foods HERE, but he thinks of as entirely normal. 

Here's a typical breakfast that I eat, but Chris finds pretty disgusting.  Typically, I'd try and use 1 egg white, and 1 egg, but I was starving after my exercise class this morning and went crazy with 2 whole eggs.  Scramble them with a lot of chopped broccoli (or sometimes asparagus or spinach), and throw in about an ounce of feta cheese.  I think this tastes incredible.  Chris...I would have to bribe him heavily to even try it.

Here is my lunch from yesterday.  Again, Chris's response was "ew", and I enjoyed it a lot.  It was inspired by a post Jaden of Steamy Kitchen did on Tasty Kitchen.  When it went up yesterday, I immediately craved it...but only had ham and strawberries out of their lengthy list of ingredients.  So, I improvised.  Still a melty, delicious sandwich I made in a sandwich maker.  My ingredients:

Wheat bread

Ham

Strawberries

Spinach

Swiss Cheese

Zesty Honey Mustard

I know.  Sounds a little weird, but I sure enjoyed it.  And...of course a picture.    

Now, of course, the dog is wanting to go out before I leave for work.  Gotta hurry up.

 

Simple Sunday

So, recently, a friend of mine commented that she cracked up at a party when she had two similar conversations in about 5 minutes. Jen walked in, someone complimented the dish she brought, and she said, "Oh, it was so easy!" and listed 3 ingredients. Shortly after, I walked in, got a compliment, and said, "Oh, it was so easy!" and listed about 12. In an effort to prove I can cook without a fully stocked pantry, here's a recipe with 6 ingredients. All of which you should have on hand.

Potato Pancakes

Being of Irish descent, you'd think I know my potato. These are a nod to my in-laws, however. They are 2nd-generation Slovenian-American and KNOW their Eastern European food.

What you need: potato, onion, salt, pepper, oil, and egg

I like my potato to onion ration about 4 to 1. But I like to TASTE the onion. You may want to tone it down.

Peel and quarter your onions and potatoes.

Shred them using a food processor (man, I love these things), or by hand if you aren't equipped.

Step I forgot: Squeeze out the excess liquid. NECESSARY. I had to fudge it later. Put in an egg, and salt and pepper to taste.

Heat oil to medium high.

Make a ball of shredded potato gunk.

Put in hot pan and squish down flat.

Cook for about 4 minutes a side. Make sure there's enough oil for each batch. Dry pan=dry pancakes.

Enjoy! (We like ketchup. I've heard some people do sour cream or applesauce, but ew!)

The Things We Love

There is little I love more than pita bread and hummus. I even grew up in an unusual family, filled with vegetarians, and many members that were not born in the United States. Therefore, as a first and second grader, I would show up in the school cafeteria with my flat bread, and bean paste, and get made fun of a little bit. When I ran out of both a couple days ago, and we're trying to use up food before we move, what was I supposed to do but make them from scratch? I had all the ingredients... Of course, I had to make tahini from sesame seeds and olive oil (surprisingly easy!), and it was a new adventure, but it all turned out great! Don't know if I'll buy them all from the store again! Quick rundown:

Tahini:

1 cup of sesame seeds

1/3 cup olive oil

-Process together in a food processer until smooth

Hummus:

1 can garbanzo beans

2 Tbl Olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup roasted red peppers

1 1/2 Tbl tahini

1 lemon (skin removed)

-All of these are largely to taste. Again, rev up that food processor!

Pita bread:

1 packet yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 1/2 tsp sugar

-Start the yeast in the warm water w/ the sugar, let it froth up (about 15 minutes)

3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

- Pour yeast into a well in the center of the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon. Add 1 cup of warm water, stir together. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and not sticky. Let it rise for 3 hours in a oiled, covered bowl.

- Roll into a rope, tear into 12 balls, cover and let rise for 10 minutes.

- Heat oven and cookie sheets to 500 degrees.

- Roll balls into circles 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 4 minutes until puffed, flip, bake another 2 minutes.

- Remove from oven, smush with spatula, store in bags.

See?!?! SOOOOO easy. And...I'm putting all this down from memory, so don't try this too quick, I might have to check on some measurements.

Bread Dreams

So, at this second, I have some Amish White Bread rising in my kitchen... It's a wonderful feeling. I adore the smell of baking bread, the taste of warm, soft, fresh loaves, and the feeling of kneading the soft dough in my hands. In one of my crazy dream worlds, I'd have a bakery. I'd be up at 4 baking the bread for the day, and get to stand in the shop and talk to customers as they came and went. I'd be on a street with lots of foot traffic, and would know most of the people that came in. While I'm a damn good baker, this isn't so realistic when I only have a couple of recipes that are TRULY fantastic. It's really hard to test out new ones, too. Chris can only eat so many carbs (though he's willing most of the time), his office, while they beg me to bake at least once a month, can only take so much, and our neighbors are even starting to burn out. And, this is only after perfecting white bread, soda bread, blueberry muffins, chocolate cupcakes, and a few flavors of cookies. There are a few baking and pastry books out there that really walk through the intricacies of baking, but who to bake for?!?! Suppose I'll have to just continue to take it one loaf at a time, dream, and drive Chris crazy with the little bits of dough that are forever stuck to our counters.

AMISH WHITE BREAD
(mostly from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amish-White-Bread/Detail.aspx)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups warm water
  
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to sit for about 1/2 an hour or until foamy.
   
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour a bit at a time. Make sure there are no lumps. Knead dough on a floured surface until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl. Cover. Allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
3. Punch down dough. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two oiled loaf pans. Allow to rise again for 30 minutes.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.