Economy Beef Stroganoff

06 Monday Sep 2010

Posted by ruthep in beef broth, beef stroganoff, dinner, economy beef stroganoff, Recipe

Beef stroganoff is great comfort food. It is great on a cool day or any day actually.
You don’t need to buy expensive beef tenderloin for this meal. Use stew meat or even a roast instead.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds beef roast or stew meat sliced into 1-1/2″x1/2 inch pieces

2 Tablespoons butter

1-1/2 cups beef broth

2 Tablespoons ketchup

1 teaspoon salt

1 small clove garlic, chopped or 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

1 medium onion, chopped(1/2 cup)

3 Tablespoons flour

1 cup sour cream

16 oz noodles or 1 batch homemade noodles, cooked and drained

Melt the butter in a dutch oven over low heat.
Add the meat and cook and stir until browned.
Set aside 1/3 cup beef broth.
Pour the rest into the pan with the meat.
Add the ketchup, salt, and garlic.
Cover and simmer for an hour.
Stir in mushrooms and onion. Cook for 5 minutes until onion is tender.
Add the flour to the reserved broth and stir til smooth.
Stir into beef mixture and heat to boiling. Stir the whole time.
Boil and stir for 1 minute.
Stir in the sour cream.
Heat through.
Stir in the cooked noodles.

Serves 6-8.

If you want to use a tender cut of meat to save time, use beef tenderloin and simmer it with the broth, ketchup, garlic, and salt for only 10 minutes before finishing the dish.

Open Faced Blueberry Pie

06 Monday Sep 2010

Posted by ruthep in Blueberry, blueberry pie, Blueberry recipe, dessert, open faced blueberry pie

≈ 1 Comment

This is my favorite type of blueberry pie. It is made with a prebaked pie crust filled with fresh berries in a syrup. It is super good.
I got this recipe from one of my Rose Levy Beranbaum cookbooks. She is one of my favorite cookbook authors.

Ingredients

9 ” prebaked pie crust

2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons cornstarch

4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Bake your pie crust as directed and set it to the side until ready to be filled.
Stir together 2 Tablespoons water and the cornstarch. Set aside.
Place 1 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan, cover and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat and simmer, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes. The blueberries will start to burst and the juices will start to thicken.
As you stir, add the cornstarch mixture, sugar, lemon juice, and salt.
Simmer for another minute until the mixture becomes translucent.
Remove from the heat and fold in the other 3 cups of blueberries.
Spoon the blueberries into the pie crust.
Let sit for 2 hours before serving so the pie will set up.
Serves 6-8.

You may keep this pie at room temperature for two days. No longer.
If you have some left after that time, store it in the fridge.

Cutting In Butter Or Shortening

04 Saturday Sep 2010

Posted by ruthep in baking tips, butter, cut in butter, cut in shortening, hands, pastry cutter, shortening

≈ Leave a comment

What does it mean when a recipe says to cut butter into a flour mixture?

It means breaking up the butter or shortening into the flour.

For pastry, you break up the butter/shortening into smaller pieces so that the flour gets coated with some fat and the flour won’t absorb too much liquid.
For a struesel topping, you cut in butter to get a crunchy crumbly topping.

There are pastry cutters you can buy to cut in the butter/shortening.
You can also use a fork to just break it up.

What I prefer to do is to work the butter into the flour or sugar/flour mix with my hands.
To do this, just stick your hands into the bowl with the butter and just rub it into the flour.
Make sure you end up with coarse crumbs.

For pastry, leave some of the pieces of butter larger and some smaller.

For a struesel topping, all the butter should be uniform so all the crumbs are about the same size.

Blueberry Buckle

03 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by ruthep in Blueberry, blueberry buckle, Blueberry recipe, dessert, raspberry buckle

≈ 1 Comment

Blueberry buckle is like a coffee cake with blueberries sprinkled over before baking. It is great made with fresh or frozen blueberries.

Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of a 8″ or 9″ square baking pan.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cooking oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter

Combine the 2 cups flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
In another bowl, pour your oil. Add the 3/4 cup sugar and blend well.
Beat in the egg.
Add the milk and flour mixture alternately. Make sure mixture is smooth after each addition before mixing more in.
Spoon that batter into the baking pan.
Sprinkle with the blueberries.
Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and cinnamon.
Cut in the butter until it is crumbly.
Sprinkle the crumbles over the blueberries.
Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until the buckle is golden.

Serves 9.

To make a raspberry buckle, just substitute raspberries for the blueberries. Do everything else the same.

Seafood Lasagna

03 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by ruthep in crab, dinner, lasagna, Recipe, seafood, seafood lasagna, shrimp

≈ 1 Comment

Seafood lasagna is a nice change from your traditional Italian lasagna.
It is made with tiny shrimp and crab meat. Use imitation crab meat if you like. It is yummy that way as well.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
You will need an ungreased 9″x13″ pan.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
9 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 cup cottage cheese
1 (7-1/2 oz) can crab meat
1 (4-1/2 oz) can tiny shrimp, drained or 4 oz frozen salad shrimp, thawed
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the garlic.
Stir in the flour and salt.
Cook until bubbly, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and add the milk and chicken broth.
Put back on heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
Boil and stir for a minute.
Add the onion, mozzarella cheese, basil, and pepper.
Cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth.
Take off the heat.
Spread 1-1/2 cups of the cheese sauce in the bottom of the baking pan.
Lay three noodles over the sauce.
Spread the cottage cheese over the noodles in the pan.
Add another 1-1/2 cups cheese sauce.
Add three more noodles.
Add the crab meat(or imitation crab meat) and the shrimp.
Add another 1-1/2 cups cheese sauce.
Layer with the last three noodles and the last of the cheese sauce.
Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top.
Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes until the noodles are done.
Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.

Serves 12.

Enjoy!

Baking Without Eggs

21 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by ruthep in can't use eggs, egg recall, egg substitution, eggs

≈ 1 Comment

Sometimes we find ourselves without eggs, but we want to bake something with eggs.
So what should we do?

Substitute, of course.

Currently there is a major recall of eggs due to potential salmonella contamination. People have been getting sick.

So, if you are like me, you can’t use the eggs you have.
I am not sure I can even buy eggs, at this time.

So, if you want to bake, you have 2 options.
Find a recipe without eggs.
Or, substitute other ingredients for your egg or eggs in the recipe.

You can buy egg product, which comes from egg whites.
Or you can make your own egg substitution.

For each egg that you need, use:
2 Tablespoons liquid
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 Tablespoon shortening
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

You can also use:
1 teaspoon cornstarch
add an additional 3 Tablespoons liquid to your recipe.

But, the first substitution is the better option.

Dill Pickles

21 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by ruthep in cucumbers, dill pickles

≈ Leave a comment

This is my mom’s recipe for dill pickles. You can slices them for sandwiches or leave them whole. The jar on the left was just made and still needs to go through it’s curing stage. The jar on the right is done and is ready to eat.

Ingredients:

Cucumbers to fill 1 quart jar
2 heaping teaspoons dried dill seed

1/3 cup vinegar
1-1/2 cups water
1 Tablespoon pickling(also called canning) salt

Fill your sterilized jar with cucumbers. Add the dill set.
Set aside.
Put the water, vinegar, and salt in a pan and bring to a boil.
Pour over the cucumbers and dill seed.
Carefully pour the vinegar mixture back into the pan, making sure cucumbers stay in the jar.
Placing a jar flat partially over the mouth of the jar helps a lot.
The dill seed will come out though and that is OK.
Bring the vinegar mixture back to another boil.
Pour back over the cucumbers.
Seal the jar with a flat and jar ring.
Turn over the jar and let stand 15 minutes.
Turn upright.
Let cool.
Store for 6 weeks before opening so the pickles will develop really good flavor.

If you are making a lot of pickles, you can process them in a water bath.
After pouring the vinegar over the cucumbers the first time, seal the jars and process for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.
It works, but the pickles never seem to come out crunchy.

Jambalaya Salad

21 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by ruthep in ham, jambalaya salad, peppers, rice, salad, shrimp, tomatoes

≈ 1 Comment

This is no ordinary salad. I stumbled across this recipe while trying to find pasta salad recipes.
It is a great addition to a potluck or even great as a meal, all by itself.

Ingredients:

1-1/3 cups water
2/3 cup long grain white rice
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
6 oz. salad shrimp
1/2 cup cubed ham
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped tomato

3/4 cup Italian salad dressing
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced

In a 2 quart pan, bring the water to a boil.
Add the rice and turn down to medium low. Cover. Cook for 20 minutes or until water is absorbed into the rice.
Fluff and turn out into bowl to cool.
Chop all your vegetables and ham.
If you don’t have celery or don’t like it, use 1 cup green pepper for the 1/2 cup celery and 1/2 cup green pepper. Still is great that way.
Add the crumbled bacon, shrimp, ham, and vegetables to the bowl with the rice.
In another bowl whisk the Italian dressing, thyme, salt, chili powder, and garlic together.
Pour over the rice mixture.
Stir to coat.
Chill until serving.

Serves 6 as a main dish.

Ruth's Yummy Stuff

~ Here are some recipes and tips I'd like to share with you.

Economy Beef Stroganoff

Open Faced Blueberry Pie

Cutting In Butter Or Shortening

Blueberry Buckle

Seafood Lasagna

Baking Without Eggs

Dill Pickles

Jambalaya Salad