Delightful Slow Cooker Beef

Happy winter, blog readers! To help you make it through these cold days, I thought I would provide you with a good, stick to your ribs, slow cooker beef dinner!

Yes, it IS as tasty as it looks!

This was a SUPER easy dinner - and the beauty of the slow cooker meal is that it was almost all ready for me to eat when I got home from work today!
Well,
almost. :)


If you are looking for an easy way to eat hearty and stay warm this winter, this is the meal for you!


(Adapted from the Zesty Cook)
Ingredients:

• 1 beef roast (~4 pounds)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup red wine (Food network always says to cook with a wine that you would also drink! We used a cabernet)
• White mushrooms (if you want a specific amount, we used 15 and quartered them. But listen to your heart :) And my heart loves mushrooms!)
• Cherry tomatoes (again, for specifics, we used about 10)
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• Thyme (The recipe I found didn't specify an amount, so I pulled the leaves off of about 3 sprigs of fresh thyme)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cornstarch

Directions:

PART I: IN THE MORNING:

In a large pan with olive oil, on medium high heat, sear all sides of the meat until caramelized.

Place meat in the slow cooker.

Add the mushrooms, tomatoes and garlic. 

Then add the salt and pepper, wine and chicken broth, and then the thyme.

Cover and set on low. Cook for at LEAST 8 hours.

THEN GO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! 

If I had it my way, I would have spent the 8 hours necessary to properly cook this doing something awesome, like Geocaching... or going to see a movie.

Or napping.

But instead I had to go to work...

After working up an appetite counting pills, it was time to come home to my dinner.

PART 2: AT DINNER TIME:,  

Take out the meat and vegetables and put the sauce in a pan. Bring to a boil and reduce.

Add 2 tablespoons cornstarch to 3 tablespoons of water, mix well, and add to the sauce.

Allow the sauce to thicken and create a (delicious!) gravy.

We served our beef with corn and a baked potato. And of course crusty bread. If you're questioning our use of crusty bread, just keep reading other posts. It goes with EVERYTHING. But really, just do whatever makes you feel good :)

And as always... enjoy!

Creme Brulee French Toast

Whoaaa two posts in a week! We're getting a little crazy here, watch out!
Thought I would put up something I made on Christmas this year, but didn't get around to posting....

The bear mug in the background made this truly complete!

A tasty creme brulee french toast!
I first had this recipe from one of my roommates: the lovely and fabulous Katie Post. She wrote down the recipe for me a few years ago but I lost it. Luckily I found a very similar (if not the same) recipe!


Enjoy our Christmas breakfast! Good for family brunch, holidays, or just when you have a hankering for something sweet and delicious!


(Adapted from Food Network)
Ingredients:

I love the tiny Chambord bottle.
The crown makes me feel fancy!

• 1/2 cup (aka 1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (I used light brown, because the color looked nice!)
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• Some variety of sweet bread. In the past I have used tsoureki, a delicious Greek sweet bread. We waited too long to go shopping this year so we used about a 10-inch round of generic Shaws Supermarket sweet bread
• 5 large eggs
• 1 and 1/2 cups half and half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon Chambord (I chose this because of the slight raspberry flavor. You can sub your flavor in of choice... the original recipe called for Grand Marnier, but I have used the Chambord twice and have not been disappointed!)
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Directions:
**I should preface this by saying that the bulk of the work on this french toast is done the night before!!**

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar and corn syrup over medium heat.
2. Stir until smooth and silky! 
3. Pour mixture into the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish
4. Cut 1 inch slices from the bread and put on top sugar mixture in the dish (try to squeeze in as many pieces as possible! Like a puzzle. Or tetris!)
5. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, half and half, vanilla, Chambord, and salt.
6. Pour evenly over the bread until all the pieces of bread are covered.
7. At this point, cover and chill in a fridge for at least 8 hours (up to 1 day)
8. Go to sleep! (zzzzz....)
9. Wake up! (And while you're brushing your teeth to get rid of morning doodle breath, take the french toast out of the fridge and bring to room temperature)
10. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
11. Bake uncovered in the middle of the oven 35-40 minutes. The edges should be pale golden and the french toast will be puffed! (It will settle down though. Don't worry!)

Serve with maple syrup if you would like, but with the creme brulee bottom you may not need it!

Bacon creates a great salty-sweet contrast, so feel free to cook up some bacon to go with it!

Enjoy! (And happy belated Christmas!)

White Bean and Roasted Mushroom Soup

Before I begin - I apologize for my long absence from the Fork and Dagger... I have been very busy and as a result, cooking less and eating more nonsense. And by eating more nonsense I mean I have been eating lots of Dunkin everything bagels with cream cheese, McDonalds cheeseburgers, and pizza. While quite tasty, they were not quite blog-worthy.
But now we've passed the start of the year and like most, I have jumped back onto the diet bandwagon. (Woo!) Tonight's dinner is one of hopefully many more tasty, healthy meals to come!

White Bean and Roasted Mushroom Soup... Serves 8. Unless you halve it like I did. Then it serves 4. But the below directions are for 8!
(Recipe from She Wears Many Hats)


Ingredients: 

Don't have stainless steel mixing bowls? GET THEM.
Must-have in the kitchen :)

• 16 ounces of mushrooms halved or quartered. I used baby 'bellas, because the brown makes it look earthier and because they're adorable.
• 2 large sweet onions, quartered
• 3 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 8-10 fresh sage leaves
• 8-10 stems + 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• **If you prefer to use dried for either spice, you can feel free to do so. The rule of thumb is one part dried to three parts fresh.... But fresh tastes better!**
• 48 ounces broth (either chicken or vegetable is fine! we used chicken)
• 3-15 ounce cans white beans NOT drained (we used cannellini)
• Salt and pepper as needed.
• Crusty bread is a MUST :)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Toss the mushrooms, garlic, and onion in the olive oil and 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper (*The mushrooms are going to need to be separated at a later point, so you can save yourself some hassle and keep them separate from the get-go if you want! Ex. mix the mushrooms and onions/garlic with 1 tbsp oil, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper each*)
3. Spread veggies on baking sheet and add the sage and thyme. 
4. Roast in oven for 10 minutes, toss, and roast another 15 minutes.
5. While vegetables are roasting, add broth, beans, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and remaining thyme (1 tbsp) to a large stock pot. Simmer at medium heat.
6. When the vegetables are done, separate the mushrooms.
7. Put the roasted onions, garlic, and herbs to a blender. (We also scraped up the browned bits from the bottom of the roasting pan and added those as well!)
8. Add 2 cups of the beans and 1 cup of stock to the blender as well.
9. Cover the blender and blend until smooth.
10. Whisk the pureed vegetables back into the stock pot until smooth. 
11. Add the roasted mushrooms. Salt and pepper to taste! 
12. Keep the heat on low until ready to serve.
13. MOST IMPORTANTLY: SERVE WITH CRUSTY BREAD :) Sops up the broth B-E-A-utifully!

I encourage you all to make this - it was a delicious, healthy, earthy dinner. Served with a little salad on the side, and I would say I stuck to my diet today!

Enjoy!!