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!!

The Seasonal Salad.

Sometimes you just want a nice salad that is simple, yet full of delicious. And cranberries. It should probably be full of cranberries too. Maybe some blue cheese (or bleu, depending on your spelling preference). Because these things are delicious.

So here's what you need:

Baby spinach leaves
Blue cheese (I like a nice Trader Joe's variety)

Dried cranberries

Nuts (preferably pecans and hazelnuts)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Lemon (for the zest, not the juice)

First, toast your nuts. Throw them in a pan and heat them over a medium/high flame while constantly tossing them around in the pan so they don't burn. Do this for a few minutes until they brown a bit.

Then, make your dressing. Do this by combining equal parts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then use your lemon and the small holes of a cheese grater to make some lemon zest. If you're fancy enough to own an actual zester, that would work too. Throw some zest into your balsamic/olive oil mixture. The amount of zest is not too critical. I used about a 1/2 teaspoon of zest for a two person sized portion of dressing. Use your best judgement.

Finally, assemble your salad by adding crumbled blue cheese along with your toasted nuts and dried cranberries to a bowl of baby spinach. Drizzle with your homemade lemon balsamic vinaigrette. Then eat him up!

Pumpkin Pie a la Fall

Hello again, fine blog readers. I've been in quite the "Fall" mood lately, and since it was a three day weekend, I gave in and dedicated my whole Sunday to the celebration of pumpkins. I LOVE pumpkins.

I began this grand pumpkin day by carving a pumpkin up into little chunks to make a pumpkin puree. It's really quite easy. I hear you can roast the pumpkin to make a puree as well, but I like to cut it up into chunks and boil it until it gets nice and soft. Once its soft, you simply drain out the hot water and fill the pot with really really cold water (so you don't burn yourself when you cut off the pumpkin skin and throw the chunks into the blender). Then, blend the pumpkin. Often times you'll need to add a little of the milk from the pumpkin pie recipe below in order to get it to blend properly. Or you can add a little water, and just make a note to yourself to subtract a little water from whatever recipe you're using.

So now you have pureed pumpkin. In my case, I have A LOT of pureed pumpkin, so I may be posting a few more pumpkin related treats.

Now for the pie. Begin by making your crust. Feel free to use whatever type of crust you like. If you don't feel like getting flour all over your kitchen, premade is the way to go. I was feeling rather adventurous this morning though, so I made it from scratch. Basically, just mix all the dry stuff, then add nice cold butter cut into little chunks. Mix it with your hands, breaking up the chunks of butter until everything is nice and crumbly. Then add just as much cold water as you need to get the dough to turn into a nice ball. Here's a recipe for guidance:

1 and 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

10 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons ice cold water (less or more as needed)

Put the ball of dough in the fridge for a half our or so if you're not in a hurry. It helps to have it cold when you roll it out so it doesn't stick to everything in its path. To roll out the dough, I like to sprinkle a little flour on a sheet of wax paper, place the ball of dough in the middle, and then sprinkle the top of the ball with a little flour. At this point, place a sheet of wax paper on top, and roll out the dough into a nice big circle. This cuts down on a lot of mess, as you can peel the dough off of the wax paper much easier than you can peel it off of your countertop. Once you're finished rolling, take off the top layer of wax paper, and carefully (and quickly) flip the dough into the pie dish. Then peel off the other layer of wax paper. At this point I like to trim off excess dough and try to make it look as pretty as possible. Throw the pie dish with crust in the fridge for few minutes while you preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Interlude: Here is a picture of one of my rats in a pumpkin. Her name is Mochi.

Now for pre-baking your crust. This is usually the trickiest part for me, because I don't own actual cooking tools like "pie weights". Today, though, I discovered that unpopped popcorn makes a pretty decent pie weight. Just throw some wax paper or foil in your pie pan to cover up your crust, and throw in the popcorn kernels to keep the paper/foil firmly against the crust so it doesn't bubble up while you pre bake it. Bake it like this for about 10 minutes. Then take off the foil/wax paper and bake the crust uncovered for another 10 or 15 minutes (I went with 10 because I'm impatient). Take out the crust and turn the oven down to 350. Then pour in the pumpkin pie filling and bake for 45 minutes or until the middle isn't all wiggly and liquidy.

Here is a nice pumpkin pie filling recipe:

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons cinnamon

(you can add a little ginger or cloves if you'd like, but I prefer it simple with just the nutmeg and cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup milk

4 eggs

And now you have a delicious pumpkin pie!

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Lemon Garlic Hummus

Welcome back, readers! I hope you all enjoyed Chef Deanna's post, she will (hopefully) make regular appearances here on the Fork and Dagger!


Today's post is a healthy snack-time favorite: Hummus! I've been getting sick of buying hummus that tastes like lemon furniture polish, so I decided to make my own!

It's very simple, with very strong flavors, and no tahini (which is very high in calories, so we lightened this up a bit!) Enjoy!


Adapted from AllRecipes.com
Ingredients:

• Olive oil (Start with 1/4 -1/2 cup, and increase as necessary for desired texture)
• 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups chickpeas, drained (and rinsed. It'll foam and get sudsy when you rinse it. Gross huh?)
• 2 teaspoonsful minced garlic 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Put the garlic and a small amount of the olive oil into a food processor, and blend until smooth. (You don't want to bite into a chunk of raw garlic. Or maybe you do, to each their own!)
2. When the garlic is well blended, add the chickpeas, lemon juice, salt, and more of the olive oil. Process until smooth (adding more olive oil / lemon juice if necessary for texture and flavor)

Serve however you usually serve hummus! Pita chips, veggies, on a sandwich, whatever your heart desires! 

Yumm! Smooth and tasty!

Steak with Sweet Potato Puree

Hello, this is Deanna! Who the heck is Deanna, you ask?! To answer your question, I am a friend of Chef Megan. We both work to expand our knowledge of drugs at URI College of Pharmacy when we're not busy making delicious food.

Lately, I've been very busy with rotations and haven't had time to contribute to this fine blog. But then I thought to myself, "Self, no more excuses!" So alas, I am here to share a recipe with you.

Much like the Elias family, I enjoy a carnivorous diet. I also enjoy foods that look fancy on a plate. This is how my steak with sweet potato puree recipe was born.

Ingredients (serves two hungry people):

Two nice hunks of steak (choose your favorite cut!)
Olive Oil (enough to cover your steaks without them becoming drenched and drippy)

1 large Sweet Potato

1 cup Milk
1 cup Heavy Cream

1 pat butter (about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon)
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

1. Start off by peeling the sweet potato and cutting up into 1-inch chunks.

2. Throw the chunks in a sauce pan, and cover the pieces with equal parts of milk and heavy cream (or half and half, if that's what you happen to have in the fridge). The amount of milk and cream you need is very dependent on the size of your chosen potato, so just use enough to ensure that all of your sweet potato chunks are submerged. Add about 5 grinds of salt and 5 grinds of pepper.

3. Simmer potato mixture until the potatoes are soft (lid on for 1st half, lid off for second half). Once soft, throw the whole mixture in the blender! Blend until nice and smooth. If it is still too thick to blend at this point, feel free to add some extra milk or cream. The end mixture should be thinner than mashed potatoes, but not so thin that it's runny and weird.

4. Pour the puree back into the sauce pan. At this point, you can add the pat of butter and season to taste with more salt and pepper. Set on the back burner until your steak is ready.

5. Trim the fat off the edges of your steak. Unless you're a person who enjoys eating the fatty bits, get rid of them, they'll just slow you down when it's time to devour your meal.

6. Rub steaks with olive oil, and then season with salt and pepper. I use a very generous helping of both salt and pepper.

7. Preheat your cast iron pan (or whatever device you would like to use to cook these lovely steaks on...I just love cast iron pans and grills...but my grill was stolen on Labor Day weekend, so I had to go with the pan). Make sure the pan is nice and hot before you throw on the steaks.

8. Cook steaks to your desired level of done-ness. Then remove them from the pan and let them rest for a few minutes.

9. While your steaks are resting, reheat your sweet potato puree to make sure that it is nice hot for plating.

10. You are now ready to assemble your plate, puree on the bottom, steak on top! Enjoy! If you'd like a meal that is a little more balanced, serve this with a lovely salad. I went with Romaine lettuce and blue cheese dressing (with those lovely little dried cranberries on top).