Best New Year’s Eve Recipes : Food Network.
New Year’s Eve is just two days away and if you are planning a party, big or small, Food Network has some great recipe ideas for you for appetizers, snacks, main courses, cocktails and more so you can ring in the New Year. Check it out!
I will be back with more of my own recipes once the holidays are are all over with so stay tuned for some great, exciting new things to try for the New Year. Thanks for following!
Best Christmas Main Dish Recipes : Cooking Channel.
If you are thinking about making something stunning for your Christmas meal, Cooking Channel has put together these fantastic main dish recipes that are sure to draw applause for your magnificent efforts. Check it out!
Christmas Dinner Recipes | SAVEUR.
When we think of Christmas dinners, many of us immediately think of having a nice roast for the family and guests. There are all kinds of great roasts you can make (I’ll be making a prime rib roast this year) and Saveur has put together 28 Christmas dinner recipes using various roasts of pork, lamb, beef, turkey and chicken. You can find something to fit every type of meal you are looking to make. Check it out!
It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t like bacon, and it can be a very versatile ingredient, fitting into every course of a meal and breakfast, lunch and dinner to boot. You can also cook it in a variety of ways – in the microwave, on the stovetop, on the grill or in the oven. In the New York Times, Mark Bittman has put together 25 easy and fantastic ways that you can use bacon in various dishes and ways. Check it out!
Sunday dinners can be a fantastic time to try out new meals that you have wanted to experiment with but don’t have the time during the week, but they can also be the ideal occasion to roll out family favorites and comfort food meals that everyone loves. That’s what I decided on recently when I made some pot roast for dinner. I haven’t made a pot roast in a while since it makes way too much food for just the three of us and frankly the roasts have not been a good buy at the supermarket. However, Sean asked if he could have pot roast as his birthday dinner when we were having family over so I went on a hunt for a roast and found a perfect one that was a great size for a large group of people and had just the right amount of fat to it. I then decided I was going to try out a recipe Geoffrey Zakarian from his new cookbook My Perfect Pantry. It was for a New England pot roast very similar to what I always make with a slight difference in the gravy he makes in the end. It promised to be quite tasty.
New England Pot Roast
One 3-pound beef chuck roast
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch chunks
2 carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks
2 medium onions, cut into 2-inch chunks
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cloves garlic
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 dried bay leaves
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry red wine
6 cups beef stock
1 pound red potatoes, cut into 2-inch chunks
1/4 cup yellow mustard
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, drained
Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish, optional
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Season the roast with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven set over medium-high heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the roast and sear it on all sides until the roast is well browned, about 5 minutes. Remove the roast to a plate.
Add the celery, carrots and onions and saute until they are caramelized on the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the flour, garlic, thyme, bay leaves and rosemary. Stir the mixture to incorporate the flour into the oil and cook until the flour smells toasty, about 2 minutes.
Pour in the wine and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the roast back to the pot, along with the beef stock and the potatoes. Bring everything to a rapid simmer and cover the pot tightly. Place the pot in the oven and cook, covered, until the meat is just tender (a knife will slide out easily with no resistance), about 2 hours 30 minutes. Remove the meat to a cutting board and tent it with follow and allow it to rest while you prepare the sauce.
Let the sauce sit for a few minutes, and then spoon off any fat that has risen to the surface (or pour the sauce into a fat-separating measuring cup, pour off the fat and add the sauce back to the pot). Return the sauce to a simmer. Whisk in the mustard and horseradish and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Discard the bay leaves and stir in the parsley, if using.
Carve the meat into 1/2-inch-thick slices against the grain, and serve with the sauce and vegetables.
I di use a much bigger roast than the recipe so I increased the time to 3 1/2 hours instead of 2 1/2 since I had almost a 6 pound roast. I also did not use the red potatoes as Sean wanted mashed potatoes with the meal instead. The meat was cooked perfectly and was very tender, just the way you want it. The sauce had great flavor thanks to the horseradish and I really enjoyed it as a change of pace from the regular gravy we make with a pot roast. I think it was perfect with the rest of the meal and would certainly try it that way again for the flavor.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I am a big fan of Swedish meatballs. I have been making them for several years with different variations, most commonly one recipe that my grandmother had passed on to me years ago and one from chef Marcus Samuelsson that he uses at his restaurant, Red Rooster, in Harlem here in New York. I like both recipes but the one from chef Samuelsson seems much more authentic to me so that is the one I have used, still use, and is basically the same as the one in this recipe, but this recipe also has the addition of carrot-apple mashed potatoes to go with the meatballs to make it more of a meal and less of an appetizer. This is the way you will find it on the menu at Red Rooster and the flavor is fantastic. I did tweak the recipe just a bit from the original. I decided to bake my meatballs instead of grilling them, as is called for in the original recipe to get more of a char on the meatballs. It just seemed easier to bake them, though doing them in a skillet would work pretty well too. Other than that, I followed the recipe, right down to the lingonberry preserves. This particular version is from the Serious Eats website.
Helga’s Meatballs and Gravy with Carrot-Apple Mashed Potatoes
For the Meatballs:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 pound ground chuck or sirloin
1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons honey
1 large egg
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Gravy:
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup lingonberry preserves
2 tablespoons pickle juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Carrot-Apple Mashed Potatoes:
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon horseradish, preferably freshly grated
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
To make the meatballs, heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the red onion and cook until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Remove the onions from the heat and allow them to cool.
Combine the bread crumbs and the heavy cream in a large bowl, stirring the mixture with a fork until all of the bread crumbs are moistened. Add the sautéed onions, ground beef, ground veal, ground pork, honey, egg, and salt and pepper to the bread crumbs and mix the ingredients well. Wet your hands to keep the meatballs from sticking and shape the mixture into meatballs the size of golf balls, placing them on a plate lightly moistened with some water. You should end up with about 24 to 30 meatballs.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet with a rack inserted, place the meatballs on the rack and bake them in the oven until they are golden brown all over and cooked through, about 12 to 15 minutes.
To make the gravy, bring the chicken broth, heavy cream, lingonberry preserves and pickle juice to a simmer in a large saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs to the gravy, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the gravy thickens slightly and the meatballs are heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and keep the meatballs and gravy warm.
To make the carrot-apple mashed potatoes, place the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover the potatoes with salted cold water by at least one inch and cook the potatoes until they are tender, about 20 minutes. Put the carrots and apples in a separate saucepan covered with salted cold water by at least one inch and cook until the carrots and apples are tender, about 15 minutes.
While the potatoes, apples and carrots cook, heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the onion, garlic, shallots, balsamic vinegar and honey. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring often, until the onions and shallots are tender, about 10 minutes.
Drain the potatoes and the apples and carrots and return all of them to one of the cooking pots. Mash the mixture coarsely with a fork or a potato masher. Stir in the buttermilk, horseradish and onion mixture. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the carrot-apple mashed potatoes onto dinner plates and top them with the meatballs and gravy.
The meatballs have fantastic flavor and the gravy makes them even better. If you can get the lingonberry preserves it makes a big difference in the overall taste, adding that hint of flavor that makes them distinctly Swedish meatballs. I really liked the apple-carrot mashed potatoes as well as it was a great mix of flavors with the apple and carrot along with the onions, horseradish and garlic. I actually made the meatballs a little bit smaller so we had a bunch leftover that I could freeze and use for appetizers for the holidays coming up. It is definitely a recipe worth giving a try.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
By now I think everyone knows my love for meatloaf. I have lots of different recipes on the blog here that you can try – Alton Brown, America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country and many others – but I am always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to serve meatloaf. Lately I have been getting a lot of recipes from New York Times Cooking, which is a great site that has thousands of fantastic recipes on from basic to more complex. I came across this great meatloaf recipe on there about a week ago for meatloaf with a wonderful maple glaze on it and it sounded like the perfect fall meatloaf to give a try. I was not disappointed in the results.
Maple Glazed Meatloaf
3/4 pound sliced bacon
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
2 eggs
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Dash of hot pepper sauce
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground veal
1/2 cup crushed saltines
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Chop 1/4 pound of the bacon; saute the chopped bacon in a large skillet set over medium-high heat until the bacon is browned but not crisp, about 8 minutes. Transfer the cooked bacon to paper towels so it can drain. Add the onion and garlic to the skillet. Cover the skillet and cook the vegetables over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened, about 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and set it aside.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream or yogurt, eggs, dry mustard, salt, dried thyme, Worcestershire sauce, ground black pepper and the hot pepper sauce until it is blended.
In a separate large bowl, combine the ground beef, ground pork and ground veal, the cooked bacon pieces, the cooked onion mixture and the milk mixture. Using your hands, toss the ingredients lightly to mix them together. Add the crushed saltines and the parsley and toss the mixture lightly again until everything is thoroughly combined. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. On the lined baking sheet for the meet into a loaf of about 5 inches by 12 inches. Drape the remaining strips of bacon lengthwise over the loaf to completely cover the loaf.
In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup and the Dijon mustard. Paint a thick coating over the bacon on the meatloaf. Bake the meatloaf, uncovered, until a thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 165 degrees, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. If you desire, baste the loaf occasionally with the remaining maple syrup mixture. Let the meatloaf rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it and serving it.
This meatloaf was delicious. I used meatloaf mix or beef, pork and veal that I get at the store and I didn’t use as much bacon in or on the meatloaf itself as the recipe indicates only because Michelle has some trouble with bacon, but the overall flavors for this meatloaf were fantastic. I loved the crust you get on the top from the maple glaze on the bacon and this meatloaf held together really well and was easy to slice. I think the combination of the saltines, milk and sour cream really helped bind everything, along with the eggs. The flavor in the meatloaf was great too, thanks to the bacon, onions and garlic with just a hint of spice and heat. This was great with the homemade tater tots I made that night, but I think it would be perfect with mashed potatoes or even better with sweet potatoes that have a little brown sugar and maple syrup on them as well. Of course, it was awesome for meatloaf sandwiches the next day as well and I think it would be great for an open-faced meatloaf sandwich with a little gravy. Yum! I will definitely add this one to my meatloaf arsenal.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Leave it took Cook’s Country Magazine to keep supplying me with easy to make, quick weeknight meals. Finding something that uses just a few ingredients but comes together really nicely to taste great and can all be done in less than 30 minutes is my idea of the perfect weeknight meal. We have been so busy around out house lately with work and all of the other family things going on and it is only going to get crazier as we get further into November and December with birthdays, holidays, parties, travel and more. This means finding fast and easy meals that we can do without a lot of effort. This one for bourbon butter steak tips with maple mashed sweet potatoes is great because you can get the sweet potatoes softened in the microwave, get your steak tips going and have everything ready in about 20 minutes. Add a green vegetable and you are good to go.
Bourbon-Butter Steak Tips with Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak tips, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
1/2 cup bourbon
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
Combine the sweet potatoes, 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper in a large bowl. Cover and microwave until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes, stirring the potatoes halfway through the cooking process. Add the heavy cream and 3 tablespoons of the maple syrup and mash the potatoes until they are smooth; cover the potatoes and set them aside.
Meanwhile, pat the steak tips dry with paper towels and season the steak with salt and pepper. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet set over medium-high heat until the oil is just smoking. Add the steak tips and cook them until they are well browned all over and the meat registers 125 degrees (for medium-rare), about 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the steak tips to a platter and tent them loosely with foil to keep them warm.
Off the heat, add the bourbon, apple cider vinegar and the remaining 1 tablespoon of maple syrup to the skillet. Return the skillet to medium-high heat and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 3 minutes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Off the heat, whisk in the butter and season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Return the steak and any accumulated juices to the pan and toss the steak to coat it well with the sauce. Sprinkle the steak with chives and serve it with the mashed sweet potatoes.
This was a very delicious meal with a nice hint of the maple syrup permeating the potatoes and the steak. Throw in the taste that the bourbon adds to the sauce and it really makes the steak out of this world. I really think you could make this with any cut of beef if you did not have steak tips to use; you could use a London broil, sirloin or any other cut of beef that you really prefer or even use a whole steak like a rib eye or strip steak and it would be great. It’s so easy to make and you get wonderful layers of flavor.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
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Happily Ever After Lives Here
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Letting Life Lead
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