Bushels & Babes

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Think Spring!

As you might guess by my lack of posts over the last month I have been extremely busy.  Weekends have been jam packed with birthday parties, christenings and catching up on work. This weekend was the first weekend in a LONG time that we had no commitments.  It was so nice.  Yesterday we took S to lunch at All Aboard Diner. She is slightly obsessed with trains currently so she really enjoyed it. We got to eat around the counter where the train brings out your food.  Every time the train came out she yelled "Here it comes!"  It was super cute. 

Today I got quite a bit done around the house which makes me extremely happy. What was even better than getting some cleaning done was that I actually had time to make dinner this evening.  Granted it wasn't anything fancy but it was actually a home cooked meal for a change. I realize that this menu isn't really appropriate for a Chicago Winter meal but I think I had myself convinced it was Spring since it was nice and sunny out and I was a cleaning machine. 

Menu

New York Strip Steaks
Roasted Potatoes
Watermelon & Baby Arugula salad

I got the recipe for the Watermelon & Baby Arugula salad  from the Food Network Favorite Recipes cookbook. The recipe serves 4 to 6. I received the cookbook as a Christmas gift (thank you Lisa). This was the first recipe I made from it but there a bunch of really great recipes so I'm sure I will be sharing more of them in the future.

Salad:
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
4 pounds watermelon, preferably seedless, rind removed, cut into 3/4 inch cubes (about 8 cups)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
8 cups baby arugula (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup crumbled ricotta salata or feta cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup pitted Niçoise olives (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper

Dressing:
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1) For the salad: To mellow the onion, soak it in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain well, pat dry, and put in a serving bowl

2) Meanwhile, make the dressing: Whisk the vinegar, salt and black pepper to taste in a bowl. Gradually whisk in the olive oil, starting with a few drops and then adding the rest of the oil in a steady stream to make a smooth dressing.

3) Toss the watermelon and oregano with the onions and the dressing, taking care not to break up the watermelon chunks. (The salad can be made to this point up to 30 minutes in advance)

4)When ready to serve, toss the arugula with the dressed watermelon. Scatter the cheese, olives (if desired) and a generous grinding of black pepper over the top.

Note - I used Feta and added the olives.  The salad was absolutely delicious.  It would be a great salad for Spring/Summer. I also skipped the step of mellowing the onion.

For the potatoes, I had some small red potatoes on hand.  I cut then into small chunks. Cut up some small chunks of Spanish onion.  Combined them in a zip lock back with a drizzle of olive oil.  Mixed well. Sprinkled with Montreal Steak Seasoning.  Removed them from the bag and placed them in an oven safe dish with a lid.  I baked them on 350 for approximately 30 minutes.

I marinated the steaks with a little Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and seasoned each side with Hula Girl Coffee Rub.  I cooked these on the stove using a grill pan.  I would estimate that I cooked them for about 7-8 minutes on either side for a medium temperature.

Chili in Sourdough Bread bowl

Originally my in-laws were coming over for dinner last night but plans changed when we ended up with a snowstorm.  We got somewhere between 6-8 inches of snow.  I ended up making a pot of chili which was great after our sledding adventure with S.  This was S's first time playing in the snow. It was absolutely hilarious.  At first she couldn't move in her snow suit; she was like the little boy from the Christmas story waddling through our house.  Before we even got outside she tried to lean over to pick something up and just toppled over.  Once we got outside she just stood there unable to move.  But she loved it!  When Chris first put her in the sled, she said "I'm stuck." But once they got moving after an initial "uh-oh" she was having a blast.  Her reaction to the snow was priceless. While we were only outside for about 20 minutes, we had a great time and I think it made my year.

Back to the chili, this recipe is very similar to the 3 B Chili recipe I posted a few months ago. This is actually a simplified version of it.

2 cups of diced yellow onion
1 lb of 85/15 ground beef
1 clove minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder and ground cumin
1 teaspoon Montreal steak seasoning
1/4 teaspoon each of ground ancho chile and ground guajillo chile

In a Dutch oven, heat a tablespoon of olive and brown the beef along with the onion garlic and spices.  Drain the grease.

Add the following to the pot.

14 oz can each of Cannellini beans, Red Kidney beans, chili beans, drained and rinsed
14 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes
2 cups of diced tomatoes
3/4 tablespoon double concentrate tomato paste
1/2 cup of water
7 1/4 oz can of Mexican tomato sauce, I use El Pato Salsa Chile Fresco 
2 tablespoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon of sugar


Cook on low with the top on for a few hours, stirring regularly.


I took sour dough bread and removed the middle and then filled it with the chili.  Garnished with some green onion and cheddar cheese.  The best part of the bread bowl is you don't need crackers.

Pepper Steak

I had a bunch of bell peppers that I needed to use up this week. I figured this would be the perfect recipe to use them in. My mom use to make this all of the time when we were kids.  I had all of the veggies and everything prepared; my mom was kind enough to get this going for us since I was at work late this week.  This is great over your favorite brown or white rice served with a side salad.

Ingredients
3/4 lb of sirloin tip steak, cut into strips
1 large green pepper, seeded and sliced
1 large red pepper, seeded and sliced
1/2 large Spanish onion, diced into large pieces
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 beef boullion cube
1 cup of water
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
Approximately 1 tablespoon of Cornstarch

Directions
In a Dutch oven, brown the meat and onion.  Combine the bouillon cube with a cup of hot water to create broth. Add the broth, soy sauce (I use low sodium) and pepper slices to the meat and onion.  Simmer on low for about 20 - 30 minutes.  In a bowl combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with some water to make a paste.  Add the cornstarch mixture to the pot and mix in well. The purpose of this is to thicken the sauce/gravy.  Once the sauce has thickened up you will add the can of tomato included the juice.  This will thin it back out slightly.  Cook for another 15 minutes or so on low.

Serve over rice.

This meal was rated 3.5 asparagus spears

Rachael Ray's Fire-Roasted Manhattan Clam Chowder

Last Wednesday we needed a quick dinner because my mom, sister and I had a concert to go to. My mom was nice enough to make us clam chowder so we could eat before we left.  We just had this with some crusty bread and it was a delicious and filling meal.  My mom has been making this recipe for a while and always talks about how good it is; I would have to agree I really enjoyed it.

This recipe was published in the November 2007 issue of the Rachel Ray Magazine.

Ingredients

• 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise 1/4 inch thick
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 ribs celery with leafy greens, stalks and leaves finely chopped separately
• 1 large baking potato, peeled and chopped
• One 28-ounce can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• One 14.5-ounce can chicken broth
• Two 10-ounce cans baby clams or chopped clams packed in water, liquid reserved
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until the fat renders, about 6 minutes; discard the fat. Add the olive oil and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the onion and celery stalks and cook, stirring, until softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the potato, the tomatoes and their juice and the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potato is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Stir in the clams with their liquid and cook to warm through. Stir in the chopped celery leaves and season with salt and pepper.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Minestrone Soup

What better to do on a snowy winter day than make some Minestrone soup?  This recipe is super easy and is definitely worth the wait.

32oz vegetable broth

11/4 cups each of celery, carrot, red onion (diced)

15 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

15 oz can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 teaspoon dried thyme

3 1/4 cups water mixed with 2 extra large vegetable bouillon cubes

1 tablespoon fresh sage (I used some that I froze from our CSA)

Pinch of kosher salt

A couple turns of ground pepper

28 oz can of diced tomato

2 bay leaves

Combine all of the ingredients above in a crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours if you want the veggies to be on the softer side. Cook on high for four hours if you want your veggies to have a bit of a crunch to them. 

30-40 minutes before you are ready to eat add the following:

2 cups fresh spinach

1 1/4 cups diced zucchini and summer squash (I used some that I froze earlier from our CSA)

1 1/2 cups of tri-color pasta shells 

Garnish with some grated parmesan. 

While this was an original recipe, I'm happy to report that I found my Soup & Stew Cookbook. Hopefully I will be able to share a few more soup recipes before National Soup Month comes to an end. For more soup recipes see my post National Soup Month.

This meal was rated 4 asparagus spears

National Soup Month

January is National Soup Month, to celebrate I thought I would provide a consolidated list of some of the soup recipes I have previously posted.

Chicken Sausage and Vegetable Soup








                                                
                                                                    Homemade Chicken Soup

Roasted Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Pancetta and Vegetable Soup

Parsnip and Potato Soup

Carribbean Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup

Butternut Squash Soup with Crisp Pancetta








Last week I made a delicious Southwestern Chicken Sausage Corn Chowder (it was rated 3.5 asparagus spears) however I cannot find the piece of paper where I wrote down the recipe. This does not make me happy since it was an experimental recipe, so I really have no idea of what the measurements were for each ingredient.  Hopefully I will find it so that I can share it with you.

I have the ingredients to make Minestrone so I plan on making it sometime this weekend.  Keep an eye out for my recipe in the next few days.