Sunday Dinner: Crockpot Swiss Steak, Garlic and Dill Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans

It's currently freeze-agedden in West Michigan where we live. It's insane. Threats of wind chill in the negative 20s to 30s. Snow drifting like crazy. Schools already canceling. Grocery lines packed full of people who think the world is probably ending. So naturally, I'm not going outside. I'm going to find something for dinner that exists within these walls and make a killer dinner. 

Sundays are wonderful. They are filled with all of my favorite things; church, community, naps, and lounging. Could life be better? Probably not. So dinner cannot be a hassle. If so, it would defeat the purpose. So what's the easiest ever? 

The crockpot. Yeah anything in that little guy is gonna be easy. It's the perfect solution to a hassle free Sunday dinner. Not to mention we have a meat supply from part of a cow we bought in the fall that is still very much needing to be used (40ish pounds of beef of all kinds of cuts for two people sounds like a dream, but is hard to use quickly)! 

I guess the age old question of "what's for dinner" was answered by the ubiquitous, "beef, it's what's for dinner." 

So I scurried down in my nap clothes (aka pjs) to assemble a quick crockpot swiss steak. 

I thawed the meat and assembled the team - all things found from the pantry. A little flour, some parsley, celery, an onion, diced tomatoes, cream of mushroom soup, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper. 

I mixed the flour, parsley, salt and pepper together so that I could use that to dredge the steak. Later, I mixed the tomatoes, cream soup, a bit of leftover flour mix, and I did a splash of balsamic vinegar just because I can. 

I cut up an onion and put it in the bottom of the crockpot, then added the dredged steak on top of that, the celery next, cream soup tomato mixture next, added a bit more seasoning on top of all of that, set the crock to high, and took a nap. A good long nap. A Sunday nap. It was glorious. 

When I awoke from hibernation I got back to work for the rest of dinner. My potatoes were starting to grow so I thought I should probably use those up. I groomed and chopped up enough to feed all my neighbors.  

Growing spuds!!! 

And then I got some mashed potato accoutrements. Dried up garlicky seasoning, white pepper, dill weed, butter, cream cheese, salt, and milk. 

I added all the seasonings to the cream cheese, poured in a bit of milk, and whisked away. Actually, I ditched the whisk and went for the spoon. Whisk was crampin my style. 

Got the taters all boiled and ready to go. 

And mashed the heck out of em with butter, the cream cheese mixture, and milk. Oh and dashes of all the seasonings again (I like lots of flavor). 

Then I baked it with some pats of butter on top for just about 10/15 min on 350. 

And out came the most wonderful mashed potatoes that I've made. Probably to date. Good job me. Good job. 

As another quick side, I took some green beans from the costco gigantoid organic green beans bag and sautéed them with some olive oil, bragg's aminos, salt and pepper and then sprinkled them with slivered almonds. 

Almonds and bragg's makes beans amazing. 

Lastly, I went to the crockpot (after 5 hours on high) and pulled out super tender almost pull apart swiss steak with an awesome creamy tomato gravy. May not look like much, but it was tasty!! 

We invited our roommate and we went to town on this Sunday dinner. I even pulled out the fancy napkins. I won't tell you that I was wearing my pjs though, that's my secret. 

It really doesn't get much better than a heaping pile of potatoes, crisp green beans, and melt in your mouth steak and gravy with minimal effort. Mmmmmm. 

Make it a good Sunday!! 

Love, 

Food. 

Crockpot Swiss Steak 

1 pound, but next time I would use 2 pounds of swiss steak, cubed steak, or pounded beef round steak (for two pounds up the flour, parsley, salt and pepper only) 

1 can cream of mushroom

1 can diced tomatoes 

1 large yellow onion 

1 c. Chopped celery 

1 tbsp parsley 

1/3 c. Flour

Splash of balsamic vinegar

Salt

Pepper 

1. Cut up onion and put in bottom of crockpot 

2. Mix flour with parsley, salt, and pepper.

3. Dredge pieces of steak in flour mix (set aside any leftover flour mix)

4. Put dredged steak on top of onions in crockpot. 

5. Put celery on steak in crockpot. 

5. Mix tomatoes, soup, balsamic, and leftover flour mix. 

6. Add the soup mix on top of everything in crockpot. 

7. Add more seasonings if you want. 

8. Cook on high for 5 hours or low for longer; maybe 7 hours. 

Garlic Dill Mashed Potatoes 

2-2.5 pounds of potatoes (Yukon, redskin, etc) 

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 c. Milk 

1 tbsp dill weed 

1 tbsp dried garlic (can be adjusted or can use minced or powder. I used tastefully simple's garlic garlic seasoning) 

4 tbsp unsalted butter 

1 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp white pepper 

Preheat oven to 350 

1. Peel and chop up potatoes however you like them (skins, some skins, or no skins) 

2. Boil in salted water till soft. 

3. Combine softened cream cheese, garlic seasoning, pepper, salt, dill, and 1/4 c. milk

4. Mash 2 tbsp butter, cream cheese mixture, and the other 1/4 c. milk with potatoes till all mashed together. 

5. Taste and see if you need more seasoning. Probably salt or garlic or maybe dill if you ask me ;) 

6. Stick in oven with pats of butter (remaining 2 tbsp) on top. 

7. Bake for 10-15 min or longer. 

8. Serve. Enjoy. 

Almond Green Beans 

Frozen green beans 

Tbsp olive oil 

Tbsp (or more) bragg's aminos 

1/4 c. Slivered almonds

Sauté frozen green beans with olive oil and aminos till beans are cooked through. Add almonds toward end of cooking. Put in a cute bowl and serve! 

Open-Faced Breakfast Sandwich

I think I'm going to retitle my blog "1000 sandwiches you can make with poached eggs." I'm only sort of kidding. I'm certain you are all sick of me posting picture after picture of poached egg creations, but bear with me. Besides this one comes with homemade bread. :) 

Using a warm homemade loaf of bread of practically any kind, cut off the heel (or whatever part you are at with bread), cut that into a square and eat the other warm edges. 

It'll look like this: 

Here they are!! THE poached eggs:

I tried a bit of a different method today...I turned it to simmer and made them slowly (3-4 min) and added a bit of white vinegar. Perhaps, this is the correct way and I've been doing it wrong, but hey we all learn someday, right?! 

Start some sliced ham cookin in a skillet for juuust a touch of time, enough to acquire the little browned markings 

Precariously placed poached eggs and ham on the fresh bread...I find it a fun challenge to see how well I can balance everything on a small base. 

And then decorate those eggs with their favorite friends...cheeses, onions, and sriracha today. 

Eat up; this delicious sandwich and the weekend moments that are coming you way! 

Love,

Food. 

Poached Eggs and Ham on Fresh Baked Bread

Slice of bread

2 eggs

Deli ham slices

Green onions

Grated asiago 

Sriracha to taste (I like to taste sriracha a lot :)) 

1. Start boiling water with salt and a splash of vinegar 

2. Cut a slice of bread (warm if possible)

3. When water is boiling, slide egg into the water taking care not to break it up. Turn heat to simmer and simmer eggs for 3-4 min 

4. Throw some deli ham slices in a small skillet to brown 

5. Stack ham on bread, followed by (drained) poached eggs

6. Sprinkle/grate cheese on top 

7. Sprinkle green onions on top 

8. Sriracha. Enough said. 

Homemade Dill Bread

(From Kim Oberle-Apples of Gold mentor) 

1 packet of quick rise yeast 

2 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cup warm water 

1 cup room temp cottage cheese

2 Tbsp melted butter 

1 room temp beaten egg

2.5 c flour 

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp dried onion 

2 tsp dill seed 

1. Start proofing yeast in warm water with sugar. Will get bubbly 

2. Add baking soda to flour. Whisk together

3. Mix cottage cheese, melted butter, beaten egg, proofed yeast, and half baking soda/flour mix and mix

4. As it comes together add the other half of the flour/baking soda mix to cottage cheese mixture.  

5. On floured counter or board, knead bread dough until smooth. 

6. Put in a greased bowl, cover and let it rise for an hour or more in a warm place. 

7. Punch risen dough down and put in a greased casserole or bread pan

8. Sprinkle with salt 

9. Bake at 350 for 30-40 min. 

Apples of Gold. Explanation to the Break.

Starting at the end of September, I enrolled in a kind of cooking/mentoring class through our church. It's called Apples of Gold. For 7 weeks every Wednesday morning I would head out on my way to a house of one of our cooking mentors and a group of older women and a group of younger women came together for a time of learning, both spiritually and culinarily. It was refreshing and wonderful. And boy, did these older women spoil us! For trying a new recipe from the cookbook, we would get cute little kitchen tools, confidence to try more in the kitchen, and the satisfaction of knowing you've put something really wonderful out on the table for either yourself or the ones you cook for. 

After you get an hour long kitchen lesson with an amazing cooking mentor who shared tips and tricks freely, we would engage in a Bible study that taught us more about seeking after God's heart and learning the basics of domesticity, hospitality, and Godly wifeishness (yeah I made that word up). Again, an incredibly refreshing time when so much around us in our busy culture is telling us otherwise. It was a gift to sit, listen, and engage with those older women who have been doing this life thing a lot longer than me. 

So where have I been? There. Learning so many new things to be able to share with you on this blog. 

Here's a sampling of some of the dishes I made during those 7 weeks: 

Delectable almond butter cake...kind of pound cake-y and soooo yummy. 

Homemade caramel apples. Umm this pic says enough and yes, I am drooling. 

3 hour simmered marinara sauce. Yep it's delicious. I ate pasta for weeks. 

See?

Apple cake. Bundt form. Caramel drizzle. Heaven. 

Freeze for later apple crisp. Easy and hopefully delightful! 

Boursin au gratin potatoes. Ahhhhhhhh I love potatoes!!! 

Broccoli salad. The kind you always want to eat more of on the salad bar. The kind that has bacon and onions and deliciously chewy broccoli and dried cranberries and mayo allll over it! Oh it's so good. 

And homemade pita chips. So. Easy. Who knew?! 

Thanks for traveling with me on my 7 week culinary adventure. If you want any of the recipes you can leave me a message and I can get them to you. For now, au revoir and see you soon. 

Love, 

Food. 

Small Group Gathering - Burgers

If you haven't been able to tell by my posts, I love gathering together with friends. I love everything about it. I love being able to sit with a group of friends enjoy soul nourishing conversation and wonderful food. I'm convinced it's the best thing in the whole world. 

A group of my husband's friends (and now my friends - don't ya love marriage?! More friends!!) wanted to start up a weekly Bible study for just those purposes. Meaningful conversation and growth as well as an awesome time of fellowship. 

So this is how it works:  

Every Thursday we meet. 

Each couple hosts about once a month. 

We choose and book or book of the Bible and do some pre-reading. 

The host couple chooses a main dish of a particular theme. 

Drinks, dessert, and sides of that theme are divvied up from there. 

Drinks couple is responsible for the discussion. 

Then you rotate everyone the next week. 

You give yourself one free week too to just go out and do something fun. 

It's just the best of group meeting and it's building community and vulnerability in the process. It's a beautiful system. Feel free to steal it and use it for your own get togethers!! 

Last night was Sean and my turn to host. This made my hospitable heart so happy. I love having people in our home and cooking for them. We decided last week our theme would be backyard BBQ being that it is almost the end of summer and that football season is in full swing (Go Blue!) and we would make burgers. 

Now. I have this love for burgers that is really unexplainable. I think mostly it's because of all the extra stuff you can put in them. Have I said this before...food is just a vehicle for sauce (or any extra stuff that wouldn't be considered a main dish). This is my philosophy and I'm sticking to it. One night I sent a text to my friend that said I wanted to go to Bar Louie for their burger specials the next night...mind you, I wasn't hungry and it was like 1:30am. I'm tellin ya, I got burgs on the mind. Burgs all day! Needless to say I was excited to feed these friends some burgers. 

I didn't think I would blog this so I apologize for my lack of pictures and step by step instructions, but I hope you try the recipe and are pleasantly surprised by how juicy and delish these are. All it takes is a sausage/ground beef mix, an egg, some Worcestershire, garlic powder, pepper, salt, a grill, and some gourmet fixins. And you've got this beaut. 

If I can just toot my own horn for a second...they were so good. 

So invite some friends over and set up a burger bar. Wow them with your lovely burgers and enjoy great conversations with the best of em. 

Love,

Food. 

Burgers for Grillin' Recipe

For the patties:

1 egg

2 parts ground beef 

A little less than 1 part country sausage 

(I used 2 lbs gr beef to 3/4 lb sausage (sorry if that doesn't make sense))

1 tbsp of Worcestershire 

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

For the fixins: 

Sliced cheeses (muenster and cheddar were our cheeses of choice)

Green leaf lettuce 

Tomato slices

Sliced onions

Dill and bread and butter sliced pickles

Sautéed mushrooms

Semi-caramelized onions

Condiments of choice 

onion, kaiser, ciabatta, whatever kind of bun you want!

You could also do bacon, blue cheese, buffalo sauce, olive spread, fried eggs, etc etc etc. I'm tellin ya, sky's the limit!!

1. Get the grill going - till the charcoal is orange and ashy
2. Mix all the ingredients together for the burger patties and let it sit to set for a bit.
3. Cut up and organize your fixins on pretty plates 
4. Sauté onions with a couple pats of butter, cover and let brown a bit 
5. Add (or do separately) the same thing with the mushrooms. 
6. Form the burger patties from the set meat. 
7. Grill them up! I'm bad at being patient so I'm always flipping the burgers a bunch, but if you're patient and your coals are hot, it will take about 5-6 minutes per side I would say. 
8. You could melt the cheese on the grill, but I learned a nice little trick to infuse more moisture and really get the cheese nice and creamy. Take a lid or a small metal bowl and put it over the burger on a skillet over the stove. Spray or splash a little water underneath the bowl and let the moisture melt the cheese - also makes the burger nice and juicy especially if you have to wait to serve them. 
9. Go to town with your fixins and eat a delicious burger that you'll want again the next day! 

Savory Friday: English Pot Roast and Brunch Crab Meat Eggs Benedict

I'm going to hazard a guess here and say I bet there's not many people who wake up after a good night's sleep and think, "hmmm, man I could really go for a nice pot roast right about now." Am I right?? 

Well, I've always been a bit of an odd duck. I would eat a bowl of roasted broccoli over a big piece of cake alllmost any day. Some of you may be thinking, "she can't be serious," but I am. Dead serious. I don't know why it is; it's just the way it is for me. In any case, this is why you are about to see two very savory things that came together on my Friday off.

[if you thought I ONLY eat savory things, it's untrue, I do like a sweet every now and again, especially ice cream, but I still hold that the best kind of sweet is a salty/sweet, ice cream with pretzels! All about those weird combos!] 

Back to the beginning, I really wanted the roast. I don't think I even cared about eating it, but I LOOOVE the way the smell permeates the house, especially in a slow cooker. All day long. It's one of those classic comforts, ya know? 

So at 10:30 a.m. I start to assemble what will be an incredible slow cooked English roast complete with lots of onions, potatoes, and drippings for gravy. Hold on to your butts, it's gonna be delicious. 

Here's a list of what's going in:  onion. Red skin potatoes. Olive oil. Garlic cloves. Red wine. Red wine vinegar. Salt. Pepper. Garlic powder (ummm garlic is its own food group for me). Steak seasoning. 

Rough chop one and a half medium sized onions. I really like slow cooked onions. Kinda slimy and lots of flavors from the meat. Yum. 

Wash and cut off the weird lookin parts off the potatoes and chop those into big pieces too. 

Dry rub the FROZEN 2.5/3 pound roast with steak seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Put it on top of the layered potatoes and onions in the slow cooker. 

Whip together a little liquid that will aid in making the meat nice and juicy. Red wine, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and add in about 3-5 garlic cloves. 

Dump it on that meat, into the slow cooker. Like a waterfall of everything that is good. 

Just look at it. Look at it just sitting there, waiting to be cooked. 

Throw in a little more liquid - a couple splashes of red wine (I used Charles Shaw Shiraz - 2.99 at Trader Joes. Can't beat it), vinegar, and olive oil. The juices from the meat thawing will help generate a lot of liquid when it's all done, so no worries if it seems as if there's too little liquid. I promise it will be enough. Then you wait. For HOURS, but not without the reward of the smell that comes from the gradual cooking, knowing it'll all be worth it in the end. 

******************************

Post-roast prep, the savory hunger was still not satisfied. I needed some breakfast. As you may have guessed, I'm a little obsessed with poached eggs at the moment so I knew those would be involved. 

I decided to break the norm of sausage and went with a kind of Crab Meat Eggs Benedict. I wasn't exactly sure how it would work, but I whipped it all up and it tasted pretty good!! So I will show you what went on. 

I toasted an English muffin. I took goat cheese from Aldi and imitation crab meat (I know, if I were a "real foodie" I wouldn't use imitation, but I don't have the funds for the real stuff so work with me! ;)) and mixed it together. Heated it a bit just to melt the goat cheese a little, to give it more of a spreadable factor and chance to incorporate with the crab meat. Then, I spread that mixture over the English muffin halves. 

[my friend Jackie and I are convinced that the Aldi cheese section is the best kept secret in Grand Rapids, nay the world. A whole log of goat cheese that would be $4-5 somewhere else is $1.99 at Aldi! What a steal!]

Usually, eggs Benedict is covered in hollandaise, which I love. But, I wanted something a bit healthier so I went with the creamy-ness of the goat cheese and runniness of the egg yolk from the poached eggs to mimic the usual hollandaise. 

Then. My favorites came to rest atop the crab, goat cheese mixture. 

And because it looks pretty and tastes even better, sriracha for design. 

Tada!!! Breakfast. Full stomach. So good. 

************************************

After 10.5 hours in the slow cooker on low, a most beautiful and tender, fall-off-the-bone roast is complete. (I don't think you have to wait that long, but we were out with some friends and didn't come home until late so we did and boy, did it pay off!) 

It's like meat heaven. 

And potato and onion heaven. 

With gravy as a special treat on top of all of that!  

While I still haven't gotten to enjoy a full meal of this, I know it will be waiting for me patiently as I waited for it. It's a beautiful, reciprocal thing. 

Goodbye and goodnight. 

Love, 

Food. 

Slow-cooked English Roast Recipe 

Serves 4-5 (I think?) 

Cook time: Slow-cooker on low for 8-10 hours

2.5-3 lb. English roast or any beef roast probably works. 

1.5 med onions, rough chopped 

10 red potatoes (medium sized), cut in chunks 

Layer the onions and potatoes on bottom of slow cooker. 

Apply dry rub to roast: 

Salt

Black Pepper

Steak seasoning

Garlic powder  

(I like a lot of seasoning and used a good shake across the meat for both sides and patted it all down, so I never think there's ever too much seasoning, but if you'd like less, that's cool too) 

Place roast on top of potatoes and onions. 

Whisk Liquid mixture: 

1/2 c. Olive oil

3/4 c. Red wine (any red you like) 

1/2 c. Red wine vinegar

3-5 Garlic cloves

Pour it over top of roast and veggies. Splash in just a bit more of each liquid if you want to. 

Let her cook. 8-10 hours. Low. 

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"Crab Meat Eggs Benedict" (cuz none of it is actually exactly those things) 

1/2 c. Imitation crab meat, but could use real if you have the cash money. 

1 oz. goat cheese 

1 English muffin

2 eggs 

Sriracha

1. Toast English muffin. 

2. Slightly heat the crab meat and goat cheese in a pan. 

3. Poach the eggs in boiling water. 

4. Spread crab meat and goat cheese on muffin halves. 

5. Top with poached eggs. 

6. Decorate with sriracha. 

The Italian Soda

I love Italian Sodas. They are so wonderful. I had my first one years ago. I believe it was at Schulers Cafe in Grand Rapids. And since then my friend Stindall and I have been on the hunt for the best ones from different coffee shops to restaurants we've tried our fair share. I think the best one I've had has been at Carino's - that Italian restaurant chain. It is so good. 

My husband and I are part of a small Bible study group on Thursday evenings where we do a dinner, Bible study, and fellowship. Each dinner time has a theme and this week was ITALIAN!! I was excited that we were signed up for drinks! I mean, come on, what's more Italian than Italian sodas!? Well, actually probably a lot, since they originated in the USA, but it's the name that counts.

So I went to the store to get all the ingredients of a good Italian soda at 11:30pm. [What is my life?!] Anyway, I go to one of the stores in town that I thought for sure would carry Torani syrup, but to no avail. Improvisation would be the word of the day. 

And here is my take on the Italian soda. 

Gather the club soda (or sparkling water), half & half, syrups, and ice. Yeah, it's that easy!! 

I read up on all the differences between club soda and sparkling water and basically there's not much of a difference when making Italian sodas. They are mostly interchangeable. Club soda has a little more salt, but since I got the low sodium kind, I'm not sure much more is different. 

Here's the part where I put my noggin to use and said there's gotta be something in this store that I can use other than Torani syrup because I'm definitely not going to another store at midnight. As I walked by the grenadine and lime juice I said, "AHA! That is it!" 

Some Italian sodas use cream and some don't, it's really up to you and your palatal preference. I like them with cream. It makes them more decadent, for sure. 

So I poured about 8 oz of club soda in a mason jar, these serve as my drinking glasses at home...they are cheap and don't break easily. Also, they have nice little measurements on the side, which was super handy. 

Then you add in grenadine till it has a nice pink color and a splash of sweetened lime juice. Then add the cream and watch it beautifully incorporate into the rest of the mixture. 

Isn't it beautiful? That is art right there. 

Then you end up with this sweet, creamy, and delicious concoction that is such a wonderful edition to your Italian feast! 

Drink up! 

Till next time. 

Love,

Food.




ITALIAN SODAS

8oz Club soda or sparkling water
1 oz (ish) of grenadine or Torani flavored syrup
a splash of sweetened lime juice (optional)
1 oz (ish) of half & half

Pour it all in your favorite drink container and drink to your heart's desire.