blue messa gril

we went to blue messa grill for karen ann's birthday. it was joanie, katie and becky FTW! 

mushroom and steak soup

steak soup with mushrooms. this time i blenderized the mushroom and i love the texture of it with the beef roast in the crockpot all day with spices and onions and broth and or water. once it's cooked i take the beef out to cool, take the onions out to discard, saute the mushrooms while the meat is cooling. once the mushroom's water has cooked off, add some thickener (i use cornstarch) and cook for about a minute. chuck the mushrooms into the soup, stick blender the entire thing together, cut up the beef into bite sized pieces and put the chunks back in the soup, add some half and half or cream until your desired creaminess.

skirt steak taco

so montana again... we went there. it was like almost two months ago BUT here are some pictures of skirt steak tacos we had one night. yummay!

steak dinner

sam's has the best steaks. they've started selling their huuuuuge tenderloin in easy to use fillets. they are yuuuuummy! their strips aren't bad either. anywhozzle, i pan seared the steak and then threw them in the oven on a cookie sheet lined with foil at 400 for 10ish minutes. while that's going i sauteed the mushrooms in the same pan until all the water's gone, added capers, artichokes and lastly the shiratake noodles. i call it steak scallopini. that may just be me though.

chicken curry

chicken curry with red curry paste, coconut, chicken pieces and shiratake noodles. the key, i've found for me, is to add the paste over heat, get some caramelization, add chicken, then add some broth (any kind i have open in the fridge) and let the chicken kind of boil to get it really soft. one the chicken is mostly cooked, i added another curry sauce, then coconut milk. the heat will develop more as it sits.

oven chicken breasts

skin on chicken breasts, smothered in herbs and a little olive oil, in the oven. simple, classic, wonderful.

what happens to corn tortillas in the crockpot?

yeah, mooosh! that's what happens. good moosh, but moosh, nonetheless. chicken enchiladas with black olive, jalapenos and a lot of cheese. maybe i can cut back on the cooking time.

shrimp and grits

well, ok. it's actually polenta. mmmmm, polenta, shrimp, capers and parm cheese. i've found these already made tubes of polenta at the store. i dress it up by sauteing the polenta and adding milk or cream. deeeelish!

shepherd's pie

i made a shepherd's pie based on gordon ramsay's recipe. made some adjustments mainly added a lot of spice to the potato topping (ancho chili). i love that the top gets crispy. i also used beef instead of lamb. i made it for mother's day as well with venison. both delicious.

done

chili

this chili was fab. it had approximately one million different kinds of peppers all in there. i did it in the crockpot because well, crockpots are the best thing ever! it was sooooo yum! i just threw in some ground beef, tomato "stuff" like paste and crushed and sauce, the aforementioned numerous peppers (habeneros, jalapenos, um others that escape me), onions and i think that is all.

seafood

chicken enchiladas (cinco de mayo style)

chicken enchiladas in the crockpot!!! yay! let's see, i boiled the chicken in water with a whole lotta spices (pepper corns, bay leaves, onions and garlic). shred the chicken and assemble with sour cream, tortillas (corn or flour), rotel, and cheese in two equal layers. crockpot it for like four hours. so easy, so yum!

pork, pork, rice and beans

another one of my mother's favorite things to make is "lombo de porco." or fer us 'mericans, pork loin. she used to make me grill this in the wind and rain and possible killer pointed hail. i braised this loin in the oven for about an hour, let it rest. then served perched on black beans and rice. then crumbled bacon (from the beans) with chives on top.

chinese-ish beef and veg with rice

cubed beef sauteed with pepper and salt, snow peas, and texas jasmine rice made with garlic and chicken stock (g-f). i used the sunbird beef and broccoli seasoning with bragg's amino's (g-f) instead of soy sauce. i used to love when my mother made cubed beef and i can't believe it has been soooo long since i've had this beef.

hummus and dolmas (yes again!)

another lebanese night! i guess we can now classify that we are officially on a "kick." a lebanese inspired "kick." and it is awesome. i'm even planning a hummus with oven roasted garlic. doesn't that sound like possibly the best thing ever? doesn't it?

also? if you've never roasted garlic do it right this moment! take a head of garlic and a medium square-ish piece of aluminum foil. then get together some spices. wrap it up with olive oil and all the spices you can imagine. pop it in the oven for oh, i don't know, like a few hours at like 350ish. until they're squishy and darker and they smell like awesome.

so we had lamb dolmas, hummus and pita (matt) slash rice crackers (me=g-f). so yum, easy to make and pretty healthy.

broccoli cheese

i made broccoli cheese casserole, trying to be like cheddar's restaurant... it most certainly did not taste as tastey as cheddar's. i think it's because i didn't have any condensed soup. it was still good because of the broccoli, every thing's better with broccoli. i used french's onions on the top, which i felt was a super great addition. crispy.

bison burgers

From hamburger

From hamburger

we got ground bison meat at central market (best store ever, except they don't have young coconuts -boo!). so i made burgers. and they. were. awesome.

mine had blue cheese and raspberry chipotle sauce. matt's had pickles, cheese, mustard, and ketchup. we also got buns there. they were dense and sweetish and were aaaawesome!