Crock Pot Conversion

It's 8:00 a.m. It's supposed to snow today. (In fact, it's already an epic storm, a "snowpocalypse" farther down the east coast.) Time to try out my new crock pot!

I missed the original crock pot trend in the 70's and was missing it again this time around until a friend at work got a beautiful new one & passed her gently used one on to me. So with snow in today's forecast I just dumped 5 ingredients into the cooker, turned it on & now I get what it's all about. Could this be easier? I don't think so.

I'm making "drip beef" from the Pioneer Woman.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/drip-beef-two-ways/

These "drip beef" recipes look like French dip and Italian beef sandwiches to me.

I'm going with the Italian-style:

Italian Beef

4 lb. chuck roast

12 oz. jar of pepperoncini (including all the juice)

3-4 T Italian seasoning

28 oz. can of low sodium beef broth

salt & pepper

(I left out the salt because the pepperoncini are salty enough for me.)

Dump it all in the slow cooker & cook on low till the beef falls apart.

Serve on really good Italian rolls. Dip in sauce.

That's it. I get it now. Now I get it. Slow cookers forever!

Looking forward to beef happiness this afternoon. & maybe some snow.

Macaroni & Blue Cheese

Living in the northern suburbs of NYC has its +'s and -'s. On the upside we're very close to NYC. On the downside we're very close to NYC.

I'm sure you get how that's a plus.

But the minus is that Rockland County NY doesn't always have all the amenities that you'd like because local businesses can't compete with NYC, only 20 miles away.

So I was really happy a couple of years ago when I found out about Laraia's Cheese in Nanuet. Not only do they make their own mozzarella but they carry artisanal cheeses that you'd usually have to travel at least 20 miles to buy.
http://www.laraiascheese.com

And today I made some pretty fabulous macaroni & blue cheese with some great French blue from Laraia's.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Macaroni-and-Blue-Cheese-with-Chives-107867

So what if it's made with cheese, butter AND cream. It's winter. I need the extra energy for snow shoveling. Anyway, that's how I rationalize it.

Asian Noodle Salad and Tim Tams

My lunch today! It's an Asian Noodle Salad, made from this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs -

Pioneer Woman Cooks

but without cucumbers, and with toasted sunflower seeds instead of cashews. I won't lie, it came out pretty great when I made it for dinner last night. I will continue to not lie and tell you that it was FAR too much for one person when I made half of it, and did not hold up AS well for lunch today, although it was still pretty great.

Even more exciting is my discovery of Tim Tams at my local grocery store! Yes, my Associated carries these cookies that I haven't had since I was in New Zealand, and as far as I knew were not available in the U.S.! I let out an audible gasp when I turned to corner to find these antipodean favorites. And proceeded to talk about them to my friend for the next twenty minutes.

Union Restaurant Haverstraw

It was a gorgeous day in NY today. 67 degrees in November. Unbelievable.

And my daughter Liisa was here. We wanted to go out for brunch somewhere lovely and preferably somewhere by the river.

The answer: Union Restaurant and Bar Latino in Haverstraw. http://www.unionrestaurant.net/
(o.k. the restaurant is not on the river but Haverstraw is a river town so close enough.)

So let's just cut to the chase here. It was the best meal I've had in Rockland County in a long time.

We started with sangria; always perfect on for a sunny day. Later I ordered a glass of pinot noir and decided that next time I'd also order a bottle of something red from there very well-priced wine list.

Since it was a Sunday afternoon and we'd been kind of thinking about having brunch we didn't order entrees. We'd never been to Union Restaurant before and we wanted to try a few things. And anyway, I can always make an entire meal out of appetizers. So we did.

We had ensalada verde, (watercress, avocado and tomato in a light vinagrette. Why haven't I had a watercress salad before? Who knew?) French onion soup, (very cheesy with plenty of good onion flavor) a small pizza on a tortilla crust with carmelized onions, fresh tomato, basil and blue cheese and and an arepa colombiana with lightly breaded shrimp and mango, one of their signature dishes. (photo.)

I loved the Latin flavors and influences here. The menu was small enough that each item could be prepared with attention but varied enough to give choices to a party of diners. The service was welcoming and attentive. The atmosphere was special yet comfortable. I'll be back. And I'll be bringing my friends.

Pizzas!

Confession: I spent approximately the first 23 years of my life avoiding and pretty intensely disliking pizza. Now that I've realized how much I've missed, one of my go-to meals is homemade pizza. It also combines two of my favorite things: bread making and cooking.

Last night my friend and I had dinner to "celebrate" the end of her employment at her current job (hurray economy!) and I made two kinds of pizza: Spicy Spinach and Herbed Goat Cheese on flatbread, and White Pizza with Broccoli.

For the spinach pizza, I wilted the spinach for a couple minutes in a pan with olive oil at medium heat. As the spinach began to wilt, I added about a teaspoon and a half of fresh rosemary and some red pepper flakes (#1 spice of the New City Murrays). After a couple minutes I added this to the top of the flatbread, and added about 4 oz of garlic and herb goat cheese.

For the white pizza, I used regular pizza dough, picked up at my local bakery. I rolled this out and put it on a pan that had been sprinkled with cornmeal. I chopped some garlic and added it to about a cup of fat free ricotta. I also added some basil, onion powder, salt, pepper and (here it is again) red pepper flakes, and then spread the ricotta mixture on the dough. I sauteed some broccoli with garlic salt, put that on top, and then added some part-skim mozzarella and a little parmesan.

I put both of these pizzas in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, until the cheese had slightly browned. Serve with Bud Light, or free Miller Draft from your landlords (true story)!

Peanut/Cashew Soup

Liisa was looking through my Bittman vegetarian cookbook last night and suggested I make peanut soup.  So, today, I figured I would.  But I'm a high roller, so I used cashews instead.

Not sure if I've figured out the portions just right, but it involves cashews, tomatoes, yams, a red onion, garlic, ginger, cayenne, salt, pepper, vegetable stock, coconut milk, and peanut butter (I would use cashew butter, but I'm only hood rich, not the real kind).  Cook the onion, garlic, and ginger, then throw in the cashews, add some salt, pepper, and a bit of cayenne, and throw in the stock and yams.  Cook it for ten minutes, add the coconut milk, tomatoes, and peanut butter. Cook for like five more minutes, and then add some more cashews for garnish, and you're set.

Turned out pretty awesome, though, like I said, I need to adjust the amount of which ingredients I use... Bittman is crazy about how much stock to use, so it felt light on certain items.  But it turned out awesome.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bran Muffins

I like muffins, but plain old white flour? Not so good for me. So I try to make something tasty but good for you, too. Who says you can't have it all?

Ingredients:

1.25 cup whole wheat flour
1.25 cup steel cut oats
0.5 cup bran
0.5 cup Splenda sweetener (the yellow stuff)
3t baking powder
1 rounded t cinnamon
3 eggs
0.5 cup canola oil
1.5 cup skim milk

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

These were wonderful with butter plain fresh out of the oven. And they were good later plain ( I was on the bus and had no butter--would have been too messy.)

Next time I may cut the sweetener a bit and add raisins. With whole wheat and bran, you need more oil and liquids than with white or corn flour, and those amounts could be experimented with.