Beef Stroganoff

Wednesday night's dinner was beef stroganoff. As you all may well know, my previous love was food made with creamed soup, and therefore, by default, any beef stroganoff made in the past was made with cream of mushroom soup. You add beef, some stock, and there you have it. This will work in a pinch, and really does taste good, but Wednesday night's version was the real thing, and a bit more time consuming. I did buy some sort of steak for this (and can't recall what type I used), cut it into slices to saute before making the sauce. The recipe says to brown the meat IN BATCHES - and YES, you need to brown it in SMALL batches, which I failed to do this time. I knew as I was loading up the pan that I really should not be putting it all in at one time, and that I probably was going to regret doing so, but I did not listen to my conscience and went ahead with my tomfoolery. Bad mistake, and here is why - when you brown strips of meat in small batches, they actually brown. When you put everything in at once and overcrowd the pan, the accumulated juices from the meat essentially steam the meat, and none of it browns. You may think - so what? It cooks, right? It does cook, but not evenly, so some meat overcooks and gets tough - well actually, it all was kind of tough. This may be the result of steaming? I'm not sure. If anyone out there knows, feel free to chime in. The point of the matter is to cook in small batches - don't overcrowd the pan! So let's assume that I actually did what was right with the meat and it has been taken out of the pan. 2T of butter is added, and onions and mushrooms are sauteed. You add stock, deglaze the pan, and simmer for 20 minutes before adding sour cream. The meat back to the pan, and then it is served over egg noodles. We really enjoyed this dish, but would have been better had the meat not been as tough. You live and learn.

Risotto with peas

Tonight's dinner plan changed a bit... our friends were not able to make it over tonight, so we will save the Marsala and Mizithra for the next time we can get together. Without making what was originally planned, I had to find a recipe that used ingredients that were in my pantry (if you can call it a pantry). Risotto with peas it was- I know, I know, it doesn't sound all that great, but really - it was! Risotto can be time consuming, since you have to stir the rice on the stove for the 20-30 minutes that it cooks, but it is well worth it (I also think there is something soothing about all that stirring). I didn't used to think so - there was a time that I thought that you could add cream of chicken soup to cooked rice and get the same thing. I was wrong. Wine, chicken stock, butter, and parmesan cheese - no cream soup can stand in for that! For the recipe that is actually in the "Joy" cookbook, you need a few things that I did not have, so I just used the basic risotto recipe and added peas. My husband usually doesn't even like peas, so the fact that he enjoyed dinner was a plus.

There's a first time for everything.

My husband liked dinner, so I'll consider it a success! Cooking everything was a little more difficult than I imagined, however. I made sauteed steaks, and then deglazed the pan with white wine and made a pan sauce out of that. On the side were mashed potatoes and broccoli sauteed with garlic. It turned out to be too much to do for one dinner, and next time I probably won't make as many side dishes. I didn't think about the fact that I would have things cooking on every burner at the same time. I thought everything was going well, but when everything was almost done, I remembered that I hadn't yet made the mushrooms. I also had never made steaks before (imagine that), and was worried because they were so thick and took much longer than the recipe said that they would. The pan was turning black around them, but they ended up being the perfect red/pink that my husband likes (again, I grew up thinking that pink means "cook it longer," so they weren't quite to my liking - mine had to cook longer). The kitchen was a crazy mess, and I was a bit frazzled by the time dinner was plated and on the table, but it was a great evening. Four recipes down and 96 to go. It looks like I may go through these a bit faster than I thought! On to choosing recipes for the next meal... who's coming for dinner?

So it begins...

Although I love to cook, and also love to eat, I do not consider myself a "foodie." Five years ago, I wouldn't eat anything that included onions or peppers, didn't like avacado (hadn't even tried it), and thought that the best meals were the ones that contained some sort of Campbell's creamed soup and cheese. Hmmm. How far I have already come. I generally consider myself an able cook, and can throw things together to make a decent meal, but I NEVER try new things. I never even want to try new things, because I am already sure that I won't like them. I do, however, want to want to try (and like) new things. I have a beautiful new daughter, and my hope for her is that she will love life with a passion, and will not be afraid to try new things. I want her to travel to other countries, and learn to love the foods (and culture) there. How can I teach my daughter to try (and like) new things, if I won't try them (or cook them in our house??)? I want to teach her from a young age how to cook, bake, and be passionate about food. I want to learn, so that I can teach her. This brings me to my new idea... I saw "Julie and Julia" the other day, and have been inspired. For the girl who still finds it hard to order a steak even medium-well because "it's only cooked when the pink is all gone," I definitely won't be going through Julia Child's French cookbook (way too many things that I would tell myself that I wouldn't like). I did pick up "The Joy of Cooking" the other day, and think this might work. I got this book for Christmas a few years ago, and have never opened it. Why, you might ask? Because it has no pictures. How can I make (and like) a recipe when I don't know what the food will look like in the end? If I can't see what it looks like, how will I know if I actually like it?? So back to picking it up again the other day. I actually started to READ through the book (novel idea), and decided that I should start making some of these recipes, kind of like Julie in the movie. My thought is that I would make at least 100 recipes from the Joy of Cooking in the next year - basically about 2 new recipes a week. My husband asked why I don't just make new recipes out of different books. I think that would defeat the purpose of trying new things. If I used muliple books, I would only pick out things that I thought I might like. This way, I will force myself to occasionally try a recipe that I normally would not try, and my wonderful husband will get to try new things as well (yay for him! He actually likes to try new things.). So begins my journey to possibly becoming a "foodie." I may not ever make it that far, but it's all about journey, right?