Ahem.....let's talk about food

I know. I know- its time for my monthly post. whatever, Cassie..why do you bother? 


Well..


 I was thinking this morning about how sad it is that I start thinking about dinner around 9:00am... and so instead of trying to find something interesting to say about my every day life on my blog ( which obviously is a little difficult.),I'm going to start using this website as a dinner log. Partially to share any crazy or crazy-good concoctions that E and I try or create, and also so that I can keep track of the dinners we make.  


The best part is, I'm constantly taking pictures of my food anyway...so that part is taken care of! 


I plan on doing this every day that we cook during the week ( stop laughing) but since today is thursday, I'll start with a run down of this weeks meals so far. NOT ALL posts will be 5millionparagraphslong.....promise.




Sunday: Roasted Broccoli and pasta what I like to call Stupid-Good sauce.

 Last sunday we had the rare task of making our own lunch. Typically sunday lunch is at my parents house, and it is always amazing. ALWAYS. however, this sunday we were on our own. So, we resisted the urge to go out for lunch and made THE. BEST. PASTA SAUCE. EVER. 

I'm not kidding. 

Stupid-good sauce
The sauce is LITERALLY a large can of whole tomatoes, one onion - halved- and BUTTER. Yes, butter. that is it. and it is miraculous


We also finally made roasted broccoli. I don't know why this never occurred to me before, we make broccoli at least once a week but have never roasted it. Holy. Cow. SO amazing..

Both Recipe's Found Here - my new favorite cooking blog

 ( seriously, have you checked out this blog? I love her.) 

Here is the finished product. Complete with sweet tea, because it isn't sunday dinner (which means lunch, southern-speak) without sweet tea!

Oh, and that onion you throw in the sauce? sure, you take it out at the end, but DON'T throw it away! It's totally re-useable. we used it the next day....you'll see.

Monday: Roasted Brussels Sprouts and E's Shepherds Pie.

Brussels sprouts are back in season, and I am SO happy about this! we'll probably have them again this week...different recipe of course. 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts


Ingredients:
as many brussels sprouts as you want
olive oil
salt and pepper.


Instructions
These are so easy its ridiculous. Just cut the cute little cabbages in half, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and LOTS of pepper. Roast them at 425 for 12-ish minutes on each side. Best thing ever.

 I think roasted vegetables are my new happy food. Srsly.

E's Shepherds Pie
* I had to email him to get the recipe. ALL him, guys..all him. I'm so lucky. I did have to make a few notes-for clarification- they're italicized. 


This was totally a non-recipe, whatever we had on hand, shepherds pie. And i wouldn't have it any other way. 

Ingredients:

1lb of lean ground beef

1 yellow onion (Remember that onion i said NOT to throw away? oh yeah...) 

3 cloves garlic

Paprika

Salt

5-6 red potatoes

½ stick of butter

1 cup (?) milk

Garlic salt 

Bam powder (?) ( he means Emeril's essence..or what we like to call, essence from the spice weasel. get it?)

2 cups chick or veg broth

1 cup red wine ( we used pinot noir, BC we had it..) 

1 cup each of moneray and chedder

Instructions

*Boil potatoes until soft, mash and add butter, milk, and spices

*Sear ground beef and make space in middle of pan to cook chopped onion till translucent and then add garlic. cook until soft. Mix beef and veggies together till meat is dark brown and pan has a good layer of sticky stuff. (LOL! Sticky stuff?? well, okay..) 

*Move beef mix to 9”x9” casserole pan and turn stove heat to high. When the pan is just about to start smoking add broth and wine and cook till reduced by ½-1/4 volume then poor over beef.

*Layer potatoes on top of beef and cover with aprox. 2 cups of cheese

*Bake at 375 for 15-20 min.

*I think that’ll be good enough. ( I had to leave that in there..he's so cute) "

here's the finished product! I have no idea how to make shepherds pie look as good as it tastes....

Tuesday: My Mamma's Vegetable Soup and Pumpkin Cornbread.

I'm hesitant to share this recipe...because it is, after all, a family recipe. But that being said, it is a FAMILY recipe. Therefore theres not much of an actual "recipe" to go along with it..so i'll give you the basic run down..

Mamma's Vegetable soup 


Ingredients
-about a half a cup each of frozen butter beans, peas ( we use purple hull), and Okra
-1/2 -1 lb of ground beef
-enough (yes, enough) potatoes, diced  ( I used 6 red potatoes because thats what we have. my Mamma usually uses baking potatoes which is just as good..probably better).
-1 large can of tomatoes, doesn't really matter how they're cute ( I used diced, BC that's what E bought) 
-1 can creamed corn. 
-vegetable broth as needed ( my ONLY tweak-sorry Mamma........)


Instructions( straight from my mamma..told you- not much of a recipe! hehe)
*Cook beans and peas in vegetable broth for 15 minutes
*Add other ingredients except corn, crumble meat as you add it, and cook 20 minutes 
( I added a little more vegetable broth at this point, and cooked it for about 10 minutes longer to get the right consistency)
*Add corn and cook 10 minutes longer.


really, you could cook this in a crock pot on low for a while and it'd still be amazing! Sadly, i don't have a picture of this soup..but if you're going to make it, just know that its not very..soupy. its a very thick, vegetable-y soup. and its amazing. trust me.


Pumpkin Cornbread


well. E made these. and he found the recipe here.... it was SUPER good (side note, i must try that pumpkin chili..)! He's planning on making a sweeter rendition for a bake sale soon. I'll share that recipe when it happens.






And finally, the plan for tonight ( oh, tonight..so excited about tonight..)


"Boiled" chicken with butter and autumn spices with..ROASTED BUTTER NUT SQUASH!!!!
( yeah, I just "yelled" that. that's how excited I am. )


*disclaimer...we don't literally boil the chicken. Ok, we do, but not like you think. it's cut into small pieces and cooked in seasoned broth. We got the idea from cooking fondue and it REALLY is amazing. I'll have more details tomorrow. 




well, that was fun! 

(another) Side note: our favorite couple came to visit us last weekend and it was THE BEST WEEKEND EVER! Here's a happy toast to send off my first (hopefully not lat) food-heavy post!

and, of course, a puppy picture for good measure.

trying to be a lap dog.. he's so cute its not even fair.






well, in the words of my favorite chef Mr Alton Brown (yes. I'm that kind of nerd),  I bid you all good eats!