Sunday, December 23, 2012

Beef Stroganoff

Two days before Christmas... I am FILLED with the Christmas spirit.  The anticipation and joy that I felt as a child has grown a thousand fold as I watch my kids practically boil over with this same joy and anticipation.  I feel relaxed and thankful and happy and patient... wish these feelings could fill me all year long! 

This past week, I was lucky (blessed) enough to do several really fun holiday things.  My friend, Emily, and I took Champ to see the Nutcracker at the Fox.  Champ's best friend's older sister was a nesting doll, and we were soo excited to see her perform.  What a wonderful job she did!  Way to go, Alyssa!  We are proud of you!!! 

Here we are at dinner :).  Sweet Champ.

Then the very next day was lunch with my dad and sisters - you know, our annual marathon of a lunch... We all have so much fun together.  It is truly an event I most look forward to every single year.  We met at 11:30 and we left at 3:30... how blessed my sisters and I are to have been born to a dad who is full of life and energy - passion for many things... At 77, he keeps us forever entertained with his sense of humor, stories of a very interesting past and his inquisitive mind.  I soak up and appreciate every single minute of these annual Christmas lunches.  Thank you, Dad, for treating us to such a nice lunch every year!


 
Oh yummy.  I must share a picture of my most favorite Chocolate Bread Pudding.  It's heavenly.  In fact, I hope this is served in Heaven. 

Then last night, we had a party at our friends' beautiful home.  It is also an annual event that promises to be LOADS of fun - great people, delicious food, gorgeous house and super fun entertainment (lots of dancing!).  Our friends, the hostesses, have a way of making you feel like you're on vacation every time you come over.  I love it!  We had a great time, as always!

I'm so thankful for my wonderful healthy family and my wonderful friends. 

In an effort to maximize the time you can spend with your family and friends and decrease the amount of time you spend in the kitchen, I'm here to share with you the easiest recipe of the century - and one of the tastiest. 

Beef Stroganoff.  I must apologize in advance for the overwhelming tastiness of this dish that completely erased the intent of photographing the final result.  I was overcome with the deliciousness and forgot to take a picture of the beautiful presentation that this dish makes. 

This dish will take you maybe 15 minutes of hands-on time.  And I promise you that your dinner guests/family will think you are quite possibly the best cook they've ever met. 

It's important in this dish to use fresh fillet.  I've tried it with sirloin and the meat is not nearly as tender.  I called our local butcher shop, New York Butcher Shop on Roswell Road, and I told the butcher what I was cooking.  He suggested that I buy the tips and tails of the fillet - less expensive but still fillet, for all practical purposes - just he parts that you can't sell as a piece of fillet because they're too thin.  So, I bought about 1 1/2 pounds of meat. (He had it packaged and ready to go when I arrived - that place is awesome).

I chopped it up into bite size pieces (important not to make the bites too big).   Season the meat with salt and pepper and brown the meat in 2 TBS oil until almost cooked through.  Set the meat aside and to the same pot, add a small/medium onion (chopped really small) and a 3 ounce can of mushrooms (I omit this because my family, namely Matt, will not touch anything that has a mushroom in it).  When almost done, add 2 cloves of minced garlic and cook for about one minute.  Add your meat back in. 

Now, here are the (embarrassingly) easy ingredients.  You'll need sour cream, Worcestershire and ketchup, cream of mushroom (or chicken) soup - maybe a little beef broth.

 
 
Add to your pot (that has the meat, onions and garlic in it):  1 can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup of sour cream, 4TBS ketchup, and 3 TBS Worcestershire. Stir it all up.
 

And then start tasting it.  I stirred and tasted - added a little more of this or that - then stirred some more - always adding either ketchup or Worcestershire.  Mine was really thick, so I added about 3/4 cup of beef broth.  Then I let it simmer for a bit on very low heat. Just before serving, I added about 1/2 cup of red wine.

I'm telling you - the sauce will make your head spin, it's so good.


Now - here's where my taste buds got the best of me and I forgot to take pictures.  Buy some puff pastry shells (freezer section). 


Pop them in the oven according to the package directions.  Mmm mmmm.  When they are done, remove the little tops and pour in your beef stroganoff and then place the little tops on top or on the side- I usually serve 2 shells to each person.  If you're not into puff pastry, you can cook big wide egg noodles instead.  I typically serve this with a green salad and a green vegetable or fruit. 

Oh.. enjoy...Mmm mmm.. my mouth is watering just thinking about it!  Click here for my simple recipe.

(too ramped up and busy today to give this a good proof read - I apologize for any grammatical errors!)

Jolly Jolly!



Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Christmas Cookie Recipe

I'm sitting at my desk this morning listening to Christmas music (Comcast channel 933) after a nice walk in the Spring temperatures outside.  Feels weird!  I love, though, how it at least LOOKS like Christmas time outside. 

Champ and his friend, Drew, just came barrelling downstairs to discover Lewis' latest antics.  Lewis and Drew's elves got ahold of some red lipstick and wrote all over the windows of our front door.  Crazy!  Now mama gets to clean it all up...  Yesterday, Champ woke up to find his own toes painted red and Lewis beside his bed with my nail polish, cotton balls, etc.  So funny!  I can hear them talking about their elves in the kitchen and giggling.  I love it!  Such a joyous time of year....

I have a fun cookie recipe for you.  I don't know from where it originates as I was handed the recipe when I signed up to bring cookies to Matthew's school's teacher appreciation brunch.  They look like this:


As I was making these one day while the kids were in school, I thought that it would be super fun to have little helpers - lots of fun steps in this recipe. 

First, I made the sugar cookie dough.  I unwrapped the Hershey kisses. Aren't they pretty!?  They are quite dangerous in that if you sneak one, go ahead and prepare yourself that one ain't gonna be enough.


Then I colored the sugar.  Have you ever colored sugar?  It's so fun!  Just pour in about a cup or so of sugar and add a few drops of food coloring to it.


This is a fun step for the kids.  With the back of a spoon, mix and mix and mix until it becomes the desired color - and if you want it darker, just add more food coloring and mix and mix and mix again!


Make small little rounds of cookie dough and toss them into the colored sugar.


 
Put them on a cookie sheet and bake.  When they come out,
 


let them cool for 3 minutes.  You are going to add striped candy cane Hershey kisses and if you add them too soon, they lose their shape.  This is very important as the first batch I only let cool for about 1 minute and this is what the cookies ended up looking like:


Tasty... but I ended up taking that batch to the bus stop for a little after school treat for the kids.


Super easy - fun to bake with your kids and very pretty!  Have fun making cookies for Santa!

Click here for the recipe.

And one more thing.  Thanks to my friend, Chris, I have enjoyed the emails I get (daily) from One Kings Lane.  Go to www.onekingslane.com.  They have GREAT deals all the time on everything.  Today, they had hundreds upon hundreds of kitchen items on sale - a set of three paring knives for $15.00, for example.  Many of their items are very well and reasonably priced.  Other items are so expensive that I can't even believe anyone would actually buy them - like a $10,000 lamp or something like that.  But they have everything from house items to books to furniture to yard accessories.... very cool site.

Enjoy your day!






Saturday, December 15, 2012

Asparagus Appetizer

December 7, 2012

I worked on a big project at Children's this Fall that culminated in a big celebration on November 30.  It was a twelve week weight loss program modeled after NBC's The Biggest Loser.  Collectively, the 50 participants lost over 850 pounds - amazing!  The program itself ended at the beginning of November, so they had almost a month between the program ending and the celebration.  As I took part in the joy of the celebration, I felt a re-awakening taking place.  The participants were in a very intense twelve week program with a lot of structure, team camaraderie and support.  When anything like that ends - when a way of life changes and goes back to a normal pace- it's easy to lose sight of the goal and get complacent.  The celebration created a wave or rebirth, so to speak, for the participants.  They were reminded that they do have the strength to keep going - they CAN do this - to be celebrated and reminded of the success they experienced - well, that was just what they needed to keep them going.

It's really what we all need from time to time.  It's so easy to get wrapped up in the day to day routine - working, shuffling kids from here to there, putting dinner on the table - even for me, someone who really enjoys cooking, I've gotten into a bit of a rut lately.  I'm just tired!  Tired and tired of cooking.  The other day, I settled myself on my sofa with a cup of tea and my laptop, and I perused some cooking sites, looked at recipes, read through them, and gathered some new ideas.  That is all it took for me to re-energize my passion for cooking. 

Exercise is much the same way, right?  For me, I go through waves - periods of time when I am running a lot - really feeling the groove and then it wanes and it's all I can do to go out for a 20 minute jog.  Right before Thanksgiving when things were so busy for me both professionally and personally, I kind of fell out of my groove just a bit.  Then my friend, Kerri, challenged me with the Holiday Running Streak - run at least one mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Year's.  That's all it took for me (but I am one of those who loves a good challenge)!  I have been out the door every day (with the exception of a couple days when I had a terrible cold and just couldn't bring myself to go) - even when I haven't wanted to - and it has been fun!  We take pictures on our runs and post them on Instagram (follow me!  ChristaBDavis). 

So, what is it that you have let fall to the way side?  Is there something you want to be doing but you're not because you're just too tired or just SOMETHING that is keeping you from doing it?  I challenge you to find a way to re-energize yourself.  Write down one goal (even if you have many goals - pick one) and then write down little things you can do to bring you closer to meeting your goal....Break it down further and ask yourself each day what you can do to bring yourself closer to meeting that goal. 

In the spirit of re-awakening my love of cooking, I tasted the most wonderful appetizer at a holiday gathering a few days ago-filo wrapped asparagus.  Oh, it was delicious!  I want to share it with you in hopes that you can perhaps make this dish for your friends and loved ones over the holidays.


First, wash and trim your asparagus (take off the tough bottom part of the stalk).  Unroll your filo dough and cut the stack down to a smaller size (otherwise, you'll have a TON of filo and wouldn't be able to enjoy the taste of the asparagus).  Make sure that you have a damp cloth and plastic wrap so that you your filo dough doesn't dry out while you are assembling these (cover your stack with plastic wrap and a damp towel - then one by one as you're ready for a new piece, you take on out, leaving the rest of the pile damp and covered). 

Take one square and gently brush some melted butter all over the surface of it.  Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese and then lay your asparagus stalk on it.


Next, roll it up.  Repeat with however many you want to cook.


I brushed a little butter on top of them before putting them into a 375 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. 


Aren't they pretty?  After they have cooled just a bit, put them on your serving dish. 


Your guests (and you!) will absolutely love these (so long as they like asparagus).  The asparagus snaps easily inside when you bite into it - and the flaky filo with the fresh asparagus and hint of butter and Parmesan is a wonderful combination.  It makes for an elegant (even though it was super easy to make!) presentation and something you don't see often (in my case, at least!).

December 15, 2012

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for your many blessings.  Thank you for your son Jesus and for all that you provide for us each and every day.  It is with a sad heart that I pray to you today.  I heard a preacher on the news say that heaven became a brighter place yesterday when the Sandy Hook Elementary students and teachers graced the gates of Heaven.  For this I am thankful. Please fill the hearts of all those family members and friends who lost loved ones yesterday - Lord, fill them with peace and calm and a growing faith in You.  Help them find comfort in You and comfort in the fact that their children and loved ones are with You in a place of complete peace and comfort.  Be with them, especially through this holiday season.  Lord, please help me and my family to help others and to appreciate each other each and every day.  In Jesus' name I pray,  Amen.






Thursday, December 6, 2012

Christmas Tree and Pancake Muffins

Here's how I'd like to remember our annual Christmas tree outings.... our family listens to Christmas music really loudly on the way to the Christmas tree farm... we break out into song together as we sing along to "Just hear those sleigh bells ring-a-ling...."  We may even each have our own hot chocolate, topped with a melted marshmallow, of course.  We arrive at the tree farm and hop on a hay ride that takes us over the meadow and through the woods until we come to find the most beautiful tree... and on and on my daydream goes...

Let's snap back to reality.  This year, we were dealing with a sick toddler, a pre-teen who was being disciplined and a 9 year old who was begging to get the tree. So... just Champ and I hopped into the car last week, drove to Lowe's where we picked out a great looking tree.  We got home and put it in the stand realized that it wasn't quite as big as it appeared at Lowe's.  In fact, Matt laughingly referred to it as a shrub.  Yes, a shrub.  But, I love our shrub!  In our defense, with 8 foot ceilings, I chose 7-8 foot tree that was on the shorter side as I wanted to leave room for the star!  In our last house, we had a room with a vaulted ceiling so we were able to pick out a big giant tree every year. 

Now, the above Christmas tree farm story is merely a daydream of mine... let me tell you about one Christmas for which I have the fondest of memories.  When I was in middle school, my parents bought a run down shack of a house in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  It was nestled in the hills about a mile away from a dude ranch we used to visit every Summer.  My dad, the carpenter that he is, renovated that house (with the help of contractors) to make it the most beautiful little cabin you've ever seen.  Complete with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, it had a cute little kitchen and a family room that overlooked the Grand Tetons.  We really enjoyed being out there in the winter time, but the thing about the winter time was that you couldn't reach the cabin by car or truck because the snow was so thick and abundant.  Snow is so magical, isn't it?  It's so clean and fresh and pure - it covers all the imperfections and makes any surface into a wonderfully beautiful facade. 

So, we'd fly out to Jackson Hole, hop in the suburban and drive about an hour out to the dude ranch where we kept a snowmobile and sled.  We loaded our luggage up onto the sled which was hooked onto the snowmobile, and we'd drive up to the cabin.  My mom would turn up the heat, get some hot chocolate and cookies going and very quickly, the cabin filled with warmth, the smell of sweetness, laughter and good times.  Many times, we would look outside and see a moose or two in the yard.  It truly was like being in a fairy tale.  My mom became a snow cream expert.  You see, there were feet upon feet of snow and seemed like there was fresh snow daily.  My mom could whip up some super sweet and super creamy snow cream with snow, sugar and a little cream.  Lick your lips delicious!

So, back to one Christmas long ago at the cabin.  We all hopped on our snowmobiles one year - my mom, dad, brother and me.  And we went deep into the woods where we happened upon the perfect Christmas tree.  My dad had his saw and he cut that tree down, threw it onto the sled and we drove it back up to the house.  I realize that this is highly illegal and if caught, I'm sure my dad would have seen some jail time or a huge fine, at least.  But, that's my dad (and me) - we are rule breakers sometimes.  In fact, in the wee hours of the morning, I have been known to sneak into neighbors' yards to do a little "pruning" of my own. 

I love Christmas trees - the smell of them, the watering of them, the decorating of them, the tending to them, the traditions that accompany them (when I lived with a German family over in Bonn, Germany many moons ago, they waited until the 24th to decorate their tree and they used real candles!  Seemed a little dangerous to me...)

Here is our tree, taken sort of half way through the ornament process...

Do you see the train track?  My dad came over and set it up with the boys - this has become an annual tradition which they look forward to every year. 

I think all the excitement that surrounds Christmas really got a hold of me last night as it was a restless night's sleep.  I mean come on, I can't hardly contain myself this month!  If I could pack up my family and move to the North Pole and live there year round, I would!  I would happily serve as elf and make toys - perhaps be Mrs. Clause's helper or something... Anyway, back to reality.  After a short jog very early this morning, I decided to make pancakes in muffin tins with toppings - same ol' pancakes but made differently to make them more fun for the kids to eat.  They were super easy, tasty, the kids loved them, and they would be so easy to assemble and bake the night before so that all you have to do on a school morning is heat them up in the microwave.

Simply prepare your favorite pancake mix according to the directions on the box.  My favorite is a whole wheat mix but this morning, it was all about pleasing the kids so I used a white wheat mix I found.  I filled each muffin cup about half full of the pancake mix and then added a few chocolate chips to some and on others, cooked and crumbled sausage.  I think some turkey bacon (or regular) would taste really good, too - that sweet and salty is quite a combination!

 
I served them with a little ramekin full of syrup.  The kids gobbled them up!


The latest Elfcapade?  Champ awoke at 5:30 a.m. (pretty common this time of year as he is so anxious to find Lewis each morning) to find Lewis hanging from the molding sitting on a reindeer.  And... Lewis was donning a new outfit!  Wow!  This is a first for us - Lewis has been a single one man show with one outfit for many years.  It was quite the exciting morning this morning to find him in a fresh new outfit AND sitting on a reindeer!  Wonder what kind of mischief they'll get into tonight....




So here's to you and yours...turn on some Christmas music and feel the joy of the anticipation of Christmas, the wonder and beauty of all the decorations both in your house and everywhere else - treat yourself to a holiday spice latte and soak up the joy!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Escapes and Verde Enchiladas

Remember how I wrote a few months ago about how much I was enjoying the fact that the boys didn't have a lot of sports commitments this Fall?  Well... I'm over that and am now THOROUGHLY enjoying their basketball commitments.  It's nice to have some structure.  It spawns efficiency in that if they have practice on any given night, they know they don't want to be doing homework when they get home, so they are learning that doing it ahead of time works better for them.  Basketball is easy, isn't it?  It's no more than an hour or so - it never gets cancelled due to weather.  It's just nice and easy, in my opinion.  It's a GREAT workout for the kids - my goodness, one day last week I thought Matthew was going to throw up in my car after running so much during practice. 

At Champ's practice a few weeks ago, I got to finish the book, GONE GIRL.  I really enjoyed this book very much!  Written by Gillian Flynn, this was a bizarre book which I fully expect to see made into a movie at some point.  I really enjoyed the journey of making my way through the book.  If you need something this Christmas for someone who likes to read, I would recommend this book!  I wasn't crazy about the ending but after a story like that, I'm not sure there is an ending out there that could cap it off any better.  Anyway, I give it a double thumbs up.

 Gone Girl: A Novel
 
 
Just as I can escape life and become totally immersed in a good book, I find that I can also find a quick escape in a good show or movie.  Several years ago, someone recommended that Matt and I watch the t.v. show, 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.  We were hooked after the first episode.  We spent months upon months catching up on old episodes on DVD - one after the other.  I'd be on the verge of a heart attach during any given episode because of the intensity.  Some nights, we'd watch three in a row.  Sadly, that show ran its course and is no longer on t.v.  If you haven't seen 24, I recommend that you look into watching it - either through DVD or Netflix. 
 
My current t.v. obsession is Homeland.  Oh my goodness - I can't get enough!  It comes on Showtime and I've been hearing the hype for a few months now.  Wow - now that we've made our way through Season 1, I totally get the hype.  Intense, suspenseful, interesting... it tickles all of your taste buds, so to speak.  I love it and highly recommend it.  Don't have Showtime?  Worry not - just call your cable provider and request that they give you a free trial run.  It doesn't disappoint - just be willing to put up with some language and adult content from time to time - and a lot of fear, trembling, wonder, confusion, awe... 
 
 
It has become a pass time for Matt and me.  We have to watch the episodes together - sort of an unspoken rule.  We plop ourselves on the sofa with a glass of wine - Sandy, our lab, curled between us, and we enjoy that hour so much! 
 
Enchiladas.  I love them every which way.  Beef. Chicken. Corn Tortilla.  Bean.  Flour Tortilla.  Spicy.  And recently I made verde enchiladas.  Verde means green in Spanish.  (Just call me Fancy Nancy).  I made some really yummy enchiladas the other night and they were so good!  I'm telling you - they're the way to go when you have some leftover meat that you need to use.  I had some leftover beef from my drip beef recipe.
 


Anyway - here's the deal. I used green enchilada sauce this time and corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas. 
 
I laid out my corn tortillas and started piling on the yumminess.  If my family members were blessed with adventuresome pallets, I would have made them with roasted red peppers, goat cheese, and navy beans - or beef with sauteed mushrooms... but they don't so I used beef, black beans, shredded Mexican cheese, and salsa. 
 





I poured the green enchilada sauce over them all, topped with cheese and baked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  They were wonderful!  It's a little hard to get the tortillas out of the pan because they fall apart pretty easily - but that's okay - they were delicious!! 

I served them with a salad and there was our meal!  Quick, easy and ready to serve to my hungry crowd.

In this busy month, we need all the help we can get - so go on, put a piece of meat in your crock pot - and then turn around and put the tender meat in a different meal later in the week. Make it easy on yourself!

Elfcapades... Lewis arrived this year in typical Lewis fashion.  He rolled our front steps/door area with toilette paper and we found him inside the roll peeking inside the house.  This is his first year in our house so he's got a lot of exploring to do!  Last night we found him in our little computer nook high up on a ledge eating some Rolo's.  There was even a little bitty elf bite taken out of one of them.  ( I ended up polishing it off a little later).



He's got a long month ahead of him so we fully expect his wild tendencies to come out this year yet...