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!
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