French Dip

Maggie over at Smashed Peas and Carrots has provided me with another wonderful recipe. Her blog is so fun. She has great recipes, great craft ideas and a great sense of humor!

4 pound roast (chuck, rump, etc.)
10.5 oz can beef broth
10.5 oz can French Onion Soup
12 oz can/bottle beer
rolls (we used sub buns)
cheese (we used provolone)

place roast in crockpot with broth, soup, and beer
cook on low 7 to 8 hours
remove roast and shred
add meat back to crockpot and cook 30 more minutes
serve on rolls with cheese

(Maggie suggests toasting rolls with cheese on to melt)

Serve with a side of the Au Jus to dip

Heath Bar Cookies

Ellie insisted we make cookies the other day, so I took my Butterscotch Chocolate Chip recipe and changed it up a bit to make these delicious cookies.



1 c sugar
1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c butter or margarine
1/2 c shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
2 c oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c chopped Heath Bar (you can buy them already in bits in the baking aisle)

Combine sugars, butter, shortening, eggs and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Add flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir in Heath. I make them "Monster Sized" using my large Pampered Chef cookie scoop or about 1/4 c per cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Adjust time accordingly if making normal sized cookies.

Chunky Dried Apple and Cranberry (or Cherry) Muffins

2 cups flour
3/4 c brown sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c milk
1/2 c oil
1 egg
1 c dried apples (chopped)
1/2 c dried cranberries (I used dried cherries)

Combine first 5 ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg until just moistened. Stir in apples and cranberries (or cherries). Spoon into muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 to 24 minutes.

These were really good. The cherries added a nice tartness. This recipe was found on the back of my dried apples.

Happy Valentine's Day French Toast

Because D and I recently spent 10 wonderful days together in Costa Rica, we didn't go out for Valentine's Day. Instead, I made a kid friendly celebratory meal. Here is my heart shaped french toast. I just used a cookie cutter. (For my batter, I use eggs, a splash of milk, some vanilla and some cinnamon.)

We topped it off with strawberries, whipped cream and Smuckers Red Raspberry Syrup.

Pork Tenderloin in Cream Sauce

This was our grocers recipe for this week. Pretty simple, small ingredient list and yummy! Derek quite possibly may have eaten an entire tenderloin himself.

2 pork tenderloins
2 T butter
15 oz jar Alfredo sauce (we used Ragu)
1/2 pound sliced button mushrooms
1/2 c dry white wine (I used chicken broth instead)
salt and pepper

In a skillet, melt 1 T butter and brown tenderloin. Transfer tenderloin to a 9 X 13 baking dish.

Saute mushrooms in remaining butter for about 3 minutes and divide over tenderloins. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Deglaze skillet with wine/chicken broth. Add Alfredo sauce and mix well.

Pour over pork. Cover tightly with foil and bake 1 1/2 hours.

Oven Baked BBQ Ribs

Now I don't know if these tasted so awesome because I did lo-cal breakfast AND lunch so that I could splurge on these for dinner, or if they were really that good. I didn't follow a recipe yet these were the best ribs I've ever made.

2 pounds ribs (I used pork spare ribs)
salt & pepper
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Dijon mustard

Here's what I did:

lay ribs in shallow roasting pan. Add a little bit of water to the bottom. Salt and pepper the ribs. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, remove, flip, salt & pepper the other side, recover and bake for 30 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, mix brown sugar, ketchup and mustard in a small saucepan. Heat on low until combined and warmed through.

After the ribs have cooked (covered for an hour) remove foil and add BBQ sauce. Bake for another 15 minutes, until BBQ has caramelized.

Pepper Steak

Week 2 of our grocers' recipes was another winner. The only other time I've had Pepper Steak is at the Chinese restaurant in town. Simmer the meat in broth for an hour + really gave the meat a lot of flavor. Always thought round steak was tough and lacking in flavor but it was very tasty in this recipe.

1.25 pound Round Steak (ours was a bit bigger...1.61 pounds)
2 Tbls butter
2 cloves garlic
1 can beef broth (15 oz)
1 c green onions
2 green peppers cut into strips (I only used 1 because my peppers were HUGE)
paprika
2 large tomatoes
1 Tbls corn starch
1/4 c water
1/2 c soy sauce

Pound steak until 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with paprika. Let stand 15 minutes. Using large skillet, brown meat in butter. Add garlic and broth. Simmer for 1 hour.

Then, add onions and peppers. Simmer 5 minutes more or until peppers are tender.
Add corn starch, water, soy sauce and tomatoes. Heat through. Cut steak and serve over rice. (I actually took the meat out, cut in strips, then added it back to the skillet.)