Cooking Show: Spring Fever...or What to Cook When You're Wishing for Summer!

On our recent episode of the cooking show, we tried to come up with a menu that tastes like summer.

Chase those winter blahs away with grilled beef and tropical fruit!

We started with Pineapple Sangria.  

Actually, this picture was taken just as we finished.  Finished the second pitcher, that is.  

 Then it was time for Watermelon Salad with Seared Halloumi.

Have you ever had Halloumi cheese?  It has a very high melting point, so you can sear it until it's golden and crunchy. It makes a great salad topping! That is, if you and your friends (ahem--Kerry, Amy, Kelly and Christine--I'm talking to you!) can keep your hands off of it long enough to have any left to use for said topping.

Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

When you're trying to chase away the winter blahs, the only thing better than grilled steak would be summer itself.

Click here for the printable recipe.

And finally, Cookies n' Cream Cheese Cookies.  

With a little bit of cream cheese, for creaminess and fluffiness.  And Oreos®, because Oreos®.

 Chocolate Strawberry Oreos®, because we were trying to stick to the summer theme.

Cooking Show: Crock Pot Favorites, and Baileys® Irish Creme Parfaits

Last week's cooking show featured an eclectic assortment of recipes.

I started planning a theme featuring favorite recipes for the slow cooker.

Crock Pot Chili

This is my personal favorite, as far as slow cooker recipes go.  The only prep is chopping a few ingredients and opening a few cans, then mixing it all in your crock pot and forgetting about it for 8 hours.  No additional steps, just add a few toppings at the end.  Truly a one-pot meal! 

And it's not a grease-laden chili, as you will use steak instead of traditional hamburger.  Here's the printable recipe.

Crock Pot Boneless Country-Style Ribs

With over 800,000 page views and 30K+ pins on Pinterest, this is by far the most popular recipe on this blog.

 Here is the printable recipe.

Green Beans with toasted slivered almonds and chopped bacon, not a crock pot recipe but I thought it was important to prepare a vegetable on the side! Click here for the printable recipe.

 And finally, Baileys® Irish Creme Parfaits.

Seriously good.

So good that everybody licked their spoon clean.

Really incredible, as in so incredible that they deserve their own blogpost with step-by-step instructions...but until I create that future blogpost, I won't leave you hanging.  Here's the printable recipe!

Cooking Show: Italian Recipes!

We recently filmed another episode of the cooking show.

My friend, Nick, joined me and we prepared a few recipes that showcased our love of Italian food (and drinks)!

(Click on the links to be taken to the recipes.)

We started off with Limoncello Limonata.  We made our own fresh-squeezed lemonade and added 

Limoncello.  

Next, Spinach, Pomegranate & Feta Salad, with a Balsamic Vinaigrette.  I usually make this salad with grilled chicken, but tonight we omitted the chicken because we didn't want the salad to compete with our main dish:

Braciole!

Nick and I both agree that braciole is one of our favorite Italian recipes.  My recipe for braciole doesn't stray too far from old school-- rolled with garlic, parsley and cheese and simmered in a red sauce.

I think there is another show in our future.  Nick has some creative methods of preparing braciole with different fillings and sauces...at some point we are going to film Braciole Part II!

Finally, Cannoli Dip!  

You have to do a teensy bit of advance prep--but once the ricotta has been drained you can whip this up in about 2 minutes.  Break a few ice cream cones and pizzelles into bite-sized pieces and start dipping!

Individual Braciole

There are probably as many different braciole recipes out there as there are chefs to cook them!

Different fillings, different preparation methods--adjust the fillings to suit your taste.

I keep my filling really simple--just garlic, parsley and romano cheese.  Just enough to season the beef!

If you google "braciole" you'll find lots of different variations.  I like to cut the flank steak into individual portions, which goes against the grain--pun intended, ha!--of some purists.  Others butterfly the steak so there is one huge, albeit thinner, steak to roll up.  Some people add pine nuts, additional spices, bread crumbs, sliced cheese, sausage or prosciutto.  I'm sure I left out lots of other possible additions.  Feel free to fill your braciole with whatever ingredients you like!

Today's Playlist

• "Learn To Fly"...Foo Fighters
• "Another One Bites the Dust"...Queen
• "Should I Stay Or Should I Go"...The Clash
• "Troublemaker"...Weezer
• "Back Against the Wall"...Cage the Elephant
• "The Denial Twist"...The White Stripes
• "Love and Affection"...Neon Trees
• "Chelsea Dagger"...The Fratellis

Cooking Show....Chinese Food!

We filmed an episode of the cooking show this week.

Dan, the awesome camera man, went to China for a couple of weeks in late June/early July.  Donna, the producer of the show, had called me while he was away.  Our conversation went something like this:

Donna: When Dan gets back from China, you should cook Chinese food
              with him for the show.
Me:       REAL Chinese food?  I've heard that the food in China doesn't
              resemble American Chinese takeout...
Donna:  No, just cook Chinese food Fran-style!
Me:       Okay, I'll cook some Asian-inspired dishes and he can talk about
              the actual food that he ate in China.
Donna:  I'm going to ask him to bring back some hats and Chinese-style
              clothes for you to wear.
Me:       Frannie don't do that!  NO. WAY.

Hehe.
       

So I put together a menu, and decided that we needed a beverage.

A meal at a Chinese restaurant just isn't complete without a fun beverage!  Especially if it has a little umbrella in it.

I usually order a Mai-Tai when we go out for Chinese food.  

I've never made actually made one.  Not a problem, though.  Thanks to Google we can pretty much get any info we need, right?

Not so fast.  I googled "Classic Mai Tai Recipe," and "Traditional Mai Tai Recipe." As it turns out, the typical fruity Mai Tai that is served in Chinese restaurants bears very little resemblance to a classic or traditional Mai Tai.  Much like the food served in Chinese restaurants bears little resemblance to the food they serve in China.

After reading through a couple of the recipes (no fruit juice!  no grenadine!), I thought I would have to just keep looking until I found one that I liked.  

As I clicked on the next recipe, the first sentence of that recipe effectively ended my search:  

The Mai Tai is an original tiki classic that is neither neon-colored nor overly sweet.

Oh, well.  Continuing with the theme, I will just have to make them Fran-style, like Donna said at the beginning.

Here they are, in all their fruity, neon-colored glory.

I kept it simple.  2 parts pineapple juice, one part orange juice, one part rum and 1/4 part grenadine.  Served over ice, garnished with fruit and an umbrella.

Asian-Inspired Beef & Broccoli

Fortified with a Mai Tai, Dan and I went right into preparing our next dish.  Here's the printable recipe.

Dan informed me that this beef dish bore no resemblance to the food he tried in China.  He then went on to talk about a snake dish that he tried, which he declared, "I felt as if I were chewing on a pencil eraser!"  

Finally, we prepared Orange Chicken with Stir-Fried Vegetables.

 Here's the printable recipe.

Again, Dan informed me that this did not at all resemble the food he ate in China.  Or rather, it did not resemble the food that he didn't eat.  He couldn't bring himself to eat the large horned beetles.  And other creatures that I will not mention...

Dan did a great job helping me to prepare these dishes, though he did emphatically state when we were through, "And from now on, I shall remain behind the camera!"

Whichever side of the camera he's on, he still gets to enjoy the fruits of our labor at the end of the shoot!

Asian-Inspired Beef & Broccoli

Our upcoming episode will feature Asian-themed cuisine!

Here's a sneak peak at one of the recipes!  

Ginger & garlic & soy sauce--what's not to like?

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Every time I use my crockpot, I can't help but wonder why don't I use this more often?

Is there anything better than doing a little bit of prep work in the morning, throwing it all into the slow cooker and having it ready at dinner time?

This recipe is a bit of a riff on the Maple-Mustard Pork Chops that I've made in the past.  I like the combo of sweet maple syrup and the savoriness of dijon mustard, and I couldn't help but wonder how it would work with a pot roast.

I'm happy to say that it worked out just fine!

Crock Pot Boneless Beef Short Ribs

The inspiration for this recipe came about as I was wandering through Whole Foods.  It was Friday afternoon, just as the snow from our latest storm was starting to fall, and I was making one last trip to the market before I got snowed in.

Yeah, THAT storm.  Here's a picture of my dogs on Saturday morning, as they woke up to more snow than they have ever seen before.  We dug tunnels across the deck and through the yard so they could get around.

Gus was having a good gosh-darn time for himself.  He stuck to the pathways.  Clyde, not so much.  He started to leap through uncharted territories........

...and ended up "swimming" through the snow.

He was happy to come back in, dry off and warm up.

We were snowed in for a couple of days, which was not a problem at all since I had bought enough food for a week's worth of snowed-in meals.  First on the list were the boneless beef ribs in today's post--boy did my house smell good with these ribs simmering in the slow cooker while the snow was falling!

Broiled Marinated Flank Steak

I've been busy!

All the Christmas decorations have been taken down and packed away 'til next year.

 Gus has ditched his jingle bells for a spiffy new scarf.  Gus is happy.  Seriously.  He loves new clothes.

Here he is when I was ironing the fabric that I used for the lining of his scarf.  I iron all the time.  (Boy, do I iron all the time.)  He never gets excited about it.  

I iron some fabric to make him a scarf, he gets all excited with anticipation.

How does he know the difference between boring ironing and ironing that is for him?  He just knows.

While I was sewing his scarf in the land of a thousand unfinished projects (also known as my sewing room), I decided to finish one more project.

Two pillowcases, sewn.  And trimmed with a nice scalloped crochet edge.

I have so many projects and recipes that I haven't posted.  The photo files are piling up and I'm imagining them all saying, "pick me! pick me!"  And tonight's winner is.........broiled marinated flank steak--prep it in advance, minimal ingredients, let the marinade work its flavorful magic while you do more important things!

Beef Stew

I've officially shifted into chilly-weather cooking mode.

First came the soups, then the crock pot meals, and now--beef stew.

I don't cook my stew with traditional stew beef (beef chuck or shoulder), which is rather tough and dependent upon marinating--or cooking for an extended period of time--to tenderize the (grossness alert!) tough connective tissue.

Way back in the early years of my marriage, I did not feel like spending hours in the kitchen after I came home from a day at work.  I was looking for a short cut, and decided that I would use a tender cut of beef, sirloin tip steak, to cut down on the cooking time.

I've never measured the amounts of any of the ingredients, until today.  I usually just throw everything into the pot until it "looks right."  That's no help to you, eh?  So today, I measured and wrote everything down.  Feel free to add or subtract to suit your preferences!

The amounts of ingredients that I have listed will give you six (approximately 16-ounce) servings.

Marinated Steak Kebabs

How is it possible that it is almost September?  I'm not ready for summer to end.

Caitie has already gone back to school.  Yesterday was move-in day.  It's unsettling to think that she is over 400 miles away.  

There have been lots of preparations for the move during the past few weeks; lots of purchases and checking lists and more purchases and last-minute runs to buy more things that we forgot to buy during all the shopping excursions.  And there are still items we forgot to buy.

Like this colander, which I bought for her today, after speaking to her last night and hearing her describe how she had to drain her pasta by spooning it out of the pot because we forgot to buy her a colander.

The colander went into the care package I put together for her today, the first of many care packages that I'll send to her throughout the year. 

There are some really cool things in the care package, but since she reads this blog I can't share anything else with you because it will ruin the surprise. 

And maybe, just maybe, she will cook a recipe or two from this blog, and not just mac 'n cheese.  Oh, that's right, I forgot to mention that the pasta she was cooking was from a package of Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner.  And I should also mention that I'm not dissing her because she cooked Kraft dinner because I certainly cooked lots of it during my college days.  I'm just saying this:  Caitie-pie-honey-bunch, if you're reading this, you should consider cooking some of the recipes in this blog because a lot of your favorites are on here and all the how-to's and how-much's are all written out for you, dear.  Love, Mom.

And Caitie, while we're communicating here, I may as well tell you that the fabric you picked out for the pillowcase I am going to make you is at this stage in the process:

In other words, not a pillowcase yet.  But you may not be able to tell by the picture that I have already washed the fabric to pre-shrink it and I have ironed it.  So there's been progress.  Now I just have to cut it, and sew it, and decoratively trim it.

When the fabric grows up it will resemble the pillowcases I have made you in the past, I promise.  Probably more like the one on the right, as I am planning on crocheting white trim.  Unless you prefer white pom poms.  Love, Mom.

Okay, I digress no more.  On to today's recipe.  Marinated Steak Kebabs.

You can use whatever type of steak looks best at your market.  If I had my choice, it would be top sirloin, about 1 1/2" thick, cut into cubes.  Second choice, New York Sirloin, ditto.  Of course, tenderloin is also good, but it's a shame to cut such a fine piece of beef into cubes.  Sirloin tip steak and flank steak also work.

As luck would have it, when I went to purchase the steak for this recipe, the only types of the above-mentioned steaks in the meat case were tenderloin, sirloin tips and flank steak.  I nixed the tenderloin (see above) and the sirloin tips (I've cooked sirloin tips twice in the last two weeks) and went with the flank steak.

All of the other types of steak can be cut into cubes, but flank steak is special because of the grain of the beef.  It needs to be sliced diagonally, about a half inch thick, and then threaded onto the skewers.  The good news is that because you slice it thinner, it cooks faster than the larger cubes of other types of steaks. 

Gosh, have I totally confused you?  I hope not.  See the accompanying pictures and hopefully the visuals will explain better than my words. 

Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

A slab of beef cooking on the grill......is there any better smell at dinnertime?  Especially after the snowy, cold, snowy, long, snowy and snowy (did I say snowy?) winter that we just had.

I prep this steak in advance.  It needs at least 2 hours to marinate, but it's very forgiving, so work around your schedule and prep it at your convenience.