Roast Beef Dinner and Updates

Happy end of November everyone! I had a nice little message from Ingrid of 3 B's today asking how things were going, so I thought it was time to update a little. Truth be told, I look back at November and think, once! That's it? I posted only one recipe? How is that possible?
Well, then I started to think about November and go "oh yeah, that's what happened to it" and December isn't likely to produce much more looking ahead.
I started off November sick. Although completely unconfimed I have suspicions that I had H1N1. The symptoms were there, fever, cough, sore throat, lack of energy - never mind working at 2 schools where there were confirmed cases and lots and lots of sick students and staff. So I had very little energy for about two weeks there. (I did recieve the vaccine, but the symptoms showed up before the 10 waiting days were over).
I recovered nicely in time for my birthday. I had a lovely, lovely dinner out with my husband and a few close friends. We went to Suwanna, which is my favorite restaurant in town. It is a Thai restaurant and luckily my friends think like we do, order 6 dishes and pass around to share. We had Pad Thai (of coure, 2 orders of it), Matsaman Curry (my pick, so delicious), Bamboo Shoots (tres spicy!), a beef stir fry (yummy) and I know there was one more dish, I'm just not remembering what it was now. We also had some Thai carrot/cabbage salad, which is so delicious and curry puffs as an appetizer. I'm going to miss this restaurant when we move away. I did take pictures of the evening, unfortunately, my photo card got accidentally erased before we downloaded anything.
The next part of the month has been dedicated to work, work and more work. Pretty much from Thanksgiving on till Christmas, my job kicks it up a notch (Canadian Thanksgiving - 2nd Monday in October). I teach music so I'm involved in getting performance groups ready for Remembrance Day ceremonies (Nov. 11th), the Empty Stocking Fund telecast (last weekend-a 70+ year old local telethon benefitting families that need help at Christmas time), the Santa Claus Parade (very strange to sit on a float, you can't believe the number of people that watch that thing!), and currently Christmas Concerts. As I said I work at 2 schools, so most of this is x2 work. Never mind that report cards fall into the middle of all this and parent teacher interviews (marks for 600 kids). So yes, work has kept me busy.
And through all this I've found myself right into my 3rd trimester. Yay! Of course 3rd trimester means less energy and I've definately seen myself slowing down a bit. I've started to teach sitting on a chair, instead of sitting on the floor with the kids. I also discovered that there are certain songs I cannot participate in with the kids. I had to laugh at myself when I was teaching this one song to kindergarten classes that involves getting down on all 4's and then jumping up and jumping up and down - I couldn't do it. Talk about changing your lesson plan on the fly! (I teach 4 kindergarten classes in a row, so that just wasn't going to work!).
My own little guys are doing well. They and my husband take up the rest of my energy really. I have done more cooking this month than my blogging shows for, but my pregnant brain often fails to remember to take a picture.
So here's a doozy of a blog post for you all. One of my favorite comfort meals of fall and winter, a pot roast beef dinner. Oh it is so yummy, I want to make it again right now. This dinner had the beef, gravy, yorkshire pudding (my Auntie Sue's Recipe), whipped potatoes, peas and a carrot bake (Katy's recipe of Food for a Hungry Soul).

Pot Roast

1 roast
1 tsp salt
ground pepper (have ready to grind)
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp cooking oil
1 1/2 cups each BBQ sauce, and beef broth
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic (crushed and minced)
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp lime juice

I like to cook my roasts in a crock pot, it just makes the meat so tender. I put this all on in the morning and let it cook for 8-10 hours. Prepare your crock pot by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
Sprinkle roast lightly on all sides with salt, pepper and flour. Heat oil in a frying pan (med-high heat). Add roast and brown on all sides. Once it is browned/seared, place roast into the crock pot.
Mix remaining ingredients together. Pour over roast. Cover, put crock pot on low heat and cook for 8-10 hours. (You can also make this on high heat for 4-5 hours).

Roast gravy

Once roast is finished, remove it from the crock pot and cover with foil to keep hot. Drain the juices over a seive and into a saucepan. Add 1 cup water, 1 tbsp beef boullion powder and 1/4 cup + flour. Whisk everything together over med. heat, whisking constantly until gravy is heated thouroughly and thickens.

Auntie Sue's Yorkshire Pudding

My Auntie Sue is one of my very favorite people. She isn't really my aunt, but a good family friend that I've known my whole life. I grew up with her home being my second home and our families spending a lot of Sunday dinners and Holidays together. She is a wonderful cook. I'm glad my mom snagged this recipe of hers for me.

3 eggs
1 C flour
1 C milk
1 tsp butter
dash of salt.

Whisk eggs. Add rest of ingredients and whisk together. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 425* until done (about 10 minutes or so) - the puddings should puff up nicely and brown. My mom says this works best if the ingredients are cooled in the fridge while the oven is heating. My English husband insists it works best if you let the ingredients sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour or so before baking. I've done it both ways and both ways turn out well.

Chicken Chow Mein

This is very much American Chinese food, not authentic Chinese. My mom made this for us a lot when I was growing up and once I started cooking I added it to my repetiore. It's so easy to put together and comes together quite quickly. I'm always amazed that it tastes as good as it does. Pair it up with some egg rolls and you've got yourself dinner.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cooked chicken, chopped (I usually buy a rotisserie chicken every couple of weeks and use the meat in recipes like this)
1 cup bean sprouts
1 package chow mein noodles
1 cup chicken stock
soy sauce

Heat oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium heat. Add onion and green pepper and cook until veggies soften a little. Turn up the heat to med-high. Add the chicken and bean sprouts - mix altogether. Add chow mein noodles and chicken stock. (Keep extra water on hand just in case the noodles start to stick a little). Dash with soy sauce to your liking. Mix together. Keep cooking and stirring until the noodles are soft. Serve.

*You can add other ingredients to this one. I've used mushrooms, water chestnuts, snow peas, and celery at times, depending what I have on hand.

My friends

Hello my friends out there in the foodie community. I haven't written to you for some time, I know. I had a wonderful afternoon today visiting each and every one of you. Some know this because I left a little note, to others I was a visiting ghost so to speak. I honestly haven't done this in a very long time. But there is nothing like staying home from work sick to give you some time.
I want to say how much I enjoyed all of your recipes. I'm amazed and inspired by you all. How you continue to produce such quality recipes day after day is really quite something. I do pop by from time to time, but haven't taken the time like I did today to see you all.
I'm also amazed by those who I know spend time appreciating and commenting on the blogs of so many others. Thanks especially to those who keep the comments coming, even if I've been somewhat silent on my part.
I know my food blogging stream has died down a bit these last few months, first by the nausea of pregnancy and continued by repeat dinners. I decided that I didn't want to let my blogging life take over my real life. I run 4 blogs and was feeling the pressure to write something new on all of them all the time. Then I started to wonder why? Why was I spending so much time and energy on these? It was becoming more work than a hobby I enjoy. So I've slowed the pace down a bit and am finding that I'm enjoying blogging again. I like to take the time to peruse and think of something clever and honest rather than just posting for the sake of posting. I promise you all that when I discover something delicious and worth posting I will share it with you.

Yummy, yummy applesauce

I saw this recipe over at Tried and True Cooking with Heidi last month. She calls it "The Best" Applesauce. It looked wonderful and I figured it had to be better than the apple mush I tried to pass off as applesauce last year. It was! So delicious. I first made it for my boys and one of their friends a couple of weekends ago and made it again by request of my oldest son last week. He loves it. He says it's his favorite snack ever. My youngest loves it too, which is great for Mr. Picky who won't eat much of anything that isn't bread or chocolate.

Here's the recipe:

4 apples - peeled, cored and chopped
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar (she suggested Splenda and that's what I used too)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher if you want chunky sauce, or put in the blender for a smooth sauce. I quite like a smooth sauce, so I used my hand blender and it worked like a charm. Thanks Heidi for this one!

A Tale of Two Pies - Pumpkin Chiffon and Apple

Canadian Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks back and I've been terrible about posting my recipes. At least I'm getting these ones up in time for my American friends to read about before their own Thanksgiving celebrations next month!
I also have a pie confession - I used pre-made pie crusts. Yes, I COULD make my own, but no. Thanksgiving is a big meal and really, the pre-mades are a lot better than mine for what I need.
So yes, 2 kinds of pie. Pumpkin is my favorite and seeing as we just went apple picking the weekend before, apple had to be on my list. Here's the recipes.

Pumpkin Chiffon



1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/3 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs, separated
2 unbaked pie shells (9-inch)

Mix pumpkin, sugar, spices and salt together. Add milk and egg yolks. Mix well.
In another bowl, beat egg whites until firm. Fold into pumpkin mix and pour into pie shells - there's enough filling for 2 pies. Bake at 450 degrees for 5 minutes, then at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Apple Pie




7 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon (this makes it very cinnamony - you can use less)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 unbaked pie shells

Preheat oven to 450°F. Combine sliced apples with sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice. Fill pie crust with apple mixture and dot with softened butter. Place top pie shell on top and crimp edges together. Make some slits in the top crust for steam to escape. *If you wish try my friend Ang's trick. She uses a vanilla egg wash on top (combine an egg white with a little vanilla and brush on top of the pie - makes it look lovely and smells delicious when baking). Bake for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 350°F and bake for 45 minutes longer.

Scalloped Potatoes

Shortly after we were first married, my husband went away on a college work trip to the Mirimichi. He came home with this recipe. He swore it was for the best scalloped potatoes he'd ever had. I tried the recipe and sure enough they really were the best scalloped potatoes I'd ever had too.
*Just as a side note of cultural interest, I call these scalloped potatoes. I'm originally from the western part of Canada. My Maritime friends who are true New Brunswickers call these potatoes scallop. I don't know why.

1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup flour
1 14 oz can chicken broth (Campbell's Herb and Garlic is what was recommended to us)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/8 tsp pepper
5 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 med. onion, finely chopped
8 oz Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded (can use light)
paprika

Melt margarine in saucepan. Add flour; blend well. Add broth, mayonnaise and pepper. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat. Alternate layers of potatoes, onions and cheese in a 9x13 baking dish. Pour sauce over top. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350* for 1 1/2 hours or until golden brown.

Tales of A Corn Casserole

After all the rigmarole surrounding this next food story and recipe, you'd think that I would have remembered to take a picture. Alas, I didn't. Blame it on pregnant brain if you will, or the business of cooking on a holiday, whatever the reason, there is no picture.

Our story begins yesterday morning. Canadian Thanksgiving. (An explanation for my American and other nationality type friends, Canadian Thanksgiving is always the second Monday of October and traditionally celebrates harvest time). I had my menu planned. Turkey (of course), stuffing, cranberries, carrot-turnip mash, whipped potatoes, peas, squash, gravy, rolls, 2 kinds of pie (pumpkin chiffon and apple - recipes and pictures to come) and corn. Hmmm, corn. for some reason I was thinking that the corn needed to be a little more special than just plain old corn. Sometimes I have corn in butter sauce, but today I wanted something else. Aha! I remembered my mom had a recipe for corn casserole. I'd just phone her and get that and we'd be all set. Unfortunately, this realization hit me at 11am my time. My mom lives on the other side of the country and a 4 hour time difference away, she definitely wouldn't appreciate a wake up call like that! During my wait I decided to look up corn casseroles on Recipezaar.com. Yes, I love it. I found a great looking one for a creamed corn casserole, but not quite what I was looking for. Finally at 12:15 I called my mom (I figured she should be up by now, it was after 8 her time). Yes she found the recipe for me. Unfortunately, it called for green peppers, which I didn't have in the house. New Brunswick is a province where everything but gas stations and Blockbuster close on holidays, so the possibility of running out to a market was nil. Then I got inspired. Why not pull from both recipes and make my own? So I did. Here are all 3 recipes. I hope you enjoy them. Let me know if you try any of them out!
***************************************************
Mom's Corn Casserole

2 cups corn
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese (grated)
2 tbsp minced onion
2 chopped green peppers

Combine in a casserole dish and bake at 325* for 40 minutes
******************************************************
Creamed Corn Casserole from Recipezaar.com

1 cup creamed corn
1/4 cup melted butter
2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar

Combine in a casserole dish and bake at 350* for one hour (or until the cornmeal sets)
*******************************************************
My Corn Casserole

1 can creamed corn (398ml/14fl oz)
2 cups corn
2/3 cup milk
1 cup corn flour
2 eggs, beated
1/4 cup melted butter
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup cheddar

Combine in a casserole dish and bake at 350* for one hour. (yes, I kept the lid on)