This is also delicious, but butt-easy. Takes some time but nearly no work. It’s a New Orleans area Italian-American thing called Creole Daube. If something is both Italian and from New Orleans, you know it’s good.
Take a 2 pound beef chuck steak or roast (the difference between them is a matter of thickness vs. area. In this case either works fine) and lay it naked and defenseless in the bottom of your pot.
(If you want to feed more than just a few people, use a bigger piece of beef. Increase other ingredients proportionally)
Put a 28-oz can of good tomatoes in the blender or processor along with a chopped onion and four or five garlic cloves. Add salt and black pepper to taste and blend until absolutely smooth. No herbs at all. Pour over the beef, bring to a boil, and cook at a low simmer for 3 or 4 hours. Push the meat around once in a while so it doesn’t stick. Soon it will start smelling so delicious you won’t be able to even stand it.
Slice the meat (or just pull it into pieces). Serve the sauce over spaghetti and pass the Parmesan.
The beauty of this is that it’s just the beef and tomato and garlic…very simple, really more of a “gravy” than a sauce.
Thanks, August West! I’ve never heard of using sodium citrate until your post. I will absolutely try it.
…and I insisted on Vermont or New York Sharp white cheddars to avoid the possibility of some pilgrim defiling it with Kraft pre-shedded orange junk, though any good cheddar would work. It’s been around 50 years, so I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Horn & Hardart’s used white cheddar. So white cheddar for the purist.
6 regular size Hershey Bars (with or without almonds. We prefer the almonds)
1 pint whipping cream
1 pre-made graham cracker or oreo cookie pie crust
Melt the Hershey Bars in the microwave. Only takes 45 to 60 seconds. Stir and let sit to cool off. While chocolate is cooling to room temp, whip the cream til fairly stiff, adding 1 tsp of vanilla at the end. Carefully FOLD the chocolate into the whipping cream, stopping when it’s marbled. Don’t keep mixing! Place filling into pie crust and chill at least 2 hours. Topping can be shaved chocolate or toasted almonds.
So easy, so good. Very rich, so slices need to be small.
Under the Sea Salad (Kraft Recipes) - it’s right there online. A layer of green jello, (made with the drained 'pear juice) - let it cool. On top, mix some of the reserved green jello with a whipped up 6 oz. of cream cheese, a dash of cinnamon, and add the chopped up pears. Pour that over the green jello layer, 4-5 hours later turn out onto a dish and top with whipped cream or cool whip. HEAVENLY! It just tastes so much better than you might think.