I was told that if you heated a pot of water, put a colander of mussels on its top, and added a lid over it all, that you could steam/boil open your own mussels. And that on another burner on the stove you could put a second pot with tomato sauce and the spices you want (garlic cloves, cayenne, hot sauce, oregano, etc). And that once the mussels steam open, you could add them to the other pot with tongs and slow cook the flavor into them until any of the other dishes you are making are ready.
And I didn’t say that you HAD to wait until dinner to open the bottle of wine. You’ll want to add a few drops for taste (and keep your glass full for inspiration).
“Courage, Gaston, courage…”
Last night my kids and I made spaghetti and meatballs from a book the 6-year old took out of the library. It was pretty good, although low on herbs and spices. Plus it was fun. Tonight I made mahi mahi and whole wheat couscous with mushrooms. The couscous was fantastic.
I planned ahead for once in my damn life and we’re gonna have slow-cooker pot roast tonight. I browned the chuck and chopped the veggies last night, will pop home on my lunch break to start everything up with some red wine and maybe a beer (Mr. Horseshoe will be coming home late, so no point starting it in the morning) and if all goes well we’ll have that with some egg noodles.
About 6 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 8ths.
3 large onions, also cut into 8ths.
A package of carrots, peeled and cut into 1" pieces.
Put all into a baking dish, liberally covered in olive oil, then coated with black pepper and sprinkled with salt.
Covered the dish with aluminum foil and pinched tight, trying to seal.
Then put in the oven at 350 for about 1.5 hours.
The potatoes and carrots were so soft, like coming from a crock pot, but the onions were also soft, but still had flavor and enough texture left that they weren’t just slime at the bottom of the pot.
We served this dish with 2-day marinated beef brisket that was cooked for 6 hours.
First attempt at crock pot pot roast. I put about 3-1/2 pounds of (guaranteed tender) chuck roast in the pot and patted on a packet of Lipton onion soup mix. Then a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup (Healthy Choice), a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes (cut into sixths), a yellow onion (cut into sixths), some carrots, white button mushrooms (1 container, fresh), and a sliced bell pepper.
Roomie has to be at work at 1400 today, so she’ll have to wait until she gets home (around midnight) before she gets any.
I just picked up a Pork loin roast at the store. Don’t quite know what I am going to do with it yet, Maybe Caribbean, maybe Asian, Maybe just garlic rosemary and thyme. But I do promise tomorrow there will be sammiches
I’m making a mustard-apricot pork roast in the slow cooker today. As soon as mudgirl gets home from church (any minute now), I’m going to let her help me make a dry rub for the pork roast. We’ll rub the roast with olive oil then the seasonings, and sear it in a big pan for extra flavor. It will go into the slow cooker with a little stock-in-a-box for moisture. About an hour before we’re ready to eat, I’ll whisk together some apricot all-fruit spread, some nice Dijon mustard, and maybe a splash or Worcestershire sauce. I’ll pour this mixture over the roast and let it go for another hour while I make either potatoes, rice or noodles (I’ll give hubby the choice on this).
I’ve got some frozen peas hanging around. I’ll steam them up with a mint-butter sauce.
Tonight’s pork roast, as seen in post 312, was more or less improvisation, and everyone here agrees it’s a ‘keeper’, so I’ll post it:
2lb pork loin roast
Olive oil
Dry rub of:
crushed red pepper flakes
dried rosemary
dried thyme
dries parsley
dried garlic
Coarse sea salt
Cracked black pepper
(I won’t post amounts, because I was going along, telling mudgirl ‘a quarter-palmful of this, half-palmful of that’)
Put the dry rub in a mortar and crushed it up some with the pestle.
Olive oil
1/2C beef stock
3TBSP brown sugar
6TBSP apricot fruit spread
4TBSP spicy brown mustard
1 and 1/2tsp aged balsamic vinegar
1/4C beef stock
1TBSP corn starch
I lined my 4qt crock for my slow cooker with a liner (for easy clean-up); coated the roast lightly with olive oil, rubbed generously, all over, with rub. Seared all sides in a super hot pan. Put beef stock in crock, add roast, cooked on high for about 5 hours. Removed from crock and sliced.
In a small bowl, I combined sugar, fruit spread, mustard and vinegar with a whisk, poured it over the roast slices. Cooked on high for another hour.
Removed slices from crock to a plate, combined beef stock and corn starch to make a slurry, whisked into sauce in pot; returned roast slices to pot, tossing lightly to coat. Turned pot down to ‘Warm’ for serving.
I can see playing with this recipe, adding ginger and soy sauce to make it more “Asian” and such.
I would have liked it with brown rice, but hubby wanted potatoes, so I made sour cream mashed potatoes.
I have a meatloaf in the oven, made with a pound of ground chuck, and a pound of ground lean turkey. Binder was a couple of eggs, Stovetop stuffing, and crushed crackers. Added chopped onion, bell pepper, and minced garlic. Other flavorings: Liquid Smoke, Worcestershire, ketchup, salt and pepper. And one secret ingredient.
Serving with parsley buttered new potatoes, and okra & tomatoes.
