I’ve mentioned before in my posts that nowadays when I wake up on the weekends, I don’t necessarily plan out every waking hour of my day anymore. That used to be the case when the boys were young, at home, in sports and other activities, and my day would be an hour-to-hour or minute-by-minute marathon of running here and there. Now when I awaken each morning on the weekends, I have the “luxury” of being more complacent in my “older” empty-nesting years with just figuring (1) if I can open my eyes – whew – first step accomplished, I’m still alive and kicking; (2) rolling out of bed – second step hurdled, I can still walk; and (3) what am I going to conjure up in the kitchen today. Really, now, if it walks and talks, it has to be fed, right?
Some days I want to be artistic and creative in the kitchen, creating new dishes, modifying old ones. It's in the blood -- I come from an artistic family. My mom took art correspondent courses when she was first married and was a very good artist. Not that I am patting myself on the back or anything, but I did fairly well myself, with one of my proudest accomplishments having a drawing that went and was displayed at the Wisconsin State Fair when I was in high school. Casey took up the interest in art early on in his years and has continued it through the rest of his young years. Recently, he was the Art Director for a toy company in Chicago, but this week he starts a new job with a company in New York. Brady is also good at art and did start technical school in graphic design. It is funny how full circle things come because Casey has his Grandma Eidsmoe’s old art correspondence books and even more coincidental, he also has art correspondent books from Grandma O’Connor, as she took courses, too.
Be that as it may, other days in the kitchen I want to slip back into comfort foods. Last night when I went to bed the forecast was that we were in for another snow storm (of some sort). Whether it be snow, rain, ice, sleet or hail, it would all be determined by the temperatures. It was predicted that it would start after midnight Saturday night and go into Monday with possible accumulations (if snow) of two inches in our area, but with blowing and gusting winds, again. When I awoke this morning, (after checking off numbers 1 and 2 above), I looked out the window – nothing. Hmmmmm . . . that was good, at least for now. Knowing that the weather was going to be . . . (looking for the correct technical weather term here) . . . oh, yes, yucky, my thoughts turned to comfort foods – old standbys.
I let Pongo out the door so he could do his duty, started the coffee, and headed to the freezer. There I found what I was looking for – the plain, old, standby – beef chuck roast. I was feeling like it was going to be a roast, mashed potatoes and vegetables kind of day. Taking my first sip of coffee, I checked my blood sugar, gave myself my insulin and threw the roast in the microwave for a four-minute quick thaw. If I was on the ball, I would have taken it out last night and put in the refrigerator to thaw, but a lot of the time (okay, most of the time), I’m not that much ahead of myself. And, this works for me.
I took out my large stainless skillet and coated the bottom with some extra-virgin olive oil and turned the burner on medium high. When searing meat, you need a fairly higher heat. Not too high, but not too low. When the oil was starting to heat up, I placed the roast into the pan and put a cover on it. It will start to sputter and splatter all over the place, if you don’t. I then seasoned the top with a good dose of salt, a good cover of pepper, a sprinkle of Cavender’s Greek Seasoning, and a little Emeril’s seasoning. (For picture of ingredients, see third row pictures above, center). Once the bottom side was seared well, I used my big strong tongs and flipped it over to the other side. (See bottom picture above.) I always make sure I season the first side right away so it has time to melt into the meat before turning. After seasoning the second side and sure that the bottom was now seared well, I added a little red wine to the pan and after letting that cook in for about 5-8 minutes, I added about a quarter of a box of beef broth. I next poured a little Kitchen Bouquet into the sauce to give it a richer, darker texture. Still on the medium heat, I let that cook for about 5-6 minutes.
Next, I pulled out my roasting pan and poured the rest of the box of beef broth into it. I then took the roast out of the skillet and set it in the middle of the roasting pan, and added the juices from the skillet. (See third row pictures, right). Then I deglazed the skillet by pouring a small amount of red wine into it and when the pan was rendered tidbit free, I added that to the roasting pan. Now time to add the rest of the goodies. I took a bag of baby carrots and dumped them out around the edges of the roast (in the juices), then topped that with some mushrooms and on top of the roast I placed some slices of white onions. I put some aluminum foil over the top of the roasting pan, sealing the edges and placed it into a preheated oven at 375 degrees.
Once all that was done, I didn’t need to touch anything until about half hour before we were ready to eat. At that point, I peeled some Idaho potatoes since I was planning to make mashed potatoes. Having covered them sufficiently with water, I salted the water and set them on the burner to cook.
Here enters the great debate about what type of potato to use for what type of potato dish. My rule of thumb usually is if it is mashed potatoes, I am going to use either Idaho or Russets. (Picture of reds & Idahos above, 3rd row, left). I always have one of those two on hand. If making lefse, Russets. Baked potatoes, I go to Golds, Idaho or Russets – my fav for baked, though, is Golds (See picture, second row, left, above). Their skin is more tender and when I make baked potatoes, I tend to like to pierce them a couple times, put butter on top, and sprinkle a little garlic powder on the butter, all wrapped in tin foil. It melts into the potato when baking and provides a softer, silkier skin. For potato salad, I’m all for Idaho. They hold up better to the tossing they get during the prep time. I also am in love with Baby Reds. I like these in a red potato salad; or boiled, drained and tossed with butter and parsley; or cut up and baked in a scalloped Dijon mustard sauce. For scalloped potatoes, I’m strictly Idaho or Russet. I guess you could say that I am one particular potato head!
Okay, now that you know my deep dark secrets about potatoes, let’s see, where was I? Oh, yea, mashed potatoes. Since Bob likes gravy and I like butter on my mashed potatoes, I had to start some gravy. One other thing I absolutely love to have with my mashed potatoes, and that is cream style corn. I love to top my potatoes with butter, then a spoonful or two or three of the corn. Brady has picked this yummy little habit up from me, too. So, I also opened up a can of corn since I don’t have any canned corn in the freezer. It has been a couple years since I have put up canned corn, but I have some special memories of that, which I will leave to another blog. Hmmmm . . . maybe I have spoken of it before – I think I might have mentioned it in Auntie’s Eulogy.
Anyway, next step, I took a couple hoagie rolls out of the freezer, thawed them a tad in the microwave, sliced them in half lengthwise, buttered them (more like slathered them – that’s me the butter queen!!) and sprinkled them with some parsley-garlic powder. I took the roast out of the oven and placed the garlic bread in at the same temp. (See top picture, right, above.) (If you wanted to know my timing, I had the roast in the oven by 8:00 a.m., and took it out around noon). I wanted the roast out so it would rest and soak up the juices while doing so. (For picture of finished roast, see 2nd row, right, above). In addition, I needed some of that juice for my (Bob’s) gravy. Having accomplished that and the potatoes now done, I drained the potato juice off into another pan and added some of the roast juice. I put that on the burner and mixed up the thickening – a little flour and cold water a little at a time to form a paste and then a nice velvety thickening. Once my gravy juice was almost to a boil, I turned the heat down and slowly whisked in the thickening. That done, I turned it on simmer, took the bread out, plated everything up (in bowls or platters) and we are finally ready to eat. (See top picture, left, above.)
The timing was great because when Bob had come in after chores he turned the TV onto our new free Starz channel (another whole discussion – satellite companies!!). The movie 2012 was on and anytime we had caught it before it was usually half over with. This time it was only about five minutes into it, and I was able to catch most of it while hustling around the kitchen. Regardless, it was now just getting over with, so we were able to sit down to eat. And I wasn’t going to disappoint with having no dessert today either, because I had also made glazed raised donuts (and, of course, donut holes).
Reaping the rewards of a morning in the kitchen is always very satisfying. And, on a rainy, cold, windy day, it is even more comforting when you sit down to a hot meal of all things familiar. The only thing missing now is a nap!
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