Black Eyed Susans

Tried and True Thursday Black-Eyed Susans I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my dad's mom, whom we called "Grandmama".  I have very few memories of her, but one stands out vividly to me.  We're standing next to a concrete brick retaining wall which was probably 3-4 feet high and the day is sunny and bright.  I am watching Grandmama tend to her flowers on top of that retaining wall. They are beautiful, sunshine yellow with velvety soft black centers.  "Tell me their name," I beg her.  "Black-eyed Susans, " she replied.  I loved that they were named Susan, one of my favorite names among all. When I came across this recipe first, it was in a Southern Living Eating Light cookbook.  Nearly every one has had these easy cookies in some form.  But in my Atkins days these were mainstays (made with Spelnda) when we had a sweet tooth.  These cookies are super easy, take few ingredients and make a pretty presentation on a platter for a tea party. Black-Eyed Susans 2 cups peanut butter (1 15 ounce jar) 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 cup chocolate chips or 2 - 2 1/2 dozen Hershey kisses Mix peanut butter, sugar, and eggs.  Chill.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Roll dough into 2 - 2 1/2 dozen balls and place on foil lined cookie sheet.  Gently depress thumb into center of cookie dough ball.  Place 3 chocolate chips in depression (5 if especially large) or one unwrapped Hershey kiss.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Allow to cool on cookie sheet.

Pepper Coated Roast Beef

Tried and True Thursday Pepper Coated Roast Beef Something about Roast Beef just makes it seem a special dinner, for Sunday or to share with guests...Thankfully, many cuts are relatively inexpensive and may be purchased for under $3/pound.  I'm not partial to one cut over another.  I pretty much like them all.  I require two things from a roast: that it be within my budget limits and that it serve us more than one meal. I remember watching an episode of Little Rascals an original Our Gang black and white film where Spanky's parents nearly broke up their marriage over Roast Beef...Well actually, it wasn't the roast beef on Sunday but the Hash on Monday.  Seems Father had a very real dislike of the hash Mother served on Mondays/Wash Days following Sunday dinner.  No such luck in our household!  My kids would beg me to make hash and skip the roast dinner! This particular recipe isn't a homey pot roast.  It's easy as can be, but the presentation is a little more elegant, nice enough for Sunday dinner or a dinner party for special guests.  The original recipe appeared in a 2004 issue of Woman's Day magazine.  It was the simplicity of ingredients that led me to try this recipe, but my family's raves has made it a menu staple.  It's a lovely roast for a celebratory dinner, would be nice for a holiday meal, as well. As I said, I'm not partial to one cut of roast over another.  The original recipe calls for Eye of Round, which I do sometimes find well priced, but more often I use a Round Shoulder or Rump Roast and they do just fine, too.  A sirloin could be used, but you'd want to have your butcher roll it, and I must say I prefer any of the three mentioned earlier over the sirloin for this particular recipe. When I make this roast I use whatever mustard I have on hand.  It's great with dijon, yellow or any whole grain mustard.  To crush the peppercorns place in a zippered plastic bag and use a rolling pin or meat mallet to coarsely crush them.  And if you want still more flavor add minced garlic and/or chopped fresh rosemary to the mustard.  Pepper Coated Roast Beef 4 pound beef roast (eye, round rump or shoulder round) 1/3 cup Dijon mustard 3 Tbsps coarsely ground peppercorns Heat oven to 425F.  Rub roast with mustard, press peppercorns into surface and place on rack in pan.  Bake 45-55 minutes for rare, 50-60 minutes for medium rare.  Remove from oven and tent with foil.  Let rest for ten minutes.  This is excellent served with a flavored herb butter, roasted red pepper butter, or my favorite, a creamy dijon sauce.  To make the dijon sauce:  Heat 2 tbsps dijon mustard in a small skillet.  Add 1/2 cup half and half to pan and heat through until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.   Add 1 tbsp butter and stir until well blended.

Chicken Quesadillas

I'd planned to make a different meal from these components but this was what I decided to make today...and they were GOOD!   That's always a bonus in my book when you take leftover food that was good the first time around and you make it a different dish that is just as good or better for the second round.

Meatballs, Stuffed Peppers, Spanish Rice, Steak and Cheese Burrito, Italian Pepper Steak Sandwiches

I started this morning with a plan.  I had in the fridge, about 1 cup of leftover bread stuffing, tomato sauce, 1/2 of a large sirloin steak,  2 cups of frozen rice.  Here's what I made with all three items.

I thawed the rice and a  pound and half of ground beef.

Makeover #1:  Meatballs
1 pound of ground beef, 2/3 of a cup of tomato sauce (leftover from meatloaf two weeks ago), chopped onion and garlic, the bread stuffing crumbled, 1 egg.  I mixed up all this and made up into 27 meatballs which I flash froze in the freezer.  These will be good for sandwiches, pizza and soup later on.  I doubled my usual servings per pound of beef by stretching with the other items.

Makeover #2:  Stuffed Peppers
I mixed 1/2 pound ground beef with 1 cup of cooked rice, 3 tbsps  diced tomatoes, chopped onion, and garlic and stuffed five pepper halves that I'd blanched and frozen after grocery day.  Typically we eat 1 pepper half as a serving (the peppers were huge)

Makeover #3:  Spanish Rice
I sauteed chopped onion, garlic and green bell pepper in a saucepan and added 1 cup rice, juice from the diced tomatoes and about 2 tbsps of diced tomato, seasoned with salt/pepper/chili powder to make a side dish for dinner.

Makeover #4:  Steak and Cheese Burrito
Years ago I used to have a Del Taco near my home.  I really enjoyed their steak and cheese burrito.  No Del Tacos anywhere that I'm aware of these days.  I sliced my leftover sirloin into strips.  I cooked onions in a bit oil until browned.  Some of the steak strips and onions were layered on a flour tortilla, topped with shredded sharp cheddar and a couple of teaspoons of homemade Enchilada Sauce.  I rolled and heated the filled burritos in the microwave.  Yum!

Makeover #5:  Italian Pepper Steak Sandwiches
I felt we had plenty of sirloin steak for the burritos so put some aside with some of the cooked onions and poured over the tail end of a bottle of Italian dressing.  I'll cook some bell pepper strips  (frozen) and add those in, pile on Onion Rolls and top with Provolone Cheese. 

Watermelon for Grown Ups

I've always been a purist where watermelon is concerned.  Just give me a cold slice and we'll call it good.  But this salad was AWESOME.  I'll post it here and at my recipe blog, too.  I've looked online for it with no result.  It was one of those minor recipes, tucked on the corner of a page of other items.  It's called Watermelon for Grown Ups.   Sorry to say I didn't take a photo of it but it was a pretty salad and the freshness was perfect with the spiciness of the tacos.

Watermelon for Grown Ups

4 cups melon cubes
1 6 ounce container plain Greek style yogurt (I used my homemade)
1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tbsps honey
juice of 1 lime
chopped pistachios for garnish

Mix yogurt, honey, ginger, lime.  Pour over watermelon just before serving, sprinkle with nuts..

Beef and Noodle Toss

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Start to Finish: 25 minutes

Average rating 3.5 from 7 reviews

Beef and Noodle Toss

ingredients

• 8 ounces lasagna noodles
• 12 ounces boneless beef sirloin, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pint grape tomatoes (2 cups)
• 8 ounces sliced crimini or button mushrooms
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or (2 teaspoons)
• 1 14-ounce can beef broth

directions1. Break noodles in half; cook according to package directions. Drain (do not rinse).
2. Meanwhile; season beef with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Toss with flour. Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add meat, any remaining flour, and the tomatoes to skillet. Cook 3 to 4 minutes or until beef is well browned, stirring often. Add mushrooms and garlic. Cook 5 minutes more. Add broth; cook 3 to 4 minutes more or until beef is done and liquid is slightly thickened.
3. Add cooked noodles to skillet; stir gently to coat. Heat through. Spoon into pasta bowls to serve. Makes 4 servings.

nutrition facts

• Calories468
• Total Fat (g)16
• Saturated Fat (g)5,
• Monounsaturated Fat (g)7,
• Polyunsaturated Fat (g)1,
• Cholesterol (mg)40,
• Sodium (mg)712,
• Carbohydrate (g)52,
• Total Sugar (g)5,
• Fiber (g)3,
• Protein (g)28,
• Vitamin C (DV%)21,
• Calcium (DV%)5,
• Iron (DV%)21,
• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

***my notes:  I didn't buy a sirloin steak to cube.  I bought a sirloin tip roast at the very beginning of summer on sale and cut it into cubes then.  This recipe caught my interest because I almost always have half a box of lasagna noodles left in the pantry. 

Granny's Fried Apple Pies

Fried Apple Pies

Granny was well known for her specialties: potato salad, pound cake, fried apple pies...

What, you may ask, is a fried apple pie?  Well if you're from the South you've likely tried them.  Traditionally they are made with dried fruit and are fried.  Not like McDonald's apple pies, either.  These are far more tender and delicate than that.

About this time of year, Granny's trees were full of green apples.  Green apples are not Granny Smith variety but immature apples, which are still green, as opposed to the ripened apples.  Green apples of all varieties  are tart and sweet and a little bit hard to bite into, but as children we haunted the trees when the apples got big enough to eat, even if they were green.  Granny was forever warning us we'd have a stomach ache from eating so many but we never did have.  And we knew they were good to eat because Granny would gather up big pans full to pare and slice.  Often too she'd make some into her wonderful  lattice topped deep dish Green Apple Pie, a dish I grow more and more nostalgic for year after year.  Alas, a dearth of green apples exists in my life. 

She would take all the rest of the apple slices  and lay them out on old window screens, covering with cheesecloth and another screen and let them dry in the hot August sun.  She'd gather up those dry apple slices to store in muslin bags and a little later, make Fried Apple Pies.  Typically we'd have them all through the winter months for Sunday desserts, when she wasn't making Pecan Pie or Pound cakes.

Now the 'recipe' that follows is a very loose one.  The measurements can be adjusted up or down to suit your family's needs.  The apple filling is merely one option.  Some folks like to make sweet potato pies (using mashed cooked sweet potatoes), some use dried peaches, and Mama's grandmother liked to make chocolate pies (she'd fill with cocoa and sugar and  a drizzle of cream over the dry ingredients).  You can make berry pies using preserves.  Suit yourself, but do try a fried pie at least once.

Granny began by taking about 2 cups of dried apple slices and poured over them apple juice to cover.  Then she put the apples on to cook, adding more apple juice as needed.  When the apple slices were plump and tender and most of the liquid had been cooked away, she'd make up a biscuit dough and roll it thin.  She'd cut into circles roughly as big as a saucer, plop 2-3  tablespoons of apples in the middle,  fold and pinch the edges shut.  Then she'd heat a cast iron skillet, add a couple tbsps of oil and butter mixed and when the oil was hot, she'd place those pies in the skillet to fry slowly.  When browned on one side, she'd turn to cook on the other side and then remove them to drain on a paper towel. 

You can do this whole recipe with canned biscuits and applesauce if you'd prefer. I have just baked them in the oven which suits us and our digestion admirably.  My family looks forward to this as a seasonal treat just before Autumn arrives and Summer ends