Sunday dinner-Beef Stroganoff

Sunday dinner and, finally, my turn to cook. Ron trimmed all fat from the beef tenderloin for the Beef Wellington meat, so it was a lean, tender, delicious cut of meat. That was the perfect opportunity to put it to good use. Beef Stroganoff is one of our favorites so we invited Nana and Papa over for a hearty winter meal. Can you believe they've never tried Beef Stroganoff. Recipe to follow.

I have decided there is nothing to compare to the smell of onions and garlic sauteeing in a pan. I think this beats even chocolate chip cookies. I could be cooking upstairs, starting anything with onions and garlic sauteeing, and my kids could be downstairs with friends and they'll come upstairs and wonder what I am making that smells so delicious.

We also found a star competitor in the salad dressing refrigerated section at Jewel. It is good on anything--we made a fresh lettuce salad with avacados, celery, blueberries, blue cheese and fried up bacon bits, topped it off with this delicious dressing and voila, a yummy, fresh tasting Asian salad. The dressing is by Litehouse and is called Toasted Sesame and Ginger. I'm afraid I'm going to have to buy more since it's almost all gone.

Between tinging the bread in the salad dressing and the Beef Stroganoff, we cleaned every plate on the table.

Papa made some very good rice pudding for dessert and we were in roly-poly heaven.

Beef Stroganoff
(This is my sister-in-law Anna's recipe. It is very easy and very good.)

1/2 stick melted butter
1 chopped onion
Round or sirloin steak, sliced thin
Burgundy wine
Cream of mushroom soup with the same amount of milk
Mushrooms sliced
Egg noodles

Sautee onion in butter.
Add meat and season with seasoned salt, garlic powder, S & P.
Add wine and let simmer. (If meat is tough, cover and simmer 1/2 hr)
Add soup and 1 can milk and cook till warm.
Add 1 T sour cream and mix through till warm.

Serve atop cooked egg noodles and enjoy!

What to do with leftover lobster

Well, Papa brought lobster tails for New Year's Day yesterday, and my mouth is still watering from what Ron created with the leftovers. Recipe follows.

After doing some household chores, Ron was bored and decided it was time to create.

He cut up the leftover lobster and a few leftover shrimp and went to work.
He added S & P, 2 T mayo, 1 t dijon mustard, some celery and onions, 3 shots of hot sauce, 1/4 t lemon and mixed it together.

He grilled some leftover Italian bread and made a magic lobster sandwich topped with sliced avacado
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New Year's Day Feast-Crab Rangoon recipe

Today we began cooking, just like most special days, early in the afternoon. Some days we begin cooking early in the morning but since this is New Year's Day, we got a late start. Cooking is a big part of our family, almost as big as eating. Ron (dad) is super passionate about food. He can cook for anyone, at any time, for any reason, ANY kind of food. It will always be delicious and there will always be enough for at least 5 extra guests.

Ron and I had already together prepared his famous Beef Wellington this morning. We had lots of juicy, tender crab meat left from from New Year's Eve with the Kosteckis, our neighbors. Usually Ron does most of the cooking on these special days, but for some reason he handed over one of the appetizers to me. Since we were about to make Bri's favorite appetizer, crab rangoon, she had no choice but to help. Bri is a typical 17-year old. She loves food more than she loves cooking. It is time to teach her the joys of cooking, daddy style. The recipe follows.

As we began our assembly line, with Ron handing out orders, in walks Krystian, Bri's 17-year old boyfriend. Krystian has helped in our kitchen before, doling out chocolate chip cookie dough. It took him a while but he finally got them the perfect size. I felt a little sorry for him at first because he was definitely out of his element. But as usual, he jumped right in without a word and went to work.

So as we had our assembly line going, we talked. We talked about New Year's Eve and all the things that happened within our family that we knew about. Mostly happy things, from what I could conjure up from the conversation.

Then we began talking about cooking. We are Food TV junkies in our home, and Krystian came up with the idea of starting a Food TV show on our cooking escapades. As we talked, we came up with more and more ideas and decided to start a blog regarding our family's cooking excursions. We will share with you some of the fun things that happen while you cook. Mind you, not everything is fun. The kitchen can be a very intense place at certain times during the process, but with some quick moves and tongue biting, we come out unscathed and ready to sit down to a scrumptious meal.

Oh, yeah, when we are alone as a family, we can't get through a meal without critiquing every apsect of the food at every meal. This usually happens when I cook. Mind you, I can cook. I just don't prefer to cook. I have been in school for the past 3 years and basically just cooked to get dinner on the table. Ron's food has to have "presentation" as well as be exquisite. When we have company over, it goes without saying that everything is mouth-wateringly delicious.

I hope you enjoy watching/hearing about some of our adventures in cooking. We will try to share as many of our favorite recipes as possible and maybe even have some famous and not-so-famous guest chefs. We hope to inspire all ages that it's all about Food, Family and Fun.


Crab Rangoon

1-1/2 c shredded crab meat
1 pkg cream cheese
5 green onions chopped
2 dashes tobasco sauce
1/4 t 5-spice powder
S & P to taste
1 pkg wonton wrappers
Egg wash (1 egg w/ 1 t water)

1. Mix together first 6 ingredients
2. Lay out wonton wrappers and brush egg wash on outside edges
3. Add about 1 T mixture to center
4. Fold wonton in triangle over mixture
5. Fork sides together
6. Fry in 1" of oil (anything but EVOO) about 1 minute on each side or until lightly browned
7. Lay on paper towel to remove excess oil
Serve on platter with sweet and sour sauce.
We also used wasabi mayonnaise because everything tastes great with wasabi mayo on it.
And this time we also tried some Toasted Sesame Ginger dressing (by Litehouse) and it was a nice accompaniment.