Gracie Allen Roast Beef

Here is a foolproof recipe for roast beef from old radio star Gracie Allen.

Gracie Allen's Classic Recipe for Roast Beef

1 large Roast of beef
1 small Roast of beef

Take the two roasts and put them in the oven.
When the little one burns, the big one is done.

Where is that woman now that we need her humor?

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Corps du Tomate

Ah, the lovely tomato! It has been roasted. It has been used in last night's dinner. But tonight, the Roasted Lovelies got the additional treatment my taste buds yearned for.

Tonight we had another angel hair pasta, ground chuck, and Corps du Tomate! What to do??

Roasted tomatoes and wooden spoon. Cover pot and bring tomatoes to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Check refrigerator for additional vegetables.

Voila! We have another tomato and a section of yellow pepper. Lucky Ger!

And don't they look handsome in the pot? Add a few more cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. Stir. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes minimum. Oh, lordy me!

Next (no photos ~ use imagination) I cooked three quarters of a pound of ground chuck doused lightly with Teriyaki marinade. Spooned out fat, poured half the Corps du Tomate into the pan, stirred contents, then added remainder of last night's angel hair pasta.

I had to lock the front door. There was not enough for the whole neighborhood! Did I say it was delicious? Add a few sauteed mushrooms from the frig to my portion (hehehe - Pam doesn't like to look at them) and I become a very noisy eater!!! Pam was none too quiet eating either; I love to hear her moaning.

I sincerely hope you will try this Corps du Tomate some time. 

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Roasting Tomatoes

So Delicious when done! Here, I start with the same 60 year old cookie pan, douse it liberally with extra virgin olive oil, then salt and pepper the bottom of the pan.

I normally slice the tomatoes into quarters or eighths, place them in the pan and wiggle them around to ensure salt, pepper, and oil coverage.

Fresh garlic: Thank you cousin Linda for teaching me how to deftly smack the garlic out of their skins with a broad bladed knife. Two or three sharp blows make the job of peeling very easy. I add about six cloves of diced garlic which I sprinkle over the filled pan of tomatoes.

Dice up a Vidalia Onion (not shown) and add it to the shallot mix. A good-sized shallot adds a tasty complement to the garlic, salt and pepper.

Almost oven ready. Add another generous spilling of oil over the whole pan of tomatoes, then salt and pepper again to taste. I use sea salt in the hopes it will keep my blood pressure where it should be, but salting is necessary.

You're going to love the smell. Close all doors and windows. ;^ )

Roast tomatoes at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes, then take the pan out and flip all the red nummies over a few times. Reinsert the pan in the oven and set the alarm for another 30 to 45 minutes. Sometimes slightly more time is needed.

When inspecting the pan for the second time, look for onions slightly burned on the edges. Caramelized onions are the clue to stop roasting.

Decision time: Use the roasted tomatoes directly or pour tomatoes and all juices into a pot, add a 1/4 cup of water and simmer on the stove top for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste the tommies and add more garlic, shallot, or whatever needed. Mmmmmm good!

Something for the mulch pit.

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Two Bean Chili and corn

Last night I felt tired and lazy enough to make another easy meal. So I put on a pot of Basmati Rice and browned about 3/4 pound of ground chuck with fresh chopped garlic. When the burger turned half brown, I stirred in a few tablespoons of teriyaki marinade. 

Medium hot chili beans were mixed with the fat-drained hamburger. I use all the juice in the can. Then sprinkle chili powder in the mixture until satisfied with the heat of the taste. 

Ooops! Then I thought how good the chili beans would taste when mixed with black beans. Nummy. So the beans got mixed, the remaining garlic sprinkled, and the tomatoes sliced and spread around.

Double whoops when I recalled the cooked corn waiting in the refrigerator. Now it started to look good - taste good. Covered it and let it simmer for a few minutes until all was ready.

A glass of beer went down very easily. Even if I haven't shown you the shredded chedder cheese shot which comes after this view. A crisp salad provided an excellent accompaniment. Toidy, toidy and Toodle Lou!

Rotini Ground Chuck

I prefer to use ground chuck for my burger dishes because there's less fat for my conscience and more taste for my buds. 

This dinner used only two stovetop pans and a side bowl to rest ingredients in for short periods ... Hurray! speaketh the dishwasher.

Ground chuck patiently awaiting the fire.

   This time (it's always different!) I put the chuck fire on Low and brought a pasta pan to boil while I was chopping the veggies. 

A half box of Rotini tends to give up two meals worth of pasta for us two. 

9 - 11 minutes of boiling time for the Rotini is plenty of time to prep vegetables and brown the ground chuck. 

Multi-tasking is great kitchen fun!!!

The half-browned chuck goes to visit a holding bowl. Thereafter, red peppers and jalapeno dance in butter with half of the aldente pasta. Brown a few rotini on Med-High, then back to Low. After a few minutes of saute, I add chopped fresh spinach to the pan and generously drip extra virgin olive oil over the greens. Salt. Pepper. Stir until spinach turns limp.

Next, I loaded on some tomatoes that I had roasted with onion and garlic and shallot. (Use that store bought stuff if you must. I do when the price of fresh tomatoes is sky high.) 

Piling the spinach and pasta into the center of the pan, the ground chuck made its reentry into pan space, nicely encircling the good stuff.

Of course it's fun mixing the ingredients.

Kinetics and aesthetics offer us cooks too much pleasure!

Not!

You must click on this post-mixing view to appreciate the gorgeous cheese.

Sprinkled with shredded parmesan cheese, this looks good enough to eat!

And it was tasty.

Next time I get the hankering for this dish, I will undoubtedly use slightly different ingredients and processes. But that, for me, is the fun of cooking.

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After Fish Tacos ~ Left Overs

Everybody knows some of the tastiest meals are made from Left-Overs.

Here's what happened after fish tacos last week.

I placed Leftover potatoes on a cookie sheet, reheating @ 200 degrees, while I made two cups of Basmati rice (20 - 22 minutes). Excess rice stored for later meals.

Leftover fish was reheated in a dollop of butter and olive oil, together with raw, sliced baby carrots. When the rice was half cooked, I tossed a couple hands full of frozen peas into the frying pan and covered it.

When the rice was done, the peas and carrots and fish were ready to be eaten.

Delicious!

Addendum:
These Leftover Potatoes came from a previous roasted chicken dinner. When roasting the 4.5 pound chicken in a 10x10 inch pan, I set the pan on a cookie sheet. After the chicken had cooked for 45 minutes, the potatoes (sliced and seasoned with butter, extra virgin olive oil, curry, salt, pepper and chedder cheese) were placed alongside the chicken pan on the cookie sheet. They cooked nicely during the bird's last 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

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Fish Tacos

Fish Tacos are one of our regular, easy feasts. If you like fish, you probably have a favorite species you'd like to cook up. We like the mild, fish-farmed tilapia. The two filets pictured below will make enough fish for four tacos.

tilapia filets from a fish farm

Since I normally cook for only two persons, I like to buy four to six filets while on sale and then freeze packages with two filets in each package. 

Some basic ingredients: lemon, lime, avocado, jalepeno and sweet red pepper.

Big Ugly tomato chunks, chopped romaine lettuce, chopped spinach.

Saute stripes of red peppers and diced jalapeno in butter and extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. We like these ingredients caramelized. I sometimes add some green onions, as well. Tonight I boiled sweet corn then mixed it into  our fish tacos.

Place butter and caramelized peppers into the pan. Salt and pepper the underside of the fish before placing them in the pan on medium high. Flip fish and peppers several times while they are browning. Squeeze lemon and/or lime over fish.

Here I've separated the thinner sections of the cooked fish on the left. The thicker (less well done) sections are quickly removed and placed in storage for the next meal. Or, cook it all if you cook for more than two.

I butter my tortilla with a mixture of sour cream and chipolte. Pam likes a spicey Thai peanut sauce. Next, pile on sliced greens, tomatoes, avocado, green onions, and fish with pepper saute.   

This is Pam's tortilla; she likes to fold it as follows...

Pam is daintier than I.

Here's my layout, below. I simply wrestle all sides until they fit into my mouth.

Once you get it wrapped up, it becomes a walk around dinner. Who needs plates? Who needs silverware?

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Home-Made Pepperoni Pizza

Click on Pix to Enlarge

One of our favorite easy meals is home-made Pepperoni Pizza. We prefer using Middle Eastern pockets or Pita Bread as a base; but, if you like thin crusts, you may want to try flour tortillas. I like both.

Tomato sauces are a matter of taste. I usually spread about three tablespoons of sauce around each pita or tortilla. We like store bought sauces of many varieties. Some sauces may be sweeter, others may offer fewer varieties of additional ingredients. This is Classico caramelized onion and roasted garlic.

stage one

This pizza was for me (left) and Pam (right). She doesn't care for mushrooms! I start with mushrooms and add spinach. I fix Pam's with spinach on the bottom.

stage two

Pam likes her pepperoni on top; I like mine under the cheese. She likes shredded Italian cheese. I like both Italian and Mozarella, sometimes on the same pizza.

stage three

Ready for the oven: Sometimes I add diced red pepper, onions, jalepenos, or more fresh tomato; Not this time. 

With pita bread as a base I fire the oven to 400 degrees F and set the timer for 10 minutes. Tortillas crisp up a bit faster so I watch them around 7 or 8 minutes. Obviously, some ovens are hotter or cooler at 400 degrees.

Here's Pam's pepperoni pizza cooling, waiting to be cut. The pizza cutter was presented to me (quite a few years ago) by Mama Tottino during her PR announcement that she sold her brand of pizza to General Mills. 

Here's my pizza cooling. Obviously, both Pam and her pizza are better looking.

But they taste pretty much the same to me (except mine seems cheesier!)

fin

Fast Chicken Salad

Easy and tasty, this is the second meal for my wife and me from one 4 1/2 pound roasting chicken.               

Fill bowls with salad greens, bite sized chunks of cold chicken, rice noodles, and diced and sauteed red and jalapeno peppers. Throw in a few slices of avacado or your favorite shredded cheese, add sesame and ginger dressing.

Saute lightly salted red and jalapeno peppers in butter and extra virgin olive oil while water for corn is heating. Drop corn into boiling water, remove from burner and cover for 5 minutes. Scoop and drip sauteed peppers into salad laden bowls. Insert corn ears and you're ready to eat.

Cheers!