Tried it Thursday

In an effort to be more consistent with my blogging (see: less lazy) I'm going to commit to a "Tried it Thursday" post every week.  Here I will share a recipe, product, activity or find that I have tried and let you know what I think. 

Today, I give you Rachel Ray's Super Sloppy Joes!

I've been trying to get away from using the packaged seasoning mixes when I cook.  It's mostly because of the sodium content and all those preservatives; oh, and because homemade tastes SO much better.  You see, I haven't always been in to cooking.  It's a fairly new passion of mine.  So, I used to think a package of Manwich on some browned ground beef equaled gourmet "homemade". 

I found this recipe online after a quick "ground beef meals" Google search.  I had some in the freezer and I did not want to run to the store before dinner.  I was very excited to find I had all (well, most) of the rest of these ingredients in my kitchen!

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/4 pounds ground beef sirloin

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon steak seasoning blend, such as McCormick brand Montreal Seasoning*

1 medium onion, chopped (I used red onion)

1 small red bell pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 cups tomato sauce**

2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 crusty rolls, split, toasted, and lightly buttered***

*I didn't have the steak seasoning so I just seasoned with a bit of black pepper and seasoned salt.
**I'm lucky enough to have tomato sauce that my mom canned from her garden on hand, but the store bought kind will work too.
***Regular hamburger buns in the toaster work just fine!

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and meat to the pan. Spread the meat around the pan and begin to break it up. Combine brown sugar and steak seasoning (or whatever seasoning you are using). Add sugar and spice mixture to the skillet and combine. When the meat has browned, add onion and red peppers to the skillet. Reduce heat to medium and cook onions, peppers, red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce with meat for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and paste to pan. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to simmer and cook Sloppy Joe mixture 5 minutes longer.

This recipe made enough for my husband to have seconds and leftovers the next day. 

I made my mom's potato salad as a side.  It's one of those recipes that has never been written down, so all of these measurements are approximate and can be adjusted for your taste:

2 large potatoes, chopped and boiled until soft

1/2 cup Miracle Whip

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

1/4 cup sweet relish

2 hard boiled eggs, diced

pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and enjoy!  I usually do a potato/person and adjust other ingredients accordingly.

I got two thumbs up from husband on this one and it was actually pretty quick and easy.  It will definitely be a repeat at our house!

XOXO Y'all!

Morgan

Chocolate and Beer

Hello!  This is my first blog post and rather than go into a long story about my life and how I got to be here I'll just give you the bullet points.  I love my life, my husband, my family and my friends. I love designer clothes and shoes, even though I can't afford them. I love to bake but I hardly ever eat dessert. I love to crank up my iPod and go for a long run. NYC is one of my happy places...the other is Colorado. I hate summer and always count down the days till the first freeze. I don't function well without Dr Pepper in the afternoon. I rarely brush my hair. I drink beer...the darker, the better. I'm a Razorback football fan. I miss my friends and family whenever they are not with me.  I love the smell of fresh brewed tea, onions sauteing in butter, and red wine.

This weekend, I added the smell of real butter simmering in Guinness to my list. 

You see, while I do have a grownup job to take care of all those pesky necessities like health insurance and my mortgage...I moon-lite as a cake baker.  Some good friends of ours (my husband and myself) are getting married this fall and I was flattered when they asked me to make their wedding cakes.  (I LOVE weddings and wish I could have a full blown wedding event with a different theme every year on our anniversary but Husband vetoed that plan)  I think it is important to incorporate personal touches whenever possible and the groom in this case is a lover of beer.  I immediately started searching for the perfect chocolate/beer cake recipe and I found it at the Smitten Kitchen blog. 

You start by simmering real butter in a cup of Guinness beer which smells heavenly.  I was not able to get my cocoa and beer/butter mixture smooth.  The liquid kept separating from the cocoa (but I was using regular Hershey's baking cocoa so a better quality might work better) and the end result was a little dryer than I had hoped so I might add a little more sour cream.  I topped this cake with a self adapted Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream icing rather than the coffee ganache listed on this site.

Irish Cream Buttercream:

2 sticks unsalted butter
4 cups confectioners sugar
4 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream Liquor
1 teaspoon vanilla.

I creamed the butter and added the sugar and Bailey's one portion at a time, beating it until mixed after each addition.  Then I added the vanilla at the end and whipped it until desired consistency.

Even though I thought the cake was a bit dry (and this could have been due to slightly over baking or the aforementioned beer/butter/cocoa debacle) our friends thought it was wonderful and selected it to be the flavor for their grooms cake.  The beer was not overwhelmingly present in the flavor of the cake but the chocolate and Bailey's tasted great together!

I look forward to sharing photos of the finished cakes in September!