My Mama's Beef Stroganoff

I called my mom the other day and was chatting with her about my food blog ... and somewhere during the conversation, I had a revelation that I've been writing a lot about her lately ... her unnatural hatred of turkey (truth be told - I'm not entirely sure where I got that from - she doesn't eat turkey, that doesn't necessarily equate hatred ...), how I learned how to cook from her copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook, her amazing cinnamon rolls, etc.

Truth be told?  My mom is the reason that I cook the way that I do and she also influences some of the departures that I make in cooking.  Case in point - my mother would probably cheerfully die rather than eat a smidgen of cream of mushroom soup.  Her hatred of that particular atrocity causes her to call my favorite green bean casserole "those slimy green beans."  So when you hear a nuclear explosion somewhere in northeast Iowa, it is because I have taken one of her signature dishes and have made it my own - complete with ground turkey and cream of mushroom soup instead of ground beef and cream of chicken soup.

There is nothing sexy or difficult about this dish, but for me - when I eat my mom's beef stroganoff or even my own bastardized version of it, I am instantly transported to my mom's kitchen and can picture the perfect roasting pan full of this casserole on Sundays when she was diverting from the Sunday roast routine.  This is one of those dishes that I've probably altered for my own purposes because I will never get it to taste as good as it did when I was a kid and mom would serve this with a side of garlic bread (leftover hamburger buns slathered with buttered and damn near dredged in garlic salt) and salad. 

I'm not sexy, but I put the "comfort" in comfort food

Mama's Beef Stroganoff - the ShelleyBakes version
by Mama Sharon and ShelleyBakes

1/2 bag wide egg noodles, cooked per directions
1 lb. ground turkey or beef, browned and drained
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cans cream of mushroom (or chicken) soup
1 c. sour cream

Make the noodles and drain.  While noodles are cooking, brown the meat together with the chopped onion.  If you're going to bake it, it can be a little pink, but if you think you'll eat it straight from the pan like my husband and I do?  Brown it till it is no longer clucking or mooing.  After the noodles and the meat are done, throw in a big bowl and add the soup and the sour cream.  You can get by with just one can of soup, but adding the extra makes it damn near velvety. 

This step truly makes it better, although you do not have to follow it ... if you decide you want to bake this casserole - have your oven preheated to 350 degrees.  Dump the contents of the bowl into a large casserole dish or a roasting pan (if your my mom and have doubled this recipe because you are feeding a herd of hungry folks) and bake until the top is slightly golden.  (Probably about 45 minutes?)

If you are like me and do not have the patience - you can eat it now, but only if you browned the hamburger properly. 

A couple of notes - this recipe is a cinch to double and it freezes incredibly well.  In fact, this is something I make on a relatively frequent basis when I know I'll be working extra shifts and I keep quart freezer bags of stroganoff in our freezer.  You can thaw and serve after nuking it for awhile or you can go that martyr's extra mile and bake it after it thaws. 

On a personal note - I love you Mom!  I promise I won't ever make stroganoff when you come over!.

Congrats to my friend Lindsey!

I've been blessed by my friend Lindsey who has been a faithful contributor to Shelley Bakes.  And as you guys saw in the Creepy Crawly Spiders post, this lady makes adorable babies.  Well, she welcomed baby number three today and since Baby Girl was three weeks early, she is currently nameless, but I'm just thrilled to know that Mommy and baby are healthy and well. 

Congrats to Ryan, Lindsey, Kyler and Anya!

Bastardized Bean Soup in the Crockpot

I gotta say - when I first saw this recipe on the Cooking Light website - it looked so damn cosmopolitan.  You know that recipe - the kind with the sexy title that just begs for you to invite over company so they can revel in your culinary prowess, but also a wee bit intimidating ... a recipe with such a great title MUST be complicated to pull off, right?  Right?

Um ... yeah.  After putting off and putting off this recipe because I was a bit daunted by the title (apparently I hadn't read the actual TEXT of what had seduced me ...), I realized something.  This was basically a version of my mom's bad-ass bean soup, but with stuff she wouldn't even IMAGINE crossing her palate (i.e. - smoked turkey sausage ... the woman has an unnatural hatred for turkey ... love you ma!)


So after reading the recipe and realizing that the only thing that was daunting me was the process of browning the sausage (unnecessary step, by the way) and the garlic and shallots, I made the next ultimate mistake of putting this soup in overnight in my crockpot.  And sometime after reassuring myself that the house wouldn't spontaneously combust in the middle of the night (I have that irrational fear when I leave the crockpot on for extended periods of time, which truly negates the use of a slow cooker), my sleep was plagued by dreams of baking and I was literally tormented by the smells of awesome bean soup goodness that leeched into my subconscious.


I woke myself up when I heard myself talking and when I accidentally hit my husband in the head because I was gesturing some point in my dream.  So despite the unintentional injuries and the fact that I basically had to quarantine myself from society after consuming bean soup for breakfast, lunch AND dinner in the span of one day (I never said my love for bean soup was reasonable), I hereby present my version of Cooking Light's "Tiny French Beans with Smoked Sausage" otherwise known to my husband as "that damn soup that my wife made in the middle of the night and assaulted me over at 2 a.m."

I am a bowl of pooty goodness

Bastardized Crockpot Bean Soup with Smoked Sausage
adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

* 1 lb. smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
* 1 T olive oil
* 1/3 cup minced shallots
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 C dried flageolets or other dried white beans, (about 1 pound - I used lima beans, apparently Hyvee doesn't carry flageolets? What the hell are flageolets?)
* 2 C water
* 1/4 C minced fresh or 1 tablespoon dried thyme (**I used rosemary ... it's what was in my kitchen)
* 1 teaspoon celery seeds (**don't have it - omitted)
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

Preparation

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add sausage; sauté 5 minutes or until browned. Remove from pan, and place in an electric slow cooker. Heat the oil in pan over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Sort and wash beans. Add beans, shallot mixture, water, and the remaining ingredients to slow cooker. Cover and cook on high 8 hours or until beans are tender.

WARNING ... cooking times are approximate.  After accidentally nailing hubby in the head and checking the soup at 2 a.m. (I had been in bed since 10 - four hours), the liquid had cooked down substantially and I ended up using an entire box (32 oz.) of chicken broth.

Would I make this again?  Most definitely - I'd also add a Shelley twist and chuck a few chopped carrots into the mix.  But if I make it again, I will not consume bean soup for an entire day's worth of meals and I'll make it on weekend when I won't obsessively dream over my culinary concoctions.

#GreatHallowTweet: Pumpkin Beer Quick Bread

I wasn't too surprised when I saw my husband cringe as I pulled down a can of pure pumpkin for this recipe.  You see, the poor man suffered for a week of insanity last fall when I decided to devote a week's worth of recipes to utilizing canned pumpkin.  And although I'm a little sad that he has yet to try this recipe, really I'm not too bummed out because this quick bread is so good, I have ate every single muffin that I made using this awesome batter which utilizes not only canned pumpkin - but beer as well.  And hell - it's from Cooking Light so how bad can it be?  (Unless you eat a loaf in its entirety ...)

Pumpkin Beer Quick Bread
adapted from Cooking Light

Yield: 2 loaves, 14 servings per loaf (serving size: 1 slice)
Ingredients

    3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour (about 3 1/4 cups)
    2 tsp salt
    2 tsp baking soda
    1 tsp baking powder
    1 tsp ground cinnamon
    1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
    1/2 cup water
    1/3 cup ground flaxseed
    2 1/2 cups sugar
    2/3 cup canola oil
    2/3 cup beer (at room temperature)**
    1/2 cup egg substitute
    2 large eggs
    1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350°.  Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, salt, and next 4 ingredients (through pumpkin pie spice) in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk.  Combine 1/2 cup water and flaxseed.  Place sugar and next 4 ingredients (through eggs) in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add flaxseed mixture and pumpkin; beat at low speed just until blended. Add flour mixture; beat just until combined. Divide batter between 2 (9 x 5–inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

** The Cooking Light recipe called for honey beer - I didn't have any, so I used a chocolate-y stout and wow ... awesome.  Also I made one loaf and used the rest for muffins.  Decrease the cooking time for the muffins to about 40 minutes.

If you decide to make two loafs, you may wrap the other one in plastic wrap and freeze for up to two months.

#GreatHallowTweet: Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Yup - I know what you're thinking ... what does lemon poppy seed bread have to do with Halloween?

Well, quite like how my great-grandma Schlitter messed with convention and handed out gingerbread men to her great-grandkids instead of Snickers bars, my great-grandma Ewing (her name was Florence ...) handed out loaves of lemon poppy seed and reminded all of us to check the deep freeze before we left and make sure we took some freezer jam.

I loved my great-grannies.  God love them and bless 'em both for actually feeding us "good" treats that were baked with love.

Grandma Florence's Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
by Florence Ewing (and God knows how many other home cooks)

1 box lemon cake mix
1 box lemon instant pudding
1 c. hot water
1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/4 c. poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine the cake mix, oil and eggs, mixing until combined.  Then add the pudding and the hot water.  Mix until well incorporated.  Add poppy seeds.  Pour into greased loaf pans (makes two large) and bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

#GreatHallowTweet: Creepy Spider Cookies

My friend Lindsey is one of my favorite contributors to ShelleyBakes ... as a little bit of background, I think Lindsey and I technically met our freshman year, but didn't become friends until we were both employed at our college's radio station.  It goes like this:  If Lindsey says something is fashionable, that woman just knows and when it comes to cooking, her taste is impeccable.  What's also incredible is that she's the uber-busy mother of two incredibly busy kiddos and has another one on the way.  Also - her timing is uncanny - when she emailed me this morning - I was thrilled - what a perfect recipe for the #GreatHallowTweet!

Lindsey - you are saving my ass, just like you did back in college.  I adore you. :)

Creepy Critter Spider Cookies
from Martha Stewart

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 TB vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Black sugar
Black Licorice laces
Cinnamon Red Hots

Heat oven 375. Combine sugar, egg, butter and vanilla in bowl.  Beat.  Add flour, baking powder and salt.   Beat and scrape bowl.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls.  Roll balls in black sugar to coat entire ball.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 min.  Immediately insert 4 licorice pieces into each cookies (pre drill hole with toothpick)  and add eyes.  Transfer to cooking rack, let set.

These guys are Lindsey's adorable kids Kyler and Anya ... thanks guys for helping your mommy make these!

#GreatHallowTweet: Strawberry Ghosts

Here is another opportunity for me to express to you, world, that I absolutely suck at decorating.

Let me tell you a little bit about my Strawberry Ghosts - the one in front is Drooly, the other two right behind are former members of KISS and the last one was made using an entirely DIFFERENT chocolate that was more forgiving than melted chocolate chips.

Or as my husband said - the one in the front looks like he's bleeding.  "He looks horrific."

Thanks honey.  ;-p

Strawberry Ghosts

adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients
    * 30 fresh strawberries
    * 8 ounces white baking chocolate, chopped
    * 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
    * 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
   

Directions
    * Wash strawberries and gently pat with paper towels until completely dry. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate at 50% power; stir until smooth. Stir in extract.
    * Dip strawberries in chocolate mixture; place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet, allowing excess chocolate to form the ghosts' tails. Immediately press chocolate chips into coating for eyes. Freeze for 5 minutes.
    * In a microwave-safe bowl, melt remaining chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Dip a toothpick into melted chocolate and draw a mouth on each face. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen.

P.S. - Pain in the ass quotient?  HUGE!