Broccoli Beef Stir Fry

I saw this recipe on Mommy's Kitchen
and it looked so good I had to try it. I omitted a few things that i don't typically like and I have to say this was SO very good! I would much prefer to make it myself at home than order in when I can eat like this! Everyone loved it!

Recipe:

Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

8 oz top sirloin, cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips
6 - Tbsp soy sauce
2 - Tbsp brown sugar
2 - Tbsp sesame oil
1 - Tsp ground cloves
1 - Tbsp minced ginger
2 - cups broccoli florets
1 - Tbsp vegetable oil
3 - Tbsp hoison sauce
2 -tsp cornstarch

Combine first 6 ingredients and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Cook broccoli in small pot of boiling, salted water until almost crisp-tender, about 2 minutes; drain. Rinse under cold ice water to stop the cooking process. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to pan - RESERVING MARINADE. Stir-fry beef until just no longer pink - about 2 minutes. Remove beef from pan and add broccoli. Continue stir-frying until vegetables are just crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Stir cornstarch into reserved marinade. Pour marinade over veggies in pan. At this point I added some hoison sauce then beef and cook until liquid boils and thickens, 2-3 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Steak and Cheese Subs!

I saw this posting for Cheesesteaks on Kaitlin's blog and had to try it. I always buy the pot roast beef on sale and since my husband doesn't like pot roast meat I always have to make him a different meal completely. Now I can buy the meat I love and use it to benefit both of us. He said this was good..I didn't even tell him it was pot roast meat and perhaps he will never know. :-) Even the kids loved it. I added A1 sauce on mine and it was delicious!




Recipe:

Ingredients:
Beef Chuck Pot Roast
1 Medium Onion, cut into small slices
1 Green Bell Pepper, cut into small slices
1 Tablespoon Butter
Shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese (however much you think you'll need, depending on the amount of sandwiches you make)
Rolls
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
1 Cup Water



Directions:
Lay your meat in your slow cooker and set to low. Pour water over meat then sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Cover and cook for 8 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker and shred on cutting board, removing all pieces of fat. Once finished, add the butter, onion, and bell pepper into a skillet and cook until the vegetables start to become soft, then add the meat. (I didn't add all of the meat, I saved some and put it in a container for other uses, use however much you think you'll need). Stir everything together then check for seasonings, add some salt & black pepper if necessary. Cover and turn the heat to low and let the flavors blend together for about 10 minutes while you prepare your rolls. Split the rolls down one side, don't cut them fully in half. Place on a baking sheet and put under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes, until they start to turn golden brown. Remove the rolls from the oven and spoon your meat mixture onto your rolls, then top with shredded cheese.

Soft Pretzels and Pretzel Sticks with Cheese

I found this great recipe for homemade pretzels on Amber's Delectable Delights website. I let my 10 year old daughter do the shaping of the pretzels so they are her creations. I have to say these are so good. We also made some of her dogs and logs with string cheese inside. These were good while hot but after they cool it is kinda hard to eat.











Soft Pretzels
(Source: Amber's Delectable Delights)

Ingredients:
1/8 cup hot water
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/3 warm water
1/3 cup brown sugar
4+ cups flour
Coarse kosher salt
Baking soda
Butter or shortening (to generously grease cookie sheets)

Directions:
In a large bowl mix together hot water and yeast until the yeast dissolves. Stir in the warm water and brown sugar and stir until the brown sugar dissolves.

Slowly add 4 cups of flour, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl.

Lightly flour counter. Dip your hands into extra flour. Knead the dough until it is stretchy and smooth. (Push it down and away from you with the palms of your hands, turning the dough as you work)

Grease cookie sheets generously with butter or shortening. Sprinkle greased cookie sheet(s) with kosher salt. Preheat oven to 475. (It is very important that you grease the cookie sheets very well)

Using liquid measuring cup fill a large saucepan at least 1/2 full of water. For each 1 cup of water, add 1 tbls baking soda.

Divide the dough into equal sized pieces.

Using the following 4 steps shape each dough ball into a pretzel shape...

1). Roll the dough into a rope 14" long and as thick as your thumb. Bend the dough into a U shape. (if you have trouble rolling the dough into a rope slightly wet your hands and try again).

2). Cross one end of the rope over the other one. The ropes should cross about three inches from the tips.

3). Twist the crossed ends, making a full turn. Fold the ends back, towards the middle of the U.

4). Open the ends slightly to form a pretzel shape. Press the ends into the dough firmly.

Bring water into saucepan to a gentle boil (not to many bubbles) Use pancake turner to lower each pretzel into the saucepan. Count slowly to 30. Then lift the pretzel onto the greased and salted cookie sheet (shaking off excess water back into the saucepan). Repeat until all the pretzels are done.

Sprinkle some kosher salt on top of the pretzels and put them in preheated oven. Bake for 8 minutes or until the pretzels are golden.

Variation Recipes
Garlic Parmesan Pretzels Add 4-6 cloves pressed garlic and 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese into the liquid ingredients before adding the flour.
Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Pretzels Add 4-6 chopped sun-dried tomatoes, 1 tsp basil and 2 tsp parm cheese to the liquid ingredients before adding in the flour

Recipe notes
* You can make the dough up to 24 hours in advance, just cover the bowl and store in refrigerator.
* These also freeze very well. Just pop them into the microwave for a few seconds to reheat.
* This recipe will yield 20-24 shaped pretzels depending on the size you make them.
*You can also make pretzel sticks with this recipe. Instead of rolling dough into pretzel shapes just roll into 2-3" long ropes a little thicker than your thumb.

For Cheese Logs

Follow the soft pretzel recipe. But instead of shaping into pretzels or sticks roll out a piece of dough and roll up a piece of string cheese into the middle. It is very important to seal all the seams very well otherwise the cheese will ooze out of them. The cook time on these is also the same as the pretzel recipe.

Thanks Amber for the great recipe!!!

Monica's Mom's Tres Leches Cake!

I served this fabulous cake at my puppy picking party this weekend and there are NO words for how incredible it was...really...I am not kidding...everyone asked for the recipe who tried it (except my one friend who doesn't bake and she will just ask me to make it for her over and over again.) Thanks to Monica's mom who has shared her wonderful recipe!

Sorry for the pic...everyone started showing up early (too excited to pick their new puppies) and I had to snap it so fast as I was still slicing up strawberries as guests arrived. No worries though because if you want to see a great photo you can hop on over to Monica's blog to see some really great pics. I know I will be making this again so I will take much better pics the next time and post them. :-)

Monica's Mom's Tres Leche Cake

1 box white cake mix
3 large eggs
1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 cup milk
sweetened whipped cream (take heavy whipping cream add some sugar and whip)
strawberries for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13-inch pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the cake mix, eggs, water, oil and vanilla until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cake from oven and let cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and regular milk til well blended. Poke cake all over with a skewer and pour milk mixture all over cake, pressing lightly to make sure milk is completely absorbed. It may seem really full, but it will all get absorbed.

Refrigerate cake 1-2 hours til cool to the touch and the cake has absorbed all the milks. Top with sweetened whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

I'm back from the beach...and Cinnamon Apple Flautas

Before I left for my week long trip to Ocean City, MD I made these yummy Apple Flautas found on Southern Plate. I was sure I saw them on another blog as well but when I did a search on google I only saw the one from southern plate. If you think I saw it on yours please comment and let me know. :-)

These were actually VERY simple to make and my family loved them...everyone except my 3 year old..but lately if its not a McDonald's plain cheeseburger or a bowl of chicken and rice she doesn't want it!

I had to get a quick picture of these because they were gone so FAST! I only changed the amount of sugar...

Cinnamon Apple Flautas

2 T sugar
3 T butter or margarine
3 to 4 apples, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 - 6inch flour tortillas
1 tsp lemon juice


1.) Heat oven to 325.
2.) Mix sugar with cinnamon and set aside.
3.) Melt butter in skillet.
4.) Brush butter on each side of tortilla, sprinkle each side with 1/2 tsp cinnamon/sugar mixture.
5.) Place tortillas on ungreased baking sheet and put in oven for a few minutes until just warm and pliable.
6.) Remove from oven and roll in tortillas loosely to make tubes, placing them seam side down on the baking sheet and returning to oven for about ten minutes, until browned and crispy.
7.) While tortillas are baking, saute apples in remaining butter in skillet over high heat with the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture, until browned and tender.
8.) Add in lemon juice.
9.) Remove browned tortilla tubes from oven and spoon apple mixture into them.
10.) ENJOY!!! Eat them while they are hot because they are awesome!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

My oldest daughter had hers with her homemade french bread rolls



I had this big chuck of beef chuck roast and didn't know what to do with it so I saw this recipe online at All Recipes and decided to tweak it to my own tastes. It was pretty good..my husband doesn't like roast or stew or anything of the sorts so I was eating this for the last 3 days and each day I ate it was better and better!

Ingredients:
4 pounds chuck roast
5 cloves garlic, pressed
salt and pepper to taste
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 can beef broth
1 bag of baby carrots
1 onion, chopped
4 red potatoes chopped into quarters
1/2 cup red wine
1 package button mushrooms
1 tablespoon flour to coat the meat
1 tablespoon Maggi (this can be found in most local grocers...my grandmother would put it in just about everything)



DIRECTIONS:
Take the chuck roast and sprinkle with flour, salt, and pepper. Brown on all sides in a large skillet over high heat.
Place meat, beef broth, soup mix, and red wine in slow cooker. Let sit overnight in fridge. In the morning plug it in and let cook in the slow cooker on low all day. Three hours before serving, add rest of ingredients and turn up to high. Serve. This method worked for me because the night before I had chopped up and cleaned all my veggies and since my oldest daughter was at home with my dad I had her take the bowl of prechopped veggies and put them into the slow cooker so by the time I got home they were cooked perfectly. If you put the veggies in all day they get too soft and mushy.

*** A special note of thanks to Monica from Lick the Bowl Good who has given me some photography tips and I used outside lighting for this one and what a big difference eh? Thanks, Monica! ****

Eclair Cake

Ever since I had this at a work luncheon about 7 years ago I've been making it for my family and friends. They all love it and I've never changed the ingridents although I think the possibilities are endless with flavors and puddings you can mix and match. The secret is to let it sit overnight to allow the graham crackers to get a soft cake like texture. What's funny is that everyone thinks it is so elaborate and that it must have taken me such a long time to make when the truth is I usually let my 3 year old do most of the work for this cake!






INGREDIENTS
* 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant french vanilla pudding mix
* 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
* 3 cups milk
* 1 (16 ounce) package graham cracker squares
* 1 (16 ounce) package prepared chocolate frosting (I use Hot Fudge Sauce or Frosting..whichever is on sale that week)



DIRECTIONS
1.) In a medium bowl, thoroughly blend the pudding mix, whipped topping, and milk.
2.) Arrange a single layer of graham cracker squares in the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking pan.
3.) Evenly spread half of the pudding mixture over the crackers.
4.) Top with another layer of crackers and the remaining pudding mixture.
5.) Top with a final layer of graham crackers.
6.) Melt the frosting/hot fudge sauce in the microwave for 30 seconds or until melted enough to drizzle and spread the frosting/hot fudge sauce over the entire cake up to the edges of the pan.
7.) Cover, and chill at least 5 hours before serving (best if overnight).