This is one of my favourite ‘go to’ dinners.  It is so amazingly fast and easy and yet gives you something meaty, tender and packed full of incredible flavour ~and~ has amazing bang for your buck. 

You will need:

two fast fry thin steaks, cheaper cut for every one person

one or more onions

one or more peppers

1/2 bottle of hickory bbq sauce

any vegetable you might like to add

Take 1/4 bottle of your bbq sauce and literally slather on both sides of the meat.

lay them in the bottom of a lidded roasting pan that has been lightly oiled

layer on the vegetables

With lid on put into a slow oven at 225 degrees for about 1 hour

Now spread the rest of your sauce over the vegetables

Turn heat down to 200 degrees

Continue to slow cook in oven for another 2 hours

Throw some fries on the side or small boiled potatoes

SO EASY, SO GOOD!  ENJOY!

That is a personal best for me.  The bread I promised family is now safely in my freezer sliced and ready for delivery!  I love baking on a cloudy cool day.  I love the feel of well kneaded dough and creating something from flour, oil or butter, a little sugar, yeast, eggs etc and knowing how pure and healthy my ingredients are.  In my brown bread, I used whole wheat bread flour and often I can find it bulk organic.  I also incorporate lots of ground flax, chia seed and use pure sugars unrefined like molasses, honey, pure cane syrup,  or course brown sugar.  I usually use a combination.  When not baking with butter, (daughter can’t have dairy or soy right now) I use a real pure quality olive oil. 

My white bread is made with unbleached white flour, real butter, eggs, honey, pure cane syrup…  I have a few tummy issues that call for the soothing white breads and pasta.  Plus, the flavour is absolutely wonderful. 

Bread has been baked this way and has been a staple of humans for 1000’s of years.  It gives us energy and feeds our brains.  If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Enjoy!

Several weeks ago, I got the flu bug that was going around, the kind that attacks your throat, chest and sinuses all at once.  I got over the bug, but since I’m asthmatic the breathing part takes some time to recover.  Happy to say that today, I’m breathing clear and feeling the best I have in a long time. So, now it’s catch up time!  Today we had to run errands in the morning, and when I got home I really felt like doing some down home decadent cooking.  Nothing says this better than a cherry cheese cake right out of my very old trusted Fanny Farmer Cook Book.  I don’t add any variations or tweak this at all, it’s that good.  It is the kind that is done in order and baked.  This is Peter’s favourite dish.  I only make it a couple times a year to keep it special.

Then I decided that supper should be just as down home and hearty as our dessert will be.  So I did up my roast crackle chicken with stuffing!!!  The house smells wonderful

The rest of the week, will be the true ‘catch up’ that I was talking about.  Cleaning, laundry and of course my year end with the company is due and drastically needs my full attention!   Anyone want any recipes or instruction, just ask!  Don’t forget to click the pics!!

My Grandson is now 8 months old.  He has to be the happiest baby on earth.  No kidding.  You can take Sam shopping, out to supper, out to lunch and he will either sleep or smile his way through it all.  He’s only been with us for 8 months, but I cannot imagine life before Sam.  He is such a joy and his happiness is contagious.  Anyway, my daughter, Super Mom has been looking for a chicken broth to introduce Sam to meat protein and so far can find organic but none without salt.  Enter Oma and her pressure canner.  I made this broth for Sam from organic certified humane chicken.  I also canned the meat for when he’s ready.  No salt.  No chlorine.  No fluoride. No spice.  Just chicken and carrot.  Bon appetite Sam!!

I treated myself to another kitchen toy today.  Pasta maker attachments for my loved Kitchen Beast, the monster stand mixer.  (I call my mixer The Beaster ) 

I have to say, I am impressed.  I can whip up the pasta dough in the big bowl and work it through the attachments and in no time come up with perfect fettuccine, spaghetti or sheets for cutting into lasagna or for making cannelloni or stuffed pasta dishes.

The following pictures are the first dish I did using my pasta attachments.  Next though, I have found a spinach pasta I’m dying to try.

Chicken meat balls with a home made garlic alfredo, over home made fettuccine.  As a side I did fresh green beans with a pine nut/butter/bread crumb topping.

Click the pics for the full view! 

There are so many versions of this dish.  Because of the title, I felt a little intimidated on trying this one.  But, a personal challenge is just that, a challenge.  I reviewed so many recipes and videos.  I decided to just do a take on the most authentic sources, the great Italian Chefs. It is a simple dish really, very fast if you are prepared.  The only twist I added was to thicken the sauce just a tiny bit. 

Surprisingly, the only spice in this dish is, salt, pepper and garlic to taste.  Often it is made with zucchini, but I subbed that out for Belgian Endive and found the taste and texture suited this dish wonderfully and it was a great sub, actually preferred.

To start I prepared nice thick slices of home made white bread with butter, a generous amount of powdered garlic and mozzarella cheese  and preheated my oven at 400 degrees convection.  I set it aside. to bake 10 minutes prior to serving my dish. I also made nice side César salads.

Next, I pounded out my veal cutlets until they were very thin.  Then I used the meat tenderizer side to break up the fibers in the meat.  Then, I salted (lightly),  black peppered (more generous) each piece. 

I then prepared my vegetables.  I could not find in Simcoe fresh artichoke so I had to settle for canned, which I think was too soft for my liking.  Anyway, I rinsed them well and cut them in half. (if using fresh, clean them and pre-boil for at least 5 minutes).  Then I cut my 3 cones of Belgian Endive in half and cored them  Some leaves were loose but I kept the halves in tact as much as possible.   I then crushed 3 nice cloves of garlic.

I used my best sauté pan and added to it, 3 tbsp of olive oil and in the middle of the oil I added a heaping tbsp of butter.  The protein in the butter adds to the flavour and helps the meat not stick to the pan.  I heated the oil and butter on high.  Then added my veal.  I let it cook on one side a few minutes until it was white.  Turning I also let it go about 3 minutes.  I then removed them from the pan.  Do not over cook your veal!

Here is where you put your garlic bread in the oven, set the timer to 8 minutes so you don’t forget them!

Back to the pan, turning the heat to med-high, I then added my veggies, more olive oil, about 2 tbsp and the garlic.  I then sautéed them until they were fairly soft. 

Adding the meat back to the pan with the juice that seeped out, I also added 3/4 cup of white wine, and 1/2 cup of water and heated them through on high heat.

Now, working fast, plate your meat, pile on the veggies, and I used about 1 tbsp  of cornstarch and quickly whisked it into the sauce in the pan.  Cover meat and veggies with sauce…and there you have it.  Veal Scaloppini with Artichoke and Belgian Endive.  Bon appetite! 

This is one of our favourite,  if not, our very favourite soup ever.  The flavour is incredible and so unique.  I have yet to find anyone who didn’t love it. 

Remove core and chop fine, 3 to 4 cones of Belgian Endive. Chop fine one medium sized onion and 3 to 4 cloves of garlic.  In a deep soup pot add two generous tablespoons unsalted butter, sauté the Belgian Endive, onion and garlic, stirring frequently. Be careful not to burn.  About 4 minutes.

Chop 3 large or 4 small peeled potatoes into small chunks.  Add to the soup pot, these potatoes and 3 cups of chicken broth.  Simmer until potatoes are nice and soft, about 20 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, blend this mix until smooth.  ( or use an upright blender, being very careful about pouring this hot mix into it)

Add the blended mix back to the pot.  Add 1 cup milk and 1 cup heavy cream.  Warm gently and blend…add salt to taste and pepper to taste ( prefer white pepper).  ENJOY!!!!!