Beef Stroganoff Made Easy

Beef Stroganoff may not be on the top of your family meal list, but I think it makes a great meal that should in turn be made at least every other week.  Most families that I have noticed will make the boxed dinner version, but if you were to ask them how to make it, they wouldn't know quite what goes in it.  I going to give you a very simple recipe that can be made in less than 45 minutes and tastes amazing.  Are you ready?

Ingredients:

• Ribeye Steak (preferred, but other beef can be substituted)
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
• approx. 1/2 box of Beef Broth
• All Purpose Flour
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• approx. 1 cup of Sour Cream
• Minced Onion flakes, or fresh onion to taste
• Fresh Mushrooms (diced) to taste (can substitute canned mushrooms, but drain first)
• Salt + Pepper to taste
• 1 Bad of Egg Noodles

Directions:

• Cut your Ribeye into small strips or chunks.
• Thinly coat a sauce pan with the olive oil and about 2-3 tablespoons of butter. Your stove should go on MED - MED-HI.
• Brown the meat in the sauce pan.
• Add your onions and mushrooms to the pan and allow them to cook for about 10 minutes.  Both of these items are to taste.  I used about 2 tablespoons of minced onion flakes and about 1 cup of fresh mushrooms, diced.
• Now add about 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour.  This should cause the oil and the butter to thicken up. Continue Stirring.
• Add in the cream of mushroom soup.  Continue stirring  The contents of the pan should be thoroughly mixed together, but the stirring is to help keep the mixture from sticking to the pan.
• Add in the beef broth.  This should thin the mixture out.  If you want it a little thinner add more broth.
• Once it has a texture you are happy with, turn it down to warm/low, and cook your bag of egg noodles.
• Right before you add your beef mixture to the strained noodles, add the sour cream to the beef mixture.  The amount of sour cream can also be adjusted according to preference.  I find that it adds a sharp creaminess to the meal.
• After the sour cream, mix the beef mixture and the noodles together. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

I have tried this a few times.  I have tried different meats.  Ground beef works very well, but I still prefer the small pieces of ribeye.  The ribeye tends to add more flavor from its drippings in the mix, and also has a tenderness to the meat.  I have also substituted the beef broth for the small packs of Knorr Beef Stock (here's a link if you don't know what I'm referring to: Knorr Beef Stock)  If you use these, you will have to play around with your liquids. I ended up using about 1 1/2 cups of water, but I also think the taste is worth the hassle.  I would have used it in the recipe above, but I decided to make the one above as simple as possible while still tasting great and just added my 2 cents after the fact.  Also if you find that you're not getting enough onion flavor while your cooking, but you don't want to add more onion flakes or cut more onions.  I used the amount of minced onion flakes stated in the recipe, but later added onion powder.  I like strong full flavors in my food, while others don't, which is fine.  For other that do, that's why I'm adding this at the end.  

If you have any other twists on this recipe that you would like to share, or maybe another way of doing it altogether.  Please, share it with everyone else by adding a comment below.  I'm always on the lookout for new ideas and techniques.

As always remember to do something nice for someone other than yourself.  Pay It Forward.

Awesome Waffles

I know that you can go out and buy a box of frozen waffles.  I know that you can pop them in the toaster or microwave and have breakfast in a few minutes.  I also know that a made-from-scratch, home-cooked meal will beat a frozen box meal almost every time.  I wasn't much in the cooking mood this morning, but my wife was in the hungry mood, and proposed a waffle breakfast.  I hadn't made them in a while and the idea seemed great.  I like some homemade waffles.  I dug through my recipes and found one that stood out to me, and I want to share it with everyone.  I believe that this recipe incorporates the fluffiness that makes it palatable.  It has a good buttery flavor, but not overbearing.  And the outside of it has a slightly crispy texture that just begs you to keep eating.  I topped mine off with a little more butter and filled each delicious square with maple syrup.  My wife took the same route, but added some powdered sugar.  She was in search of some strawberries, but our daughter beat her to them.

Now that I've hopefully got your brain thinking food, and your mouth watering, are you ready to find out how I made them?  Well tune in next time to find out...  I'm not that mean.  Okay, here we go!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups AP flour (can be adjusted for lighter or denser waffles)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup whole milk (preferred, but can be substituted)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons of butter - soft/melted
• 2 eggs - beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

• I try to have my ingredients separated and ready to add.  I also try to keep my blender going as I add ingredients.  I feel it incorporates more air into the mix and makes them a little fluffier.  You don't have to do this.  It doesn't have that much effect of the final product.  It's just personal preference.  Whisking and blending wet/dry ingredients works just as well.
• With that said, I start off with the eggs and beat them with a hand blender.
• Next I add the buttermilk followed by the whole milk while keeping the blender going.
• Now it's time to add the butter.  If it's soft butter, beat it until there are only tiny pieces of butter are visible.  If it's melted, just add it in slowly and mix completely.
• Now we can start adding the dry ingredients.  I start with the small amounts and work my way up.  So I add the salt.
• Next in the mix are the baking soda, baking powder, and sugar.
• Finally, it's time to add the flour.  Above I mentioned that this can be adjusted for personal preference.  I would say that if you like very light waffles add flour until the mixture has a consistency of white school glue. If you like heavier waffles you'll probably aim more for a thicker "white gravy" consistency.  I believe 2 cups is about right down the middle.
• Ladle approximately 1/2 cup of mix into your waffle maker.  I usually stop adding mix when it is about 1 - 1 1/2 inches away from the edges.  That allows the lid to close, and the mixture to finish spreading out and rise.

As with any recipe this can be tweaked to suit the individual.  By all means change this however you deem necessary.  You should be made happy by making and eating the food you prepare.

After adding my extra pads of butter on top to melt in and the syrup, I devoured my plates contents trying to enjoy every second of it.  I admit that I am a food lover from top to bottom.  I believe that is the first step in creating great food.  If you give 100% and love it 100% it will show in the taste most of the time.  If you doubt that, visit one of your regular hangouts when the cook is having a bad day and doesn't want to be there.  Chances are you will taste a difference.

If you try this recipe, let everyone know how it turned out below in the comments.  Let us know if you would change something or any variations you liked.

As always, remember to do something good for someone else, Pay It Forward.

How to make a Kickin' Chicken Stew

Part of my family's traditions when I was growing up was going to "Chicken Stews".  For some people a Chicken Stew is an event.  For others it may be the actual stew cooking in the pot.  For me it was being around the people I enjoyed being with, and getting to chow down on some good food.  A few weeks ago, I was telling my wife about the Chicken Stews I went to growing up, and she had never heard of them, and I proceeded to tell her what they were, and tried to show her...but there wasn't hardly anything online about it.  The only thing I truly found was a Wikipedia article that gave a brief description and I believe a 1-2 sentence basic ingredient list.  I was so disappointed in my findings that I set out to be quite possibly the first person to share this recipe online ( I doubt it too, but I can dream.  Besides, I couldn't find one, so it's a first in my eyes). So get your pen and paper and get ready to be schooled on the next best thing you may ever eat.

Before I move on to the ingredients and how to make it, I want you to know that I wish I had the photos and video to walk you through this step by step but I don't.  I will make this promise though.  If I get an overwhelming response to this post I WILL make a video from start to finish of how to do it.  I'm not lazy, but it is a pretty hefty task of cooking and trying to film by yourself with a couple of kids running around.  Okay, now on to the goods!

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Chicken
• All Purpose Flour
• Whole Milk
• Butter / Margarine (Pref. Butter)
• Salt
• Pepper

Extra Stuff that makes it better:

• Chicken Stock (Homemade if possible)
• Chicken Bouillon Cubes
• Hot Sauce
• Saltine Crackers

If you are one of those people that measure out things to the exact drop and go strictly by a recipe, then you need to run and hide right now.  I cook by the seat of my pants?  Kind of.  I cook until the food looks and tastes right to me, and the may mean altering or changing stuff along the way to make it happen.  Cooking is really about preference.  I will give some substitutions along the way, but overall, I'm sharing this the way I would serve it to someone.

To start off, put your whole chicken in a large pot or crock-pot.  I prefer the crock-pot, but a pot is fine if your in a hurry.  You can use chicken breast instead of a whole bird but the flavor just won't be there.  Most of the flavor in this dish comes from the slow cooking on the bone just like a barbecue is done.

One you have the bird in the cooking dish of choice, cover it as much as possible with chicken stock.  I save my leftover stock from one stew to the next, which seems to intensify the flavor a little more.  Store bought stock will also be fine.  If you don't have stock on hand, or don't feel like getting any, water will work also, just add a couple of chicken bouillon cubes to the water.

Cook times vary on the chicken.  If you do the crock-pot method, you can put it on before bed, and you'll know it's ready by the time you're ready to cook dinner the following day.  If you cook it on the stove top, you need to make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through.  When you start to break the chicken down, if you notice any pink or bloody spots, don't fear.  Keep on breaking it down, and add it back to the pot with some stock to cook a little longer until done.

Once the chicken is done, you have to remove the bone and shred the meat.  I usually cut the wings and legs off first.  Then I cut the breast and tenders away from the spine.  Always double check for little bones.  I do the dirty work of cutting all the meat away from the bone and cartilage, but I cheat when it comes to shredding it.  Shredding it by hand works good, especially if you use a fork or two.  I cheat.  I place my meat in a "Ninja" food processor, and cover all the meat with stock and *blitz* it a few seconds at a time to achieve a small but sizable shred of meat.

Now is the time to strain your stock and set it to the side for a minute.  If you use the processor method above, be sure to strain the stock first.

If you use the processor method, just pour your blended meat back into the pot.  If you shredded the meat by hand or other means, add it back to the pot, and cover with strained stock.  This is where preference seems to come into play.  I don't use all of the stock that I got from my chicken to cover it back with.  I tend to like mine a little bit thicker, so I lay off of some of the stock.  Bring your stock and meat up to a slight boil and add in about a cup of whole milk.

I use flour to thicken my stew.  The trick is you really shouldn't add flour to hot liquids because it just clumps and makes the stew lumpy.  A way around this is to pour about a half cup of whole milk and mix in enough flour to thicken the milk some.  It should be about equal parts milk and flour.  Now you can pour the flour/milk mix into the stew while stirring without getting the flour clumps.

Adjust the flour and milk to achieve the thickness you want.  Thicker means more flour, thinner means more milk.

Now for the butter.  I generally add a whole stick.  This is completely up to your butter preference.

Add salt and pepper to taste.  I also throw in another chicken bouillon cube or two for good measure. You can also add the hot sauce to it now, but we usually let everyone do that on their own because of the kids.  We also serve it over saltine crackers, but again that's just preference.

I know this might look like a lot, but it really isn't.  I was just trying to describe the steps in lieu of photos and video.  There isn't anything really hard about making a chicken stew.  Just remember to try not to rush it.  Take your time and take pride in your work.  When you take pride in it and love what you are doing, the food will speak novels via taste that your mouth could never explain.

If anyone out there was curious before about how to make this stew, I hope I quenched that curiosity well enough.  Feel free to ask questions below or on one of the social sites.  If you feel I left something out, please share it below for everyone else.

As always, do something nice for someone else and always try to Pay It Forward.