Foody Friday - Cabbage Rolls

For Christmas this year I received The All American Cowboy Grill cookbook as a gift. I hadn't looked at it much but I dusted it off this week and found a surprisingly good cabbage recipe that I tweaked a bit to accommodate the ingredients I had available.

Don't like cabbage? Don't worry, the HONEY in this recipe will help you love it!

Cabbage Rolls

1 lg. white cabbage

water

1 t. salt

Filling:

1/2 onion

2 t. minced garlic

1/2 cup ground meat (beef, venison, pork, your choice)

cabbage cooking liquid

1 cup of chopped cabbage

1 (or so) cups of cooked rice

1 t. salt

1 t. ginger

1 t. pepper

Topping:

2 T. honey

butter

cabbage cooking water for basting

Cut the base off the cabbage, and cook in salted water until the leaves are soft. As the cabbage head cooks the outer leaves will fall off. Gently lift them out as they release and allow to cool on a plate until you have about a dozen cabbage leaves. Take out the remaining cabbage and chop up. Reserve the cooking water.

To make the filling, in a skillet, heat a small amount of oil, add onions and garlic, and cook until the onions are clean but not brown. Brown the ground meat with the onions/garlic. Once the meat is cooked add 1 cup of cabbage cooking water, chopped cabbage, rice and spices. Cook over medium heat until heated through. If the mix is too thick add some more cooking water.

Flatten the cabbage leaves. Lift a spoonful of filling onto leaf, roll up, tucking edges around mixture. Place side by side in lightly sprayed 9x9 dish. Drizzle honey on top and dot with a bit of butter. Bake rolls for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Halfway through baking turn over (if you can) and baste with cabbage water.

Makes 6-8 servings. Enjoy!

Foody Friday -Hamburger Mushroom Steak

I found a new cooking magazine I just love Taste of Home; Simple and Delicious.

Full of quick and easy recipes that aren't just the same old boring foods.

This Hamburger steak was SO much better than I thought it would be.

I only made it because DR asked me to.

The night I made this our routine got really out of whack and I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. While making dinner I was thinking about 10 other things and actually forgot to put in a bunch of ingredients (I'll tell you which ones) and it still came out really good.

Hamburger Steak with Mushroom Gravy

For steaks;

1 egg (forgot)

1/2 c. dried bread crumbs (forgot!)

1 envelope onion soup mix, divided in two (this is the key yumminess ingredient)

dash pepper

1 lb. ground beef

3 T. flour

1 3/4 c. cold water

1 t. Worcestershire sauce (I used soy sauce)

1 jar of whole mushrooms drained. (fresh sliced is what I used)

In large bowl, combine egg, bread crumbs, 2 T soup mix and pepper. Crumble beef over mixture and combine. Shape into four patties.

In a large skillet, cook patties over med. heat for 4-5 minutes on each side till juices run clear. Set aside and keep warm.

Combine flour, water, Worcestershire sauce and remaining soup mix until blended; stir into skillet. Add mushrooms. (I also melted some butter in skillet before adding ingredients and used milk in place of some of the water.) Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 5 minutes or til thickened. Serve with patties and mashed potatoes (or rice like I did).

Foody Friday - Drip Beef

I'm not very confident when it comes to fixing any sort of meat dish. I've learned the simpler, the better and if I can fix meat in a crockpot that's one more advantage I have for a successful dinner. But because I have a brother that thinks I eat too many vegetables and has begged me to feed his nephews and neices more meat...this recipe is for him. (Okay, okay brother, you don't have to add the onions if you don't want to!)

I've modified this recipe from Pioneer Woman's Drip Beef Recipe and seriously I always eat way too much of it. It's just that good.

Prairie Mother's Drip Beef

1 roast (any will work)
salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme
butter
1 onion, diced
mushrooms, sliced and/or diced
soy sauce

Trim the fat off the roast. Sprinkle salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme over the surface of the meat and rub in well. Set aside.

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a skillet on high heat. Add the mushrooms. The mushrooms will absorb the butter fairly quickly so stir constantly for a couple minutes until beginning to brown. Remove from skillet and place in crockpot. Melt more butter and add onions, cook until translucent. Remove onions from skillet and add the the crockpot. Add more butter (or olive oil if you feel the need to be healthy) to melt in the skillet on high heat. Sear the outside of the roast on both sides until golden brown. Place roast on top of vegetables in the crockpot. Now, everything that's left in your skillet pour onto the roast. Yummy! Pour soy sauce into crockpot until it's about halfway up the roast. Don't cover with soy sauce! I usually only use about 5 oz. (1/2 bottle). Cook on high setting for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. With two forks shred meat and then stir up to combine the onions and mushrooms. Serve over bread, as a sandwich, on mashed potatoes or eat it with your fingers out of the crockpot. Not that I would ever eat it that way!