Sunday, March 14, 2010

Weekend eats - just like your mammy used to make (but better!)

Thursday night I threw together a concoction that I thought sounded delish. Casseroles are so often frowned upon that people have nearly stopped using the word all together. The question is, would the Mister like it? This is a dude who didn't enjoy a chicken pot pie made from scratch because it's all food he likes, but he doesn't like it combined together. I'll be investing into some of those compartmentalized dinner trays with cute animals on them soon.


Chicken Broccoli Cheese Mash-up

1 box stove top stuffing, or your preferred variety, prepared as directed
about 1 heaping cup of fresh, chopped broccoli, slightly blacked in salted water over low heat.
Chicken tenderloins, cut up into 1" cubes, seasoned and seared lightly in a little oil until almost done (they'll cook more later).
1 can condensed broccoli cheese soup
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1/2 cup milk


Combine your soup and milk in the baking pan you plan to use, then add the shredded cheddar. Drain your blanched broccoli and add that and your chicken pieces. Cover the entire pan with the warm stuffing and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Since I serviced it fried okra and a biscuit, plating it desirably was a little tough. Lots of greens and brown. But, when it's super tasty, sometimes I just don't care.



On Fridays, I like to run errands after work and not have to worry about dinner. Since I can't afford hired help, I turn to my loving, and completely selfless Crock Pot. Earlier in the week, I'd picked up a beautiful top round roast from Dot's butcher department, and they cute it down to a manageable size for me (this same roast is on sale there this week for only $2.99/lb!).

There's not much a recipe for this, but here goes.

I Ain't Afraid of No Roast!
Buy a mix of small gold and red potatoes, wash them, and leave them whole. I used about 7. I coined 3 full-size carrots and simply scored a yellow onion and cut off the baddies, knowing it would fall apart on its own. Now, you can put you veggies back in the fridge.


Rub the roast liberally with house seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder), then pat the leaner sides down the some dried rosemary. Throw about a cup of water and a few tablespoons of Worcestershire cause, and plop your roast in, fat side up. This lets a lot of the rendering fat baste the meat while it cooks. You don't really need to put your veggies in until the last few hours. I chucked them in at 5 (at which point the roast had been cooking on it's own for 8 hours on low) and we ate at 7:30. Perfection. Fully cooked, but not mushy.





*Editor's note: Don't take an ambien before blogging. It turns a 5 minute post into a journey into over-analyzing photos, plating predicaments, typos and fervently looking up unrelated stuff on amazon.

1 comments:

Jeff said...

Okay, "I aint afraid of no roast" just cracked me up. Looks great, too.

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