I'm blogging in real time! Usually, I wait until the weekends to organize and edit food photos. Tonight, is an exception. I wanted to share this recipe with you, because it's a family favorite-- and it was on the dinner table less than an hour after I arrived home from work. I've been making this recipe for at least five years. Today, we are experiencing heavy rain. I wanted soup....maybe stew. Then I remembered, that I had thawed some ground lamb and it was in the refrigerator. Shepherd's Pie is one of my favorite "comfort casseroles" and this recipes has never failed to please my family. Rachael Ray calls this recipe "30 Minute Shepherd's Pie". I'm quick with chopping, but this takes about 45 minutes to make. It's super easy, and you probably have all of the ingredients in your pantry-- and it's flavorful. I've made some changes to the recipe, which I think improves the flavor. You start with a combination of ground beef and ground lamb. You can go all beef, or you could go all turkey-- but, to me Shepherd's Pie needs lamb. PREP WORK: Peel some Russet potatoes, cube them and start to cooking until fork tender. Start cooking your meat....
Make room for the veggies and saute' them for about five minutes... meanwhile, start the gravy:
Season the meat with kosher salt and pepper. I also add thyme-- a palmful and 2 Tablespoons of tomato paste. Rachael doesn't, but I think it adds a lot more flavor.
I double the gravy by melted 4 Tablespoons butter, 4 Tablespoons flour, 4 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce and 1 1/2 cups beef stock (you can always add more broth later on). Cook until the sauce thickens, and pour it into your meat filling.
If the meat filling is too thick, I add a little more beef stock. Now add some frozen peas. I use a lot--like a cup. Mix it up and put it into a casserole dish. You can also put these in individual ramekins, would could be fun for company.
Yum. (I won't say Yum-O)
I love the potatoes! Drain them, add 2 Tablespoons of cream cheese (sour cream works, but cream cheese is our favorite). I used 1% milk, instead of heavy cream, and they were plenty creamy and flavorful. I've got enough fat grams going, as it is! Now add one egg yolks and mix. Adjust seasoning with some salt. Super creamy! Add the potatoes on top and sprinkle with paprika-- for color. Fire up the broiler and move the rack to the top.
Broil until browned on top-- maybe five minutes, but watch closely!
Garnish with fresh parsley. Poor a glass of Irish Harp Beer (I wish....) and serve Irish Soda Bread, if desired. A salad, on the side is good, too. Start the log going in the fireplace...
Watch your loved ones looking anxiously for their serving to be dished....
There's a pub where I live that serves Shepherd's Pie, and I love it. Know what?
This one is just as good! It's easy to make. After a 10 hour work day, I was able to pull this off and still have time to blog and unwind a bit. This dish freezes really well, too. Guess what's in my lunch box for tomorrow?
If you love lamb, this is a great Shepherd's Pie. I'm gearing up for St. Patrick's Day, by thinking of traditional recipes from across The Pond. So far, I've made Irish Soda Bread,, and now this family favorite recipe. I think Colcannon is next, which I love! To print the recipe, please scroll to the bottom of this post.
It's time to wind down and hit the sack. It's Rise 'N Shine at 5:30am. Three more days until the weekend. I have so many recipes to blog-- and so little time!
I have finally surrendered to Fall, after enjoying two fun-filled days at the Harvest Festival. I still have hundreds of photos (mostly of Tyler Florence) to sort through, organize and compile into recipes. After watching Tyler Florence make his beautiful dish of pan roasted rabbit with roasted pumpkin, harvest grapes, chestnut polenta and garnished with sage infused olive oil-- and garnished with fried sage leaves... I had pumpkin on the brain!
I'm going to give my blubbering about meeting Tyler Florence a rest for a few days-- instead, this is a recipe that I watched Rachael Ray make about 4 years ago. I've made it several times, and it's a nice way to work with pumpkin puree as a savory pasta.
This is super quick, folks-- though, it does take me 45 minutes to make in my small kitchen with minimal counter space. I invite you to try this recipe, even if you aren't a Rachael Ray fan-- for whatever reason that is. Trust me, the first time I heard "Pumpkin Pasta" I thought "bleccccccccccch". I'm a new believer in this recipe. It's simple, with just a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, a little kick (I use HOT Italian turkey sausage) and just the right amount of sage to compliment the pumpkin puree.
Many of the ingredients for this dish are probably in your pantry. I didn't photograph the ingredients, but the shopping list isnothing hard to find, at all. You need penne pasta (I used farfalle, this time), Italian sausage (I use HOT Italian sausage), pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling), garlic, onion, olive oil, fresh sage, cinnamon and nutmeg. One of these days, I'm going to roast and puree fresh pumpkin. Still, I buy my canned pumpkin at Trader Joe's and I think it's just as good-- and a lot less work.
I always have fresh garlic and I'm fortunate to have a hearty sage plant in my backyard. I love sage, and I think it's perfect with pumpkin. Don't you?
Here's how easy it is, to make this delicious pasta dinner:
Heat a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and brown the sausage in it. Transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate.
Drain fat from skillet and return pan to the stove. Add the remaining tablespoon oil, and then the garlic and onion. Saute 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender.Add bay leaf, sage, and wine to the pan. Reduce wine by half, about 2 minutes.Add stock and pumpkin and stir to combine, stirring sauce until it comes to a bubble.
Return sausage to pan, reduce heat, and stir in cream.
Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce.
Return drained pasta to the pot you cooked it in. Remove the bay leaf from sauce and pour the sausage pumpkin sauce over pasta. Combine sauce and pasta and toss over low heat for 1 minute. This makes a lot-- 4-6 generous servings. NOTE: Borrowing an idea from watching Tyler Florence, I infused a little olive oil with sage leaves. The oil, I drizzled over the pasta, and I garnished the pasta with the fried sage leaves. Extra Yummy Units!
Garnish the pasta with lots of shaved cheese and sage leaves. Do I dare say it? "Yumm-o". If you click on the picture, you can really see the sauce and the sausage-- it sure was good!
I haven't made a Rachael Ray recipe in a very long, for no particular reason. I still like her, no matter what her harsh critics say. At least Rachael doesn't use canned cream of "whatever" soups, and she does use a lot of fresh herbs. This is one of our favorite quick meals, that's a little different. This pasta dish screams "Autumn"!
Coming up next-- I will finally post a delicious Autumn Plum dessert that is easy and seriously delicious. I have several recipes I need to organize and post (including two of Tyler Florence's dishes he demo'd at the Harvest Festival-- I'm falling behind!
This is the second time that I have made Rachael Ray's recipe for Ground Gyros & Tzasiki Sauce. My husband has traveled through Saudi Arabia and he says that the combination of spices give an authentic flavor. He loved it!
I used chili powder, cumin, coriander and oregano and cinnamon.
Tzasiki sauce is fast and easy to make. This one uses Greek yogurt (you really wanted the thickness), garlic, cucumber, lemon juice and I added a little cumin and fresh dill from my garden.
I used ground lamb. If you don't like lamb, you could use a combo of ground beef and/or pork. Other ingredients include Rachael Ray's beloved Montreal Steak Seasoning feta cheese and thawed chopped spinach.
To squeeze out the excess water in thawed spinach, I always turn to my potato ricer. Otherwise, use a clean dish towel or cheese cloth.
Form the mixture into a long loaf and place on top of a cooling rack, over a foil-lined baking sheet.
While the lamb is roasting, I prepared my garnishes. We like alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion and pepperoncini peppers. If you haven't tried peperoncini peppers, buy a jar of them. They're very mild and can add extra zip to sandwiches. Yummy!
This smells delicious! It's ready to be sliced and served. We were extra hungry when I made this meal, so I could not take time to photograph the finished sandwich. There are times when my boys grow weary of waiting for me to photograph dinner. Even when I quickly shot the sandwich, being held in my hand, I could see them rolling their eyes with my peripheral vision.
With this meal, I made garlic-oven fries. Rachael Ray makes waffle fries with a gravy, but somehow that just didn't rock my world.
If you love gyros, I think you'd like this fast version. We sure did!
I love bargains. How could I resist it when I showed up at "The Farm" (at closing time) and I was offered a flat (that's 12 containers) of organic Driscoll raspberries for $1.00 each? Answer: I bought them.
Once I got home, I had a reality check and a dilemma. You see, I have an apartment-sized refrigerator (hangs head in shame). It's what came with this house, and I've learned to deal with it by being a slave to twice a week cleaning and rearranging of food. Yes, fellow foodies, I am cursed with a small refrigerator and I am pitching to my husband that this is pure torture for me.
My personal challenge: I'm not really wild about raspberries, naked and in the raw, that is . They're pretty and I love the color. I do like raspberry coulis sauce, raspberry jam and raspberry-filled treats, but my work schedule didn't allow for me to make these until the weekend (which was six days away). With that said, I resorted to freezing most of the raspberries into my upright garage freezer. Some of them will become raspberry sherbet.
My boys like raspberries, so they chomped on them for a day. Still, I knew that I needed to make something with these, fast-- or they'd go south in a hurry.
Then I remembered... a few years ago, my husband bought for me Rachael Ray's first issues of her magazine "Every Day Rachael Ray". Bear with me, those of you who groan at her voice or perky smile. I like her recipes. While her prattling can put people off, she uses easy-to-find ingredients and no canned soups or cool whip. That works for me! However, Rachael Ray admits she doesn't like to bake. So, I was surprised to find a recipe for "Raspberry Lemon Shortbread Tart" in an issue. Of course, this was written by one of her folks who writes for the magazine. I have to tell you, that this recipe is a winner. I've made it multiple times, but I've always used olallieberries.
Please allow me to rant about "dumb recipe instructions". Why are ingredients listed as "1 and 3/4 cups flour, divided?Now, I'm pretty good at math. BUT... it annoys me to have to stop and figure out how to divide it. In half? What? That's exactly what happened when I made this-- somehow, I messed up with the shortbread. I should have gotten a clue, when I blended the crust ingredients together and it was soft and sticky. Hmmmm...
The dough turned out to be a buttery pool of "ick". Great. Almost two cubes of butter wasted. See?
Since I had already prepped my ingredients (which I always do), I had to start over with the crust. Arrrrrrrrgh.
I've solved the problem by re-writing the recipe, the way I prefer-- which is "For the crust", "For the filling". I hope you like this version. I know that I do! Moving along...
This is a very quick and easy recipe (once I re-wrote the ingredients for frazzled minds), just like the rest of RR's recipes. It's very pretty, too. I used a spring form pan. You can easily substitute for most any kind of berry, and it would turn out delicious.
First, to make the crust, I use my food processor. If you want to mix the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers-- have at it. Personally, I think my Cuisinart is much faster and easier.
Pulse still crumbly and kind of dry looking (as opposed to soft and sticky), and then press into a non-stick spring form pan (or a tart pan with a removable bottom will do just fine).
Bake this at 400F for about 20 minutes. Then lower the oven to 300F.
Next, you place your berries (you can use fresh or frozen) on top of the crust. I didn't let it cool, so this saves time.
I love lemon zest, so I used two lemons, which is added to the custard mix:
You'd have to pry my microplane out of my cold dead hands--I have a collection of them...
The custard is super quick and easy to make, because you whisk it together and pour it over the berries. Bake this for 30 minutes and cool.
This tart makes a very pretty presentation, especially when dusted with powdered sugar. I also like to serve it with a dollop of whipped cream.
It's sweet and tart. The lemon is very pronounced, so you can tone it down by using only one lemon. My family loves lemon, so I use two of them.
The crust has a wonderful crunch that compliments the chewy custard and the softness of the berries. I really like this recipe a LOT.
At least the raspberries are safely stored in my freezer. I have earmarked some of these for a panna cotta with a rasberry coulis sauce. I'd like to make some raspberry jam, so I'll be searching for an easy way to make this. This tart lasted two days-- some, I brought to work. The rest, my boys devoured and gave this recipe a double thumbs up. That's all that matters to me.
By the way, I am ramping up my pleading for a bigger refrigerator. How I long to have extra drawers and bells and whistles-- yes, a french door refrigerator with a freezer on the bottom. It's not cheap, but it's time! My birthday is six weeks away, so I'm working on getting the green light from my husband.
Before I share this recipe with you, I have to tell you that I have not learned to appreciate Indian food. I really want to, but I have an aversion to yellow curry that I have tried to overcome-- but to no avail. When I was dating my husband, I knew he loved Indian food. So, for one of my "seduction dinners", (about 5 years ago) I made this recipe by Rachael Ray. This isn't "Indian" food, but I thought the spices would be exotic enough to impress him. I was very nervous about making this recipe, because tumeric is found in yellow curry, and the color reminded of that awful Chicken Curry recipe that my mother made us eat, as kids. That's where my aversion came from...
I love kitchen gadgets, but I have not been able to justify buying a genuine tagine. This isn't authentic tagine, but I think that Rachael Ray has captured a perfect blend of spices that lend this dish a nice Moroccan flavor. I have come to love this recipe... and my husband did propose to me (but not the night I served this) and we've been married for 3 1/2 years.
I had completely forgotten about this Rachael Ray recipe until yesterday...when I thawed the last of the chicken breasts that I buy at Costco. I was tidying up my pantry (that's in my garage, because I do not have a pantry in my kitchen) and I found my stash of dried fruit.
If anything, I can tell you that the spices are so aromatic! I used paprika, tumeric, coriander, cumin and cinnamon.
I've been cooking lots of meals-- in my head-- but I have been lacking the energy to make any kind of meals that require a lot of time and energy. I think I overdid my swimming, because my muscles are barking! I was hungry, but I wanted something really fast. Calling Rachael Ray!!
This delicious dinner truly came together in 30 minutes. No lie! Okay, maybe 40 minutes.
The original recipes uses golden raises and prunes. I like to add dried apricots.
Rachael Ray serves this dish with couscous. My husband cannot stand couscous (bummer). Instead, I sauteed some onion toasted some white rice and cooked it with chicken stock and a little bit of saffron...just a pinch.
Cooking this meal came together super fast-- in olive oil I browned the chicken (seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning...and I have to admit that I use this all the time) for about 2 minutes, then added the fruit, onion, the spices and the chicken stock.
At the risk of sounding like Rachael Ray-- wow, this smells so good! Honestly, I was getting pretty hungry by this time.
With a lid on, the dish is cooked for about 8 minutes. That gave me a chance to cut some cilantro, from my herb garden and to slice some scallions as garnish. Rachael calls for chutney as a garnish, but we're not big chutney people.
This is an kitchen gadget that I have really bonded with. It's by OXO and it chops herbs. I find that I get less wear and tear on my good kitchen knives this way-- besides, I'm a gadget freak.
I keep my secret weapon on standby when I do make Rachael Ray dishes... for some reason, her sauces don't thicken up the way she says they should. I make a slurry of water and some corn starch, whisked together on standby.
I add about 1 Tbsp of it at a time, until it thickens to my liking. I prefer my sauces to be a little thick-- but not like wallpaper paste.
I have learned to plate and photograph, before calling my boys to dinner. Once I yelled "dinner!" the men emerged with their noses in the air. Suddenly, they were calling out difference spices, trying to figure out what they were smelling. Still, they seem to know when dinner's ready.
I still haven't learned to fall in love with yellow curry, but I have learned to love this spice blend. I'm going to make extra, for future quick meals. By the way, you can use tofu or lamb if you want-- I am sure that either one of these would be a fantastic substitute.
Forget fancy plating for my boys--my son ate two helpings. There is one serving left. That's for my lunch tomorrow. I call dibbs!
I promised my son I'd bake chocolate chip cookies. I need a second wind. We shall see-- then again, how many laps in the pool will I need to work those off? I can tell you that this dish is actually low in fat.
