Beef Broth

So having made prime rib I had some gorgeous bones left for broth. I've rarely made beef broth before, although I make chicken broth all the time and cannot actually imagine buying it ever again. But I rarely cook beef that has bones it seems and it feels funny to pay for beef bones. So I just end up making soups that rely on water or chicken broth for their base. But faced with these nice looking beef bones, I decided to try some broth. I adapted the recipe from The Perfect Recipe: The Ultimate, Hands-Down Best Way to Cook Our Favorite Foods. She recommends using beef shank or chuck if you're buying specifically to make broth, but I am into the leftovers thing...

I started by browning the bones and some fatty pieces of meat plus one onion cut in quarters in a couple of tablespoons of oil. After they were all browned I put them on a plate and added 1/2 cup of leftover red wine from our Christmas feast to the pan, stirring and cooking a few minutes until it reduced to a syrupy looking concoction. Then I added the bones and onions back to the pan, turned to low, covered, and cooked for 20 minutes or so as she suggests, letting them "sweat" for a bit, producing a dark rich looking liquid. I added 2 quarts of water and brought to a very low simmer, left the lid askew, and cooked for 2 hours.

After letting it cool a bit, I used a slotted spoon to remove the beef bones and took the meat from it that was good looking and saved for the soup. I poured the broth into a large jar, straining it through my fine meshed strainer and chilled it in the frig. I had just under 2 quarts of wonderful beef broth and a bit of meat for some soup.

Prime Rib

Oh where to start? I guess with the prime rib. I keep going back to The Perfect Recipe: The Ultimate, Hands-Down Best Way to Cook Our Favorite Foods by Pamela Anderson because every single recipe I've tried has come out fantastic. Once I decided to try a prime rib, my first, I read a dozen recipes. ALL of them, except the one in this book, had it cooking at 350 or more. So when Anderson says to cook it at 200, I felt like I was taking a risk, an $75 risk, not to mention 14 hungry people dependent on me for Christmas dinner! I did do a ham as well, because, well, we love ham and the kids begged. So Anderson's ham recipe says 250 and the prime rib says 200. I've got one oven so I split the difference.

I carefully measured ahead of time to make sure each hunk of meat would fit in my roasting pans and the two roasting pans could sit side by side. Otherwise, I was going to have to experiment with the ham in the convection oven or the crockpot. I actually tried to go buy one of those electric roasters but couldn't find any.

So, the prime rib. I tied it up, as instructed, with three pieces of twine. I seared it in a stockpot, browning the outside. I salted and peppered it. And I stuck it on a rack in one of my roasting pans and put it in the oven at 225. (Anderson says 200, but I had the ham to consider.) She says about 30 minutes per pound and that was just about perfect. I had a 10 pound prime rib. I checked it an hour before I thought it would be done, then again 30 minutes later, then again. The meat thermometer said 130. And it was truly just about perfect. I know my brother and a few other guests like it rare, but most of us like it medium. Everyone found just what they wanted and my brother pronounce it "perfect," high praise from a guy who eats a lot of beef.

Since my site is mostly about cheap cooking and frugal recipes, I have to point out that this cut of meat is pure luxury. If you want to make a big splash with a hunk of beef, it's pretty hard to beat. And it's easy, so even if you're new to cooking, you can easily serve a pretty impressive dinner here.

Value is a personal thing. For me, it was fun to try once because I'd always wanted to cook one. However, at $75 to feed 14 it's definitely a luxury. I suspect everyone would have been just as happy with a $20 ham and/or a $20 turkey or a big hunk of salmon (another family favorite) or a few pork tenderloins. It was fun though.

Gingerbread Houses

We used pre-fab gingerbread houses this year due to time constraints. It let us concentrate on the decorating more, which was a nice change of pace. However, I'll not use the icing included in the kits again, as 3 out of 4 houses have self-destructed at this point, several weeks after the initial decorating.



But a good time was had by all!

Creamy Ground Beef Burrito Bake

I made some really good burritos last night, filled with a ground beef, refried beans, and cheese mixture, topped with a creamy sauce and a bit more cheese. The original recipe is a freezer recipe (just assemble and then freeze before baking). It also made at least double the amount I wanted for tonight. I halved the recipe (and filled the burritos with a bit less filling than they called for). The original recipe called for a packet of taco seasonings. I just cooked up the meat how I normally do it for tacos. For the sauce, I used a fat-free cream of mushroom soup which I don't normally have around but they were on sale last week), and a mixture of light sour cream and lowfat yogurt.

1 pound ground beef
1/2 an onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
8 ounces tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 15-ounce can refried beans
1 10.5-ounce can of "cream of" soup (I used mushroom)
8 ounces sour cream or yogurt or a combination
flour tortillas (quantity could vary, I used 10)
grated cheese, about 3/4 pound

Brown the ground beef, onion, and garlic. Drain off any accumulated grease. Add the cumin and cook another minute or so, then add the tomato sauce and water and simmer 5-10 minutes. If it gets too try, add a bit more sauce or water. Stir in the refried beans.

In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream or yogurt and the "cream of" soup. You can always make your own "cream of whatever" soup to use instead. Spread a bit of this on the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Reserve the rest for topping the burritos.

Heating the tortillas in the microwave in a tortilla warmer or between paper towels makes them a bit easier to roll up.

Spread a bit of the bean and meat mixture down the middle, top with some grated cheese, and roll up and fold burrito-style, placing the burrito seam-side down in the baking dish. Repeat until all the filling is used up. Spread the sauce over the top of the burritos and sprinkle some cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Serve with salsa, more sour cream, guacamole, sliced olives, or whatever else sounds good for topping. I poured some green tomatillo sauce on mine, which was fantastic. The girls ate theirs plain.

Soup: Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Beans)

This was a fantastically good, filling soup. I used turkey broth but you could as easily use vegetable broth or chicken broth. I mostly followed the recipe in Cheap. Fast. Good! but made a few modifications. I did put two cans of tomatoes in here but found it a bit tomato heavy for my taste, so I'm noting to just put one can in. I'm not crazy about tomatoes in soup. In fact I might opt for a can of tomato sauce or V8 juice next time.

2 tsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 15 ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15 ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
pepper to taste, salt if needed
grated Parmesan cheese to taste

Heat the oil in a soup pot and saute the onion, carrots, and celery 5 minutes or so, until soft, stirring periodically. Add the garlic and stir and cook another minute or two.

Add the broth, tomatoes and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, stirring now and then.

Add the macraoni and stir to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. Cook 7-8 minutes at a boil. This is a great time to get the beans ready and grate the cheese!

Add the beans, stirring, and cook another 3-4 minutes. Taste and season. Serve with Parmesan to pass at the table.

They said this serves six and I'd put it more at 8. I served it with garlic bread for dinner and it won rave reviews, except for the tomatoes, which I agreed with. I had some leftovers for lunch today and it was just as good, or better.

Chicken Parmigiana

We had some friends over for dinner Sunday night. I wanted to serve something that pleased both adults and kids, since they had nearly 3 year old twins. One of the girls suggested chicken cutlets so I ended up repeating a favorite "company" dinner:

• chicken cutlets
• angel hair pasta with oil and garlic
• a Caesar salad
• brown sugar carrots

Since spaghetti is hard on little ones, I cooked some shells up ahead of time and just put a bit of butter on them for the little ones. Everything was great, other than the last minute cooking, which always seems to take a bit more time than I plan on. Still, it was a good dinner.

I cooked a few too many cutlets, figuring that more is always better than less. I was just going to reheat them in the oven, so they stayed a bit crispy, but then decided to make some chicken parmigiana from them.

• leftover or fresh chicken cutlets
• 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
• Italian herbs (I used a blend)
• some garlic powder
• a spoonful of sugar
• mozzarella cheese

I heated up the tomato sauce, herbs, garlic powder, and sugar, tasting and adjusting.

I put the leftover chicken cutlets in a baking dish, poured the sauce over them, then topped with some slices of mozzarella cheese. I heated at 300 for 15 or 20 minutes. Mmmm! I love leftovers that don't taste like leftovers.

Roasting a Turkey

Since we went away for Thanksgiving (and had a fabulous dinner at my sister's!), my girls' were feeling shortchanged. My sister generously sent us home with some leftover turkey, among other things, but after a batch of turkey enchiladas and a few sandwiches, it was gone. I bought a turkey and fixed it last weekend, without all the trimmings.

I decided to try out the method Pamela Anderson has in her book The Perfect Recipe, which is a bit different than other recipes I've used. I love how she describes all the methods she tried to get at the perfect recipe. You don't buy this book for the quantity of recipes but the quality. Every single thing I've tried has been superb. The turkey was no exception.

I didn't have a chance to brine the frozen turkey I bought, as she recommends. But I did use her method of cooking, which for a 10-12 pound turkey is essentially:

• Preheat the oven to 400
• Put some chopped onion, carrot, and celery mixed with thyme on the bottom of the roasting pan and add 1 cup of water
• Put some chopped onion, carrot, thyme, and a bit of melted butter inside the turkey
• Put a v-rack in the roast pan. Baste the turkey all over with some melted butter and start the turkey breast side down. Cook for 45 minutes.
• Use paper towels to hold the hot turkey and turn it on its SIDE. This is the part that was totally unique to me, but makes total sense. Baste with melted butter and cook another 20 minutes.
• Turn the turkey onto its other side, baste and cook another 20 minutes.
• Finally, turn the turkey breast side UP, baste, and cook another 45 minutes or so, until a meat thermometer in the leg registers 170-175F and one in the breast 160-165. Mine, at 11 pounds, did this right on the money.

The meat was excellent. Nothing dried out but everything cooked.

We had a friend for dinner and ate quite a bit the first night. The next day was gingerbread house decorating all day. After eating candy for a few hours, everyone wanted something non-sweet. I made up our favorite turkey salad spread. Mmmm!