Il Popeye Benedicto

I love spinach. I also love poached eggs. And I love them in a combo.

So tonight, I had some fresh spinach, some eggs, some salami, a few pieces of whole wheat bread and some salami in the fridge.

The result? Il Popeye Benedicto!

I fried the salami a little bit in a hot cast iron skillet with just a little bit of olive oil. Removed them. Mike used the same skillet to make some excellent home fries. When they were removed, I wilted the spinach in the same hot skillet, in a little olive oil, with the burner off. There was enough heat to wilt it. Meanwhile, I boiled a little bit of water in a pot, plunked in a little bit of vinegar when it was at a boil, put in two eggs and let them float for about 4 minutes. Toasted some of the whole wheat, topped each slice with half of the spinach. Then placed two salami slices on that, and then one egg. Topped the whole thing off with a few small slices of Monterrey jack cheese, and voila...Il Popeye Benedicto served along side of home fried potatoes.

It was so yummy, I forgot to take a picture!

-J

Baked Potato Soup

It's a cold night. I have potatoes, celery, carrots and onions to put to use. So...Baked Potato Soup it is!

"Bake" 4 - 6 medium potatoes,about 1 1/2 pounds, in the microwave oven (pierce them all over with a fork first).

Chop about 1/2 cup each of carrots, onion and celery. Melt 1/2 stick of butter in a large pot over medium low heat. Put in chopped veggies, cover and cook until soft but not brown, about 10 minutes.

When potatoes are cool enough to handle,reserve two, peel the remaining potatoes, or leave some peel on, as desired, add to veggies and mash with a potato masher.

Stir in 1 c. chicken stock and 1 1/2 c. milk to veggies and potatoes, salt and pepper to taste. I also added a pinch of nutmeg. Let simmer for about 20 minutes.

While soup is simmering, cook 4 or 5 pieces of bacon in the microwave, covered with a paper towel, for 1 minute per slice. When cool, drain and crumble. Add about 2/3 of the bacon to the soup, along with about a Tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary and the reserved baked potatoes, chopped. Continue to simmer until you are ready to eat, which should be fairly soon after smelling all of this! You may need to add about another 1/2 c. of milk prior to serving. (I did.)

Serve topped with a little more crumbled bacon and shredded cheddar.

Enjoy!
-J

Steak MonaVie

Well, 2DG has spent the last few months settling into our beautiful new kitchen and saying goodbye to the old one. I've been too busy with everything to let you know what's going on! Well today, I tried a meal based on Beef Burgundy, but using a top sirloin steak and MonaVie Essential. I figured since it's fruit based, I could use it in place of the burgundy wine.

First I cubed 1 pound of boneless top sirloin steak and marinated it in 2 oz. of MonaVie Essential juice for about an hour. While that was sitting, I sliced a medium onion, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and minced 1 large garlic clove and put that aside with some sliced baby portabella mushrooms.

Next I browned the steak cubes in about 2 T of butter just to sear them on all sides, reserving the marinade, and put them in a casserole dish. Then all the veggies went into the skillet to soften for about 5 minutes, then they went into the casserole dish. Now I deglazed the pan with the reserved marinade and another 2 oz. of MVE. After that bubbled a little bit, I sprinkled in 2 or 3 Tablespoons of flour and stirred til it thickened. Slooowly I added about 2 cups of beef stock, stirring to thicken. Then into the casserole dish with the sauce. The covered casserole dish went into a 350 degree oven for an hour. Then I put in another 2 - 3 oz of MVE and put the dish back into the oven for another hour, uncovered this time.

Served on a bed of mashed potatoes, it was very tasty and the steak was nicely cooked and tender. I was afraid it would be over cooked and dried out, but that wasn't the case at all.

I will be incorporating more MonaVie juice into my meals from time to time, and will let you know how it turns out.

Enjoy!
-J

p.s....now I can hardly wait for some homemade peach/plum pie!

Shepherd's Pie

First off, I need to say that technically, what you're about to see is Cottage Pie since it's made with beef, and not Shepherd's Pie, which is made with lamb. That said, I think "Shehperd's Pie" is a more well known name here in the U.S., so that's what I'm calling it.

This has to be one of the greatest "clean out the fridge" dishes you'll ever find. This particular incarnation began its life as Salisbury Steak with mushroom and onion gravy, served along with mashed parsnips/potatoes. Up to this point, I'd always made Shepherd's Pie out of left over meatloaf and mashed potatoes, so using Salisbury Steak seemed like a natural progression.

Here's the finished dish...isn't it pretty? I like to make "individual pies" for each person (and believe me, neither of us ever finishes one at one sitting, so they make great lunches the next day too!), so I use my stoneware bowls, since they are oven-safe.

Now, how'd it go together?

First...I chopped the leftover salisbury steak paddy into cubes and distributed it in the bottom of the bowl. I've found that using one whole piece of meatloaf, or in this case, one whole steak paddy meant that the first few bites around the edge of the bowl may not have much, if any, meat in them.This way fixes that problem!

Next I put some chopped fresh carrots, green beans and leftover mushrooms on top of the steak. Usually I use frozen mixed veggies, but since I had fresh stuff on hand, I used them instead. This meant it had to bake a little longer in the oven, but that's ok.

Now for the mushroom and onion gravy from the salisbury steak meal. I wish this came across better in a picture, but it is what it is!

I had never had parsnips before, and wanted to try them, so I added them in with the potatoes when I made mashed potatoes to go along with the salisbury steak. They were very tasty! I will be using them again in the future. But for now, I took the leftover mashed parsnips and potatoes, and generously spread them on top of the pies. I feel it's important to get a good "seal", so be sure to get the pototoes all the way to the edge of the bowls!

One thing I do differently than most Shepherd Pie creators is top the potatoes with some cheddar cheese. I mean, how can adding cheese to meat, veggies and potatoes be a bad thing??

And here it is again, after being baked at 350 degrees for about a half an hour. After that, I turned the broiler on over them to brown the cheese and potatoes a little bit. KEEP AN EYE ON THEM WHILE THEY'RE UNDER THE BROILER!!! You want them slightly browned, not charred!

And in case you're wondering, here are two pictures of the Salisbury Steaks from which this 2nd Day Gourmet meal originated.