Things I could've made with a Dutch Oven

More food without Pictures, sigh.

Parental Anniversary Menu (PAM)

Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce (including an extra tablespoon of horseradish)
Au Gratin Potatoes
Cabernet Pot Roast
Shredded Brussel Sprouts
Chocolate Crepes with an Amaretto Cream and Coffee Syrup

Two of the menu items were from fellow food bloggers, and I have linked those recipes to their sites. Go check them out, as they are much more diligent at the blogging than I.

For the potatoes, there was some drama. I do not have a mandoline, so I used the large bladed side on the cheese grater. It worked great; however, I did the slicing in the morning, put the potatoes under plastic wrap in the refrigerator, and when I came back to cook them, they were almost black. I rinsed them with cold water, which seemed to lessen the discoloration, and upon cooking them, it was all normal again. PHEW! But I thought I had lost 4lbs of potato!

Because I did not have a pot large enough to house all of the potatoes, I split them up between two round casserole dishes. This recipe definitely serves at least 8!
Potatoes au Gratin

Ingredients:
4 lbs. russet potatoes, sliced into 1/8" slices with a mandoline
2 Tbsp. butter
1 small onion, choped fine
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 Tbsp. butter
5 c. chicken stock
1/3 c. flour
1 4in x 2in parmesean rind
1 bay leaf
1 c. shredded aged white cheddar
1/2 c. shredded parmesean
1/8 c. shredded white America cheese (I just did more white cheddar)

Directions:-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Meanwhile, melt butter in Dutch oven over medium high heat until foaming subsides, about 1 min.
-Add onions and saute until soft and begins to brown, about 4 min.
-Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 sec.
-Add flour and stir until browned, about 1 min.
-Deglaze pan with chicken stock, scraping browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
-Add parm rind and bay leaf and simmer vigourously until stock is reduced and sauce gets thick, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
-Remove parm rind and add cheese, stirring to melt.
-Add sliced potatoes and stir to coat.
-Cover Dutch oven tightly and place in oven to cook for 45 minutes.
-Remove top of Dutch oven, stir slightly to recoat potatoes and place back into oven to brown for 15 minutes.
-Remove Dutch oven from oven and let cool, uncovered, for 10 minutes before serving.

And the pot roast...

I also added a sweet potato to the vegetables that roasted with the beef. I actually cooked all of this in my large Calphalon Omelete pan, covered in foil. Worked just fine! I did my grocery shopping at 1130pm, and there was no rosemary in the fresh herb section. I bought, instead, a poultry mix, using the sage and thyme as the herbs used. I also forgot to use bay leaves. And I did a red wine and corn starch slurry for the gravy.

Cabernet Pot Roast
1 2 lb. chuck roast trimmed of excess fat
Flour for dredging plus 1 Tbs. for slurry
salt, pepper and garlic powder for seasoning
2 Tbs. canola oil
1 cup Cabernet
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 1/4 cup beef broth divided
3 med. sized carrots cut into long strips
2 celery stalks roughly chopped
1 medium chopped
4 garlic cloves roughly chopped
1 rosemary sprig cut in half
2 bay leaves
2 sage stems with leaves
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 325

Heat skillet over med. high heat and add oil. Season meat with salt, pepper and garlic powder and dredge in flour. Sear meat in skillet on all sides, and set aside. Add butter to the pan and take off burner to cool down. Lower heat to med. low and return the skillet to the burner after a few minutes. Add all veggies and herbs except garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes or until onion is translucent and soft. Add garlic and cook a couple minutes. Deglaze the pan with the wine scraping all the stuck on bit from the bottom of the pan. Add tomatoes, and broth and bring to a simmer. Let simmer about 5 minutes until slightly reduced. Add roast, cover skillet tightly with foil and roast for 2-2 1/2 hours.
Take skillet out of oven and put meat and veggies on a platter. Discard stems and make a slurry with 1 Tbs. of flour and water. Turn heat on burner to low and stir in slurry and 1/4 cup of beef broth. Continue stirring until you have the consistency desired.

The blogs, where these two recipes came from, have great pictures. So I feel a little okay that I didn't take the photos last night. I was entertaining for this meal, so the added stress made it impossible.

I will post the dessert recipe with the photo tomorrow...stay tuned.

Potato Gnocchi in Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Sauce

In the pasta aisle, you will find potato gnocchi in vacuum sealed packages. They say "3 Servings"; I say NO. But they work for 2 people for sure. I think homemade gnocchis are better. These were a bit mushy, but they serve a great purpose, taking only 3 minutes in boiling water. They made a great dinner for TJ and I last night.


This was an attempt to recreate a Whole Foods menu item. I tweaked it a wee.
Roasted Bulb of garlic (40 minutes at 350 in foil)
Toasted Pine Nuts
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chicken broth1/4 cup white wine
Cook the gnocchi and set aside, keeping them warm.
Toast pine nuts, and add to gnocchi. Sweat the mushrooms in a nonstick pan (I cover mine). Add chicken broth to mushrooms to deglaze the pan. Add the roasted garlic and wine; saute to blend flavors. Toss with gnocchi and nuts. Add parmesan cheese.

My Experiment with Fish Crust

I had these lemon potatoes at Tria once. Tria is a greek restaurant whose side dishes are lemon loaded (ohhh, nice band name). So I took a stab at the potatoes tonight. I tossed Idaho potatoes with olive oil and lemon juice (2 lemons), added salt and dry oregano and baked at 400 for about 50 minutes. I forgot to add...you MUST put chicken broth in the bottom of the dish so the potatoes do not dry out. And check as they cook. If the broth goes magically away, add more!!

Ah yes. The fish crust. I am a bit picky on waste. So the bowl I tossed the potatoes in with the lemon juice was also used for the salmon. I put two pieces of salmon in the bowl, added a bit more salt and oregano, and flopped it around (technical term). Then placed on a baking pan in the same 400 degree oven. After baking for about 5 minutes, I added a crust. The crust was made with pine nuts, three basil leaves, one garlic clove, chex mix, and a couple tortilla chips.

Huh? Chips? Chex? So a while back TJ and I were in need of bread crumbs. So we took the mini chopper jobby (little food processor) and put some left over spicy chex mix and blended. It worked! So for my crust tonight, I tried the pine nuts blended with some basil and garlic. It was too oily. Nut oil or something. So I added some tortilla chips...yay, notsomuch. So I added chex mix. Perfect! I then pressed it onto the salmon. And the dinner was a huge success.