Coca-Cola© 7-Bone Roast Recipe

You won't taste cola, but the gravy is to die for! You may substitute any brand of plain cola, but do not use diet. It will also work well with other chuck roasts if you are unable to find a 7-bone roast. Oven-baked pot roast and vegetables is enhanced by a rich gravy. This recipe may also be made in a slow cooker.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 (3 to 4 pounds) beef 7-bone roast (or other chuck roast)
Kosher salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 pound baby red (creamer) potatoes, scrubbed, skins on
8 ounces button mushrooms, cleaned
1/2 pound baby carrots, peeled
1 onions, very thinly sliced
1 cup Coca-Cola© or other cola (not diet), at room temperature
1 cup tomato sauce (canned or homemade)
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 Tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Preparation:
Prepare a 9 by 13-inch baking pan by lining it with foil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sprinkle 7-bone roast liberally with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy-duty skillet until very hot, add the olive oil, and quickly sear the 7-bone roast on both sides.

Place seared roast in baking pan. Surround with potatoes, mushrooms, and carrots in an even layer. Spread sliced onions evenly over the top of the meat and vegetables.

Mix cola, tomato sauce, onion soup mix, paprika, oregano, and garlic powder in a bowl until combined. Pour evenly over meat and vegetables. Cover tightly with foil.

Roast for 2 hours. Remove from oven and let rest at least 15 minutes. Carve meat. Serve with vegetables and pan gravy.

Note: Use the same method in a large oval slow-cooker, cooking on low setting for 6 to 8 hours. Or, omit the vegetables (except the sliced onions), and cook the 7-bone roast alone as a main dish.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Hearty Chicken Soup Recipe

Made from scratch, this hearty chicken soup with noodles is a favorite comfort food. The recipe specifies egg noodles, but you may use your favorite type or pasta or shape. The author uses the breast only in the soup and discards the rest, but I would save the meat for other recipes using cooked chicken.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, cut into medium dice
1 whole chicken (about 4 pounds), breast removed and split; remaining chicken cut into 2-inch pieces
Salt
2 bay leaves
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 celery stalk, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 cups (3 ounces) hearty egg noodles
Ground black pepper
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

Preparation:
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large soup kettle. Add half of chopped onions and all chicken pieces (reserve breast). Saute until chicken is no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until chicken releases its juices, about 20 minutes.

Increase heat to high; add 2 quarts water along with whole chicken breast, 1 teaspoon salt and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer, then cover, reduce heat to low and barely simmer until chicken breast is cooked and broth is rich and flavorful, 20 minutes longer.

Remove chicken breast from kettle; set aside. When cool enough to handle, remove skin from breast, then remove meat from bones and shred into bite-size pieces; discard skin and bones. Strain broth into a large bowl and discard any remaining chicken pieces and bones.

Skim fat from broth and reserve 2 tablespoons. (Broth and meat can be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

Return soup kettle to medium-high heat. Add reserved chicken fat. Add remaining onion, along with carrot and celery. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add thyme, broth and shredded chicken. Simmer until vegetables are tender and flavors meld, 10 to 15 minutes.

Add noodles and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings, adding salt, if necessary, and pepper, stir in parsley and serve.

Yield: about 3 quarts; 6 to 8 servings

The Mystical Kitchen: Baked Steak Burritos

The Mystical Kitchen: Baked Steak Burritos

These looked so YUMMY have to share with you all! Click on the link above to see the recipe for Bakes steak Burritos! I know what I'm making soon! 

This weeks bounty!

This week is my 5th time getting a basket from Bountiful Baskets and it's awesome seeing what you get every week. It's something different every time.

This weeks fruit part of the basket

Bananas, nectarines, plums, pears, grapes and mangos

And the veggie part

 Cauliflower, lettuce, celery, potatoes, spinach, and tomatoes

 Click HERE to see if Bountiful Baskets is in your area! Can't wait to see what we are getting next week! We are also going to go volunteer next week. When you volunteer you get a extra item, you are also helping Bountiful Baskets as it is all done by volunteers!

All About Tomatoes --- How to Buy, Store, & Use Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the poster vegetable - the cause célèbre, if you will - of seasonal and local eating. Finding tomatoes that taste like tomatoes may be the biggest single draw to farmers markets around the country. See here how to choose and use these summer gems.

The Best Tomatoes

Photo © Molly Watson

For all the hoopla around "heirloom" tomatoes, I fear people sometimes lose sight of the most important indicators of a tasty tomato. The best tomatoes tend to be:

1. Dry-farmed, which means the tomato plants aren't watered after their flowers set, forcing the plants to work a bit harder to make the tomatoes and leading to better, deeper flavor.
2. Vine-ripened, that is, the tomatoes were allowed to ripen on the vine before they were picked (not simply left on the vine when brought to the store).
3. Locally grown, because tomatoes grown as outlined above are delicate creatures not up for long voyages.

Tomato Varieties

Photo © Molly Watson

Gone are the days when tomatoes were necessarily red and beefsteak (although I'd never refuse a well-grown, perfectly ripe sliced beefsteak tomato sprinkled with salt!). Find your favorite variety of tomato with these guides.

• Tomato Varieties by Color
• Heirloom Tomatoes
• Hybrid Tomatoes

Tips for Buying Tomatoes

Photo © Molly Watson

How often have we all bought perfect looking tomatoes at the store only to bite into flavorless mush? Once is one time too often, quite frankly. While I can't guarantee these tips will forever save you from such a fate, they should keep such incidences to a bare minimum.

• Look Don't worry about tomatoes with weird shapes. Even cracked skin is okay, but leaking juice and soft spots are not.
• Feel Choose tomatoes that feel heavy for their size.
• Smell Tomatoes should smell earthy and tomato-y, never musty or flat.
• Taste This is where farmers market shopping really pays off – you can often taste the tomatoes before you buy them.

How to Store Tomatoes

Treat tomatoes gently. Heirloom tomato varieties, in particular, tend to be quite fragile. So don't pile the tomatoes in a bag where their weight will squash one another, and always pluck vine-ripening tomatoes off their vines (or the vine stem off them) to avoid having the sharp vines poke holes in your precious cargo. But above all never refrigerate tomatoes. Temperatures under 50° turn tomatoes mushy and mealy.

Freezing cilantro

A few weeks ago I froze cilantro and took pictures of what I did.

First I chopped the cilantro with my hand chopper, can be done with electric chopper also or chopped with a knife.

 After chopping I put it in ice cube trays filled them about 3/4 full. then filled to the top with water. After freezing all the way pop out of trays and place in a container or baggie for freezing.

 Cilantro is great for salsa! And many other dishes. To use just unthaw and add to the dish or recipe.

Storing Garlic

oClcik HERE to learn how to store garlic