green beans

Dinner Menu: Grilled Steak with Coffee Rub and Blueberry Coffeecake

/ TaMara

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Let’s start grilling season off with one of my most requested recipes. A steak coffee rub.

From August 2013

A friend of mine spent a few months one summer experimenting with coffee rubs. This was one of my favorites. If you need something fun to do with your next grilled steak, this is a recipe to try. And with my love of blueberries, can’t go wrong with a blueberry coffeecake.  Yum.

On the board tonight:

  1. Steak with Coffee Rub
  2. Green Beans w/Bacon & Onion
  3. Baked Potatoes
  4. Blueberry CoffeeCake

Steak with Coffee Rub

  • 3 tbsp chili powder (pure ancho or a blend)
  • 3 tbsp finely ground coffee (espresso works best)
  • 1 ½ tbsp paprika (use a good one)
  • 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
  • 2 tsp dry mustard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 to 1-1/2 lb of steak (rib-eye, sirloin, NY strip, etc) in 4 thick pieces

Continue reading →

Farmer’s Market Week: Green Beans w/Red Peppers

/ TaMara / 1 Comment

The garden is starting to overflow with ready-to-pick goodies. Here are some new flavors to try with fresh green beans. Below are stovetop and instant pot instructions.

Photo: Betty Crocker

Green Beans w/Red Peppers:

  • 1 lb green beans, trimmed
  • 1 red pepper, seeded and sliced in strips
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 oz sliced black olives
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • ¼ tsp red pepper flakes

Stovetop: Continue reading →

Christmas Eve Menu

/ TaMara

Every year, around Thanksgiving, I ask my Christmas Eve guests what they want at our annual soiree.

This year we settled on fairly simple, yet tasty menu:

Oven Fried Buttermilk Chicken 

This will be a tweaked recipe – kind of combining two of my favorite recipes. I’ve done a couple of practice batches – can’t have too much oven fried chicken! – and once I have it perfected, I’ll post.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

I’m doing my no boil mashed potatoes (recipe here) and serving it fully loaded with sour cream, bacon and cheddar cheese. Also gravy.

Cajun Gravy

This will be a spicy mix of sausage, bacon, minced chicken hearty gravy.

Bacon, Tomato, Green Beans

Pretty simple – tossing green beans with bacon (and bacon grease) and sliced grape tomatoes in a skillet until tender.

And finally, dessert will be the ever popular Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Premium vanilla bean ice cream served with choice of toppings – caramel, chocolate, peanuts, walnuts and sliced bananas

Photos and recipes to follow.

 

Fried Rice

/ jeffreyw

Fried rice is one of the easiest things, but be sure to use older rice that has dried out some.  This lunch was the happy result of finding a baggie of rice in the back of freezer beyond during an exploration this morning.  I also used up a single link of garlic pepper sausage left over from a breakfast a few days past.  Saute the sausage or ham or whatever in sesame oil, add the peas and carrots and chopped green onions and sweat those for a few minutes, add the rice and warm that up.  Lastly stir in some oyster sauce and a little soy sauce.  I usually add in some scrambled egg but this time I didn’t.The chicken was dredged in flour, fried, and set aside.  It has a sauce of honey, garlic, ginger, chili paste, and soy sauce that was simmered to warm and reduce.  Add the chicken to it and toss to coat.  The green beans were steamed and chilled, then re-warmed in a pan with garlic and sesame oil.

Fried Chicken and Green Beans

/ jeffreyw

Chicken thigh dredged in flour > egg > panko and fried till golden, then baked @350 till its juices ran clear.  Green beans were steamed for 6 minutes and then chilled in ice water and set aside.  For plating they were tossed in hot oil until warmed through.  This is my new favorite method for green beans.  Season with salt and whichever other flavor suits you.  Lemon is classic, as is garlic.  These were tossed with sesame oil.

The little side bowls were KFC recipe slaw and potato salad.

Roasted Chicken

/ jeffreyw

This is another of the beer-butt roasted chickens.  I cut up those potatoes and added them into the bottom of the pan the chicken was roasting in so they could cook in the chicken juices.  It was a 400 oven so I waited for the last 30 minutes to put them in.

The green beans were steamed for 6 minutes then cooled in cold running water.  They were warmed for service in sesame oil in a hot skillet while the chicken was resting.

Mmm… Meatloaf Dinner

/ jeffreyw

Your basic meatloaf, half beef and half Italian sausage with milk and crumbs and Parmesan and herbs and spices.  Ketchup with brown sugar and worcestershire sauce for the topping.  There’s onions and peppers in there.  Hard to go wrong but it can be done so don’t take that as a challenge.Mrs J was wanting mac and cheese and green beans because that is what you serve with meatloaf in these enlightened environs.A good time was had by all.  Gabe got some cheese sauce flavored pots and casseroles to lick out and he did a very good job.  Such a good boy, yes he is!