Beef Stroganoff - Remastered

After learning to cook spaghetti as a kid, Beef Stroganoff was the next meal for me to learn. In the early days, I would use a couple of family size cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, add it to ground beef and some choice spices (Italian Seasoning in everything was always my choice as a kid) and then serve it over wide egg noodles. (Dad would use the leftovers over toast, so I did too.) I kept this recipe well into my marriage years.

It wasn't until we decided to cut out as much as the processed foods that I revisited this recipe. But of course, after consulting with Carol, I've not made this dinner since we lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico before we had children. 

The reason we cut back on the processed foods is mainly to avoid the sodium levels, and to a lesser extent, the preservatives and other neat things that making freshly made foods tend to lack.  The last time I made Stroganoff from scratch, it wasn't something that I wanted to share with you all. It was bland, horridly so. It did inspire the beginning of this blog, but just didn't make the cut. So I made it again a couple of nights ago. It's that recipe I will be sharing. The only problem is that I didn't take a photo. So I've cheated. The picture is not from a couple of nights ago, but a couple of months ago. The recipe is from a couple of nights ago. It was a hit, and the leftover gravy tasted great over whole wheat toast!

Here's what you'll need:

2 pounds of ground beef - you can use thin stripped round steak

20 ounces of beef consomme (beef broth or stock if you must) - this is the sole source of salt

1 pound sliced mushrooms

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic crushed

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup all purpose flour

3 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons ranch dressing powder/seasoning

2 teaspoons cilantro

2 teaspoons marjoram

2 tablespoons General Tso's sauce

6 twists of black pepper mill

1 bag of extra wide egg noodle.

In a large wok, heat olive oil. Once hot, add just the garlic and onion. Fry until golden brown. Add mushrooms. Once the mushrooms have all darkened, remove wok from heat and set aside.

Fry up meat in large dutch oven using 1 teaspoon each of marjoram and cilantro with 3 twists of the the pepper mill. (Remember, I cook for a family of 7. For a normal size family, half the portions and use appropriate size pans and kitchen tools.) Once browned, add 10 ounces of the consomme and the General Tso's sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

While waiting for the 15 minutes to pass, in a small mixing bowl, add the flour to the consomme while whisking it to avoid clumping. (Do NOT heat!) For those pesky clumps that will not break apart, use a strainer when the time comes to add the mix to the dutch oven. Once meat has cooked for 15 minutes, add consomme/flour mix, keeping the heat no higher than medium. Stir while bringing it to lite boil. Add the mushrooms and onion mix. Once the mix is to boil, add cream and ranch seasoning, as well as remaining cilantro, marjoram, and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low or simmer and then cover for 10 minutes. Serve over your preferred pasta. We do prefer the extra wide egg noodles ourselves. 

Bon Appetit!

Alfredo Arizona

I have always loved Alfredo sauce, but never really took the time to see how complex making this is. And the stuff in the bottle?! Please! Don't get me started! So trying this sauce, looking at a few recipes online, it really is an easy fix. And of course, my signature to any recipes is to take the recipe, contemplate on it and then twist it! With that in mind, I give you the recipe for Alfredo Arizona.

1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
1 pound Chicken Thighs, cut into bits or slices
1 teaspoon Marjoram
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
10 twists of Black Pepper grinder
1 tablespoon Ranch Seasoning

In a dutch oven, heat oil. (Depending on the size of pan, use only enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.) Add garlic and then chicken slices, followed by the seasoning. When cooked, use a spider, or slotted spoon, to remove the chicken from the pan, leaving as much of the juice/oil behind.

1.5 cups Chicken broth
2 tablespoons Ranch Seasoning
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
1 teaspoon Marjoram
1.5 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
10 ounces fresh Parmesan cheese

In the same dutch oven that you cooked the chicken in, add broth and garlic and bring to a boil, mixing with whisk. Turn heat to medium, add whipping cream and spices. Continually whisk until sauce boils. (Add Parmesan cheese and whisk until cheese is melted. If sauce is too thin, add more whipping cream. If sauce is too thick, add more broth.) Add chicken to sauce and mix. Let sit on low heat while cooking pasta.

Prepare your pasta of choice according to package instruction.

Prep to serve time: Approximately 30 minutes. Serves 7.
Best served with salad, bread sticks and broccoli.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Stir-fry

This being my third post, not all my recipes will come with a story. This one, however does.  Here is how an American boy has come to expand his cooking into the Oriental cuisine. It wasn't too long ago that I started this. Sweet & Spicy Beef, however was my first foray. One Wednesday evening, as the Prayer meeting was relaxing after a dinner of slop joes and green beans, I thought that the people would enjoy something Oriental. It needed to happen.

The interesting thing about the courtship between my wife and I is that until I met her mom, I thought my wife was Hispanic. Her sister's name, Young, wasn't necessarily exclusively Oriental. Her brother's name, Kwon, was said with a softer K making it sound in my slightly hearing impaired head as "Juan". So when I met her mom, I turned to Carol and said, "You're Oriental?!" Her mom treated me to the most delicious cooking of squash cakes. Her mom then cooked a few more times during the courtship other great and tasty treats for me. 

At this point, I was quite regretful of how I behaved growing up. Even through college, I kept to my disdain of Oriental food, though I did enjoy the Burmese cuisine that my missionary club at Ozark enjoyed. If I had only trusted my parents the few times they attempted to take the family to Gene's restaurant. Though Gene's did make a great burger. (The other regret from growing up was to never try Chili Pepper's.)

Yet in the near 17 years of marriage, Carol doesn't really make Oriental food. There has been pugogy and teriyaki beef or chicken. Any other dishes have come the Chinese restaurants we've visited. Now in the last couple of years, Carol has added stir fries of sorts. So when I asked her about making something for the Wednesday evening  She stated that it was my doing and therefore I should cook the dinner. The following week, she guided me. And this evening, I made the Sweet & Spicy Chicken Stir-fry. Here's how:

5 chicken thighs, boneless & skinless, sliced

4 cloves of garlic

1/4 teaspoon of minced ginger

1 splash of vegetable oil

1/2 cup of soy sauce

1/3 cup of rice vinegar

1/2 cup of water

1/4 cup of honey

1 tablespoon of hot bean paste

4 large green onions, diced

1 bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables

1 bag of rice noodles

1 splash of Sesame Seed oil

Mix water, soy sauce, vinegar, honey, and paste together with the minced ginger. Set aside.

In a cauldron, bring water to boil. Add the rice noodles and cook until pliable. This can take up to three minutes. (Depending on the brand you use, the rice noodles may be marketed as rice sticks.) Once cooked and drained, set aside.

Heat wok with oil splash, add garlic then the chicken strips. Half way, while there is still plenty of pink, add a splash of sauce mix. Once chicken is cooked, remove from wok, keeping as much of the liquid in the wok. Return wok to heat, dump bag of vegetables to wok and fry. Once cooked, add remainder of the sauce mix to wok. Bring to a simmer. Add rice noodles. Continue cooking for 5 minutes, then add chicken. Cook additional 5 minutes, add remainder of the green onions and a splash of sesame oil. Mix. Serve.

Takes approximately 30 minutes from prep to serve. Serves approximately 8. This has quite an overt kick. Use more bean paste for greater heat, or augment with crushed red pepper (Oriental pepper). Cut paste in half for more mild taste.

Bon Appetit!

Korean Beef a la Doctor

This recipe is inspired by a "Mongolian Beef" recipe. Along with the recipe, I've cooked 6 cups of CalRose rice. It is a sweet sauce with a kick-note finish. If you are not used to spicy cooking, then you might find this a bit hotter than a mere kick-note. Enjoy my new, demented concoction!!


1 pound iron pan steak cut into strips (Carne Asada cut or other thin cut steaks can be used.)
1/4 cup corn starch to coat beef
1/2 cup vegetable oil to fry beef


Coat beef strips in corn starch. Heat oil over high heat in a frying pan of at least 2 inch depth, THEN add the beef.  The oil should be deep enough to cover the beef strips. Stir frequently to keep beef from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once cooked, about 8 minutes, remove and drain beef.  Set aside.

Sauce:
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1/4 teaspoon of crushed fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon of vegetable oil
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1 cup  of Dr. Pepper
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of Korean Hot Pepper Bean Paste
2 large green onions, chopped
2 cups of broccoli bits
1/2 cup of carrot sticks (or shredded carrots)

Fry up garlic and ginger in oil, adding soy sauce, water and Dr. Pepper and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Add vegetables to mix. Bring to simmer on medium heat. Add beef to the sauce, bring again to a simmering boil. Let set for 10 minutes before serving. Serve over CalRose rice.

Serves: 6 people
Prep Time: (start to serve) Approximately 30-45 minutes, or the length of time to cook 6 cups of rice.