Tag Archives: august 2016

Scrumdiddlyumptious

Another summer slow cooker meal coming at ‘cha. Scrumdiddlyumptious slow cooker salisbury steak! Say THAT 5 times fast…. Whew!

Salisbury steak makes me think back to the Kid cuisine frozen meals from childhood. Do you remember those? The brownies….mini corn on the cob…You might be rolling your eyes at the mention of a frozen meal, but hey let’s be real here, we were 90s kids growing up in America, we ate them occasionally, along with Gushers, DunkAroos, Sunny Delight, and Fruit By The Foot. Talk about things that rocked our jean jacket and jellies off and was total bliss in the eyes of a 90s kid! Blast from the past, huh?

Whatever would make me want to recreate a frozen meal you ask? Possibly nostalgia? Possibly part curiosity of the taste as an adult? I’m really not sure? Whatever the case, I’m salivating thinking back on the smells that wafted through our home when these little guys were simmering away in the slow cooker. Mmmmm just imagine the combination of beef, mushrooms, onions and that au jus mix magic!

We served the salisbury with a nice fresh head of locally grown broccoli, herbed stuffing, and sous vide black truffle pomme purée. It seriously turned from a good ‘ol central Pennsylvania go to frozen dinner classic to a simply gorgeous meal with minimal effort (….minus the black truffle pomme purée).

You guys…. It was GOOD! Sooooo good! I swear all that was missing was a sisterly fight over what we were watching next, Rocko’s Modern Life or The Fresh Prince….

Enjoy the blast from the past!

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak
Recipe source slightly altered from Here

Ingredients:

1.39lbs Lean ground beef
1 (1 ounce) Envelope dry onion soup mix
4 Tbls Italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 Tbls Lactose free milk
2 Tbls All-purpose flour
1 Tbls Safflower oil
1 (10.75 ounce) Can of condensed cream of chicken soup (low sodium)
1/2 of Packet dry au jus mix
3/4 Cup Better than chicken bouillon broth
Hand full of mushrooms, sliced
Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, onion soup mix, bread crumbs, and milk using your hands. Shape into 8 patties.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Dredge the patties in flour just to coat, and quickly brown on both sides in the hot skillet.

Place browned patties into the slow cooker stacking alternately like a pyramid.

In a medium bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup, au jus mix, and chicken broth. Throw in chopped mushrooms.

Pour mixture over the meat. Cook on the Low setting for 4 or 5 hours, until ground beef is well done.

Backpackbees

Little Fantasy

I’m going to let you in on a wee little fantasy of mine, well… If you know me really well… maybe it’s not such a little secret. Sooo one of my BIGGEST dreams is to own my own little café. Obviously this little fantasy is on hold until the day comes that we finally choose a town to plant our roots in.

Right now I have a silly little hobby while my dream is on hold, it consists of visiting café and coffee shops in the local area, as well as when we travel, collecting ideas that helping me create my café vision board. It’s so much fun!

If you close your eyes for a moment I’ll give you a brief tour around my café. Here we go…..As you approach the café from the street you will first see the all glass bi-fold doors that let natural light into the café. Once you step inside will see that the café has a very clean look and feel to it. Bright white walls, black modern track lighting above for the ability to illuminate where needed if we move tables, a few green plants in terra-cotta pots, a large black menu board with white removable lettering for menu changes, a simple counter with refrigerated glass display for the baked goodies, an epoxy finished floor….you get the idea…(I’ve had just a little time to think about these things ha ha ha) Nothing outlandish, just simple, keeping it very simple. Okay, open your eyes. You can keep reading onward now.

I also envision this little bumblebee buzzing around and helping us with our customers.

Outside of serving a good cup of coffee in the café, I would serve a rotation of seasonal handmade breads, pound cakes, muffins, pies, and cakes, again super simple but delicious!

I know that fantasies are just that, a fantasy… and this fantasy will probably never really take off, buttttt sometimes it’s super fun to imagine and pretend that it just might. So right now I’m practice baking and testing baked goodies in our own kitchen listening to jazz, sharing the outcomes with you all and these little moments don’t make it seem as far-fetched, or altogether downright silly.

I present to you the summer sinful frosted zucchini brownie recipe. Enjoy and try to refrain from eating the entire sheet pan in one sitting.

Summer Sinful Frosted Zucchini Brownies

Ingredients:

Brownie Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Safflower Oil
1/2 Cup Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips 60%
2 Tbls Unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey or Ghirardelli)
1 Cup Granulated sugar
1 Egg
1 Egg yolk
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
1 Cup grated zucchini, squeeze out the moisture!
1/4 Tsp Baking soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Cup all purpose flour

Frosting Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Salted butter (4 Tablespoons if using stick)
2 Tbls Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 Cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips 60%
2 Tbls Lactose free milk, regular cow milk would work as well
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 1/2 Cups Powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With lightly sprayed parchment paper, line a quarter sheet baking pan.

In medium saucepan on stove, over medium to low heat, melt safflower oil, chocolate chips, and cocoa together.

Remove mixture from heat and stir in the sugar, eggs, vanilla and zucchini.

Next stir in the remaining dry ingredients and then pour into prepared quarter pan.

Spread mixture out evenly and pop into oven about 20-25 minutes, or until tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle of brownies.

(**Important that the frosting is hot to pour easily over brownies.) Prepare the frosting ingredients in a pot on stove for the frosting so you can make immediately make once brownies are done, but don’t start until brownies come out of oven.

As soon as the brownies are done baking and come out if the oven, head to your pre-prepperd pot and melt the butter, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and milk together and simmer gently, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.

Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and powdered sugar. Pour the hot frosting over brownies. Spread frosting evenly.

Try to resist….. Let brownies cool at least 5 minutes before cutting into pieces and devouring! (Keep in the refrigerator or your pretend cooled Café glass display ;).

Backpackbees