First February Menu

I realize that posting this late in the month makes it look like I've been slacking on the cooking front. Not true! I've just been slacking on the blogging front. The first menu that I made for February was Bettina's Valentine's meal for her and Bob (Chapter CXI). It contains:

Broiled Steak
Baked Potatoes
Macaroni with Tomatoes and Green Peppers
Bread & Butter
Cornstarch Fruit Pudding
Cherry Sauce


The steak tasted delicious, as steak so often does. The baked potato similarly.


But the macaroni dish! There was definitely some confusion in my mind regarding this one. Firstly, it calls for 1/3 c macaroni. Just think about how much pasta that is. It's like nothing. The directions call for layering the food stuffs, and there is no way that one could make layers out of such a small amount of pasta. So I used about a cup of macaroni. I suppose it's possible that this is more of a custard that has pasta in it, but I figured I wanted to eat pasta (even though it was odd having it in addition to a baked potato AND bread and butter).


The cornstarch fruit pudding also gave me trouble. It didn't thicken. At least, not well. I wound up freezing it to get a better consistency, which worked fine. However, then we had the actual flavor to deal with. It tasted like cornstarch mixed with fruit juice, which coincidentally is exactly what it was. C- in flavor, IMO. And the cherry sauce should have cooked for a lot longer than they recommended. Note: I used actual cherry juice rather than the syrup that came with canned cherries and perhaps therein lies some of my problems?


Posting this makes me crave that steak and potato deliciousness, even though I just ate. :)

Final January Menu

One whole month is done! I barely squeaked by, using the last day of the month for this. But this was a reasonably successful meal,for all that my husband was nervous. :)

Menu:
Roast Beef
Browned Potatoes
Gravy
Bettina's Jelly Pickle
Bread
Grapefruit Marmalade
Date Loaf Cake
Sliced Oranges

I had intended on making this menu Friday, but then we had friends over and I didn't want to have to buy a large enough roast. But I did use some of the supplies, meaning that another grocery run had to happen in addition to the butcher visit. Side note, my butcher will let me know the next time they get mutton, and there will be veal by the end of the week! I won't have to buy grocery store meat next time I have a veal menu! This is very exciting.


Anyway, I made the cake when I got home from Y's house and before my afternoon students. Be prepared for a lot of sticky chopping, for it takes a lot of minced dates to make a full cup. Also, I realized while making it, that a liquid was needed. It's very difficult to have vanilla be your only liquid... I added milk, and just poured until it was a quick bread batter consistency. Maybe 2/3rds of a cup?< Everything else was cooked back to back.


I started by making the gelatin. Easy enough, although I misjudged when to add in the pickles, and it didn't gel smoothly. (Also didn't unmould well.)


Next I started the roast andd the veg. I used the broiler for the first section of the cooking, and then fluctuated between 350F and 450F as it cooked, eventually needing around 1.75 hrs to cook.


I had potatoes (with some carrots for good measure) cooking with the meat the whole time.


We almost didn't get gravy because someone wheedled Yorkshire Pudding out of me, and that takes drippings. (Recipe from Fanny Farmer, courtesy of my Aunt C.)


Luckily, we had the "chicken carcass turning into stock" on the back burner, so I made chicken gravy to go with our roast beef. (My college experience taught me to never avoid free calories.)


Which leaves us at our bread and marmalade. I bought marmalade rather than make it (although recipe was given), but had to settle for orange as no one sells grapefruit marmalade.

Verdict? Pretty damn tasty. Roast took an hour longer than expected, the jelly is fine but way more than anyone could eat, ditto potato portion size, and I opted not to do the sliced oranges, even though I have them. It was just a little much. But the cake! Glorious cake. Soft, moist, sweet, just the right amount of texture. And I didn't need to use the mixer for it. I will be making this again.

Roast Beef

3 1/2 lb rump roast of beef
4 Tbs flour
2 tsp salt
1/4 c hot water

Roll the roast in the flour and set on a rack in a dripping-pan. Place in a hot oven and sear over all sides. Sprinkle the salt over the meat and add the hot water. Cover the meat and cook in a moderate oven. Baste every fifteen minutes. Allow fifteen minutes per pound for a rare roast, and twenty minutes a pound for a well done roast. When properly done, the outside fat is crisp and brown.

Makes 8 portions.

Swiss Steak

1 lb of round steak two-thirds of an inch thick
5 Tbs flour
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 c water
1 Tbs onion
2 cloves
1 Tbs bacon fat

Wipe the steak with a damp cloth, trim the edges to remove any gristle, and pound the flour into the meat, using a side of a heavy plate for the pounding. This breaks up the tendons of the meat. Place the bacon fat in a frying pan and when hot, add the meat. Brown thoroughly on each side.

Lower the flame. Add the bay leaf, salt, pepper, onion, clove and water. Cover with a lid and allow to cook slowly for one and a half hours. More water may be needed if the gravy boils down. Pour the gravy over the meat when serving. This recipe is good for the fireless.

Makes three portions

January Menu No. 3

I wound up making the third menu yesterday, as I am terrible at keeping to the schedule. But I had my buddy A over, and the three of us watched A Series of Unfortunate Events and ate the menu.

The menu was:
Swiss Steak
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Cauliflower
Bread and Butter
Chocolate Nougat Cake

This was a less successful meal. Firstly, I think that vegetables were smaller a hundred years ago. One cauliflower is more than two or three servings, and three good sized sweet potatoes is far more than what is needed for three people. Also, the cake was supposed to be frosted with white mountain icing, and boy oh boy is frosting an area that I am lacking! It's not a buttercream, it's beating molten sugar into beaten egg whites. And I think I'm going to cheat and use the mixer next time before I fully write off the recipe. Also the cake was so outrageously fluffy! I forget that that is a desired quality in cake, as it merely screams "box mix" to me, even though I know perfectly well that it's from scratch.

But dinner was very edible, and not terrible for all that the portions were skewed and it took longer than I would like. Boo. Oh, and for all that the meat recipe was supposedly good for the fireless, it was nearly cold when I pulled it out.

So this meal wont be repeated without some changes.