Sunday Dinner: Amish, with Red Beet Eggs and Apple Butter

I went all Pennsylvania-Dutch with this Amish Sunday dinner.  I marinated hardboiled eggs in my canned red beet brine, and set out tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, bread, and apple butter.  

I think my husband got out the mayo, too, and made himself a tomato sandwich (looks like he got out the wine, too!).  But we all ate various combinations.  I experimented with cheese and apple butter, and it was wonderful!  Until now, I had used apple butter like a spread on toast, or dolloped on cottage cheese as you find on the food buffets around here. But I now highly recommend that you make some cheese toast and spread some apple butter on top - it's been my breakfast for a few mornings running.

This was the Sunday dinner where I had made a pie, a French fruit tart with blueberries and blackberries. It did not photograph well, nor was it popular with the kids for various reasons.  Humph.

Sunday Dinner: Amish Church Dinner

I have been editing a cookbook written by an Amish woman, and among other useful, fascinating ideas I picked up from her is the Amish church dinner.  The Amish meet in each others' homes for church services and eat Sunday dinner together afterwards.
This is the menu:

homemade bread + butter
jam
church spread (peanut butter, marshmallow creme, and corn syrup)
homemade pickles and pickled beets
2 kinds of sliced cheese
cold meat
coffee
garden (mint) tea

homemade pie

Aren't the Amish ladies clever to plan for a meal that is easy to transport and can satisfactorily feed a crowd? I welcome the simplicity of this meal, the ease of getting this on the table after church. In the winter, I like a cozy Sunday dinner that is baking all morning long while we're at church, but now, in hot weather, no one wants that heat and heavy food.  So we're going Amish for Sunday dinners in the hot weather!

My version, today, was BLTs on storebought bread with popcorn. Homemade ice cream (Jeni's black coffee) and pretzels for dessert.  I'll share more iterations as we have them.  My only conundrum is what we're going to eat for Sunday supper, which was always popcorn and sandwich-y scraps and leftovers.

Sunday Dinner: Honey-Baked Chicken and Braised Broccoli

I read about Anna's birthday feast, but my library didn't have the same Susan Herrmann Loomis cookbook she used so I settled for In a French Kitchen.  I glanced through it quickly Saturday night - the prose includes everyday details of French kitchens (fascinating!) and the recipes seem very doable.  My eye landed on Braised Broccoli and with no trouble at all, I added it to our Sunday dinner.

menu:
honey-baked chicken (More with Less)
baked potatoes
braised broccoli (In a French Kitchen)

Saturday:
thaw chicken

Sunday morning:
scrub potatoes, put in oven on timed bake
cut up chicken, mix sauce, put in oven on timed bake
cut up broccoli/onions/garlic and put in pan with lid

Sunday noon:
set table
cook broccoli

This was an excellent, easy Sunday dinner.  I'll be doing this one again!

Braised Broccoli
Put in wide shallow skillet with lid:
about 1 lb. broccoli, cut in bite-sized pieces, tender stems included
3 Tbsp. minced sweet onion or scallions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup water

Sprinkle over:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
salt
fresh-ground pepper

Cover and cook on med-high for 10 minutes.  Lift lid and stir. Continue to cook without lid, stirring occasionally, until liquid evaporates and contents are sizzling, hopefully even getting a little browned, maybe 5 minutes.  Serve hot or room temperature.

Sunday Dinner: Provencal Squash

The main dish of this Sunday dinner was actually sausage, potatoes, and sauerkraut, but the provencal squash is what I really want to tell you about.

Saturday:
thaw sausage
get sauerkraut out of crock in basement and into jar in fridge
peel and cube butternut squash
make cranberry applesauce (I think that's the last bag of frozen berries I have!)

Sunday morning:
assemble sauerkraut, sausage, potatoes and put in oven on timed bake
assemble provencal squash and add to oven
set out cranberry applesauce to come to room temperature

Sunday noon:
set table

I do love a side dish vegetable that is tasty and innovative but still answers to the description of vegetable; if a "side dish" has substantial cheese or meat or breadcrumbs, I treat it as a main dish, but then I still am back to square one for a vegetable.  So here is Provencal Winter Squash Gratin from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  It's not hard, but it's clever with the ingredients and so delicious.

Provencal Squash

Place in large shallow casserole dish, well-greased:
approximately 2 lbs. winter squash, such as butternut, peeled and cubed
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3 Tbsp. flour
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Toss gently to combine.  Drizzle generously with olive oil.
Bake uncovered at 325F for 2 hours.

Note:  I have not once included the parsley because I never remembered to buy it before I made this dish!  So a few times, I would sprinkle in a little dried rosemary or sage.  But I really do intend to include parsley next time I make this squash.

Sunday Dinner: Lemon Baked Beefsteak

Remember the easiest roast beef ever?  This recipe is from a different friend (and probably a vintage source based on its name), but it's the same concept and ease.  And so delicious.

Lemon Baked Beefsteak

Season all sides of a 3 lb. beef chuck roast with:
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Lay in roasting pan just bigger than the roast.  Top with:
1 thinly sliced lemon
2 sliced onions

Combine and pour over:
1 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup water or red wine

Cover with lid.  Bake at 350F for 3 hours.  Shred meat with two forks and stir.  Return to oven uncovered for 30 minutes.  Alternatively, omit 1/4 cup water/wine and cook on High in slow cooker for 5 hours.  You can serve the beef with a slotted spoon, or serve it juicily over mashed potatoes, or thicken the juices to be more sauce-like and clinging to the beef.

It would be easy to tweak this recipe any number of ways - use prepared barbecue sauce instead of the ketchup and Worcestershire and eat the beef in buns.  Maybe experiment with swapping out some of the ketchup for red wine and adding an herb like rosemary or thyme. Do you have other ideas?

I put it in the slow cooker this Sunday, so I could bake potatoes in the oven.  Then I made a quick coleslaw when we got home from church.  Too bad the Christmas cookies weren't iced yet, or we would have had dessert as well.

Sunday Dinner: Holy Cow! It's the Easiest Beef Roast Ever

I have a fair amount of experience in slow cookers, thanks to the cookbooks I have edited and the fact that I own and use two cookers.  I like simple recipes, but even I was surprised at the simplicity of the beef roast recipe Zoe posted.  And I know that meat can turn silky in the long moist heat of the slow cooker, but even I was surprised at how succulent the roast turned out from just this:

a beef roast
salt and pepper
1/2-1 cup red wine (or water)
1 chopped onion
and I added some chopped mushrooms because I'm trying to use up a 3-lb box (my husband knows what to bring home from business trips!).  Cook on High for 6-8 hours in the slow cooker (I think mine was more like 5 hours - it was still great).

My roast was probably 3 lbs. and I used at least 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper.

I pulled the meat apart a little bit when we got home from church, and pushed the marrow out of the bone into the juicy deliciousness. I had put potatoes in the oven on timed bake, then I cooked and buttered some garden green beans from the freezer, and served it all with some pepper cabbage (a vinegar-based coleslaw).

Well.  That was an eminently satisfying Sunday dinner, starting from when we opened the front door after church and smelled that beef.

Later in the week, I heated up the leftover roast and juice with a sauteed onion.  Then we spooned it over homemade French bread with a slice of cheese and called it French dip.  And I raved all over again.  My family is going to be seeing a lot of this beef because it is easy, tasty, and did I mention it's so easy?

Of course, you could fiddle with it and drop some rosemary in the juice, or add barbecue sauce, or maybe use part soy sauce - early in this blog I had great success with a roast in soy sauce.  

Sunday Dinner: Ham with Apples and Cheese

When I made space for our yearly beef order recently, I found several things in my freezer that I didn't know I was missing. One of them was a package of ham scraps left from Easter.  I made this casserole (below) and my husband complimented me over and over, saying this was pure comfort food.  Perhaps you can use your Christmas ham scraps to make it!

waiting for Sunday dinner

Saturday:
thaw ham

Sunday morning:
assemble Ham with Apples and Cheese, put on timed bake
set brussels sprouts out
thaw cornbread

Sunday noon:
set table
saute brussels sprouts
warm up cornbread in oven

The ham dish is quite rich and soft, so I like to serve it with a crunchy green salad or, in this case, brussels sprouts with vinegar and salt.  I also served cranberry applesauce and a few slices of cornbread for mopping up the delicious juices.

caught in the act of eating out of the serving dish

Ham with Apples and Cheese - copied from a cookbook at work, but then I tweaked it a bit
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. thick ham slices, chunked
2-3 tart apples, sliced (I don't peel them)
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
6 slices sharp cheddar cheese, enough to cover the top
1 cup plain yogurt

Make a layer of the ham over the bottom of a greased, deep-dish pie plate.  Lay the apples over them. (I had sweet apples, so I sprinkled them with lemon juice)  Separately, mix flour, sugar, and butter to make crumbs.  Sprinkle these on top of apples.  Cover with cheese slices.  Dollop yogurt over the top.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour, until bubbling and browned on top.

Sunday Dinner: Crunchy Ham Balls and a Delicious Salad

I was pleased with the textures and flavors of this Sunday dinner.  The ham balls are amazingly good, but I'm not always sure what to serve them with. 

 

 

Here, their richness is complemented by a unique salad that our friend Danene concocted and served us recently.  She took about 2 cups each sliced cucumber and cantaloupe (in the pictures here, I used canary melon, but the cantaloupe is prettier), added a little chopped fresh mint, and dressed it with the juice of half a lime, a splash of rice vinegar, and salt.  I've made it several times since then and we love how light and refreshing it is.  I might experiment with it by adding a little feta cheese or some proscuitto.  I could see this salad served as part of the main course, or served more like a fruit salad at a brunch or with dessert. 

 

Then, for just a little more bulk in my Sunday menu, I added the small patty pan squashes, which take about 10 minutes on a hot grill.  However, you could use any summer squash and simply roast it or saute it in butter if you're not the grilling type.

Saturday:
mix up ham balls

Sunday morning:
roll the ham balls, place in oven on timed bake
make melon salad
set the patty pans out

Sunday noon:
set table
grill patty pans

Crunchy Ham Balls (from Rebecca from somewhere)

2 c. very stiff mashed potatoes (use leftover if you can plan ahead!)
1 c. shredded Swiss cheese or other cheese that you love
2 c. finely diced/shredded ham
1/3 c. finely chopped onion
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1/4-1/3 c. mayonnaise
1/4 tsp. pepper
2-3 c. crushed cornflakes

I use the food processor for the ham and onion. You could probably grate the cheese there, too. In a bowl, combine ingredients except for cornflakes.  Start with the lesser amount of mayo.  You're aiming for stiff, moldable texture.  You can refrigerate the mixture at this point - to stiffen up, to fit your schedule.  Roll the mixture into balls - tennis ball size is usually what mine end up.  Roll each ball in the crushed cornflakes and place on a greased baking sheet.  I usually get 9-12 balls (I think). Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Serve hot or hide them in the back of the fridge as the most desirable leftover and sneak them cold when no one's looking - cook's privilege.

Sunday Dinner: Multitasking Slow Cooker (updated with recipe)

People, it is hot here and my husband is manic on the subject of no cooking heat in the house.  I use my slow cooker pretty often in the summer and I usually set it outside.  That pleases him, as does cooking outside on the new grill.

Sunday, we had a meatless meatloaf which is a lentil loaf which really needs a better name.  It sounds like we are being all 70s alternative or like we miss meat so much we are trying our best to imitate it, but that's just not the case.  At my house, this is just a delicious way to eat lentils and it just begs for traditional meatloaf sides.

The menu:
the loaf
baked potatoes
cucumber salad with basil
espresso granita with whipped cream (I used strong decaf coffee and decreased the sugar by 1 Tbsp.)


I put the oiled potatoes in the bottom of my 6-quart oval slow cooker.  I turned them on high around 7am.  Before we left for church at 9am, I turned the cooker to low and added the lentil loaf (mixed up the day before) in a 9x5 metal loaf pan, sitting directly on top of the single layer of potatoes.  Clapped the lid on. 

It worked so well!  When we got home from church, I put together a cucumber salad. Delicious, easy Sunday dinner and no cooking heat in the house - plenty of other heat, though. . .

Lentil Loaf (originally from a cookbook called The Daily Bean)

Combine and mix well:
1-2 cups tasty cheese such as cheddar with a bit of smoked cheddar if you like
2 cups cooked lentils
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. dried thyme (or triple the amount of fresh thyme)
1 cup soft breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 Tbsp. soft butter (optional)

Place in greased loaf pan and smooth top.  Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes or covered in a slow cooker on low for 2-3 hours.  You can put the loaf pan in the dry slow cooker and if there are no potatoes beneath, keep it off the bottom with a metal jar lid or small trivet.

If you have to cook your lentils just for this recipe, use a scant cup with a scant 2 cups water.  Cook covered for about an hour, until water is absorbed and lentils are soft.  Or you can cook a big pot and freeze the cooked lentils in 2 cup amounts.

Serve this loaf as you would traditional meatloaf; the wheat in the breadcrumbs in combination with the legumes (lentils) is a complete protein and there is protein from the cheese and egg.  Cold slices of leftover loaf are excellent in sandwiches with ketchup and sprouts.

Sunday Dinner: Chicken Casserole + Short-Cut White Sauce

So, I've blogged about this casserole before which takes a can of cream soup.  You realize that cream of mushroom soup can be replaced by a homemade white sauce?  It's just that most people consider it more convenient to open a can than stand over the stove, stirring.  I do.  Making white sauces gets on my nerves.  I just usually avoid recipes that call for cream-of soups because I don't feel like making a white sauce.  Nothing annoys me more than doing a bunch of stovetop cooking with a dish and then baking it as well.  Humph. 

But.

This method (below) of making a white sauce has me so excited because it's foolproof and fast!

 

My senior editor has been making her white sauces in the microwave for years and it's awesome, especially suited to the casserole application because it lessens the sting (in my mind) of cooking it twice. 

The method:

2 Tbsp. butter in glass measure (I have a 2-cup one that works perfectly)

Get it hot and melted in the microwave.

Add a bit of chopped onion or mushrooms or both.

Microwave for 30 seconds.

Whisk in 2 Tbsp.  flour.  Microwave for 45 seconds or so.

Pour in 1 cup milk and whisk it.  It will be lumpy, but the lumps will dissolve with additional cooking.

Now, microwave in 45-60 second increments, whisking after each increment, until sauce is thick and smooth.  It takes about 4 1-minute increments in my old feeble microwave.  Sure beats standing over the stove stirring stirring stirring!

The benefits, as I see them:

1.  no can of chemical-ly soup
2.  local ingredients
3.  fast (have I mentioned how fast this is?)
4.  the children can do the microwaving and stirring!  They loved being involved like this and there's no open flame to worry about!

the finished Make-Ahead Chicken Casserole

I think I would still make a traditional white sauce with a roux for the flavor if the sauce was going to be the star of the show in creamed spinach, say, or cheese sauce.

So, anyway, besides the chicken casserole, the rest of Sunday dinner was cranberry applesauce, sauteed chard with balsamic vinegar and garlic, and then, for dessert cardamom cake (a Moosewood recipe, like pound cake, only laced with cardamom, walnuts, and cinnamon).  And we all sipped some decaf cardamom coffee, too (just add a pod or two of cardamom to coffee beans and grind them up together).

Sunday Dinner: British Colonial

Menu:
dhal
curried eggs
brown basmati rice
garnishes: chopped cilantro, lime wedges, golden raisins, hot lemon pickle, plain yogurt
banoffee pie (recipe below)

Saturday:
make dhal - no need to refrigerate
hardboil eggs - have a child peel them and keep in fridge
thaw graham cracker crust - keep tightly bagged on counter

Sunday morning:
make tomato sauce part of curried eggs - allow to sit on stove next to dhal
put basmati rice in oven on timed bake
put bowl and beaters in freezer for whipped cream

Sunday noon:
reheat dhal
add eggs to tomato sauce and heat
chop cilantro and limes
whip cream
assemble pie
set table

 

 

 

Banoffee Pie
[ban OFF ee]

This is a British pie.  I got the recipe from Pam Anderson, but I tweaked it a bit.  I made two of these to take to dinner with friends and made a third one today to use up the final jar of dulce de leche in the fridge.  It's a rather chilly pie for winter, but making dulce de leche was a kitchen project I could not pass up; the resulting pie is terribly delicious, I must say.

1. Make dulce de leche (caramelized sweetened condensed milk, beloved of Latin America):

Open 14-oz. can of sweetened condensed milk.  Scrape it all into a canning glass pint jar or 2 half-pint jars.  Put on the lid and screw on the ring.  Place in saucepan with water to cover the lid by an inch (or put it in the crockpot with water to cover - my crockpot wasn't deep enough, so I used the stove method).  Bring to a simmer with the lid on and keep at a simmer for 2-3 hours, until milk has turned a deep tan.  Allow to cool before opening - either carefully take the hot jar out of the hot water or else let the whole business cool down. This is now dulce de leche.  It will keep for several weeks in the fridge.

2. Make a graham cracker crust:

Combine:
1 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt

Press into 9" pie plate to form crust.  Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.  Cool completely (can be made ahead of time and tightly bagged and frozen or kept at room temperature for several days).

3. Assemble pie.

Spread about 2/3 (about a half-pint) of the dulce de leche in graham cracker crust (or use the whole thing and fewer bananas).  This is tricky to spread thick glop on a crumby crust.  The crumbs that got mixed into the dulce de leche didn't bother us, but you could warm the dulce de leche slightly to make it more spreadable. 

Slice over top:  2-3 ripe bananas

Whip in chilled bowl with chilled beaters:  1 cup heavy whipping cream.  As it is taking shape, sprinkle in gradually 2 Tbsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. 

Spread whipped cream over bananas.  Chop up some semisweet or bittersweet chocolate to equal 1/2 cup.  Sprinkle artistically on top of the whipped cream. 

Serve immediately or chill for a few hours.  The pie loses its loveliness after that and weepy liquid will appear in the bottom - but don't despair, the flavor is still there!  The sugar stabilizes the cream well enough that it will be fine the next day.

Sunday Dinner: Tennessee Corn Pone in the Slow Cooker

I have been having a slow cooker revival over here and I really must tell you about it.  I have had a large, 6.5 quart slow cooker for years, and I just got a smaller 3.5 quart so I could make more reasonably-sized recipes.  If you don't match the size of the recipe up to the slow cooker, it will not cook right.

I wanted to make a vegetarian Sunday dinner because we were eating dinner out with friends, but when I looked through my supper notebook, I couldn't really find any.  Apparently we eat most of our meat on summer Sundays.

The menu I came up with:

Tennessee Corn Pone in the slow cooker
salsa, hot sauce
green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and French dressing
frying cheese
plum tart with homemade vanilla ice cream

Tennesse Corn Pone (modified from Recipes from the Old Mill by Sarah Myers and Mary Beth Lind)

Have ready:
2-3 cups juicy, well-seasoned beans or thin chili*

If possible, put it in the slow cooker and heat on high for 1 hour. 

Mix in bowl:
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix separately:
2 cups buttermilk or yogurt thinned with milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Add the wets to the dry and stir just until combined.  Put juicy beans in the slow cooker if they're not there already.  Pour the cornmeal batter directly into the juicy beans (heated or not).  Lay a double layer of paper towels across the top of the crock.  Put the lid down on these so that they are just beneath the lid - to catch the condensation.  Cook on low for 3 hours without peeking.  There will be a solid casserole in there, with a solid cornbread top.  Slow cookers do vary, so check it earlier to be on the safe side, although I saw a recipe online that recommended 5 hours on low.
Serve with toppings, if desired, such as salsa, chopped cilantro, sour cream, etc.

*For the beans, I usually season leftover beans with onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne, and a smidge of liquid smoke.  Variations include chili, salsa beans, and black-eyed peas in cream sauce.

I thought the cornbread layer was a bit thick - it's usually fine when I make corn pone in the oven, but I might try halving the cornbread part if I make it again in the slow cooker.   (For the oven:  bake at 425 for 30 minutes, but the slow cooker will keep your house much cooler!)

And then we had dinner with friends, way out in the country, and drove home in a cool, serene dusk.