Friday, October 16, 2015

Hamburger Steak for a Crowd

You may have noticed that I'm kinda fearless in the kitchen, well, when it comes to making food for a crowd.

Not really.

I stress about it, and worry over it, and then just go make the food.

There is a bit of a challenge involved, mainly, because of the sheer amount that you need to figure on, and when I was still making lunch for a crowd at the Senior Center, I never knew just how many would show up.
Hamburger Steak with Zucchini Spears and Marinara Sauce, Mac and Cheese, Green Beans and a Roll















Which can be kind of, umm, FRIGHTENING!!!!

Just kidding.   I sometimes think I'm too stupid to be scared.
That didn't come out right.
I just don't know enough to be scared of the outcome.
How's that?

However, I know you're reading this and wondering how to make the Hamburger Steak for a crowd?
Well, to start with you need some basic math.

I had about 30 pounds of ground beef and knew it would make about 90 patties.
And it did.   Actually, it made more than 90, but that's cause of the additions.

Now, I'm not totally, umm, silly.    I knew that there was no way I could mix up 30 pounds of meat at once, so I took each 10 lb. tube of ground beef and mixed them separately.

I have a huge stainless steel bowl I mix it in, and there just so happened to be a little table in the kitchen I could put the bowl on when I mixed stuff.  (I'm a little short, in height that is), so any advantage I can get, I take.

Here's the mixture for 10 pounds of meat, which if you're making hamburger steak for a crowd will yield 30 patties.  If you figure on about 5 1/2 - 6 oz. per uncooked patty.   I've been doing this for awhile, so I can usually get it almost exactly that.  And that might seem like a big serving, but you have to remember that it will shrink as you cook it.  Not too much, but some.

Recipe:
10 lbs. ground beef -  I like a mixture of 90/10 and 80/20, roughly half and half.
3 finely chopped onions
6 finely chopped Roma tomatoes, I used some frozen tomatoes, which we'd roasted and frozen earlier in the year. 
2 tablespoons Badia Seasoning or your favourite all purpose seasoning mix
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
3 cups Panko Bread Crumbs
You can also add more Salt and Pepper to taste, if desired.

Mix together, and then take out a little bit and fry it up.  Taste it for seasonings at this point.

This way you can add more salt or pepper or the seasoning mix.     Much easier to add seasoning at this point.

Trust me on this.  

It's much easier to add seasoning at this point. 

Mix together lightly and form into patties.   I would say a piece the size of a tennis ball would be good, and if you weigh it out, it will come in at about 5-6 oz.   Continue until you've got all the meat into patties.  Place them on a greased, rimmed baking sheet, and then poke a hole or dimple in the middle of each patty. 
Poking a hole or making a large dimple in the patty ensures that it cooks evenly.  Cause they plump up in the middle when you cook them, which means they cook unevenly.   This works great on hamburgers that you grill as well.
I baked these at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, checking the internal temp on a couple of selected patties after ten minutes, I wanted them to get to 160 degrees.  As they rest, the internal temp comes up about another 5 degrees.

After baking them, I would take them off the baking sheets, place them into a steam table pan, cover them with foil and let them rest in a warm oven while we prepared the gravy.
Which we did by scraping off all that great fond off of the pans, then gave them a quick splash of water to loosen the last little bits of goodness, before pouring them into a pot to make the gravy.   I did cheat a little and added beef base to the pot.  I wanted the gravy to be as beefy as possible.
I actually made this a couple of times and each time we served it with Green Beans and  Mac and Cheese.  I also made some Zucchini Spears once and another time some Carrot Salad. 





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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Boat Club for October

It's been a long summer and we're finally back to meeting once a month at the Boat Club for a potluck.  The potluck is actually sponsored by a few people who belong to the Boat Club and are gracious enough to invite people to come in and socialize and have lots of great food once a month.
We've been attending the past few years and love it.  Not only do we get to meet with people, enjoy great conversations, we also get to eat.
I like to eat.
Especially when people bring food like they did this month.
We had everything from Shrimp Etouffee to home made Cinnamon Rolls and  Blueberry Cobbler/Pie that was to die for.   There was some smoked pulled pork, Black Beans and Rice, Pasta and Cheese and ...
Just take a look, and I'll tell you what they were.
And there were a lot of people there last night, some we hadn't seen for months so it was wonderful catching up.
And eating.
And talking.
And eating.
This was my plate once I made my way through the line.
Do you know how full your plate can get when you just take a taste of everything?


And this too.

By the time I had gotten through the plate, and my bowl of Brunswick Stew I was stuffed.  


But I did save a teeny little corner for dessert, which I will tell you about later.





For now here are the starters...


Santa and his Pineapple...










A lovely Relish Plate. It had Artichokes on it and I got one.
It's the little things that get me excited. 










I made a Deviled Ham Spread alongside some of my Seeded Crackers and then forgot to take a picture but I did pretty it up with some chives from my Chive plant.








 There was Pizza...
 And this Rice and Chicken dish, and one of these days I'm going to find out who brings it, cause I love it and I want the recipe.  
 Smoked Pulled Pork. 
A southern staple.   See the little black bits in there?
Those are the 'bark' and they add so much flavour.
 There was even some Pasta and Cheese.
I was happy.
 And here's another staple down here.
Brunswick Stew. 
It's a conglomeration of smoked meat, vegetables, tomatoes all cooked down into this glorious stew.

I'll share a recipe on how to make this soon.

As soon as it cools down some more. 
 And you have to have Cornbread.  Cooked in a cast iron skillet.  This is the only way to cook it. 
Unless of course you don't own a cast iron skillet, at which point you can use a good baking dish.
 Then there was this lovely rice and sausage bake.

I have to say that next to pasta, rice is one of my favourites.  And there were a lot of rice dishes last night.

I was happy.
 We had vegetable as well.  There were these Carrots cooked with some Tarragon and Candied Ginger.  My mom would have loved this.  She did like her candied ginger.   And you know, it was good.
 Black Beans, Rice and Sausage, can't go wrong with this combo.  It was good.
 Some more Pulled Pork, and yes I tasted some.
 Here's the Shrimp Etouffee  and it was lovely and spicy and went so well with the Dirty Rice. 
It's customary to serve it over plain rice, but the Dirty Rice added a nice touch.
And the Dirty Rice.

I do make this for myself from time to time, and come to think of it, I've never shared how to make it.

I think I need to remedy that.  Cause, now I want some more and I do like my Dirty Rice.





I think I might have mentioned that there were a lot of desserts last night as well. 

 There was this Blueberry Crumble/Pie and it was outrageously good. 
Fresh out of the oven, hot and OMG good.


 I didn't get to taste this, but it looked like a Peach Cobbler and it was gone by the time I got to the desserts.

But at least I got a picture.
 As was this Pie. 

Gone I mean, by the time I got to the Dessert table.
 And then there were these. 
Home Made Cinnamon Rolls, and I did manage to taste one.

And it was good, very, very good.
 There were cookies, and some grapes, you can see in the background there.




Doughnuts.

Nuff said.

I mean, DOUGHNUTS!!!!




And I missed getting a picture of the Banana Bread and another dessert.   I do try, but I got waylaid by the rest of the food.

So that's it for this month, and as I said, it was all good. 







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Thursday, October 8, 2015

Crab Imperial for Stuffing Fish and more...

I have to tell you about this great stuffing I just made.  Well, it's called stuffing but there's no bread involved and you use this to stuff fish.
Yup, fish.
I stuffed some Cobia with it, and it was so good.
But the stuffing itself, could also be used as an extravagant, over the top dip as well.
Crab Imperial stuffed Cobia

I found the basic recipe here and then made it my own.

Cause I could.

I did cheat a little, I had some frozen red, yellow and orange peppers in the freezer, which I had already cut into strips and froze.  Hey, they were on sale for $1 each, and who's going to pass up a deal like that?  Not me.

Recipe:  Crab Imperial 
1/2 cup Red Pepper, diced (I used my frozen peppers)
1/2 cup Yellow Pepper, diced (I used my frozen peppers)
1/2 cup Orange Pepper, diced (I used my frozen peppers)
2 stalks celery, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
1 tablespoon Whole Grain Mustard
1/2 tsp. White Pepper
1/2 tsp. Israeli Paprika
1 tablespoon butter or oil for sauteing
1 cup Mayonnaise
8 oz. Crabmeat

Saute the peppers, onions and celery together until they are translucent and just done.  Remove from heat and let cool.
  When cool mix with the mayonnaise, pepper, paprika.   Then fold in the crab, gently, you don't want to break it up too much.
 
Use this mixture to stuff fish fillets or use as a really tasty topping for crackers. 
Crab Imperial stuffed Cobia
I stuffed some Cobia Fillets with this and then baked the Cobia until it just flaked and was done.
It was so tasty and served alongside a Caesar Salad and some Rice Pilaf made a lovely meal.


Crab Imperial stuffed CobiaI will be making this again, and again, and again.
I also think this would be fantastic with some cooked shrimp as well?

Got my thinking cap on there.  







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Monday, October 5, 2015

Home Made Ranch Seasoning for Secret Recipe Club

 I didn't think I'd make it.
It's finally Reveal Day, and I get to share what I made for it.

Reveal Day?  you ask, well it is if you're a member of the Secret Recipe Club and you're in Group A.  And since I'm not only a Secret Recipe Club member but also part of Group A, it's finally time.

The Secret Recipe Club consists of four groups of bloggers, we're all assigned to a different group, and then the fun begins.  Our group leader assigns us a blog, secretly, from our group and we have to make a recipe from their blog and tell you all about it at our assigned time.  I'm in Group A, and for us our assigned "Reveal" day is the first Monday of the Month.
My blog this month was A Fit and Spicy Life /.
Mellissa loves her wine, but she has some awesome recipes on her blog as well.   I have to admit to looking in the appetizer section first, cause I love doing appetizers, and I have her Pimento Dip earmarked to make, cause gee, it has Goat Cheese instead of cream cheese, and it sounded fantastic.   And did I mention she got my blog last month?  Well, she did and made one of my favourites from it. 

However I also found this recipe for Home Made Ranch Seasoning and got stuck there.  I like home made sauces and dips and being able to have this in the cupboard to use when I need Ranch Dressing, well all I can say is WOOHOO!!!  
So without further ado...

Home Made Ranch Dressing.  *

2 Tablespoons Dried Parsley
1 teaspoon Dried Dill Weed
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/2 teaspoon Dried Onion Flakes
1/2 teaspoon Dried Basil
1/2 teaspoon Dried Tarragon (not in the original recipe, but I love Tarragon so I added it) 
1/2 teaspoon Pepper  ( I didn't add the pepper, I prefer fresh ground pepper on top of my salad)
1/4 teaspoon salt  (I rarely use salt, so didn't add any)

Mix all the seasonings and store in a lidded container.
To mix the dressing add 1 Tablespoon of the mix to 1/3 cup of Mayonnaise and 2 ounces of milk.
*mix it up ahead of time, to let the dried herbs re-hydrate.  Otherwise the herbs just kind of sit there like a lump.
I used Buttermilk instead of milk, cause I love Buttermilk Ranch, and it was good. 

It's also totally awesome with some Blue Cheese Crumbles mixed in.

Just sayin...
BTW, this is my 600th post on the blog, cannot believe I'd had that much to say about food and how to make it and best of all share with my friends.  

Now to go see who got my blog and check out which recipe caught their fancy.


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Thursday, October 1, 2015

Halloween Ideas...A roundup of my faves

I know I'm a little early, it's only the first of the month, but gee, you need to start planning all the fun treats you're going to make for Halloween now.

You do, really, you do.

There are all kinds of sweet treats out there, fun stuff you can make but it's really hard to find the not so sweet, AKA, the savoury treats. 

I like sweet, but I can only take so much sugar before I've had enough. 

So, here are some ideas for the not sweet side of you.
Spider Cake and Spider Eggs

A few years ago I learned how to make a Bologna Cake and have been having fun with it ever since.    And then I decided I could do a fun twist on it and make it a Spider Cake for Halloween.
I took first prize in an informal contest with this.   And then had fun watching people eat it. 

The cake was surrounded by Spider Eggs, cause, gee, you can't have a momma spider without a bunch of babies.

And they are dead easy to do.
Get it?
Dead Easy?
It's your favourite deviled egg recipe with spiders made of Black Olives on top,  fun and tasty.

And then there are my Tate's Hell Deviled Eggs.
Tate's Hell Deviled Eggs
For those who want a shot of hell when they bite into an deviled egg.   OMG, these are so good.    I've been know to hard cook an egg and just make one up for myself.
I think I'm addicted to hot.
Could be a worse thing to be addicted to.


I love dips, you might have noticed that in this blog, and what could be more fun than this dip.
Well, it's actually two dips in one.  Green Spider Dip
Green Spider Dip
And piping a spider web over top, well, gee, spiders and Halloween, hello?

To finish off the roundup, you need a cracker and honestly, these are the best cheesy crackers I've ever made.
And you can make them into little Spicy Witchy Fingers.

Spicy Witchy Fingers

Witch is what I called them.

Sorry, had to do it.


And just in case you're a little bummed out that I didn't make anything sweet, well, I've also been known to serve Mice and Crunchy Eyeballs for dessert.
Mice and Crunchy Eyeballs
So there you have it, a few ideas for your Halloween perusal.

If you have any more great ideas, let me know, K?

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