Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon

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As far as French cuisine goes, this classic Beef Bourguignon is a must make! Tender beef swimming in a rich wine sauce....perfect for Winter. There's nothing quite like a good braise for a cozy dinner. This recipe raises a simple beef stew to an art form! Bold flavors abound in this classic dish that you'll make again and again.

Beef Bourguignon is a beef stew where pieces of chuck are stewed with pearl onions, carrots, garlic, crispy mushrooms and herbs in a rich red wine sauce. I love to serve over spatzels or creamy mashed potatoes for the ultimate comfort food!

This is also a great dish to have for company during the Holidays! I like to make it up until putting it in the crockpot for traveling on a ski trip. It travels perfect and if traveling by car, throw in your crockpot!

 

 Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon 

6 slices bacon, coarsely chopped

3 lbs. Beef chuck roast cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup good red wine, I used Cabernet 

3 -5 cups Beef broth, I use Swanson

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup flour

1 T garlic minced

6 sprigs fresh Thyme

2 Bay leaf

4 carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 lb. button mushrooms, quartered or halved depending on size.

1 cup pearl onions

2 T parsley, chopped

Heat a large skillet over med high heat. Add bacon and cook until crispy. Remove to a plate/bowl and add the beef a small amount at a time. You want to crisp it, not cook it. Work in batches, moving the crisped beef chunks to a plate with the bacon. Season the beef as you go with salt and pepper.

Add the red wine to the pan and deglaze the pan, scraping up all the crispy bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Let it simmer until reduced in half and add the flour, whisking it in until smooth and flour is cooked. (this prevents lumps)

Slowly add the 3 cups beef broth and tomato sauce, whisking as you add to prevent any lumps.

Place the beef, bacon, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, carrots, mushrooms and pearl onions in the slow cooker, stir it all together. If needed add another 1-2 cups of beef broth to cover all the meat and vegetables.

Cover the pot and cook on low for 8 hours or until the meat is tender. My slow cooker has a keep warm option. I put it on low for 8 hours and it automatically goes to "keep warm". This allows me to be gone all day skiing or what ever.

Uncover the slow cooker. If needed you may need to thicken a bit more. At this point I make a "Buerre Manie'. A buerre manie is a French cooking technique of mixing equal parts of butter and flour until it forms a putty/paste. The purpose is that the flour is coated in butter fat, which allows it to mix right into the hot liquid, instead of clumping, like it would if you added the flour by itself. This is the method I use most often, as it is the easiest. I have even made balls of buerre manie and kept them in the freezer for just this purpose.

To serve you can scoop over mashed potatoes, butter noodles or spatzels and garnish with the chopped parsley. I usually serve a crusty bread to sop up the sauce and a green salad.

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As the year 2024, comes to a close, I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for being a part of this incredible journey which started in 2012. Whether you have tried a recipe, shared a post, or simply stopped by to read, your support means the world to me.

This year has been filled wth delicious adventures- from exploring new flavors to revisiting timeless classics- and my hope is, I have brought joy to your kitchen and your table.  Your comments, photo's, and feedback inspire me everyday, and I'm so grateful to share this passion for food with such a wonderful community.

Looking ahead, I'm excited to bring you even more mouthwatering recipes, helpful tips, and culinary stories. If there is anything you would like to see on the blog, feels free to share- I'd love to hear from you.

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, healthy, and flavorful New Year. Here's to another year of cooking, creating, and sharing the joy of food together!

With gratitude

Joan Messenger/aka JJ

 

 

Black Eyed Pea soup

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I can't say that black eyed peas are my favorite bean, however, I wanted to fulfill my New Years requirement, so I came up with a delicious soup we could eat while watching football on New Years day.

This soup is incredibly delicious.  The Ro-Tel tomatoes brought the perfect amount of heat. This soup is very meaty and the black-eyed peas play a supporting role, bringing a pleasant complexity to the flavor. If you really like them I think that you could easily add another can without overwhelming the soup. If you have ground venison you could easily sub for the ground beef.

 I put a grainy bread with it, but, Cornbread or biscuits would be good too!

Black Eyed Pea Soup

1 lb. sausage links cooked, bulk sausage or polish sausage

1 lb ground beef

1 large onion, diced

4 cups of beef broth, I use Swanson

3 cans of black eyed peas(15 ounce)

1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes

1 can of Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chiles) I use mild, but you could really spice it up with "HOT"

4 beef boullion cubes

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dark molasses

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp Cumin

Lots of freshly  ground pepper (to taste)

Heat a large sauce pan and saute the pork sausage, ground beef and the onion until the meat is cooked through. (If using cooked pork sausage do not add at this time, add after this is cooked) Drain off fat and pour in the beef broth, the black eyed peas, diced tomatoes, Rotel, beef bouillon cubes, molasses, Worchestershire sauce, garlic salt, salt, Cumin and the freshly ground pepper to taste. Stir over high heat, bringing to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

 

We are in Sunrise Park in Pinetop, Arizona for a little skiing  before the New Year. We had so much fun skiing yesterday! Last night we had a slow cooker Beef Bourguignon with spatzels when we got home from skiing. I promise to post that recipe soon! My daughter and son in law loved it....that to me is a big WIN!! 

I included a couple photo's of tha table on Christmas day and our appetizers!

I’m so grateful for your presence here this year, and I can’t wait to cook up more deliciousness with you and for you in 2025! ❤️ Happy New Year!

Parmesan Brie Potato Gratin

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I am so excited to share this Parmesan Brie Potato Gratin because it ticks a lot of boxes! Feel good food with wow-factor that’s mouth exploding delicious, straight forward, great for make-ahead  The perfect potato side dish for special occasions!

I forever  thought my Blue cheese and rosemary scallop potatoes  were the ultimate potato bake. But then i had some left over Brie from my burgers the other night, I crumbled it into the potatoes, baked it, and it catapulted into another stratosphere! Because brie trumps ordinary cheese every day of the week, and twice on special occasions.

Think: melt-in-your-mouth layers of thinly sliced potato bubbling away in a butter-cream sauce perfumed with just the right amount of garlic. Already great!

Parmesan Brie Potato Gratin

serves 6 people

prep time - 20 minutes

cooking time - 1 hr 20 minutes 

 

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream

2 tsp of kosher salt

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp of butter

1 shallot, diced

5 medium Yukon Gold or White potatoes

3/4 cup of Brie

1 /2 cup of grated Parmesan

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a small saucepan add the cream, salt, and garlic. Bring to a simmer on low heat a cook for 5 minutes. This will allow the garlic flavor to infuse the cream. Remove from the heat and set to the side. 

 

Thinly slice the potatoes to 1/8 inch thickness using a mandoline slicer.

In a 12 inch cast iron pan or ceramic dish, add the butter and shallots and fry on low heat for 5 minutes until the shallots have caramelized.

Arrange the sliced potatoes in a spiral pattern on top of the cooked shallots, layering with the crumbled Brie. Pour the cream mixture over top of the potatoes.

Cover the cast iron pan tightly with a piece of tin foil. Place the cast iron pan into the oven and bake for 1 hr. Check with fork to see potatoes are cooked.

Remove the pan from the oven and turn the oven temperature to broil.

Cover the potatoes with the grated Parmesan cheeses. Place pan into the oven and broil for 3-5 minutes until the cheese is crispy and bubbling. 

 

Remove from the oven and serve warm. 

 

This can be stored in the refrigerator and reheated. 

 

 

Taken in front of our home on the River!

 

 

Rosemary Garlic Butter Steak

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Grilled steak is  pretty incredible all on its own, but if you're looking for a total flavor upgrade, turn to this homemade Rosemary garlic butter. All this flavor melting over your favorite cut of meat....yummm

Rosemary garlic butter

enough for 4-6

1 cube pure butter softened

3 garlic buds chopped finely

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, depends how much kick you want

2 tsp. Rosemary fresh, chopped finely

Soften the butter, add all the ingredients and let it meld. I take the butter out of the refrigerator in the AM, add the ingredients about 2 hours later and let it meld all day. 

If you prefer to chill roll into a log and refrigerate. then cut off a good slice for each steak. I like to just keep at room temp and put a dollop on each steak.

 

Taken in front of our Coeur d'Alene home! Cheers! JJ

Spaghetti Carbonara with sausage

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An Italian dish gets a little twist in my version of a classic carbonara. You may say it is not carbonara because of this twist, but, I think your would get some push back on that!

A few years ago Wee Bear  I had dinner at a Hartford, Connecticut Italian restaurant. We were in Hartford to get a last minute Visa for a trip we were making for New Years Eve, to Rio De Janeiro.  The menu offered several dishes that Wee Bear would like, and Wee Bear would have tried them all but, he zeroed in on a pasta carbonara with pancetta and sausage. The pasta, the restaurants variation on the classic carbonara, delivered balance, richness and comfort. Wee Bear looked at me with stars in his eyes and said, you have got to create this dish at home!

Spaghetti Carbonara with sausage

1 lb. spaghetti, penne or bucatini pasta

2 T olive oil

8 ounces thick cut bacon or pancetta

8 ounces ground sausage, Italian or regular

4 garlic cloves minced

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

fresh ground pepper

Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook for about 3-4 minutes, until the bacon is crisp. Remove the bacon and add the sausage and cook until browned. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute briefly. Add back the bacon.

Bring a large pasta pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes until the pasta is al dente. Drain the pasta and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water to use in the sauce.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands of the bacon and sausage fat.

Beat the eggs with the Parmesan cheese in a mixing bowl, stir well to smooth out lumps.

Remove from heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but, do not scramble. Make sure you do this off heat so the eggs do not scramble. Thin out the sauce a bit with the reserved pasta water. 

Season with freshly ground pepper and taste for salt. 

Serve with crusty bread and a Caesar salad.

Cheers! 

JJ

Chicken Rolade- Double Cheese

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This recipe for Chicken Rolade - Double Cheese is impressive for a Sunday night dinner but easy enough for a week night quick dinner. The breasts are stuffed with Fontina cheese, parsley and prosciutto, then rolled in Parmesan...making it a double cheese delight! It's juicy and so flavorful thanks to the prosciutto, parsley and Fontina combo.

I love Prosciutto! Wee Bear and I got hooked a few years back on a BMW France road rally, Michelin Star restaurants and amazing wineries. We pulled off the motorway in our BMW (each car (12) was gifted to us and 11 other couples to use by BMW France for 2 weeks) hungry and wanting a quick sandwich. In France they love their French Baguette with butter, lettuce and Prosciutto......hooked! Of course we can't get that delicious baquette in the USA but, we can make due with a good bakery baguette. The prosciutto is sliced so thin and is nice and salty, it just melts in your mouth with every bite.

 This dish is also a visual stunner! You can't get more impressive than these little stuffed chicken breasts, you will have your friends and family you are a master chef! Is your mouth watering yet? Let's do this!

 

Chicken Rolade Double Cheese

4 thin cut filet of chicken breast (buy this way or cut)

2 T unsalted butter softened

1 T  fresh parsley, chopped

3 T panko bread crumbs

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

4 slices prosciutto

4 slices of Fontina cheese

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste (note the prosciutto is salty)

2 T olive oil

Pre-heat to 350 F degrees

Spray baking sheet

Mix together the Panko and Parmesan in a bowl and set aside

Depending how thin your slices are, you can tenderize with a mallet to thin out and make roll-a-ble.

Spread the butter on the filets and sprinkle the parsley mixture, top with a slice of cheese and a slice of prosciutto. Roll it up and secure with  toothpicks.

Put the flour in a bowl, put the crumb mixture in a bowl and put the eggs in a bowl and beat. 

Roll the individual roll-ups in the flour, then into the egg mixture and finally into the Panko/Parmesan mixture. Tuck in at the ends

Place on the prepared baking sheet, drizzle a little butter over the top (or spray with cooking oil, Pam etc) and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy!

* I serve with Basmati rice and a seasonal vegetable.

 * You can double or triple this recipe and freeze the rolades, for a very quick meal. 

Angel hair pasta with crab

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Create an elegant night with a crab meat pasta.

You will absolutely love this Crab Pasta With a Lemon Garlic Sauce! It's spectacular in both presentation and taste. With just a handful of fresh ingredients and 20 minutes, this succulent crab and pasta recipe will be a showstopper!!