I’ve posted the recipes for regular chicken stock and for rich duck stock here before, but I just realized that I’ve not put up recipes for beef stock or brown chicken stock yet.  This recipe is for brown chicken stock, but the recipe for beef stock is exactly the same, just sub in beef bones for the chicken pieces. Having these two stocks in your freezer, ready when you need them, will make you feel very rich indeed, as there in nothing better than homemade stock!  I’m including nearly a dozen pictures to make it as easy as possible to follow along.

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Today we come to the end of our “Cook Once – Eat All Week” use of the Prime Rib.  I call this salad “bicicleta” because the way you arrange it on a platter is made to resemble the spokes of a bicycle wheel.  It’s a pretty salad when it’s laid out that way and even after it’s tossed, so bright and colorful.

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Here is meal #3 from our original prime rib of three days ago. You may not know this, but I am a French Dip aficionado, I know my French Dips, and this is a keeper, trust me!

Use a very sharp knife to slice the beef as thinly as possible.  Since the meat is cold from being refrigerated for the last couple days, it’s not as hard as you may think.

The little “dips” pictured here are a bit smaller than usual because I made them appetizer size for a little happy hour birthday celebration for my BFF, Peggy.   Make these and thank me later!

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This is the second installment of my “Cook Once – Eat All Week” segments. Last time we used a whole roasted chicken, this time… a prime rib beef roast, also known as, beef rib-eye.  These recipes were used last night in the first week of my 3-week series of classes at Les Gourmettes Cooking School.  Today’s recipe begins with a bone-in prime rib beef roast. This and the recipes to follow are designed for “cooking for two” – but every recipe can be easily doubled to feed a family of four.

In fact, Costco sells gorgeous whole boneless beef rib-eye roasts that weigh about 12 pounds.  Although this recipe calls for a bone-in roast (you will need those bones for the soup that will be coming up tomorrow), you can use other beef bones for the soup if you choose to use a boneless roast.  Many grocery stores will sell you beef bones, if you just ask.

So, to recap; Prime Rib today, which you use only two servings of. Prime Rib Soup to follow tomorrow, French Dip Sandwiches the next day, and a beautiful composed Mexican Beef Salad the day after.  Giving you 4 meals from one cut of beef.

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You may recall that I adore Beef Stroganoff, I’ve previously posted THE best recipe for it HERE. But browning each little cube of beef can be time-consuming and trying. I had a huge piece of tri-tip leftover and decided to try and make Stroganoff with already cooked meat. Honestly, it wasn’t as wonderful as the original recipe, but it certainly satisfied the craving, used up leftover meat, and was still darn tasty!

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On Sunday I taught a demonstration cooking class as part of a bridal shower. It was a lovely afternoon with 21 delightful ladies and a beautiful bride-to-be. This was our main course. P.S. Thanks to my own lovely daughter, Marissa, for assisting me! xoxo

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For Christmas dinner I made everyone’s favorite cut of beef – tenderloin. Although filet mignons are always a treat, preparing a whole tenderloin feels wonderfully decadent. And when you throw in a creamy brandy sauce, well that puts it above and beyond. Unfortunately, while in the rush to make all the plates perfect and get them to the table hot on Christmas night, I didn’t get a picture snapped before all the sauce was gone… so the picture above is with the remaining beef, sans sauce. Be sure you run out today to buy your tenderloin if you want to serve this on New Year’s Eve. I picked up mine at Costco, of course!

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About a week ago, when I was making an appetizer for a cooking class, I told you about the convenience of purchasing fully cooked beef short ribs. Back when I was testing that recipe for the class, I’d purchased several packages of the beef.  Two of them were still sitting in my freezer, and I need that space for Christmas, so this recipe was born from that. And, did we love it! Everyone joined the clean plate club and I won’t tell you how many of the four of us had seconds, it’s embarrassing.

Now you’ll never find me calling any lasagna recipe “easy-breezy”.  There is way too much layering and trying to keep all the amounts of each of the components straight – for me to consider it that.  For example: “Spoon 1/3 of the sauce over bottom of dish. Sprinkle 1/4 of the Parmesan cheese over. Arrange 1/3 of the lasagna noodles on top. Drizzle 1/2 of the cheese mixture over noodles; sprinkle 1/4 cup  Parmesan cheese over. Repeat. Cover with remaining noodles. Spread cheese mixture over noodles. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan over…” Oh my goodness!  I am too dyslexic to follow along and ever call that easy!  But it’s the nature of the beast, if you want to make lasagna, it’s just the way it is!

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I’ve been holding out on you, and I do not mean with those special Raincoast crackers. I mean about informing you about reaching my goal. Exactly 2 weeks ago, on November 29th, I asked  you to help me reach my goal of 1,027 comments, by the end of the year. You have done it, and we reached that goal several days ago. The current number of comments for this blog is 1,044!

Thank you so much for all the kind words, it means so very much to me. Plus those comments help make me feel a little less sickened by how many spam comments come in every single day. Yes, blogs get a ton of spam. I have a spam blocker, and since the end of June, it has blocked 2,832 comments of spam! That is an average of 17 per day. That’s more “real” comments then I get in an entire week! So Annoying (and usually of disgusting nature too!) But enough of that, what I really want to say is Thank You All!

The other things that I used to find annoying were deviled eggs and meatballs. I know, that sounds strange, but when you hear this little tale, you will see why.

I am in the beginning stages of planning an 80th birthday party for my dad. That brings up memories of the 70th birthday party I threw for him. I worked for months; planning the menu, decor, invites, etc. Of course, the food was all “gourmet” and took days to prepare. My gorgeous sister, Sloane, worked long hours but wanted to make something to help. She asked, “Well, could I at least bring some deviled eggs?” I happily replied, “Sure, that would be great!”

She arrived hours early to help set up. The food was all laid out on the buffets; the guests arrived, they greeted the birthday boy, chatted, and began to eat. Within minutes, and I do mean just a few minutes, all the deviled eggs were gone, while the loads of gourmet food looked untouched! What the heck is it with deviled eggs? Although we didn’t serve meatballs at that particular party, the same thing happens with them! I honestly just don’t get it. But I will tell you one thing for sure, we will have several dozen deviled eggs and hundreds of meatballs at our dad’s birthday party in April, and these are the meatballs I will be serving! [Read more →]

The other night, our last guest chef of the year at Les Gourmettes, Gwen Ashley Walters, made an outstanding Pepper Crusted Flank Steak with Chianti Honey Demi. I was about to dump the leftover meat marinade down the drain when I stopped short and realized what a great appetizer I could make, using it. We have our neighborhood Holiday Progressive Dinner tonight, and appetizers begin at my house. Here is the recipe I created, using Gwen’s smokey marinade.

And tomorrow, another fantastic and super easy recipe that I am crazy for – an pumpkin appetizer spread – from Gwen!

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