Back on January 15, I blogged about having 2-year old meat in my freezer. In preparing for our dinner tomorrow night, I went out to the freezer to use of some of our beef. I selected a rolled rump roast, circa 2008. As usual, I began wondering how best to cook this particular cut of meat. If I was at work, I’d ask our food scientist, Peter Hargarten, because he also raises cattle and often advises me on cuts of meat. I didn’t think Peter would appreciate a call at home for advice on how to cook the rump roast so I thought of calling my mom. She loves to help me out of these predicaments. Then I remembered she left town for vacation, so I went to the internet.
My concern with how to cook a particular cut of meat mainly lies in the fact that I don’t want to use a fancy cut of meat in the crock pot. I almost did that with a standing rib roast.
I reviewed several meat charts and found this beef chart to be helpful. As it turns out, the rolled rump roast is good for using to make Italian Beef. I brought home the Cook’s Delight Italian Beef Seasoning mix from work today to use. It is one of our newer products. I will write more tomorrow after we enjoy the dinner!
In the meantime, I hope the beef chart is helpful to you.
As I looked through my refrigerator trying to determine what to write about today, I found a celery bunch that needed to be used up. We got it in our vegetable and fruit order for the week and no one will eat celery in our house. I’m not sure why, but it usually just goes bad. So, I decided to use it in a soup and see how that went. I checked various recipes out online and combined a few. My husband and I really liked the cream of celery soup and our daughter refused to try it. She opted for good old macaroni and cheese. Someday, I hope she gets a little more adventurous in her eating!
The following recipe made about 4 servings.
INGREDIENTS
2-1/4 cups chicken stock (2 1/4 cups water plus 1-1/2 tsp of Cook’s Delight Natural Chicken Soup Base No MSG)
You can substitute the chicken soup base for Cook’s Delight vegetable soup base to make a vegetarian soup
9 ounces celery, chopped
3 ounces carrots, chopped
2 ounces onions, chopped (I combined white and purple onions)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1-1/8 cups milk
1-1/8 cups heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons butter
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine water and Cook’s Delight Natural Chicken Soup Base No MSG in a stock pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add the celery, carrots and onion to the pot. Medium heat.
3. Heat the milk and cream. Whisk in the flour and pepper and heat until hot.
4. Put butter into stock pot with vegetables.
5. Pour the milk/cream mixture into stock pot and mix in well.
6. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir frequently.
7. Strain out vegetables and reserve liquid stock in the stock pot.
8. Put vegetables in a cuisinart and blend until smooth.
9. Return vegetables back to stock pot and reheat the soup.
Enjoy!
Cook’s Delight Beef Flavor Gravy Mix is a delicious treat. It is so easy to make — mix 2 tbsp gravy mix with 8 ounces of cold water. Bring to a boil, while whisking and cook 3 minutes.
1 lb. of Cook’s Delight Gravy Mix makes 1 gallon of gravy!
Use the promo code GoColts today and receive 20% off Cook’s Delight soup base. If the Colts win, you get a free 8 ounce soup base with your next order!
Follow this link and GoColts!
Soon the Indianapolis Colts will be playing the New Orleans Saints for Super Bowl XLIV.
The Super Bowl is always a great time for a party and usually food will sit out for people to nibble on during the day.
The USDA has put together information to help hosts have a defensive strategy against foodborne illness for their guests. Follow this link for the article. USDA: Referee a Safe Super Bowl Party
Be sure and check out the guacamole recipe on my blog dated January 3rd or the Chili dated January 8th for your contribution to the Super Bowl spread.
Enjoy the game and Go Colts!
Ever get the feeling while you are cooking dinner that it is going to be disgusting and you should just bag it and call for a pizza?
Tonight was leftover night. I had some leftover Marinated Chicken Alla Griglia from the other day so I thought I’d shred the chicken and make chicken tacos. As I was shredding it, I was thinking that the combination of the chicken alla griglia with salsa verde was not going to be a good one. I even mentally worked myself up into thinking it would actually be disgusting.
Not wanting to waste the meal, I took the salsa verde out of the freezer and started simmering the chicken in it. I started to get a queazy stomach from cooking dinner. I contemplated calling my husband and asking him to pick up a pizza on his way home, but I held steady.
When my husband came home, I asked him to look in the skillet and see if he thought dinner would be too gross. The great thing about my husband is that it would have to be pretty bad for him not to eat it. So we got the cheese and tomatoes and he even added Salpica Peach Mango salsa to the tacos.
With enough “extras” covering up the chicken alla griglia/salsa verde combination, we were able to stomach dinner. I did notice however, we only had one taco each. Our daughter had a cheese quesadilla — apparently she is the brains of the operation!
Wintry soup. Delicious Navy Bean and Potato Soup with Cook’s Delight Natural Ham Base
I was hoping that the coldest days of winter were behind us when this weekend proved me wrong. Saturday, I was reminded that winter isn’t even close to being over for the Midwest. This is too bad since I am really ready to have some warm weather! Saturday also happened to be the day of the high school winter dance. I was amazed as we picked our daughter up from the dance at how many kids didn’t have coats on — and believe it or not, shoes! My husband asked me if we were that crazy when we were there age, and of course I couldn’t remember. I can’t remember last week! But, the answer is most likely…probably.
The soup I chose to make this weekend is Navy Bean and Potato Soup. The soup base I use in this recipe is Cook’s Delight Natural Ham Base. It creates a delicious background flavor. You can choose to make it with added ham pieces, if you’d like.
Meet Martin. He is one of our favorite waiters at El Bracero, the local Mexican restaurant that our family loves to frequent. Actually, we have frequented it so much, the waiters know all of our names. Over the years, we have given names to the waiters too — although they are not their real names. We discuss amongst our family what they should be named and from then, that is how we refer to them. For example, one waiter looks like a guy I went to high school with so we call him Nazeem. Then there is Ozzie, Muy Guapo, Puppy…you get the picture.
I was going to ask Martin tonight if they use Roasted Garlic soup base in their guacamole, but there is definitely a language barrier. Once, he asked me what I did for my work and I had no luck trying to explain that I make soup base for a living!
So, for now, we just go and enjoy the food and company. Soon, we will introduce them to our new lime salt. I can think of a few good uses for lime salt in a Mexican restaurant! Can you?
I was at the airport the other day flipping through a magazine at the airport newsstand. I had to find out what was new with Jennifer Aniston since it has been 5 years without Brad!
Anyway, I saw a recipe for Marinated Chicken Alla Griglia. It looked intriguing to me. When I got home, I searched online for the recipe since I didn’t purchase the magazine– I felt assured that Jennifer was truly OK without Brad. I was surprised to find several different recipes online for Marinated Chicken Alla Griglia, each with their own twist. So, I looked them over and then created my own version.
I decided to make my favorite potatoes that I have discovered along this blogging journey. I love to cut potatoes
into pieces, toss them in olive oil and Cook’s Delight Chili/Chipotle Concentrate soup base and then bake them. It couldn’t be easier! My husband made the spinach side dish and we had a wonderful meal.
It was all fairly easy to make since the chicken marinated overnight and then broiled and baked. I’d recommend the recipe and I would make it again (especially the potatoes).
MARINATED CHICKEN ALLA GRIGLIA
Ingredients:
1/4 cup chopped garlic
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup Cook’s Delight Chicken Stock (1/4 water with 1/4 tsp. Cook’s Delight Chicken Soup Base)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grape seed oil
2 tbsp. dried oregano
2 tbsp. dried rosemary
1 lemon sliced
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
1 tbsp. sugar
1 chicken cut into pieces
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Put chicken into a dish and pour the marinade over top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Place chicken pieces in a roasting pan on a rack. Pour extra juices on top of the chicken. Broil until skin is browned — about 7 minutes.
Turn oven to 425 degrees F and bake the chicken about 25 minutes, or until done. Juices will run clear.
Note: You can substitute Rice Vinegar with White Wine Vinegar and Grape Seed Oil with Corn Oil, if desired.
We had a nice weekend at Camelback Inn in Paradise Valley, AZ. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a getaway. We spent some time setting goals for Integrative Flavors for the remainder of 2010. We also discussed new product lines. Coming soon to the Cook’s Delight lineup will be bacon soup base and organic sauces. We are excited for the future!
