Sunday Dinners

Every Sunday my Mum would make a roast dinner. We usually had our main meal in the evening, but on Sunday, it was noonish when we had our main meal. Just to confuse things all the more, in Australia we call dinner - tea. Lunch is called dinner. At least, that is how it was for me growing up. Just like here in the USA, different regions call things by a different name at times.

We usually had either roast chicken, roast lamb or roast beef. For special occasions, we had roast turkey. We always had a LOT of vegetables with any meal, but Mum outdid herself for Sunday dinner. Always, roast potato, roast pumpkin, peas and carrots. The other vegetables she would choose from are - parsnip, brussel sprouts (yuck), green beans, broad beans, cauliflower, broccoli.........just about any vegetable that you could possibly think of.

My Dad had a huge vegetable garden, so the vegetables were always fresh and home grown. What wasn't used up or given away was frozen or bottled for future use. I was always pleased if the brussel sprouts were all used up, that was not a vegetable I wanted hanging around to be eaten all year.

I try to carry on my family tradition of a Sunday dinner. I had never had pot roast before I came to the USA. I have embraced the pot roast and it is one of our favorite dinners. I have experimented with my pot roasts over the year. The simplest being, throw the chuck roast into the crock pot, sprinkle with a dry onion soup mix, pour in some water, cook the heck out of it until it is fall apart tender.

My favorite is a recipe from Paula Deen. I tweek the recipe a little from her original, but stick pretty close.

INGREDIENTS
1 (3 to 4-pound) boneless chuck roast

sprinkle of garlic powder

sprinkle of Lawry's Seasoning Salt

1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion cut into thin wedges

2 bay leaves

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup red cooking wine OR beef stock

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules

3/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the garlic powder, Lawry's seasoning salt, beef bouillon, salt and pepper to a small bowl.

Rub seasoning into the roast on both sides.

Heat oil in a large skillet and brown the roast, searing it on both sides.

Place the meat in a roaster pan.

Add onions and garlic to skillet for 1 to 2 minutes to absorb leftover roast juice.

Place into roaster pan with meat and bay leaves.

Combine the mushroom soup, wine and Worcestershire sauce into a bowl.

Pour over the roast.

Add water.

*If the gravy is not thick enough, remove the meat from the pan and pour the gravy into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and thicken it by adding 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water, stirring constantly.

Cook Time 3 hr 20 minutes

Most of the time I use a crock pot, then I just leave out the water.

Enjoy

Sally-Ann

ANZAC Biscuits

Yesterday's post on ANZAC Day made me think about ANZAC biscuits. In Australia, cookies are called biscuits. They are my husband's favorite. My Mum made the best ANZACs ever! They were huge, flat and chewy. No matter what I do, since living in the USA, I haven't been able to get my ANZACs to bake to the consistency I like. But, I keep on trying!!

Here is a bit of background on my favorite bickie.

(Aussie slang for biscuit).

ANZAC biscuits are most certainly the national biscuit of Australia. The heritage of ANZAC biscuits date back to the First World War, where on the 25th of April 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed at Gallipoli. ANZAC biscuits (or Soldier’s Biscuits as they were originally known) were sent by women back in Australia who were concerned about the nutritional value of the food being supplied to their men by the army. The ingredients for ANZAC biscuits were originally rolled oats, sugar, plain flour, coconut, butter, golden syrup or treacle, bi-carbonate of soda and boiling water.
ANZAC Biscuits now are still as popular as ever and around ANZAC Day, ANZAC biscuits are also often used by veterans’ organisations to raise funds for the care and welfare of aged war veterans. The original ANZAC Biscuits recipe pairs perfectly with Australian wattle seed, by offering hazelnut and chocolate flavours to the traditional Anzac biscuits.

And here is how to make them!

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats (regular oatmeal) uncooked
1 cup desiccated coconut 1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp boiling water
Method
Combine the flour (sifted), oats, coconut and sugar in a bowl.
Melt the butter and Golden Syrup in a saucepan over a low heat..
Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the water and add to the butter and Golden Syrup.
Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix well.
Spoon dollops of mixture, about the size of a walnut shell, onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving as much space again between dollops to allow for spreading.
Bake in a moderate oven, 180C / 350F, for 15-20 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack and seal in airtight containers.

Tips
The American tablespoon is a little smaller than the British tablespoon, so be generous with your Golden Syrup and Water.

I find Golden Syrup at the local supermarket here in Tampa - Sweet Bay Supermarket - in the British section. If you are really desperate and can't find any, honey would probably work, different taste though.

If you have any thoughts of keeping the biscuits for any length of time, I suggest you keep them in a padlocked container!

Enjoy!!

Sally-Ann

Yum, Yum!!

I love to cook and I love to collect cookbooks. In fact, I now have so many cookbooks, I have to be a little bit more selective in my purchases! I was thinking about what to blog today and I realized that for someone who loves to cook and for someone who has soooooo many cookbooks, I haven't posted many recipes. In fact, I have only posted one measly recipe! Well, this needs to change! I need to share my vast recipe collection! So, here we go!!

Today......I think I will share something with chocolate.

CHOCOLATE LUSH

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup flour
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (12 ounce) container Cool Whip
2 small boxes instant chocolate pudding mix (any favorite flavor may be used)
3 cups of milk
Directions
1. Mix butter and flour together then add the ground nuts ( save a few for the topping). Pat into a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Bake 20 minutes at 350:.
3. Cool.
4. In a mixing bowl mix cream cheese and powdered sugar together, stir in 1/2 of the cool whip.
5. Spread this mixture over cooled crust. Beat the pudding with milk and spread over the cream cheese. Top with the rest of the cool whip, sprinkle with the reserved nuts.
6. Refrigerate until serving time. Sometimes I drizzle melted chocolate or chocolate ice cream topping over the top, makes it look even more rich.

Grab a large spoon, dig in, lick your lips, enjoy!

Sally-Ann

Chocolate Chip Cookie

I love to cook. My family has grown quite used to being experimented upon. Although there are quite a few recipes that will never be tried again, there are some that are family favourites. This is one of them!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup shortening (I use a stick of butter flavoured Crisco)

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream together shortening, sugars, eggs and vanilla until creamy

Add flour, salt and baking soda

Stir in chopped nuts and chocolate chips

Using a cookie scoop, drop on ungreased cookie sheet

Bake at 350deg. for approximately 10 minutes - remove from oven when they start to brown

Enjoy!

Sally-Ann