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Beef & Cranberry Ragout

December 7, 2010 By Kate 1 Comment

Experimenting with new beef recipes has been on my list for years. I’m embarrassed to say that most of my beef cooking experience revolves around ground beef. It’s a shame really! My family always enjoys when I make different kinds of beef, so I think I just need to get over my fears. Even with my limited experience, beef dishes are super easy to make. I think my fear was always based on the fact that I didn’t know what all the different cuts were or how to prepare them. Luckily, I have this little thing called a computer and it has a little SwagBucks search bar. All my beef questions are answered in just a click! Who knew, right?

So when I spotted a beautiful looking package of  bottom round steaks at Sam’s Club on our monthly shopping trip, I decided to grab it. With all of this beef research under my belt, I even knew a little bit about bottom round steaks and the best way to prepare them. I decided to use those steaks to make a fabulous Christmas time entree.

Beef & Cranberry Ragout is a richly delicious dinner. The cranberries add a unique tang that blends perfectly with the sauce and beef. Plus, it looks so festive when plated. I think this would be perfect for a different twist for Christmas dinner. (But I’m definitely not going to limit it to just that meal. It’s just too good to not serve at other times!)

Beef & Cranberry Ragout

  • 1 large vidalia onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 lb. mushrooms
  • 1 1/2 – 2 lbs. bottom round steaks or cubed beef for stew
  • 1/2 lb. cranberries
  • 1/3 c. brown sugar
  • 2 T. flour
  • 2 T. oil
  • 2 T. butter
  • 1 1/2 t. salt
  • 1 t. pepper
  • 1/4 t. allspice
  • 1/2 c. red wine or beef stock
  • 1/2 c. beef stock
  • 2 T. apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar

Chop onion and mince garlic. Wipe dirt off mushrooms and then quarter or slice. Place all in a covered dish and refrigerate until use.

If using bottom round steaks, cut the meat against the grain into cubes. Refrigerate. Skip this step if using pre-cubed stew beef.

Cut cranberries in half. Toss in a bowl with the brown sugar and flour. Cover and refrigerate until use.

+ 2 hours cooking time Heat oil and butter in a large skillet or stock pot. Add beef and brown on all sides, about 2 minutes. Add chopped onions, garlic and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and allspice.

Pour in red wine, beef stock and vinegar. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours, until beef is tender but not dry.

Stir in the cranberries, brown sugar and flour. Cook for an additional ten minutes. Serve over egg noodles.

This can be made a day or two ahead of time. The flavor will deepen and taste even more delicious. However, if you want to make it ahead of time, save the last step until just before serving so that the cranberries don’t lose their vibrant red color.

Get your Bloggy Progressive Dinner at Amy’s Finer Things where Amy is serving up our main course.

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Pizza Pie Bites

December 6, 2010 By Kate 9 Comments

Welcome to the appetizer and drinks portion of the Third Annual Bloggy Progressive Dinner. We’re getting off to a bit of a late start. What’s a girl to do when Comcast’s DNS servers go down, taking with it internet connection across 4 states in the Midwest? I guess it’s similar to if there was a massive power failure on the scheduled day of a real life progressive dinner. So now that everything is up and running, the show must go on!

I am thrilled to be hosting the appetizers & drinks portion of our dinner. I’ve said it before – I am a HUGE fan of appetizers. I’d happily forego a full dinner to just nibble on the appetizers. But since we’ve got a great big progressive dinner planned, I’m just serving up one appetizer today.

Pizza Pie Bites

  • 1/2 lb. ground beef or Italian sausage
  • 1 8 oz. block mozzarella cheese
  • 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
  • 1/4 c. water
  • 1 T. olive oil
  • 1 T. Italian seasoning
  • 1 t. garlic powder
  • 1 t. salt
  • 1/8 t. crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 1/2 c. flour
  • 2 t. salt
  • 1 t. Italian seasoning
  • 4 T. butter
  • 3 – 4 T. cold water

Brown ground beef or Italian sausage in a small skillet. While meat cooks, cut block of mozzarella cheese into small chunks.

Next, stir together the tomato paste, water, olive oil, 1 T. Italian seasoning, garlic powder, 1 t. salt and crushed red pepper flakes. Drain ground beef or Italian sausage and stir into tomato mixture. Stir in the mozzarella. Cover and refrigerate until assembling.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, 2 t. salt and 1 t. Italian seasoning. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, two knives or your hands until crumbly. Slowly add the water and stir. If necessary, form the dough into a ball with your hands, adding a bit more water as needed. Refrigerate until assembling.

+ 15-18 minutes bake time Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter or glass, cut circles out of dough. Press into a mini muffin tin. Repeat as needed.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of pizza filling into each little cup. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes, until cheese is thoroughly melted and crust is lightly golden brown. (Recipe makes about 36-48, depending on the thickness of your dough and the size of your mini muffin tins.)

You can definitely add any other pizza toppings that you like. This is perfect for serving to kids and adults – you can serve the kids the basic ones and add some fun fillings for the adults.

Unfortunately, drinks are not my specialty. If it isn’t water, black coffee, milk or watered-down apple juice, it typically doesn’t get served at our house. We have pop on hand for special occasions, but that’s about it. Since I’m hosting Christmas Eve this year, I could definitely use some drink inspiration!

Here’s the schedule for the rest of the week. I hope you’ll join us each day!

Now link up your own drink or appetizer recipe. Please include a link back here in your post so that everyone else can join in on the fun!

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Meat Lovers Lasagna

December 2, 2009 By Kate 14 Comments

Welcome to Day 4 of the Second Annual Bloggy Progressive Dinner. So far, we’ve been treated to some delicious drinks at JessieLeigh’s, some fantastic appetizers at Jen’s place and great side dishes at The Happy Housewife’s. Now, on to the main dish.

For tonight’s main dish, I wanted a nice, hearty dinner that wasn’t too hard to put together yet elegant and tasty enough to impress company. I love serving lasagna to friends and family because it seems to be a universal favorite. So I thought it would be fun to boost it up a bit and make it even more special and memorable. Here’s the result -

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Meat Lovers Lasagna

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 lb. bulk Italian sausage
  • 1 lb. bacon
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 c. marinara sauce (homemade or store-bought)
  • 1 30 oz. container ricotta cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 box lasagna noodles (about 9), fully cooked and drained
  • 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Dice bacon and fry until crisp in a large skillet. (See my important tip on this step below.) With a slotted spoon, remove bacon to drain and pour off grease. Add ground beef, Italian sausage, onion and garlic to the skillet. Cook until done, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain. Stir in marinara sauce and reserved bacon.

2. In a bowl, stir together ricotta, eggs and Parmesan cheese until combined.

3. Spread a fourth of the meat mixture into the bottom of the dish. Top with 3 lasagna noodles. Top noodles with 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, then meat, then 3 more noodles. Repeat until done, ending with a meat layer on top. Sprinkle cheese over the top.

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4. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit at least 5 minutes before cutting.

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In the interest of saving time, I thought it would be a good idea to just cook all of the meats together. Except I didn’t realize that bacon doesn’t crisp when cooked with other meats. So, I kept cooking it, hoping that the bacon would eventually crisp. It never did. Finally I gave up on that idea and decided to just pick all of the bacon out of the pan and crisp it on its own.

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Do you realize what a long and laborious process it is to pick a pound of diced bacon pieces out of 2 pounds of other cooked meat? It is SO not fun! But I finally was able to crisp it all in a separate skillet. The whole thing felt like a comedy of errors. But in the end, the payoff was huge and tasty!

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This makes a huge lasagna! It’s definitely enough to entertain a crowd with a salad and bread on the side. For our family of 6, it will be enough for 2 dinners, plus some extras. It is that big and filling.

So what main dish do you have to share with us tonight? Link up below so we all can come visit. Then don’t forget to stop by Amy’s tomorrow night where she’ll be sharing the finer thing of dessert. I can’t wait to see what she serves up!

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