Beef Wellington

Like most families, our family has a rhythm. Everyone comes home at fairly regular times in the evenings - probably because I serve dinner at roughly the same time every night and if they're late - they miss it.  We have a rhythm to our meals too.  We all tend to take on the same tasks to help with meal preparation and we even sit in the same seats mat the table. When it comes time to clean up, we all have our jobs to help make the process as painless as possible.

It all just works. Well it works we're all home that is. Ben had to do some traveling last month which shouldn't really impact our meals all that much but it just seems to throw off our family rhythm. For some reason, when Ben's out of town, dinnertime just doesn't have the same flow as it does when the four of us are together.

I've finally learned to stop trying to find a new, temporary rhythm for the 3 of us and we just do things completely different when Ben's out of town.  I make kid friendly food and I tend to pull more things out of the freezer for easy meals. This roast beef wellington in puff pastry triangles recipe is perfect for a quick and easy meal when it's just the 3 of us.

These can be made ahead of time and pulled out of the freezer, placed on a baking sheet (still frozen) and cooked in about 20 minutes.

Roast Beef Wellington
1 Tablespoon butter                              1 ½ + 1/8 cup T. horseradish
¼ pound mushrooms, sliced                 salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon shallots, minced              17 ounces puff pastry sheets
1 clove garlic, minced                           1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon fresh parsley                        1 Tablespoon water
6 ounces Swiss, grated                          ¾ cup sour cream
6 ounces roast beef, sliced                    1/8 teaspoon garlic

Melt butter in skillet, add mushrooms, shallot, garlic and parsley.  Saute 3-4 minutes.



Removed from heat, drain and cool.  Toss with cheese, beef, 1 ½ T. horseradish and add salt and pepper. 

Thaw puff pastry.  Roll out each sheet into 4 squares.







Divide mixture among squares.

Make an egg wash with beaten egg and water.  Brush egg wash on edges of squares and fold to create a smaller triangle.



Seal with the tines of a fork.  Brush remaining egg wash over triangles.

Bake 20 minutes at 400.





Sauce:  Combine sour cream, 1/8 T. horseradish and garlic.  (I didn't make the sauce to go with these because I was in a hurry but you definitely should try it.)

Serve.

You can serve this for dinner, as an appetizer or even just a snack.  They are super good and easy to make.

If you want to make them ahead of time, you can fill the squares, fold them into triangles, crimp the edges, brush with egg and then pop them into the freezer.  I freeze mine on a cookie sheet for about an hour or until they are firm and then pop them into individual ziploc freezer bags.  I transfer them right from the freezer to the oven and add an extra 10 minutes or so to the cooking time.

Ciao!

Mango Fruit Roll Ups

It's a SNOW day!!!  OK, so technically there is no snow in Atlanta so its just a COLD day but either way - it's a no school day!  My kids were so excited to hear that they don't have to wake up early for school this morning.  (Secretly, I was pretty stoked about that too.)

I think that Atlanta hit some record low temperatures this morning.  Our thermometer read 9.







I was feeling mighty chilly over our single digit temperatures until I talked to my parents in Ohio.  They were reporting temperatures of negative 30 with windchill.  NEGATIVE THIRTY!!!  Holy Moly that's cold. 

Even though our temperatures won't drop nearly that low, the house still felt chilly yesterday.  To keep myself warm while I was working in the kitchen, I decided that I needed to crank up the oven.  This recipe for homemade mango fruit roll ups from www.justataste.com was the perfect thing: 3-4 hours of low baking time.  What better way to heat up my kitchen?

Mango Fruit Roll Ups

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 175ºF and line two rimmed baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.







 
Dice 3 mangos.   You will need 4 cups of diced fruit.







Puree the mango in a food processor or blender until smooth.
 

Divide the purée evenly between the two prepared pans, and using an off-set spatula, spread the purée as flat and as evenly as possible until it's about 1/8-inch thick.

Bake the purée for 3 to 4 hours.

The fruit roll-ups are done when the purée is dry to the touch and pliable. If the bottom side of the roll-ups is still wet after some time, flip the roll-ups over and continue baking them until they are fully dried.
Remove the roll-ups from the oven. Place a piece of wax paper on top of the roll-ups and then peel off the wax paper and the roll-ups together.









Cut the sheet into long strips.

Roll up the strips.

I thought these were really yummy - my family - not so much.










Maybe I should have started with strawberry fruit roll ups.  Oh well, can't win them all.








How are you going to keep warm today?  As for me, I'm thinking that a big pot of chili is in order.






It's going to be a cold one out there today.  Stay warm blog friends.

Ciao!

Black Bean Soup with Roasted Poblano Chiles

These may be some of the worst pictures of a soup that I have ever taken.  Seriously, this bowl of soup looks so unappetizing.  The good news is that it didn't taste anything like it looks.  It is REALLY good.  Don't be thrown off by the weird pictures - those are my fault for not doing this soup any justice.  Trust me when I tell you - it's way better than it looks.

This recipe came from my Bon Appetit magazine.  It is super simple and really delicious.  I changed a few things in the recipe so I will give you my version of the recipe.

Black Bean Soup with Roasted Poblano Chiles
2 poblano chilies
2 Tablespoons shelled pumpkin seeds
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
48 ounces chicken broth
2 cans black beans, drained
1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco







Slice poblano peppers in half and take out seeds and ribs.  Place on a foil lined baking sheet and place under broiler until blackened on top.












Place peppers in a paper bag and let sit for 15 minutes.









Remove from bag, peel skin off pepper and chop.

I shelled the pumpkin seeds from our Halloween pumpkins.







Heat oil in saucepan.  Add onion and garlic and cook 8-10 minutes.

Transfer to a blender and puree with tomatoes.

 Return to saucepan and cook 8-10 minutes longer.

Stir in broth, season with salt.  Bring to a boil and simmer until thickened.  Stir in poblanos.






Use an immersion blender to puree soup.  (I think this is where the color of my soup went a little OFF.  The green of the poblano and the red from the tomatoes just made a weird color combination.)

Stir in beans.







Ladle into bowls and top with pumpkin seeds and crumbled cheese.

This is the perfect soup for a cold winter day.  Trust me - If MY kids eat it - it must be good.  So don't take it from me - take it from them.  There were 4 empty bowls on the table after this meal.  (Yea!)

 Ciao!