Beef Stroganoff with a Twist

When my husband asked me to "make something with ground beef" on Saturday, I thought to things: Tacos and hamburgers. Neither of these things sounded good a the time, so after some hemming and hawing, I went into the kitchen, began to defrost the meat, and stood, weight on one hip, in front of my pantry cabinet. Sigh. I pulled out cream of mushroom soup, an onion, olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper. I wanted white wine, but I was out. Now that the creative juices were flowing, things came together easily. Here's what happened.

INGREDIENTS:
for the sauce...
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk (I used whole milk)
1 tbsp olive oil
garlic salt
pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tbsp white wine (optional)

for the beef...
2 small onions/ 1 large onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
3 pounds ground chuck
garlic salt
pepper

METHOD:
What's great about this dish is that the sauce takes as much time to cook as the beef does to brown. In total, it takes about 25 minutes from the time you dice the onions to when you serve to finished dish.

I'll give instructions for the sauce first:
Combine the soup, milk, and olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine. Once the sauce starts to boil, add garlic salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the meat is brown. Then, add the sour cream and frozen peas.

Now for the beef:
Sautee onions in the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once they are clear, add the ground chuck and the garlic salt and pepper. Cook on medium-high heat until the meat browns. Spoon out the extra grease that runs off after the meat browns.

And finally:
Now that both the sauce and the beef are cooked, add the sauce to the beef. Turn the heat to low as you combine the two. Serve in bowls over pasta (or alone!). Yum!

Enjoy!
Miss Browning

Chicken Rochne

Here's a recipe from my mother's kitchen that is an instant comfort after a long day. You can prepare the casserole in the morning, then pop it in the oven when you get home from work. I make sure to keep the five ingredients on hand so I can make Chicken Rochne whenever my day didn't go my way.

INGREDIENTS:

4 chicken breast halves, cooked and chopped/torn from bones

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz sour cream

15 Ritz crackers

3 tbsp butter, melted

METHOD:

Butter the bottom and sides of a casserole dish (medium or large-sized will do). Arrange chicken in the bottom of pan. Combine soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Coat Ritz crackers with melted butter, spread over chicken mixture. Add more crackers if needed. Cook in a 350 degree oven 40 minutes, then serve.

Scrumptious. My mouth is watering just thinking about this dish! Don't be afraid to spice it up any way you choose. I think the tanginess of the sour cream stands well on its own, but think salt and pepper wouldn't be offensive. Goes well with rice pilaf and green peas.

Enjoy!

Miss Browning