Cheese of the month-Gorgonzola

This months Cheese of the month was Gorgonzola. My husband really likes cheeses, so I sent him on a hunt for a recipe. He came up with Steak Carrera with Gorgonzola Sauce. The recipe is from Robert Irvine from Food Network. I didnt have the 2 spices he used, so I substituted garlic powder, pepper and salt. It turned out wonderful!! We both really enjoyed it.
RECIPE
Beef:

* 1 1/2 to 2 pound beef shoulder
* 2 tablespoons Irvine Spices Smokey Rotisserie Seasoning
* 2 tablespoons Irvine Spices Garlic Pepper
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 onion, diced
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
Sauce:

* 1 cup water
* 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
* 1/4 cup instant flour (recommended: Wondra)
* 4 ounces Gorgonzola, cut into small cubes
* Pepper and salt, if needed

Directions

Rinse beef shoulder to remove any residue, pat dry with paper towels and place on a utility platter. In a small bowl, make the rub for the beef by combining Smokey Rotisserie Seasoning and Garlic Pepper. Rub the seasonings into all surfaces of the beef, cover with a sheet of plastic wrap and set aside for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours at room temperature. (The seasonings will actually begin to "cure" the meat.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

In an oven proof skillet heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat, add onion and garlic and cook until they begin to soften. Add beef and sear it on all sides. Cover pan (with lid or foil) and transfer to oven to finish beef, bringing to an internal temperature of 115 degrees F for medium rare (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven, transfer to a utility platter, and let rest for 10 minutes. (Make the sauce as directed below while the beef is resting.)

For the sauce: To the pan in which the beef was roasting (use an oven mitt on the hot handle), add 1 cup water and balsamic vinegar over medium high heat and whisk in instant flour. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes to "cook out" the flour. Strain into a bowl and whisk in gorgonzola cheese, allowing it to melt. Season with pepper, to taste, and salt only if needed (as the cheese will lend saltiness).

Memas Salsa

This is a great recipe that my grandma used to make. I never knew how to make it until my aunts church put together a cookbook and my aunt added it. The recipe makes quite a bit of salsa. It also uses quite a few peppers


1 gallon canned whole tomatoes, peeled
1 chopped onion
4 large garlic cloves
1 handful cilantro
4-5 jalapeno peppers (I only use 1)
1 lime
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp pepper and salt

In a blender (on grind) add drained tomatoes. Pulse blender. Add chopped onions, garlic and peppers. Squeeze in lime juice. Add brown sugar, salt and pepper. I then pulse again. Let sit 2-3 hrs; keep refrigerated. Stir occasionally.

Without Meat Wednesdays

On Wednesdays I am going to talk about a recipe that is vegetarian, so I am calling it Without Meat Wednesdays. This week I made a mushroom pizza. It was inspired by a portobello mushroom dinner that my husband and I enjoy. The dinner is a portobello mushroom that marinates in balsamic vinegar and oil. Then you grill it, add tomatoes, cheese and serve on toast. So for this pizza I made a homemade crust and added mushrooms and cheese (I forgot and we were out of tomatoes) It turned out pretty good, but would have been better with the tomatoes.

TWD-Vanilla Ice Cream

This weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie was Vanilla ice cream. I love homemade ice cream, so I had to make this. It is a very custardy ice cream. I will be trying this recipe again and adding some other flavors to it. I am really looking forward to the mint chocolate chip.
I did have some issues with this ice cream, but I think it was my ice cream maker. It has been having issues lately and it took about 6 hrs after I took the ice cream out for it to be a consistancy for me to scoop it.

I would like to thank Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu for choosing this recipe. Please check out the TWD blogroll to see what others did with this recipe

Ideas to use and preserve your summer produce bounty

I was just reading this blog post that Amanda made about preserving your summer veggies. I dont have a lot out of my garden this year...it was our first try at it and I am only growing things in pots. I will be doing it larger scale next year since I have had luck. This is a great post (and even includes a video of her mom demonstrating)
We tend to get a lot of produce at the farmers market, so i will have to try out this with some of them. I am also planning on lactofermenting some cucumbers and cabbage.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

My kids love chocolate chip muffins and for some strange reason I kept buying a mix that made them. I knew there had to be an easy way to make them myself. I saw a recipe at Recipezaar.com and knew I had to try them. These were WONDERFUL and very easy to make. My picky son even commented on how they were better than the box mix. I did not use the nuts because Emma is allergic and I only had half a bag of chocolate chips, but they were still very full of chocolate chips

Chocolate Chip Muffins
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup light-brown sugar, packed
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2/3 cup milk
* 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
* 2 eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

* 1 (11 1/2 ounce) package milk chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
directions
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Grease twelve muffin cups.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended.
Make a well in center of dry ingredients.
Add milk mixture and stir just to combine.
Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
Now bake for 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.
Remove muffin tin to wire rack.
Cool for 5 minutes.
Remove from tins to finish cooling.
Serve warm or completely cool.
These muffins freeze well.

The Daring Bakers-Milan cookies

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.


I chose to make the milan cookies because those are my favorite cookies EVER!!! I actually had a little trouble with my recipe. They REALLY spread when they were cooking which made them HUGE. They still taste good, but were not near the texture that I am used to with the store bought kind. They had way more of a lemony taste than the store bought ones too, so I think I will only do half the lemon extract when I try them again

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website
Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.