Meat on Your Bones

Here is what I learned about oxtails when I hit google for ideas for the stew: you need 6 or 7 pounds of meaty bones to yield 4-6 servings of meaty stew. My 1.75 tail yielded about 3 ounces of meat.

So it was homemade tuna casserole for dinner. that recipe follows.

On the bright side, I now have several quarts of rich, delicious beef stock.

My Tuna Noodle Casserole
(adapted for "Joy of Cooking")

4 Tbsp. butter (I use either unsalted or salted, depending on what I grab when I open the fridge)
1/2 cup of chopped onions, celery and bell pepper ( usually I use 1/4 cup of celery and make up the difference with the rest.)
1/4 flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1 Cup of cheddar, and then a little extra, grated
2 cans of tuna (6 oz)
Three big handfuls of dry noodles

Salt
Pepper
Old bay
Breadcrumbs

Optional: frozen peas

Melt butter on stove top in a pan you are like to whisk in over medium heat. Sautée veggies for about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for a minute or two. Slowly whisk in milk. Whisk while the sauce thickens, about 6 or 7 minutes.

Cook noodles according to package instructions while the sauce thickens up. Drain.

When sauce is thick, stir in salt, pepper and old bay, along with cheese. Drain tuna and crumble into sauce. Want peas?add as much as you like now.i

Stir sauce and noodles together and pour into butter baking dish. I use a 2 and 1/2 quart Pyrex dish. Top with breadcrumbs.

Back at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Yum.

My friend Lisa puts French's onions on top of her TNC. You know, the ones that go on green bean casserole.

My entire family polished off the entire casserole for dinner last night. A winner, as always!

Thor's Oxtails

Is there a better place to get your food than at the farm?

Even better if that farm is Asgaard Farm. No, not home to Thor, but home to delicious goat and their cheeses!

I was in the market for goat, and got some, along with some feta.  But I also have a craving for beef stew and was looking for meat.  Too bad, though, they were sold out.  But wait...in the depths of a freezer.  An oxtail!  Did I want it? Yes!  What was I going to do with it? No idea!

I roasted them, long with carrot, celery, onion and garlic at 475 for about an hour.  They are now simmering away in wine and water.  Next step, take a look in pantry and see what to add to the meat. And make room in the freezer for the half of the stock that I don't use for dinner.

Rabe-ed

Veggies.   So important.  So dreaded.  Last night we had homemade pizzas for dinner. This is always a hit especially because the kids can help make them.  Not such a hit? Adding veggies to said pizzas. The plan was to saute the rabe and use it as a topping, but the kids took one look and "NOOOOO!"

Normally we would push it, but the whole point of pizza night is knowing that my kids will eat without coercion.  So the rabe ended up as a side for mom and dad.  And we cleaned our plates.

I blanched it and sauteed it with olive oil and garlic.  Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, balsamic on mine.

Food Glorious Food

Before I had kids, I had hobbies. Knitting, quilting, hiking, fishing, reading, writing, bathing...the usual. Now with a 4 and a 7 year old, and a full time job, and a seat on the School Board, I don't have time for anything.

But I do have to cook for the family, and that has become my creative outlet. And you have got to be creative with a kid as picky as my son (the 4 year old.) Trying to please him, an my daughter, and my husband while still making something I will enjoy is a challenge.

So here I am, sharing the challenge. Sometimes it is not pretty. No glamour shots of artful food here...have you seen my kitchen? A lot of the time someone leaves the table unhappy. (Usually me...) I have never taken a cooking class, and make a lot of it up as I go along. I burned tonight's pizza. But the Stahls got to eat, so if you want to see what we are chowing on (and what I am sipping) come on in to my kitchen!