So one of my favorite times of the year are late summer to early fall (harvest time).  One of my favorite things to put in our freezer is Peppers.  Yellow, red, green, chocolate, & orange. 

Just cut the top off, clean out the seeds, and slice lengthwise. 

Then place a little of each color in bags.  Freeze.  When you thaw, they will be the perfect for fajitas, casseroles or egg dishes.



Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

My family loves red meat, I on the other hand could do without it but if the kids eat then we go with what they will eat.  Tonight's menu is Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches.  If you are from the east coast then you know that you order your sandwiches wit or witout.  No that is not a misspelling but the first time I ever had a PCS was in Philadelphia. 

Some may ask what is a PCS?  Well its beef (thinly sliced), caramelized onions, cheese, mushrooms (for those that like them), mayo and a good kaiser roll.  when cutting your beef you need to make sure that you freeze your meat to give it enough body that you can get that think slice.  my marinade is red wine (something you would drink), soy sauce, Worcester sauce and a few red pepper flakes (not enough to hurt, just so you can feel it).  Mix everything together put in a Ziploc bag marinate overnight.

Butter w/ EVOO

45 minutes before you are ready to eat, start your onions - I use a mixture of EVOO and Butter, this lowers the smoking point of the butter so that it doesn't burn as quickly.  place your onions in the pot and cook them low and slow (it will take about 20-30 minutes).

Mid way thru you start to see the color developing

Beginning Stage

the end product

Remove the onions from their pan, place in a bowl for later to serve.  Add your mushrooms with about 1/4 cu of red wine, 1/4 c beef stock and a couple of shakes of Maggie sauce and Worcester.  start your mushrooms  and when they are about half way done add the wine mixture continuing to cook until reduced to half.  Remove the mushrooms and place in a bowl for serving.  Now crank up the heat on the pan when its hot add the beef mixture to your pan and start stirring.  The smell is Devinne.

Now you have everything completed - Lets head to the table to make our dinner.  I found some interesting facts about how you order PCS in Philadelphia here is what I learned.

When you come up to establishment there are a list of rules

You literally order this way or you get what the establishment thinks you want. . . .  if the establishment is very busy then you could get sent to the back of the line (flashback  of grade school here) - Kinda like the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld wit-out the year long ban.  Remember that the shops there run like well oiled machines, when very busy they want the orders to come and go with the most efficiency.  When special orders come in it takes time from the "regulars" in line that know better.So while I won't be banning anyone tonight because they didn't order correctly I thought you should at least know what could happen . . . . Good eats everyone hoped this helped a little on changing up your routine.  Simple is better One last promise I will start shooting the end product see it.

30 day food challenge

So i started to look at how many times a month we go out to eat (average 3x per week) and why.  The why is what scared me the most - its because I really didn't want to start cooking something at 5.30 or 6pm at night, this means we don't sit down for dinner until 6.30 or 7pm.  Way to late to be eating dinner.  The kids usually have snacked on garbage (chips, cookies or something else not so healthy) and really don't want to eat what is placed on the table.  We all have been there and done that I know but I made a resolution to my self, my waistline and my family that we would attempt to not eat out for 30 days.  Now don't laugh (my husband did) but it was really important to me that the entire family understand why and how we were going to do this.  Once this was explained and everyone was asked to participate well lets just say we are going to try so here we are on the first day of the challenge

For breakfast we had egg mcmuffins (eggs, Canadian bacon and Swiss cheese) it cost about $4.00 to make 6 (McDonald's charges $1.99 each).  The boys loved them.

Lunch consisted of peanut butter and chip sandwiches and

for Dinner we are having braised chicken (mmmmm, mmmm) with rice and a salad

 

You want to brown your chicken (you might have to do this in batches, but brown food really does taste better than gray food). 
Once you have nice color on your chicken move it to a plate until you have all of it browned.  Don't rush this step it will take about 5-8 minutes per side to get some good color on it.  At this point all I added was some salt and pepper with a little poultry seasoning 



While your chicken is browning cut up some celery, onions and carrots (the trinity).  Place it off to the side 

 

After all of the chicken has browned you will have this amazing brown stuff on the bottom don't worry its going to add tons of flavor to the dish, add your trinity to the pot and let it sweat for about 5 minutes.  Add a little flour to the mix and stir it around (allow the flour to cook just a little so it gets rid of the flour taste)

Add one can of chicken stock (or 1 cup of homemade stock) to the pot and 1 cup of water you can taste the mixture to see if you need additional salt and pepper.  Remember that this is going to reduce by half and the flavors are going to intensify.

Add your chicken back to the pot making sure that the chicken is only about 1/2 way submerged into the liquid (we are braising not stewing here).  cover and cook for about 1 hours or until the chicken is cooked thru