Kacie's Day Off: Cooking and Planting

Spring has officially sprung!  I was beginning to have my doubts when a few days after Easter it was sleeting on me while driving to work.  The air is still a bit nippy, but buds are on the trees and I've started sneezing a lot.  Both equivalent with Spring.

Today was my off day for the week, and I wanted to celebrate the new season by doing some planting.  I have a pretty bad history with plants (i.e., I usually kill them all), but I'm giving it another go this year.  A few (hopefully) easy veggies, some herbs, and some wildflowers can't be too hard, right?

I headed to Fresh Market to get some herbs, then Target to get some seeds, pots, and Miracle Grow (lets be honest, I need all the help I can get).  But then I thought, "oh wait - I need dirt"!  Where does one get dirt when you live in an apartment complex?  Well luckily my neighborhood is under construction, so I sneakily took my pots to a ginormous dirt pile and loaded up!  Let me tell you though friends, I don't recommend carrying 9 pots of dirt up 4 flights of stairs unless you're really in shape.  I'm not.

Green Onions and Radishes.  Cheated a little on the onions.  Already had them in my fridge!

I'll be happy as a clam if I can keep these going.  Rosemary, Cilantro, Basil.

Is anything sprouting in there?  I think this one is beets.

Broccoli, Beets, Fennel, Lettuce.  I almost alphabetized. Wildflowers down below.

Unfortunately what good is a lovely patio with flowers if you don't have patio furniture?  Perhaps I'll work on that next weekend.  I'll keep you posted when/if something grows!

And of course, what good is a day off if I don't cook?!  Stuart and I together had exhausted my freezer stores a couple of weeks ago, so today I tried to stock up a bit.  On the agenda: braised beef and frozen pizzas.

This was my first encounter cooking beef.  Well, other than hamburgers which I don't count because Stuart always did the grilling at our house.  But this was my first "big girl" roast I guess you could say. I really don't know much about beef, so I told the friendly meat man what my recipe was and he told me what cut to get.  He didn't tell me how expensive a 4 pound roast would be, though!

I was a bit nervous, but I learned some beef tricks along the way:
- First, you need to season it well.  I used an interesting blend of salt, pepper, and cocoa with some other spices thrown in there.
- Then, you massage the meat with the rub.
- Then, you SEAR the beef before you slow cook it.  This makes a crispy seasoned-seal on both sides and keeps the juices in.

Spice mix

Look at that GINORMOUS piece of meat!  I felt like such a grown-up!

Coating the meat

Searing.  I never would have believed there was almost not enough room  in my Dutch Oven!

 Now, when you sear something you inevitably will get little bits burned onto the bottom of the pan.  Never fear!  That's what de-glazing is for.  Pour in a mixture of liquids (or just water if you want to be kind of boring).  Then all the bits loosen and add tons of flavor to your sauce.

Veggies sauteing after the meat seared (not enough room for both in there.)

 

Deglaze.  Too bad you can't hear the sizzle from there.

 Then you add in some juice-containing things, and let the oven do all the rest of the work!

Pre-three hour bake

Post-three hour bake

And finally, the shred.

While the oven was working for me, I thought Id throw together a few frozen pizzas for quick dinners.  I have this problem when I buy frozen pizzas ... I usually eat the whole thing and then I feel guilty afterward.  Granted, I usually buy Kashis and they have like 700 calories for the whole thing.  But I figured the way to solve that problem was to just make smaller pizzas that I can eat in total and not feel bad!

So I headed to my friendly Trader Joes and bought some supplies. They have these pre-made whole wheat crusts for $1.  One dollar!  So I got a couple of those and some toppings and went to town.  The trick is to pre-bake the crusts a bit, then freeze the pizza once you top them.  Easy-peasy.

4 lovely wheat crusts

 

Pesto, tomato, ricotta

Sausage and peppers with tomato paste for sauce (could anyone else eat tomato paste straight from the can?)

Arugula, Olive, Tomato

Pretty excited about this one: fig preserve, prosciutto, goat cheese

Want some recipes?  Well I'm gonna give them to you even if you dont.  Also another fun fact that might make you want to cook these delicious things?  After divvying up portions to freeze, I calculated out that I made 11 meals for $4.68 each!  Can't beat that with a stick!

Frozen Pizzas
- 2 pizza crusts (home made or store bought), halved
- toppings of your choice

Preheat the oven to 400.  Roll out the crusts, flouring your surface so they don't stick.  Bake the crusts  5-7 minutes or until they're firm, but not done.  Cool.  Add your toppings, then pop in the freezer for a few minutes.  After they've firmed up, wrap in saran wrap followed by aluminum foil.  When you're ready for a delish pizza, pop in a 400 degree oven for 5-8 minutes.



Tomato and Olive Beef Roast (altered from The Healthy Foodie blog)
Roast:
- 4-5 # beef roast
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 pint mushrooms (I used baby 'bellas)
- 6 cloves garlic, minced.
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup grainy mustard
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
- ~25 kalamata olives, halved
- handful of pearl onions

Spice Mixture
- 1 Tbsp black pepper
- 1.5 tsp Kosher salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350.  Trim outside fat from the roast, and pat dry with paper towels.  Massage the spice mixture into the meat.  Wrap in saran wrap and let sit for 30 minutes or so.  Heat a dutch oven with enough Grapeseed or Canola Oil to coat the bottom.  When hot, add the meat and DONT TOUCH for 5 minutes, or until a crisp coating forms.  Flip the meat (which is easier said than done).  Again sear for 5 minutes.  Remove meat from pan.

Add onion and mushrooms and saute for about 5 minutes, or until the onion begins to soften.  Meanwhile mix together the water, vinegar and mustard.  After 5 minutes is up, pour in this mixture to de-glaze the pan.  The, add back the meat.  Pour the tomatoes and olives on top, give a quick stir, and pop in the oven.  Bake for about 4 hours, or until the meat tears apart tenderly with a fork.  With about 30 minutes left, stir in those pearl onions.

Serve on top of polenta, mashed cauliflower, or with potatoes.