bassmatii

Pot Roast with gravy is comfort food at its finest. Put it in a slow cooker to make all of your chilly winter dreams come true. Carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms cook low and slow along with the roast while you’re at work. Dinner is ready when you are! Knowing dinner is basically done before I even go to work makes me feel like a superhero. No matter what the day brings, I know we’ll walk into a house smelling of roast long simmered in herbs, wine, and garlic. Now, that’s not a bad way to end a workday. WHAT’S THE BEST CUT OF MEAT FOR POT ROAST? Leaner cuts of beef are best for the slow cooker. The long, slow cooking method helps the connective tissue and fat breakdown slowly over many hours, which yields fork-tender bites of beef. ⇆ TIP: If you’ve ever made a tough roast it’s usually because it was either cooked at too high heat, for not enough time, or both.  Cooking tough cuts all day in the slow cooker takes care of both problems. I prefer one of two cuts for the slow cooker: Chuck

Do you love nuts? This caramel nut tart recipe combines walnuts, pecans, and almonds, in a caramel filling, served in a buttery crust. Here is a delicious autumn nut tart that you can make with practically any mixture of nuts. Just make sure you get the freshest nuts possible – from your local farmers market, or from the bins at stores with high turnover like Whole Foods. We use nuts frozen from last year’s harvest. Nuts will get rancid, so definitely check for that before using. Freeze any nuts left over. The recipe is from a recipe in Bon Appétit magazine with a few minor changes. The Bon Appétit recipe calls for the drizzling of melted white chocolate on top of the tart for decorative effect. If you want to do this, just melt a ounce of white chocolate over a double boiler and use a fork to drizzle swirls on top of the tart. ⇆ I don’t think this tart needs any more sweetness, so we skipped that step. But it is excellent with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Caramel Nut Tart Recip

Delicious ginger chicken! Chicken strips, marinated in coriander and ginger, stir-fried with scallions and ginger, served mixed with mango chutney and topped with toasted almonds. My friend Steve-Anna sent me this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken and claimed that it was one of her all time favorites. My father doesn’t eat ginger if he can avoid it, so when I made it I just warned dad ahead of time that he might have to settle for yesterday’s leftovers if he couldn’t bring himself to touch it. Well, everyone loved it! Even dad. ⇆ Strips of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are briefly marinated in ground coriander, ground ginger, vinegar and oil, then they are stir-fried with scallions and julienned ginger. They are mixed with a little mango chutney and sprinkled with toasted almonds before serving. The whole dish can be made in half an hour, especially if you do a lot of the prep while the chicken is marinating. Ginger Chicken with Almonds Recipe Prep time:   15 minutes Cook time: