Cabbage & Fennel Slaw

  This is a great summer side dish. Very refreshing and quick and easy to make.
I served this along side my Italian roast beef sandwiches. Nice combination. Enjoy!!  : )

           (For those who do not like fennel...I know a few of you!! You can omit this).

Ingredients:
2 fresh fennel bulbs, trimmed, halved, cored, very thinly sliced
1 small cabbage, quartered, cored, very thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 very large carrot, peeled, shredded
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dill weed1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Cabbage



Fennel



Preparation:
Combine cabbage, fennel, onion, and carrot in large bowl. Whisk mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, sugar, dill weed and hot sauce in medium bowl to blend. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. Add dressing to cabbage and fennel mixture; toss to coat. Season slaw to taste with kosher salt and pepper. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours, tossing occasionally. Transfer to serving bowl.

Italian Roast Beef Sandwiches

It felt good to spend the day in the kitchen, I have been busy with traveling and working a lot of overtime. Here is one of three recipes I actually had time to pull together. This is a great Sunday dinner recipe. It takes a bit of time but well worth the wait. You may never buy roast beef from the deli again!

Ingredients:

3 lbs chuck roast
8 garlic cloves (remove the skins and slice in slivers)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoon dried Italian herb blend (use a good quality)
2 teaspoon dried onion flakes
Pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
1 bay leaf
2 cups beef stock
Italian rolls



Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients together.  Make slices all over the roast with a sharp paring knife and insert the slices of garlic in the slits. Rub half of the dry mixture all over the roast and place in a large roasting pan and set in the oven. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 250 degrees. Cook for another 20 minutes.

 After the 20 minutes, add the rest of the spice mixture to the beef stock. Pour the mixture into the roasting pan. Cook between 45 min to 1 hour or until internal temperature of meat reaches 130 degrees at center of roast.

 Remove the meat and set aside on a platter to cool. Remove the garlic slices and add to the roasting pan with the juices. Set the roasting pan on the burners and turn the heat to medium high. Scrape up any bits that have stuck on the bottom. Reduce mixture slightly for a few minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. Once the liquid is cooled place in a sealed container into the fridge.



　

Wrap roast tightly in aluminum foil and place into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. Place roast in freezer for 1 hour until rather firm (this helps with the slicing process). Slice the roast with a very sharp knife, as thin as possible.

Assembly of the sandwich!
Warm a portion of the liquid, just to a simmer in a skillet and place chosen portion sizes of sliced beef into the juice’s. Cook for about 2 minutes.

Cut the rolls half way down still leaving a good amount of uncut bread at the base or the sandwich, grab meat and move quickly to bun so meat juices can soak into bread.


I decided I wanted to garnish mine with provolone cheese and a large slice of tomato drizzled with an aged balsamic vinegar.

*Normal garnish is giardiniera (Giardiniera is an Italian or Italian-American relish of pickled vegetables in vinegar or oil)*
　

                      Served with a Fennel Slaw, which will be the next post to come.
          And for dessert, I made Lemon & Honey cookies, that will be the third post.


　
　
　

Coconut Key Lime Muffins

I normally do not post any of my muffin recipes but I made a choice to share this one with all of you! I was walking through the market trying to decide what muffin flavor to go with my "muffin of the week" for the local bookstore and I stumbled across Key Limes! That was it I thought and with the weather being so beautiful I felt it would be great to make something a bit tropical! I already had coconut and coconut milk in the pantry so I was all set and off to the kitchen I went. This is a first run recipe and I hope everyone will try it and let me know if it is a keeper.

Coconut Key Lime Muffins
(makes 12 jumbo muffins)

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 stick butter, at room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup coconut cream
Zest of 12 key limes (reserve 2 tablespoons for sprinkling sugar)
3 tbsp Key lime juice
1 cup whole milk
2 cups shredded coconut (toasted)

 

 For Sprinkling:4 tbsp sugar
2 tablespoons of key lime zest

For the glaze:Remainder of the coconut cream
1 tbsp of the sprinkling sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven at 375 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spread the shredded coconut. Place in the preheated oven and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from oven when the edges start to turn brown, then toss the coconut together and let cool.

Zest all 12 key limes and juice. (takes a little while because they are small and not as easy to handle as a regular lime….And these little babies have seeds, so when juicing them put over a small strainer).

 

Meanwhile, Stir together flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat 1 ½ cups granulated sugar and butter. Add eggs; beat 1 minute.

Slowly add flour mixture, coconut milk and whole milk, alternately to butter mixture; add lime juice and key lime zest. Beat on low speed until smooth (do not over beat). Add half of the toasted coconut and mix gently into the batter.

Grease muffin tins with butter and fill each muffin cup three-fourths full with batter.

Mix together the sugar and lime zest and sprinkle evenly on top of each muffin (reserve 1 tablespoon for glaze) and bake for approximately 30 min. (Jumbo Muffins), if using smaller muffin tins cook for about 20 minutes. Just check and see if the muffin top is set.

Meanwhile add the remainder of the coconut milk in a sauce pan with a tablespoon of the key lime and sugar mixture. Heat until it comes to a soft boil. Drizzle over the muffin tops then sprinkle with toasted coconut.