Fancy Dinner Part 2 - Steak, Hollandaise, Asparagus

All the girls in our family agreed that our fancy mousse made in the morning needed a fancy dinner to surprise Daddy. We had previously decided to make rolls, steak strips, asparagus, and hollandaise sauce. Mmmmm

Taste of Home Easy Potato Roll Recipe

There it was, in my fridge, staring at me. The scooped out leftovers of the Potato Skins made here. What to do, what to do. Potato Rolls!

Ingredients:
2 pks active dry yeast (1/4 oz each)
1 1/3 cup water (used separately)
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed potatoes
2 1/2 tsp salt
6 cups flour

 Add yeast to 2/3 cup of water. Make sure water is 110-115 degrees. My mom can do this by feeling it on her wrist. I turn on the hot and put a meat therm. under it.

 Yeast should start to fizz and bubble. It is okay to stir it gently to get it all in the water. I use to be scared to do that.

This is my oldest girl mashing our scooped out insides a bit. Not pictured is the sugar. It is measured at 2/3 cup and in my kitchen aid. Next add your 2/3 cup shortening and cream. Add eggs, potatoes, salt, yeast mixture and 2 cups flour. Whisk till smooth. Add remaining 2/3 cup water and replace whisk with dough hook. Gradually beat while adding remaining flour. Don't worry about kneading this dough (I have learned the hard way that not all dough has to be kneaded) but keep it up until you have a soft dough that forms into a ball. Add up to 1/2 cup more flour or Tablespoons of water if needed. Put your ball of dough into a bowl and cover for one hour. Punch down and cut into 15 pieces. My girls helped roll pieces and put them in a dish. Cover and let rise again, about 30 minutes.

Once risen they should look something like this. Give them a quick brush with olive oil or melted butter. Bake in a 375 preheated oven for 20 minutes. I turn mine around halfway through since my oven browns the back half faster.

 While the rolls are cooking we looked up our recipe for mock hollandaise sauce. I'm pretty sure I found this on allrecipe.com a long time ago but sadly did not credit the cook. It is not nearly as good or thick as the original but nice in a pinch and much easier. (I made homemade with my brother over Thanksgiving. It's kinda sad that he's a better cook than me!)

Blender Hollandaise Sauce

 

Ingredients -

Remember the egg yolks you didn't use in your mousse from earlier today? You're gonna need them. Yep, all 6

1 squirt Dijon Mustard

1 Tb lemon juice

2 dash hot sauce (such as Tabasco)

3/4 cup melted butter

 

Blend egg yolks with mustard, Dijon, lemon juice, and hot sauce. Pour melted butter into blender in a steady stream. Put blender in a bowl of hot tap water to keep warm.

 

 

 Asparagus

For some crazy reason my kids love asparagus. I think it is best slightly crunchy and not mushy. To do this wash your asparagus and break off the lower tougher end. It should snap off easily. Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add asparagus and reduce to a simmer. A simmer is when the bubbles are just wanting to break into a boil but can't seem to muster enough energy. Parboil 2 minutes and immediately get those babies out of there.



 

 As soon as asparagus is done put it into a water bath. It slows the cooking down and keeps them firm.

Since the oven was still occupied by my potato rolls I decided to pan fry the 1/4 inch thick sirloin steak. Add a little olive oil to the bottom of the pan and turn to medium high heat. Season with whatever you have on hand. I used Adam's Reserve Sear N Crust. Cook 7 minutes on one side, flip, season 7 minutes on the next side. Grilling is really the way to go for steak but if you are pan frying keep checking it. If you push on the top and it feels like the fleshy part of your hand below your thumb it is medium rare - which I think is perfect.

Make sure to get those rolls out of the oven!

 

 At the last minute I fried a few leftover sausages we had. I have to admit to eating a few bites off my plate before remembering to take a pic. There was more green on that plate I promise! The girls loved the rolls and I forgot how much they fill you up! Daddy was surprised and everything was perfect. I do admit that we just couldn't finish the mousse after a meal like this. Everyone ate about half a cup and we put them back in the fridge to be finished tomorrow.



Leftovers 101

Once a week we do leftovers night.  It's that night where everything that you've got in your fridge gets cleaned out and dumped.  Otherwise known as clean-out-your-fridge night.  I tell my kids the goal is to clean out as many of the containers as possible, it's like a game to them.

This was our leftover offerings last week.

#1 - Steamed butternut squash served with a little bit of butter, salt and pepper.

#2 - Beef roast, cooked in the crockpot for 4 hours with a packet of dry onion soup mix on the top.

#3 - Brown rice pilaf (recipe below), this was found while cooking a diabetic meal for a friend.

#4 - Mandarin-cranberry pork chops (recipe below), I made this one up to see how it worked.  It turned out to be easy and delicious!

#5 - Potatoes and onions, my kids favorite "fries".  Cut up some potatoes and onions, cook with a little bit of olive oil and salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.  Like fries, my kids eat this with ketchup.

#6 - Fresh cut mango.  I have never been good at cutting mangoes, I pretty well massacre them.  Then I asked my babysitter to teach me, because she's the master.  It's really easy, if you follow the directions.  Here is a tutorial, if you're interested.  It's not the way I learned, but it's a workable way as well.

#7 - Fajitas - Sauteed chicken breast, onions, green bell pepper and jalapeños...my kids loved it and it included everything they hate, ie: peppers and onions.  Sometimes it's just how you cook it!

Brown Rice Pilaf

2 cups water
1 cup brown rice
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup frozen vegetables
1/2 tsp. cumin

If you have a rice cooker, throw it all together, and cook.  If you don't have a rice cooker, in a saucepan mix the water, rice, olive oil and salt and bring to a boil.  Mix in the vegetables and cumin.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 45-60 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed.


Mandarin-Cranberry Pork Chops

4 pork chops, or as many as you need to feed your family
1 can, whole berry cranberry sauce
1 large can, mandarin oranges, juice drained
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. curry powder

Preheat oven to 350°.  Brown pork chops in pan, season with a little salt and pepper, then place in baking dish.  In a separate bowl, combine all other ingredients and pour over chops in bowl.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour or until your pork chops are cooked through.  Serve over rice.

**This would also work really well in a slow cooker, just adjust cooking times as needed.**