Pardon Me, Do You Have Any Fake Mustard?

What? EpiPen reaction story? What? I'm sorry, I can't hear you. We are having company every day this week but one and there are cherries to pick and reviews to write and children to hug and blogs to read and broken faucets to fix and storytime to attend and a Living With Food Allergies Blog Carnival to host. La la la la.

What am I cooking for all this company? Oh, I can hear you now. Tonight we're having this. Except mine is bone-in, not boneless. And I had to fake my own Dijon with dry mustard and (red) wine. And I used fresh rosemary and sage instead of dried. And I'm cooking it on high instead of low. Otherwise, exactly the same.

I use the slow cooker a lot in the summer. I can start dinner in the morning, and it doesn't heat up the kitchen. The other night I made an Italian Beef Stew that was a combination of several recipes.

Italian Beef Stew

chuck roast
1 cup red wine
1 T. fresh rosemary
1 t. fresh sage
2-3 garlic cloves, minced (I used garlic scapes)
1 envelope dairy-free onion soup mix
1 onion, sliced into wedges
fresh ground pepper
2 fresh tomatoes, sliced
1 t. tomato paste

Dump it all in the slow cooker and cook on high for 5-6 hours or until tender.

We served it with carrots sauteed in dairy-free margarine and sprinkled with fresh parsley.

Last night, I made dairy-free manicotti. The filling was 1 lb. ground turkey, browned, and mixed with 1/4 c. dairy-free cream cheese, @ 2/3 c. dairy-free sour cream, 2 t. Italian seasoning, 1 t. sugar, salt and pepper, 1 T. chopped fresh parsley, and 1 egg, beaten. I cooked it the easy way, where you put the filling in raw noodles and then pour 1 jar of dairy-free sauce mixed with 1 c. water, boiling, over the filled pasta. I cooked it, covered, at 4oo degrees for 55 minutes.

That's just peachy keen, Nowheymama, but I came here hoping to hear more about Saturday.

Uh, gotta go to storytime! More soon!

Russian Hot Pot

For CAQuincy, here is Russian Hot Pot, which is not how the Mad Men guys refer to their secretaries ("She's a real Russian hot pot.") but is instead a simple one pot meal.

Russian Hot Pot

My mom clipped this recipe from a magazine (probably Woman's Day) years ago. It recommends serving the dish with bread and pickled beets, which I guess is where the "Russian" comes in.

2 cups beef bouillon or beef broth
1 pound thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 pound green cabbage, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 16-oz can whole tomatoes
1-1 1/2 pounds ground beef or ground turkey

Put the bouillon or broth in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and increase the heat to high. Add the cabbage and onion. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with your fingers. Add the meat, crumbling it up. Bring contents of the pot to a boil for about thirty seconds. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Serve in soup bowls.

The leftovers freeze well, or you can mistakenly leave them in the pot on the stove overnight and create a fruit fly breeding ground. Your choice.

Internet Potluck

It feels like fall here today, and I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some new recipes to feed my family. So let's have an Internet Potluck! Post a recipe in the comments section, email me one, or put one up on your blog. I'll collect them all later.
Bonus points if it's a dairy-free recipe or one that can be made dairy free. (Hints: if you usually top your casserole with cheese, I can leave it off. If you use butter and milk, I can use dairy-free margarine and soy milk. If your recipe is Pasta Alfredo or Cream of Chicken Sour Cream Potato Casserole, we might have a problem.)

I'll go first. This recipe is from my Aunt Ruth, and I don't know its real name. I made it all the time when I was pregnant with Katherine. In the summer. In Kentucky. Scott is an understanding man.

Aunt Ruth's Stew

Simmer together for two hours:
1/2 head of cabbage, cut in wedges
1 large can plum tomatoes, squished slightly with your fingers
1 large can sauerkraut
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
3-4 peeled and cubed potatoes
4 pork chops*
1 package Polish sausage*
1 package kielbasa*

Serve in bowls. If you really want to carbo pack you can serve it over mashed potatoes, as Ruth does.

* I try to dial down the fat content by using lowfat sausages and boneless pork chops.