Anyone for a recipe?
I’ve lately been dealing with waking up to a terrible crick in my neck almost every day so I bring you this post from under an ice pack!
It’s starting to really drive me crazy.
Sammy tried to give me a kiss goodbye this morning and considering I’m almost a full foot shorter than he is, I had to look up to do this. That was a big nope. Instant pain.
I walked the dogs today and passed by a man with two golden retrievers who I see walking often. He yelled across the street asking if I saw the coyote that was lurking in someone’s yard…
No sir, I did not. Because currently I’m like George Costanza; “I can’t go left!”
In case anyone doesn’t know the context from Seinfeld…
JERRY: Don’t be so sure. Look at George – he’s on his ninth date with Betsy, he still hasn’t gotten anywhere with her.
ELAINE: What’s his problem?
JERRY: Well, every time he tries to make a move, something screws up. Like on their last date, they were on the couch, but she was sitting on his wrong side.
ELAINE: Wrong side?
JERRY: Yeah, she was on his right side. He can’t make a move with his left hand. Can’t go left.
ELAINE: He can’t go left.
JERRY: No! I’m lefty, can’t go right. What about women? Do they go left or right?
ELAINE: Nah, we just play defense.
Truly quality script writing right there! Ladies on defense……. love it.
But regardless of my current can’t-go-left affliction, I always have time for food.
I found this recipe on Allrecipes, submitted by user Amanda1432, and I instantly wanted to try this! All of the spice smelling I did during my catering career leads me to recipes like this one, chock full of flavor and pizzaz.
I also have a pretty big thing for potatoes. It’s a love affair really. I remember a family member pinching my arm-fat when I was younger and saying I needed to eat less starch.
WTF?
Aside from the air of the comment in itself being pretty rude in implying that I was “too fat”, which is truly an unsolved mystery how I WASN’T actually fat given my ridiculous eating habits as a child, I wasn’t giving any f*cks about anyone trying to tell me to give up potatoes.
Because that blasphemous shit just wasn’t happening. No freakin way, José. That’d be like 1/3 of my entire diet, eliminated in one instant.
Nope, that’s just not a life choice that I would ever choose to make, thank you. At five, eleven, 31, or 75 years of age, I would not, no way, no how.
So, if meat and potatoes just go together in your household like potatoes go with, well, everything here at my house, give this a try!
Serbian Beef and Potato Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef or turkey
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 1 Onion chopped
- 2 carrots shredded or chopped
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- 1/2 Tbsp. Paprika
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
- 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1/8 cup red wine
- 1 cube beef bouillon
- 2 Tbsp. half & half
- 2 potatoes peeled and sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a casserole dish.
- In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef until evenly brown. Remove beef from skillet, reserving juices, and set aside. Mix in the olive oil, and saute the green pepper, onion, carrot, and celery until tender.
- Return beef to the skillet, and season with paprika, salt, black pepper, red pepper, cinnamon, and cloves. Stir in the water and red wine until heated through. Dissolve the beef bouillon cube into the mixture. Remove skillet from heat, and mix in the half-and-half.
- Layer the bottom of the prepared casserole dish with enough potato slices to cover. Place the beef and vegetable mixture over the potatoes, and top with remaining potatoes.
- Cook, covered, 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the potatoes are tender.
