Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

The Beet Meal

With it being Valentine’s Day, my heart sure has been BEETing.  So I decided to make a four course beet meal for Valentine’s Day.  Hearts are red and so are beets.  Hearts beat, and well, beets are beets.  The meal was beef tenderloin steaks with red wine tarragon sauce with a side of beet greens, roasted beet and potato borscht, and a side salad with beets, oranges, and feta cheese.  And for dessert, a beet cake.  Yes, you read that right.  A BEET bundt cake.  I’ve never had any of these beets dishes before and they were all surprisingly great!  The kitchen looked like a crime scene afterwards, but it was worth it.  Even the beet cake was pretty tasty.  It wasn’t nearly as gross as it sounds.  It’s a very moist chocolate cake with just a hint of beet aftertaste.  After my first bite I wasn’t sure.  But after a few more I decided I really liked it.  I probably won’t make it again unless we are having a huge beet fan over for dinner.  Now I need to pretend I’m in an episode of CSI and clean-up my kitchen.

RECIPES:

Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Red Wine Tarragon Sauce

Beet Greens with Bacon

Roasted Beet and Potato Borscht

Beet Chocolate Bundt Cake

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Cocoa Fudge Cookies

I was dying for something dessert like, but we didn’t have anything good in the house.  I was also too lazy and too cheap to go to the store.  I had some ingredients for some sort of cookie or cake recipe, but not all of them.  In addition to flour and the standards I had one egg, and one stick of butter.  I started scouring the internet for cookie recipes that didn’t call for massive amounts of butter or eggs.  I found one that only required five tablespoons of butter, no milk, and no eggs!  Obviously it was a “light” recipe, but who cares, I had all the ingredients.  I was too lazy to leave the house but apparently not too lazy to melt butter and sugar and bake two dozen cookies.  And after all that prepping and baking, I kind of lost my craving.  I only ate one cookie.

RECIPES:

Cocoa Fudge Cookies

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Winter Orange Salad

Winter orange salad, and leftover beef and guinness stew.  If you like oranges, this salad and salad dressing was awesome.

RECIPES:

Winter Orange Salad

Beef and Guinness Stew

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Beef & Guiness Stew & Grown Up Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Beef and Guinness stew, with grown-up grilled cheese sandwich, and a garden salad.  I’m not a huge beef stew person, but this has great flavor!  The meat was nice and tender too. I let it simmer a lot longer than it suggested.

I normally get turnips and parsnips confused, but this called for both of them which helped me out.  These grilled cheese sandwiches are a favorite of mine, too.  It calls for white cheddar, but I use either mozzarella, or provolone.

RECIPES:

Beef and Guinness Stew

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Spinach Pie

Spinach pie with goat cheese and pine nuts, coucous with artichokes, feta, and tomatoes, and garden salad.  I like spinach.  Actually, I love spinach.  It’s in my top three.  So I thought this was awesome.

RECIPES:

Spinach Pie with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts

Couscous with Artichokes, Feta, and Sun-Dries Tomatoes
(I left the chicken out, and the sun dried tomatoes)