Giveaway, Award & Weekly Menu Plan

Giveaway, Award & Weekly Menu: June 7~13, 2010

There is still time to enter  StoneGable's very first GIVEAWAY. I am so very excited to team up with April Cornell and give away some wonderful textiles plus more, much more. I hope you will all join in! And good luck!

Click HERE for all the detail and to enter.But hurry, you won't want to miss out!

A very big thank you to January (such a cool name) from The Caffinated Globe, for sharing the "Trendy Blog Award" with me! I have seen the "Trendy Blog" award on some fabulous blogs, so getting this award thrills me!

To see what this award is all about click HERE. And to visit The Cafinated Globe, a Trendy Blog Winner,  click HERE. Visiting January is like a shot of fresh air... or caffine! Thanks, so much!

See the end of this post for the 10 award winners!

Menu Plan

Now to this weeks menu, phew! Not many of you know, but I was called away from home much of last week for an emergency and a committment. I returned home today and have so much catching up to do!

I am really looking forward to getting back into my routine. And that means cooking!

If you are going to try 1 recipe this week... the StoneGable Balsamic Marianded Grilled Vegetables has to be it. This is one of my top 10! I promise applause, kisses, bravos... or at least a WOW, this is good!!!

Come back on Wednesday evening for the winner of the Giveaway to be announced.

Monday:

Out To Dinner With Girlfriends
Boys: Stromboli and Salad

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Day
Sow Cooker Beef Stew
Arugula with Shaved Parmesan, Pinenuts and Lemon Viniagrette
Crusty Bread

Recipe: Slow Cooker Beef Stew
This is an old standby~ Very easy, very basic and very good! A wonderful smelling dinner to come home to after a busy day!
1 TBS olive oil
2-3 lbs. beef chuck roast
salt and pepper
1 large onion chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed or finely chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
8 oz. sliced white mushrooms
6 carrots, cleaned and cut into 2 inch pieces
4-6 medium potatoes peeled, and cut into 12 pieces
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 can cream of mushroom soup

In a large dutch oven, heat oil over meduim high heat. Salt and pepper chuck roast. Add chuck roast to pan and sear until brown- aprox. 5 minutes on each side. Remove and put in slow cooker. Add onion and celery. Cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add to slow cooker. Add wine to pan and then return to heat. Cook and scrape any brown bits until wine has reduced by 1/2. Add to slow cooker along with the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for aprox. 8 hours.Break apart chuck roast.
Serve in broad shallow soup bowls and crusty bread for mopping up gravy.

Recipe: Arugula, Shaved Parmesan, Pinenuts and Lemon Viniagrette
This makes my mouth water just thinking about it! I almost always have the fixin's on hand for this oh, so yummy salad! Click HERE and look for Tuesday's menu

Wednesday:
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
Fried Rice
Roasted Broccoli In Garlic Oil

Recipe: Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
4 Bone In Chicken Breasts
Teriyaki Sauce (recipe follows)

Put chicken and marinade in a zip lock bag  and marinate for 3 hours.  Heat grill to medium and cook until chicken is done and juices run clear, aprox 20-30 minutes.

Recipe:Teriyaki Sauce
This is an easy formula recipe:
1 part sugar or honey (I use brown sugar) + 1 part grated fresh ginger + 3 parts soy sauce +3 parts oil ( I use vegetable oil) + 3 parts sherry ( I LOVE cream sherry in this!). Mix all ingredients together.  This is not rocket science, so a litte more of this or less of that won't hurt.

Example: 2 TBS brown sugar + 1 TBS ginger ( I am light handed when it comes to ginger) + 1/3 cup soy sauce + 1/3 cup veggie oil + 1/3 cup cream sherry.

Recipe: Fried Rice
This goes great with the chicken. Click HERE and see Monday's menu.

Thursday:
Breaded Baked Tilapia
Artichoke, Onion and Potato Hash
Steamed Spinach With Vinegar

Recipe: Artichoke, Onion and Potato Hash
Doesn't this sound heavenly? I can't wait to try this newly discovered recipe. If you try it too, let me know what you think. Any recipe that has an artichoke in it sound fabulous to me!
Click HERE to see Guy Fieri's yummy recipe!

Friday: Company's Coming
Crab Cakes
Baked Potatoes
Roasted Baby Carrots with Onions
Salad Greens with Toasted Pecans, Bleu Cheese and Champagne Viniagrette

Recipe Crab Cakes:
Click HERE and look for Monday's menu. I just made these for my family, but they are company worthy and my company loves seafood.

Saturday:
Steaks On The Grill
StoneGable Balsamic Marinaded Grilled Veggies

Recipe: StoneGable Balsamic Marinaded Grilled Vegetables (Tastes great made ahead and eaten at room temp.)
I could eat this everyday! IF you have leftovers, and that is a very big IF... they can be added to pasta, salad or made into a tampanade or salsa to be used with crusty toasted baguettes or over meat. So versital and a powerhouse of summer flavors! I especially love this when I pick my veggies right out of the garden.
THIS IS A FABULOUS DISH TO TAKE TO A PICNIC OR MAKE WHEN YOU ARE HAVING A CROWD!
Use any combo of veggies, and as many as you need. These are the ones I serve together on a large platter.

Eggplants, partially peeled and cup into a generous 1/4" round
Zucchinis, cut into generous 1/4" rounds
Onions, cut into 1/4" rounds
Peppers, cored and sliced in 1" thicknesses. Any color but green
Portabella mushrooms, cored and "gills" scraped off with the side of a spoon- keep whole
Lots of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Balsamic Marinade~ NO CHEATING! Make your own! Recipe follows

Preheat grill to medium heat.
Line a large rimmed baking sheet with paper towels. Salt eggplant generously. Place eggplant in single layers on the paper towel. Cover with another paper towel. Add another layer of eggplant. Continue to do this 4 layers high. Put a heavy pot on top of the eggplant. Set aside for 20-30 minutes. The salt will draw out bitter liquids in the zucchini and zucchini making them grill better.

Do the same for the zucchini.

Put a skewer through onion slices. Starting at the outside layer of the onion towards the center, catching all layers. Cut off any exposed skewer. Do this for all the onion slices. Put onions on a large rimmed sheet pan. Drizzle oil to coat and salt onions.

Put sliced peppers on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with oil to coat and salt.

Put mushrooms on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with oil to coat and salt.

While the eggplant and zucchini are set aside, Grill the onions, peppers and mushroom until nicely chared and cooked until tender.

Remove to a large platter. Remove skewers from onions. I arrange the veggies in attractive groups on the platter.

When eggplant and zucchini have sweated enough. Remove paper towel and wipe off excess salt. Drizzle olive oil to coat and grill until charred and soft. Remove to platter with other veggies.

Drizzle with marinade. Serve and wait for the raves!!!!!

Recipe: Balsamic Marinade
I use this wonderful, versital marinade on just about every meat! It is also a great salad dressing. Click HERE and find in Tuesday's menu.
I double this recipe when I do a whole platter of veggies. YUMMY!

Sunday: Soup Day
Potato And Leek Soup
Wedge Salad

Recipe: Potato And Leek Soup
I am making this as the June installment in my Soup of the Month Club for my friend Donna. As a birthday gift I am making her 1 large pot of soup each month for a year. To read about my gift idea  click HERE.

I have so many potato soup recipes, but I am still on a search for one to make all my own. I am going to try Country Living's recipe because it calls for sour cream and I think that sounds interesting. But, never being able to leave anything alone I'll  tweek it by adding 1 onion, chopped and 3 leeks finely sliced to the light green.

After the bacon is fried, put the leeks and onion in the bacon grease and sautee until translucent, about 6 minutes. Then proceed with the recipe. But here is a very Lancaster County/Amish twist. At the very end, I 'll add 4 chopped hard boiled eggs to the soup, add the bacon and chedar cheese and serve. It is really delicious! I'm giving this a try. Want to join me?

Trendy Blog Award Winners

Now back to this neat award! I am lovingly passing it along to the following TRENDY BLOGS! Congratulations! If you do not follow these fabulous and trendy blog- go visit!

1. Mimi at Bonjour Romance
2. Delores at Vignette Designs
3.Shrgee at Blue Heron Cottage
4. Mrs. P at Faithfulness Farm
5. Bird at Bird Crafts
6. Rhett at The Gazebo House
7. Maggie (dear wonderful and funny friend) at The White Farmhouse
8. Holly at 504 Main
9. Miss Tablescaper at The Tablescaper
10. Pattie & Allie at Bramasone... to yearn for the sun

Congratulations to all the Trendy Blog winners! I would not miss a post of any of these wonderful blogs... and bloggers!