Another catchup post

Oh, people! I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. Sorry about that! I have not been making much of anything new for dinner, but have instead been revisiting some cool-weather favorites. (Yes, I KNOW it's still in the 90s here. But the calendar says September so I am cooking fall food anyway!)

Here's what we've been eating the past couple of weeks:

• Martha's chili
  
• Baked potato soup
• DH's favorite Swiss steak
• Shrimp and sausage gumbo with fresh okra from the CSA
• Grilled Italian sausages
• Chicken fajitas (it's finally COOL enough to grill in the evenings!)
• Lots of homemade pizzas!

The CSA has been giving us various shelled beans (this time it was a big bag of butter beans) and I've been mostly cooking them up with bacon, onion, brown sugar and vinegar because we LOVE them like that.

We've also gotten some winter squash lately and at first I had no idea what to do with it! These are sort of the "ugly pumpkin" variety squash -- vaguely pumpkin-shaped but all mottled and weird looking on the outside. (Er, I mean weird in a GOOD way. My taste in squash is similar to my taste in shoes, apparently.) I finally decided to cut them into wedges, plop them into a baking pan (after scooping out the seeds), drizzle with honey and cinnamon and bake them off at 375 degrees F for about two hours or until they were really soft and tender. They were delicious and my house smelled AMAZING while they were cooking! I've been eating them as a side dish with various meats, stirring them into oatmeal along with raw pumpkin seeds or slivered almonds, and now I'm wondering how they'd be in muffins and/or pancakes.

My birthday was the 20th of this month and DH gifted me with something I've been wanting FOREVER -- a 6-quart enameled cast-iron Dutch oven! So I foresee a LOT more soups/stews/roasts in my immediate future. Hooray!

Swiss steak

Tonight's Menu

• Swiss steak
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• leftover big-ass salad
  

When I was a kid my dad did about 30% of the cooking, and one of his specialties was Swiss steak. He made his in the crockpot with a tomato-based vegetable gravy featuring onions, celery and peppers (all of which usually came from his garden). It was absolutely delicious.

When I first started cooking for DH and he mentioned that he liked Swiss steak, we quickly discovered that we had completely different ideas of what the dish entailed. He insisted that the Swiss steak his mom had made involved a brown gravy, no tomatoes or veggies. Unfortunately she had passed away so we couldn't ask her. For the longest time I thought DH was confusing Swiss steak and Salisbury steak, but then I finally found a recipe for a version of Swiss steak like his mom used to make.

You basically take some round steak (I buy the pre-tenderized kind), cut it into serving-sized pieces, and dredge them in seasoned flour. Then you pound them a bit (I use the side of a saucer) to work the flour in. Brown them in a little vegetable oil, then layer them into a casserole dish with some sliced onion. Pour over two cups of water and sprinkle in a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, then cover and bake at 325 degrees F for 2 to 2.5 hours or until the meat is very tender. Remove the meat and onions to a serving platter, then add the drippings to some beef broth and flour in a saucepan. Whisk over medium-high heat until the gravy is nice and thick, season to taste, then serve it with the meat and onions. It's VERY yummy with mashed potatoes.

I still like my dad's Swiss steak, but I have to admit this recipe is pretty damn good!