Kate’s Cuisine

Before making hot beef sandwiches this way, I always just made them using any leftover roast beef I have on-hand. I actually keep leftover roast in my freezer for just this reason. But this night, I only had a roast and once I had the idea in my head, it got away from me. I have to say, that while the leftover hot beef sandwiches are good, these are Awesome! They are by far the best hot roast beef sandwiches I have ever had. I’ll still make hot sandwiches from left over roast, and you could probably still use this recipe with cooked meat by just thawing it out and marinating it for a much shorter time; I’d probably give it about fifteen minutes to half an hour. But this is delicious, and it looks nice too!

5 – 6 cups bread flour $1.50
3 tablespoons sugar $0.03
2 teaspoons salt $0.02
1/4 teaspoon baking soda $0.01
1 package dry yeast $0.33
1 cup water Free!
1 1/3 cup buttermilk $1.16
1 teaspoon olive oil $0.06
1 egg $0.17

Total Cost   $3.27

1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.) Add buttermilk and water to a saucepan. Over medium heat, warm liquid until it is lukewarm; it may start to look as though it has curdled. Make sure not to make the mixture too hot or else it will kill the yeast.

3.) In a large bowl mix two cups of flour; sugar; salt; baking soda; and yeast. Add the lukewarm buttermilk to the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon or your hands and mix for two minutes. Then add another cup of flour and mix just until it’s combined.

4.) Pour out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 – 10 minutes, add more flour 1/2 cup at a time as necessary, until dough is silky and smooth. Do not feel as though you have to use all the flour, just enough to get you to this point.

5.) Place the teaspoon of olive oil into the bottom of a bowl and then place the dough on top. Turn the dough to make sure that it’s completely covered in olive oil. Then, wrap bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot; allow dough to rise until nearly double in volume.

6.) Once the dough has nearly doubled, punch it down lightly. Divide the dough into two equal sections and place in two greased loaf pans. Cover and let it rise again for another 45 minutes.

7.) When dough is ready, mix the egg with a little bit of water, then brush this mixture over both of the loaves. Place in the oven for 45 minutes or until top is lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool before removing from loaf pans.

8.) Serve and enjoy!

Read the review here

I got this recipe from Cooking Bread, and while it was titled “Buttermilk Bread”, and I thought I was just going to make a rich and delicious white bread, it turned out to be sourdough bread. Whether that’s because it’s actually a sourdough recipe, or because the substitutions I made turned it into sourdough, I don’t know. I didn’t have buttermilk (as usual), and so I did what I always do – add a teaspoon of lemon juice to 2% milk. It looked like it had the same effect, and did look a bit curdled, so I wasn’t worried. I also had just ran out of sugar and so, only used about a tablespoon or so of it.

But whatever I did, and whatever kind of recipe this sourdough bread was originally intended to be, it is delicious, and we ate an entire loaf of it in just one dinner! I imagine it would freeze well too but both loaves are gone so now we won’t know until next time, I suppose.

2 pounds lean ground beef $8.22
1 onion, halved $0.47
1 cup bread crumbs $0.42
2 eggs, beaten $0.34
2 tablespoons worcestershire $0.24
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard $0.24
1 cup chopped fresh parsley $0.50
1 tablespoon garlic powder $0.39
1 tablespoon dried oregano $0.60
1 tablespoon paprika $0.48
12 – 14 slices bacon $3.36
8 slices Parmigiano Reggiano $9.89
1 tablespoon vegetable oil $0.07
Salt and pepper $0.02

Total Cost   $25.24

1.) Unwrap ground beef and place in a bowl. Over top of bowl and with a hand grater, grate each half of the onion over the beef. Then add: bread crumbs, eggs, worcestershire, Dijon, parsley, garlic powder, oregano, and Paprika. Mix until thoroughly combined and then form into round hamburger patties.

2.) Lightly oil grill and set to medium heat. Brush each patty on each side lightly with oil and place onto grill when hot. Grill for about 4 – 6 minutes on one side and then flip patty. Grill for another 4 – 6 minutes. Flip burger once more, and cook for another 3 minutes on each side.

3.) When getting close to the end of cooking time, lay out bacon, across the width of the plate, and laying side by side each other. Do this four different times, for four different burgers. Then, on top of each set of bacon slices, lay two slices of Parmigiana Reggiano. When burgers are just about done, but not quite, take off the grill and lay one each on top of the cheese. Then wrap the ends of the bacon up and over the sides of the burger, laying them each over the up-side of the burger and across each other. Then, add more oil to your grill if necessary.

4.) Place burgers back on the grill, with the seam side down (the place where the strips cross) on the grill. Grill until the bacon is crisp and then flip to cook the bacon on the other side. Do this with all sides of the burger, making sure all bacon gets cooked, and with all burgers. This should take another 5 – 10 minutes.

5.) When finished, take off grill and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

6.) Serve and enjoy!

Read the review here

There’s little that’s better than a homemade hamburger, especially when you make it out on the grill on a hot summer’s day. And when you’re looking for the perfect burger, there are few that can beat this one. It’s moist, and is pretty much guaranteed to have at least a tiny bit of grease running down your chin. It’s also incredibly tasty, and has some of the best melted cheese that’s wrapped in bacon. What more could you want?

I suppose for it to be a bit cheaper. $25 for 4 burgers isn’t really such a steal, now is it? I guess I was feeling fancy this day. If you want to reduce the cost, you could substitute the cheese for something cheaper like mozzarella or Swiss would be delicious too. With time running out on barbecue season this year, try this one out – it’s sure to be a hit and you can make most of it ahead, if you have a big barbecue or pool party planned.

This week in MasterChef, the show started with the 30 potential MasterChefs that made it through the first auditions and earned the right to wear the apron. These 30 were first given the challenge of chopping onions, after Chef Ramsay showed them all how to properly slice and dice an onion. Some of the onions were nice, thin, and consistent, while others clearly didn’t pay any attention, leaving almost whole onions in their bowls, which got them an on-the-spot elimination. The challenge went on for over ninety minutes and at the end, two were left – Hollie, and Faruq, the guy who made the Mac N’ Cheese during his audition and forgot to add salt. He did make it through, while Hollie was sent home.

After this challenge, the contestants weren’t done. They then had the challenge of making one dish, in half an hour, that starred, as Gordon Ramsay put it, “one single, stunning egg.” The egg was to be the star of the show and the dish had to be tasty. There were some winners, and some clear losers. And some had good dishes but were sent home because of things such as poor presentation. After this round, there were several of my favorites left, such as Faruq, but there were lots of people that I don’t like too, such as the guy who made Bouillabaisse during his audition. At the end, fourteen contestants were left.

The show was very good and showed a lot of promise. I was very happy that the auditions were over, as that got old pretty quickly. And, even though we did see the contestants participating in challenges for the first time, it’s not the last of the firsts we’ll see for the show. Next week we’re told that the cooks will enter the MasterChef kitchen for the first time, and it looks like they’re going to have to stand up to a lot of heat! I can’t wait to see who makes it through and what Gordon Ramsay has in store for them next!

The season finale of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Tuesday night, and I was happy to see that they not only cut the finale down to one hour, but that they also did away with all of that “designing the restaurant” part of it. I mean really, I was just interested in who was a better chef for the Savoy, and not whether or not they preferred vinyl or fabric seats. So with all of that fluff out of the way, all we had was Jay and Holli cooking.

First, the two faced off in a challenge. They each had to cook five different courses for five of Chef Ramsay’s chefs in his London restaurants. Each of Ramsay’s “proteges” judged one of the courses, and decided whether or not Jay’s or Holli’s dish was better. Jay ended up winning the challenge and this furthered my belief that Jay would end up winning the entire thing. For his reward, Jay got to choose first when the past eliminated contestants were brought back to cook for either Holli or Jay. Jay ended up with Ben, Fran, and Jason; while Holli had Autumn, Siobhan, and Nilka cooking for her. Then Jay and Holli both got dressed in proper chef jackets, and service got under way.

Both chefs had their problems, with Jason not being able to properly cook the lamb (or was it duck?) while Autumn refused to accept help from anyone, even though she was sinking the entire ship sole-handedly. As for Holli and Jay, neither would put anything out that was less than perfect, and Chef Ramsay noticed the quality control going on on both sides. Holli however, still seemed quite unsure of herself at the pass, stammering out orders and just seeming somewhat confused herself. Jason on the other hand, was calm, cool, and collected and shouted out orders as though he’s been doing it his entire life. This also furthered my thoughts that Jay was going to be crowned the winner of Hell’s Kitchen.

The end of service came, and both chefs thanked their team before heading out for a smoke and talking about what a crazy ride it had been. Chef Ramsay meanwhile, was upstairs in his office looking over the comment cards from customers. When he was finished, he called them both back to his office, to face the famous doors and wait until they were told to open it. Whoever turned the handle to open their door, would be working at the Savoy. The loser’s door would be locked.

As much as I wanted Holli to win, I was certain that Jay would. And I think that Holli was too. Because when her door opened, and she walked through to all the people below her cheering and clapping, she kept looking back over her shoulder in disbelief. So YAAAYYYY!!!!! Holli won Hell’s Kitchen and I absolutely couldn’t be happier about it! She’s so great and fun, hopefully we see her in future seasons of the show, just like we sometimes see Heather from Season 2. It was so great to see Holli win though, and a fantastic way to wrap up the season, and have me looking forward to the next one!