Day 2: Beef Stroganoff

So, this this morning I decided to get up and make slow-cooker beef stroganoff. I got the recipe from the crockpot cookbook that Rhonda and Ken got me for Christmas, and since I just got a brand new slow-cooker, I was itching to try it out.

It was cold and raining all day, so I would have rather made a stew or a chili, but as I am still wary of tomatoes, I settled on stroganoff as a heavy meal so we can sleep on through to tomorrow.

Boy, was it a journey, lol.

First, I get everything all prepped at nine this morning, and I set me and Emerald up to start the dinner. That's when I notice the cook time is only 6 hours. Damn. So, I take a tearful Emerald back into the living room, and I pitter around with some chores.

Cottage cheese and strawberries is a really awesome breakfast, if you didn't know, and adding dry cinnamon life cereal makes it all the more wonderful. A nice crunch and contrast =)

Anyways, while making lunch (I did chimichangas again, because I enjoyed them so much yesterday, plus a half an avocado), I start the stroganoff by myself. It calls for three cans of cream of mushroom soup.

Now, automatically, my suspicion is raised. The recipe says it will make 4 to 6 servings, but there is almost a can of cream of mushroom soup for each member of my family!!

I don't want to change the conversion rate for all the other food, so I mix in the pouch of Lipton's onion soup mix, and water. Then with grand intentions, I dump the beef into the pot.

Fuck me, but it has frozen into one big beef wad in the fridge (how??!). This would normally be fine--the slow cooker would just need to be on for another hour or so--except for three things...

1) I don't have an extra hour,

2) the beef has to be completely covered by the sauce to keep everything cooking evenly,

and 3) while it defrosts, it adds MORE water to the mix, throwing off the delicate balance of the sauce.

Balls.

I reach my hand into the mix (because I am apparently so redneck, I can't even think to use A SPOON), and plop the meat into a bowl to stick into the microwave to defrost. The cream of mushroom soup quivers at the disruption like a fat guy's belly jiggling with laughter, and I seriously doubt my ability to eat this mess later. It certainly does not LOOK like food...

I remedy that situation, and happen to glance into the cabinet, noticing for the first time that I didn't buy the enriched wheat egg noodles while at the store the other day. I remember vaguely that I didn't want to buy a 20 pound bag of egg noodles from SAMs Club.

Balls!

I'm all ready into this mess, I can't stop cooking, so I start looking for alternatives. What I come up with: white rice, mashed potatoes, or angel hair pasta. All three are completely odd, but take about the same length of time to make. I figure, I have six hours to make that decision--it's cool.

The problem with the slow cooker is that it will distribute the heat evenly throughout, which makes it unnecessary to stir. I cannot resist checking on it every hour or so, which means I am technically supposed to lengthen the cooking time. If I didn't do this, I wouldn't have noticed how thin the sauce seemed to be--much more liquid than I intended. Granted, I still had sour cream to add at the end, but...still!

So, after much thought, I fish the meat out and put it in a bowl in the microwave, crank the slow cooker up to High for about 45 minutes. It thickens up considerably, and I add the meat and sour cream.

End result:

Mike liked dinner a lot. It was still slightly more runny than I would have liked, but I think that's because I didn't add enough sour cream. Also, the mashed potatoes were a nice touch--very hearty for such a cold and rainy day, though the potatoes turned out a little more bland than I would have liked. I assumed the beefy topping would cancel out any flavor the mashed potatoes could add, but I was mistaken. The green beans and garlic bread were as well recieved as they ever are.

So, now onto dessert!! I'm thinking...chocolate!