Mosaic Monday: Spring!

Welcome to spring! Finally.

Starting to see signs of spring like spearmint poking through, lilacs are beginning to show some life, and the puppy is happily playing with a twig and running around in the sunshine! Nice days ahead.

Visit Mary at The Little Red House to see all the mosaics this week for Mosaic Monday!

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The Passover holiday is coming. Twenty six at our table this year. Usually I'd have made and frozen three briskets already. Good thing for procrastination because it would have all been a waste. Lost power for five days with the Nor'Easter that hit last week, and had to throw out mostly everything from the frig and freezer! So I'm starting fresh and cooking three briskets and a big pot of chicken fricassee with meatballs today. If I can get motivated to get in the kitchen, it's such a gorgeous day outside today! and I can call for takeout. Even on a holiday. But I won't! I can't. Can I? I could call...
Ben's Deli!  but I'm not.

It's back to the kitchen for me!

This one is my go to every day brisket recipe because it's so easy and soooo good. But because of the beer, not kosher for Passover, if you keep it. Doesn't get any easier! You don't have to follow exactly, just dump it all together, cover and braise it for about four or five hours. Perfect every time.

Brisket
Source: Irene Wolpin, Calling All Cooks, Food Network
Printable Recipe

1 4-pound beef brisket
Kosher salt
Pepper
2 onions, thinly sliced into half moons (I use 3 large onions)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup prepared chile sauce (Heinz Chile Sauce - I use the whole bottle)
3 tablespoons brown sugar (I use a bit more)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 12-ounce bottle beer

Salt and pepper both sides of the meat. Place beef in a roasting pan. Cover with onion. Combine ketchup, chile sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and beer. Pour mixture over meat. Cover securely with foil. Bake at 300 degrees F for 4 hours or more until tender. Remove the meat from the pan, and puree the gravy with an immersion blender to thicken it up. Slice the meat against the grain, and return it to the gravy! Tastes even better the next day. Freezes well! I Sometimes I just puree half the onions because we like the onions. and most of the time I never even bother to puree it at all. It's great no matter how you do the gravy.

Chicken Fricassee with Meatballs
Source: originally from Syd, Cindy's mother
Printable Recipe

This recipe is pretty much an approximate, I got it watching my friend Cindy's mom make it years ago. I usually use a large package of wings, with about 20 wings in a pack. Use more or less of whatever you want, it's to taste.

giblets (liver, gizzards, neck) You can omit if you want but it adds great flavor!
chicken wings (cut at joints, chuck out the tip part or save it to make in a soup) or drumettes
2 pounds chopped meat
2 onions, chopped
2 eggs
pepper
salt (optional)
1/3 cup matzoh meal (you can use bread crumbs if you want to)
garlic powder
ketchup
paprika

Brown the giblets and wings with onions in a big pot with a little bit of oil, add some salt and pepper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped meat, eggs, matzoh meal, some ketchup, a little water, a little garlic powder and pepper. Make little teeny, tiny meatballs. Add them to the pot on top of the browned wings, one layer at a time, so they don't get squished. Add some ketchup, some paprika and garlic powder to sauce. Simmer for a few hours. Check the sauce to see if it needs more ketchup, garlic, pepper or salt.

My notes: It’s all approximate. I use a regular package of chopped meat, probably about a 1/3 to a 1/2 bottle of ketchup. We like Heinz. The regular size bottle, not the humongous size. Probably a couple teaspoons of garlic powder, about a teaspoon or two of paprika, I throw some salt in, but not too much, plenty of pepper. Use as many or as little wings as you want. You can use chicken parts, too, just cut in small pieces. My grandmother used to add bay leaves. If you want, throw in about two bay leaves.

Click here  and here for some more Passover recipes from last year!

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