Hawaiian Curry Stew

This is one of my favorite plate lunches from L&L's Hawaiian BBQ. You can also use chicken thighs. It has a little bit of a bite to it, so if you don't like things a little spicy just cut back on the amount of curry powder. Serve over hot cooked rice.

Ingredients:
2-2.5 pounds of beef stew meat
2 Potatoes, cubed
1 Onion, quartered
2 Carrots, sliced
3 stalks of Celery, chopped
4 tablespoons of Curry powder
4 Cups of Water
2 cubes of Beef bouillon
2-3 teaspoons of salt
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup of very cold water

Instructions: Brown meat on all sides, cover with water, add bouillon cubes, and cook covered for 1.5 hours. Add vegetables and cook until potatoes and carrots are tender. Cook curry powder in a bit of sesame or peanut oil (to get rid of the raw taste). and add it to the mixture. After the stew is cooked, mix flour and cold water well, using a wire whisk to remove all the lumps, and stir it into the stew. Cook, stirring constantly, until the stew thickens. Serve over steamed rice.

CROCKPOT HAWAIIAN CURRY STEW: Mix all ingredients except flower and water paste in a large crockpot and mix well. Cook on high 4-6 ours or on low for 8-10 hours. After stew is cooked, mix flour and water paste as directed above, mix into stew, and cook on high heat, stirring constantly, for 5 or 10 minutes, or until thickened.

Billy Joel's "Child Bride" Katie's Meatloaf Recipe -or- 'Why He Probably Didn't Get a Pre-Nup'

The important thing about this recipe is to use fresh thyme and flat-leaf parsley. It really makes a difference. I was surprised at how easy this was to make, and how delicious it is. I'm not a huge fan of meatloaf but we all love it- even Mia gobbles it down! My "editorial comments" are in blue below, just so you know it's me and not Katie speaking. :P Even when I thought I overcooked it, it stayed moist. But now I never will, thanks to LeAnne giving me a meat thermometer for Christmas! Hooray!!

Serves 6

Ingredients:

· 1 tablespoon olive oil
· 1/2 medium sweet or yellow onion , diced (about 3/4 cup)
· 1 clove garlic , minced (I use the stuff in the tube sometimes)
· 1 medium red pepper , finely diced (about 1 cup)
· 1 bay leaf
· 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
· 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
· 2 pounds lean ground beef (or chuck)
· 2 large eggs , lightly beaten
· 3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs (Progresso makes good ones and the Italian flavor works well, too)
· 1 cup ketchup (you'll use 1/2 cup in meat and 1/2 cup on top)
· 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
· 2 teaspoons kosher salt
· 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or foil). Spray lightly with oil.

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions, garlic and bay leaf until the onions are tender, about 3 minutes. If you want a little extra flavor you may brown the onions a bit. Add the red pepper and cook until the red pepper is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley and thyme and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove pan from the heat and let the onion mixture cool. Discard the bay leaf.

In a large bowl, combine the beef, eggs, bread crumbs, 1/2 cup of ketchup, the Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and the cooled vegetables. Use your hands to mix everything together.

Transfer the mixture to the center of the baking sheet and form into a loaf. I usually end up forming a loaf that is about 2 or 3 inches thick, 12 or so inches long and 6 or so inches wide. Coat the meat loaf with the remaining 1/2 cup ketchup. Dan doesn't really like ketchup so I don't use that much, just enough to keep it moist, and it turns out fine; so use your own judgment with this.

Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (depending on the shape of your loaf), until the meat loaf is firm, or until center of loaf temperature is 160 degrees on meat thermometer (thank you LeAnne!).

Let set for about 5 minutes before slicing.

Apparently ol' Billy likes to have white-bread and mayo meatloaf sandwiches with the leftovers. We haven't tried this but it sounds pretty good.

PF Chang's Mongolian Beef

This dish takes some time, but it is well worth it.

INGREDIENTS:
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 pound flank steak
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 large green onions

DIRECTIONS:
1. Make the sauce by heating 2 teaspoons of vegetable in a medium saucepan over med/low heat. Don't get the oil too hot or you'll get a major spatter when adding the other liquids. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat.

2. Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4-inch thick bite-size slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.

3. Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.

4. As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil). Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly. After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon or a spider to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet. Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back into it and simmer for one minute. Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions. Cook for one more minute, then serve over rice.

Skillet Beef n' Rice

1 package beef flavored rice mix (Rice a Roni)
1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
2 Tablespoons plus 1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. garlic powder

Cook rice mix according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and green pepper over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the rice mixture, Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder; mix well.

4 servings