Delicious All-American Beef Stew Recipe

While I’ve previously used a couple of their recipes, I recently added “Serious Eats” as one of my regular blog reads and I’ve been learning a lot from the site such how to make the perfect beef stew.  I normally would not make another beef stew blog post if it were not for what I learned from this one.  The recipe along with a lot of how-to’s came from their All-American Beef Stew post and I’ll let you visit the site for the details but here are their 13 rules: Select your meat wisely, Sear your beef before cubing, Go easy on the flour, Separate your vegetables, Booze makes it better, Use chicken stock, not beef, Break out the umami bombs, Don’t waste flavor, Powdered gelatin FTW, Yukon golds make for cleaner stew, Use the oven, not the stove, Don’t overcook it, Don’t eat it today, eat it tomorrow, it doesn’t matter.

Birthday Lunch For Cindy At Chesapeake's

Cindy had a birthday while Bev was in Florida so we finally were able to take her out to lunch this day and as a seafood lover, we took her to Chesapeake’s Seafood House in West Knoxville.  They are one of the Copper Cellar Family of Restaurants, which is a local chain that, in addition to Chesapeake’s, includes Calhoun’s, Copper Cellar, Cappuccino’s, Cherokee Grill, Corner 16, and Smoky Mountain Brewery with locations around the Knoxville area and in Gatlinburg.

Pork Loin Two Ways - Crispy Fried Cutlets and Baked Parmesan Crusted With Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

I had purchased a whole pork loin and cut it into 6-7 inch roasts with the idea of using some of it for schnitzel-like dishes and I’d saved Pam’s recipe for Crispy Pork Medallions on her “For The Love Of Cooking” blog, which I had planned to use as written.  But then I decided to use her recipe but substitute the loin cutlets for the tenderloin medallions.

Knoxville Christmas Train Ride And I'm Now A Geek

For the past two years, Eliza has taken her family on the Christmas Lantern Express and this year we went along.  The ride is put on by the Three Rivers Rambler- “The Three Rivers Rambler is an excursion train in Knoxville, Tennessee along the Tennessee River. The train is operated by the Knoxville and Holston River Railroad, a subsidiary of Gulf and Ohio Railways.”

And Finally, The Last Of The Fish For Cindy And Me - Pacific Cod Cakes And New England Clam Chowder

After trying Pacific Cod a couple of times and not caring for the chewiness of it, I decided to do something different with my three remaining pieces and make them into fish cakes.  I used a recipe that I got from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives that was courtesy of a restaurant and since it was, I had to reduce it by a factor of four to get the one below.

Even More Fish For Cindy and Me – Seafood Bisque and Must Try Sablefish with Mustard Caper Cream Sauce

Seafood Bisque

After eating the cioppino for Thanksgiving, there were five cups of super tasty, somewhat chunky broth remaining.  As you likely know, I’m more of a recipe follower than a real cook, but I decided to give real cheffing a try and turn the cioppino leftovers into a seafood bisque.  Per the web, “bisque is a smooth, creamy, highly seasoned soup of French origin, classically based on a strained broth of crustaceans.”  

More Delicious Fish For Cindy and Me - Halibut In Prosciutto Herb Cream Sauce And Cioppino For Thanksgiving

I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

As I continue to work through our supply of frozen fish while Bev is gone, we had two remaining pieces of Halibut and we opted to cook them using the recipe for Halibut In Prosciutto Herb Cream Sauce from the “La Bella Vita” blog.  The two pieces of fish were very different which is one of the reasons I cancelled my subscription from Wild Alaska Seafood Co. as I believed I was just getting the leftovers for a very high price.