When You're Around My Life's Worthwhile

Salisbury Steak over Smashed Sweet Potatoes

I love Chef John of FoodWishes.com and this is his recipe  He has a variety of You Tube instructional videos and has a no nonsense approach.  I've learned so many great tips from watching him.  I've also started dating a new site called Sip and Feast, a good Italian food channel that shows how to make many pasta favorites.  The chef is a dad of two cute kids that taste test his food at the end and give ratings.  Somehow these kids have managed to stay authentic and unrehearsed and are genuinely young foodies.  And Jim, the chef is from Long Island, a magical place where many a good friend has been born.  In lieu of real people, they have become my friends at night before I go to sleep.  When I watch a chef spicing and cooking their own dishes, it provides enough essence that I can then try to re-create the recipe to be similar if not correct.  It's like watching the movie without reading the book.  The detailed recipes are best if you want to make a classic recipe.  Simply seeing the ingredient list can be enough for me on occasion.  After all these years, I can only make a short list of standard recipes.  Maybe that will be something to work on going forward, however the most fun is when you get to play with your food and invent and create.  

But They're Back Again, Just Like a Long Lost Friend

Homemade Salisbury Steak!  

There were times in my youth where even though I was thrilled to eat my mom's amazing home cooking of all my dad's favorites, I did begin a hankering for some of these American meals.  No disrespect to her, she was incredible with food and my sister reminded me that we got cheeseburgers ! packed in our lunchboxes for school, on white bread with mustard, and tiny bags of potato chips.  She always had variety and a selection.   She made lunch an event.  But being a never-satisfied food-curious girl, I imagined people in houses down the street eating things like meatloaf and crispy fried chicken, with buttery mashed potatoes and gravy.  Frozen dinners became my window to those types of foods.  I was thrilled to eat Chicken Pot Pies and the regular sized trays but even my tiny self ended up licking the insides of those metal containers.  So when the Hungry Man dinner was introduced then this became a viable dinner option for my dad, so we began buying them.  Salisbury steak was possibly my favorite option, with every compartment holding a delight.  I loved green beans and I loved peas, and equally as happy to have cobbler or chocolate cake.    

Late night You Tubing brought me to Chef's John's take on this historic dish that I recreated this week and enjoyed every bite of it!  If you're into freezing, double the recipe, making 8 patties for 2 lbs of beef.

So delicious!  Ignore the brown pigeon peas, the only failed item on the dish.  I had a can of what I thought were regular peas and out pops these bland. lentil like mush.  But if you haven't, you gotta make this.  It tastes enough like your good memories but even better and bolder.  And whip up some nice mashed potatoes to go alongside your favorite green vegetable.