Salisbury Steak and Mashed Potatoes

All I have been wanting lately is comfort foods. Some staples in our household work to curb this, but others (like macaroni and cheese) aren't something that the hubs and I will eat together. I really wanted something substantial a couple weeks back and beef just sounded amazing. I was scouring my pins on Pinterest and I remembered that I had pinned a recipe from Real Mom Kitchen, unfortunately it seems like there is something wrong with the website so I cannot link you to the recipe. I will attempt to recap how to make this dish. Let me tell you that I underestimated the time that it takes to make this dish (a little over an hour) so we ended up eating relatively late, but it was completely worth the wait.

Salisbury Steak

What You Need:
1lb ground beef
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 egg
small onion diced (or half a large one)
1 can condensed beef broth
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water
1 packet brown or mushroom gravy mix

Directions:
1. Mix the beef, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and egg together and shape into 4-6 oval patties about 3/4 inches thick. Cook patties in a skillet turning once until brown.

2. Add onion and beef broth, heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove patties to a 9 x 13 casserole dish.

3. Heat mixture until boiling. In the meantime, mix water and cornstarch together to make a paste. Add to the boiling mixture with a wire whisk until gravy begins to thicken. Then add the packet of gravy that has been mixed with one cup of water to the beef broth mixture in the skillet. Using wire whisk, whisk the gravy until it's smooth and thickened.

4. Pour the gravy over the patties. Bake in the casserole dish at 350 degrees until bubbly.

5. Serve!

Mashed Potatoes

What You Need:
3-4 Large baking potatoes
Butter (to taste)
Milk (to taste)

Potato Masher
Handheld mixer
Pot

Directions:
1. Cut your potato's into medium size chunks. Place in a pot and cover the potatoes with water. Boil the potatoes until you can pierce them easily with a fork. Drain water

2. Use your potato masher to smash the chunks down to size. Add in butter and begin mixing with your handheld mixer on low. Add milk in small quantities until desired fluffiness is reached. Note: you can add in salt and pepper to the mixture as well for flavoring

We paired this dish with a side salad and our favorite homemade dressing. We both devoured it and the hubs said that it needs to go on the rotation! Hope you enjoy!

Meatball Sub Sammie's

Ok. This post has been in the pipeline for a couple if weeks but I keep forgetting to post about it. In my almost 30 years of life I have never had a meatball sub sandwich. I dont know why, but something about it just didn't seem appetizing. I love meatballs, and pasta sauce, I just thought that it was strange. Well a couple of weeks ago, not wanting to have spaghetti, but wanting to use up our frozen homemade spaghetti sauce I decided to make some homemade meatballs and make some sandwiches one cold evening. Totally yummy and will make again considering how easy it was! You can buy store bought meatballs, but making your own just tastes better!

What You Need:

1lb lean ground beef
3 cloves garlic (minced)
Bread Crumbs
1 egg (lightly beaten)
Dry Parsley
Parmesan Cheese (Optional)
Favorite Pasta Sauce (We use homemade, but jarred works too!)
Kaiser Rolls

Baking Sheet

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl combine ground beef, egg and  garlic cloves (minced) with your hands until thoroughly mixed. Add in about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and some dry parsley (about a 1/8 of a cup or so). Spices and bread crumbs are done by eyeing it. Make sure to include enough so that they stick well together, but not too much. You can include some Parmesan cheese at this point if you desire. Mix in well with your hands. Honestly, I don't think there is a better way to do this than to just get in there and get dirty!

2. Take about a handful of your meat mixture and smush (technical term) the mixture to compact it. Then roll between your hands to make a ball. Each ball should be about 2" in diameter. Place on a baking sheet spaced about an inch apart.

3. Place baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven. Watch them and turn when about half cooked/browned. Total time about 20 min or so. Will make about a dozen or so 2" meatballs.

4. Take meatballs and place in your heated pasta sauce for another 15 minutes to let that yummy saucy goodness seep into the meat. Then place 2-3 meatballs on your kaiser rolls and dribble some sauce on the top. Serve!

Makes 4 sandwiches.