Round Steak with Mushrooms and White Wine

What to do with Round Steak? Tonight's menu includes Round Steak, cut up and cooked all day in the crock pot with a Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup, 1/2 and onion cut in rings, a can of mushroom, 1/4 cup of White Wine or White Cooking Wine, Thyme, salt and pepper. Just dump everything in at once and let it cook on low all day long.

This dish is one of my husbands favorites. Round Steak is always a meat that is tough and not my favorite. But, I grew up eating it and so did my husband. We get it every year when we buy a side of beef. So, this is a recipe he found. I don't always add wine. If you have it, it definitely makes the dish a little better, but you can make it without it too. Serve it over mash potatoes. There is enough in there to make a meal, but don't forget your vegetables to make it a well balance meal. There will be nothing leftover tonight.

Easy New England Clam Chowder

One of my favorite meals is New England Clam Chowder. When my husband and I first got married we love to try and make it but could never quite figure it out. Then I got a simple recipe set of different soups and learned the basics of making any soup. The easiest way to explain how to make any cream soup is to first saute the chopped vegetables in butter. Then add about a quarter cup of flour to them and stir them until the flour coats the vegetables evenly. The next step is to add your broth. That is another thing I didn't know, that you added chicken broth to cream soups like Clam Chowder, Cream of Broccoli, and Potato Soup. After that you add two cans of Evaporated milk. Let everything cook over a medium heat for a while, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. While that is going on you need to boil a pan of water for potatoes. Dice the potatoes and pour them in when the what is boiling for five minute. Drain and add to soup. Add the clams to the soup. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Let it simmer for at least 10 minutes and you have the easiest Clam Chowder and very tasty I might add.

Shopping list for Clam Chowder
2 cans evaporated milk
a large can of Chicken broth
1/4 cup celery
1/4 cup oinion ( but I use less)
2 cans of chopped clams ( or any clams you like )
1/4 cup flour
2 potatoes
salt
pepper

Enjoy a nice Warm Cup of Soup on a Cold Day!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcake

I have been relatively quiet on this blog and it is time I start getting back to posting here. I like to cook, but my favorite thing to do is to bake. I spend a lot of time on flickr getting inspiration. I had the idea to try to make chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and a Reese's Cup. I had been putting it off for months, but one day I tried it. This is what I came up with. The cupcake is a basic box mix cupcake. I topped that with a chocolate fudge icing in a can. Then peanut butter frosting, which is basically butter creme frosting with peanut butter added to it until it tastes right. I chopped up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and added a few to each cupcake. The final decorators touch was Chocolate Syrup, which my kids decided we could do without. They loved the cupcakes, and hard to believe they were not too sweet.