Lundi à la carte

Big Scary Monster

No outfit post today. Aside from time constraints, it was just too warm over the weekend for me to get motivated to set up and take pictures. We’re on the tail end of what I’m hoping is the last heat wave for the season, but considering the “Frankenstorm” (Hurricane Sandy) that my friends on the East Coast are bracing for today, I’m going to quit kvetching about the weather here. Those of you in the storm’s path, stay safe and you’re all in my thoughts.

This week we’re kicking it Old School chez femme. 

It was another of my Domestic Diva weekends, which mostly involved prepping for Halloween; we live in a neighborhood that’s a Trick-Or-Treat Destination, and each year get somewhere between 300-400 kids.  Le monsieur pulled the decorations down from the attic, and I started setting up and cleaning pumpkins.

Eviscerating gourds…MWAHAHAHA!

I like to clean my pumpkins a day ahead of carving to let the insides dry out a bit. Because this is a gooey process I use my dishwashing gloves for better grip, and a stainless steel slotted spoon to do the scooping. (I don’t bother roasting the seeds, as no one else in our household likes them.) Tomorrow, the carving begins.

Candy stores laid in. 

We’ll probably go through all of the candy above (450+ pieces) within a 3-hour period. This year I’ve invited a couple of friends over. We’ll sit and catch up over a bottle of red, and take turns answering the door and handing out treats while le monsieur takes jeune homme out to scavenge.

I also made a brisket which I’ll re-heat and serve with a fresh salad or veggies for a few dinners during the week. I’ve given up trying to cook on weeknights. It just doesn’t work with our schedule. Here’s my late MIL’s recipe, which is crazy-easy, requires no obscure ingredients and delivers a very tender and juicy brisket. Vegetarians look away now. It’s safe to come back when you see the oatmeal.

3-5 lb. brisket
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 cup ketchup
12 oz. Coke

(Yeah, this reads like something out of Peggy Olson’s recipe file, if Peggy were Jewish. Like I said…Old School.)

Source: Tom and Lorenzo Dig that crazy yarn-and-gravel “painting” on the wall…remember those?

The day before serving: 

Preheat oven to 375F. Dissolve onion soup mix in a cup or so of hot water. Place brisket, fat side up* in a baking pan, pour soup mix over top. Place in the oven, uncovered, until brown. (Usually 30 minutes or so.)

Mr. Brisket, browned and ready to bake

Mix ketchup and Coke, pour over meat and cover the pan. Reduce heat to 350. Bake, covered for 2-3 hours. Once cooked, separate meat and juice, refrigerate separately overnight.

Next day:

Remove fat from meat*, slice and layer meat and juice in casserole (or you can put in freezer bags and freeze). Reheat at 350F for one hour. (Full recipe serves a crowd; you can break up into smaller servings which will require a shorter re-heat time. Microwave with caution as it can toughen the meat.)

*Last couple of briskets I’ve bought have fat layer removed already. If so, just brown with either side up. Brisket from the “flat” tends to be a lean cut of meat, which the Coke helps to tenderize.

Oatmeal of choice

After my physical and blood work this summer, my doctor informed me that my cholesterol had crept up a bit. Not quite into worrisome territory (it’s always been quite low), but enough to encourage me to cut back on the bacon and cheese and highly processed carbs, eat leaner cuts of meat (see “Brisket” above), enjoy eggs boiled or poached instead of fried, and add a little oatmeal for breakfast a few times per week. I like mine with a sprinkle of cinnamon, no sugar or sweetener, and a splash of milk. This Silver Palate oatmeal has a wonderful nutty taste and cooks up in 10 minutes. Sometimes I also make McCann’s steel cut, which takes much longer and has a more “porridge” consistency. Variety Is The Spice, and all that. I make extra on the weekends and then just heat up in the microwave on rushed weekday mornings.

Again, if you’re in the path of the storm, I hope you’re safe and dry and don’t sustain a lot of damage. Holding good thoughts for everyone.
~

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28 Comments

  1. A classic late 60s/early 70s recipe — gotta love it!
    Every year I marvel at the numbers you get for Halloween. Even if every kid on the island made it to our place (and they never do), we’d only have 40, yet somehow every year, just in case, I seem to buy enough candy for 80 . . . .

    1. mater, it’s a crowd-pleaser though! Remember those printed recipe cards people used to buy in sets…there was a really funny website making the rounds a few years ago with some of the more atrocious-sounding Weight Watchers versions, things like Mackerel Fluff. 😀 The first year we lived here I was *stunned* with the Halloween volume, and it seems to increase a little every year!

  2. I don’t cook, but you make it look like so much fun, and delicious as well. I do love oatmeal for breakfast, with brown sugar and berries. Oh, and when my cholesterol was up just a bit, like yours, my doc advised I cut back on *carbs* as well. Harrumph.

  3. I love the McCann’s. i cook up a bunch at a time, and then reheat the next few days. I do make it with 1/2 skim milk and 1/2 water, which makes it creamier. Then I add a lot of cinnamon, some raisins, toasted walnuts, and a bit of brown sugar. Delicious!

    I wish we had a big Halloween contingent. We have lived here for 18 years, and the neighborhood kids seem to be growing up along with mine (now 17 and 19). We have very few little kids any more, and those are the best kind at Halloween. I love the ones who are not quite sure what they are doing, and stand there uncertainly at the door until reminded, “say trick-or-treat”!

    —Jill Ann

    1. Jill Ann, yes, it’s so much fun when they’re still too young to be cynical. The littlest ones usually have adorable costumes too…ladybugs and such. There seems to be a new crop of young families in the neighborhood, which makes it nice.

    1. Frugalscholar, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was (a classic Jewish recipe). I’ve pondered a slow-cooker but have heard not-so-great things about the new ones.

  4. Wow. You are a domestic diva! (I love brisket. It’s one of those things I just can’t get to come out right…) It was mahi mahi for me this weekend. And a quick run to the store to pick up a $5 bag of assorted candies that I don’t like so I won’t be tempted…

    Bracing in the East, yes. Made my calls to loved ones closer to the eye of the storm. Would like this FrankenWhatever to blow away… gently.

  5. oatmeal tip: if you soak steel cut/irish oats overnight in your fridge (in the water or milk, whatever you use, that you’ll cook them in) they’ll cook faster in the morning.

    and believe it or not, atkins was on to something. not that you should go full-on atkins but remember, he was a cardiologist, not a nutritionist and designed his diet for his heart patients… a very interesting read, if you haven’t already, is the book “why we get fat and what to do about it.”

  6. It never ceases to amaze me how versatile dry onion soup mix is! I will try this recipe one weekend this winter – thank you for sharing. I was all bummed earlier today because of 20% chance of rain in my part of the SF Bay Area for Halloween, and then shamefully realized how many on the East Coast would be grateful for this sort of forecast! Re candy stores – I always run out, it doesn’t matter how much I get or the headcount at the door … bad habit of snagging one for the treater (me) for every trickster I give a candy to.

  7. I’m so glad you provided the brisket recipe. I’ve never made one. It’s always better to get a recipe from someone who makes it. And onion soup is my go to for meatloaf and a few other things.

    Oatmeal is a staple in our house, steel cut and Quaker original being the favorites. I’m of Irish descent and we grew up eating it with butter, milk and salt. Don’t know if that is an Irish thing or if my grandmother just presented it that way. When I eat Quaker’s, I always have it with butter and salt. The steel cut I treat myself to brown sugar and raisins.

  8. I love brisket and yesterday I saw a similar recipe in a cookbook I just bought called Cooking Jewish. Trick-or-Treaters must love visiting your house to get their paws on all those goodies. I greet my little visitors with a scowl – but I make up for it by giving them enough E numbers to keep them revved up for a week.

  9. The NYT Health Section had some savory oatmeal dishes not too long ago. I usually think of oatmeal as a sweet thing, but sometimes it’s better not to get sweet started and savory is another option.

  10. I love to throw oatmeal into all kinds of things…it makes a great topper for a baked apple dessert! I like seeing you do this type of post occasionally….enjoyed it!

  11. We’re virtually gluten-free at home, as my husband has celiac disease – so no gluten for him. When he was first diagnosed, it was so hard to find substitutes, but now, the market is loaded with tons of gluten-free foods. Just starting to bake loaves of gluten-free cornbread now, to use for Thanksgiving stuffing. I love oatmeal, but I gain weight from it 🙁

  12. I love to cook and you make me feel like trying these yummy recipes. Thanks for sharing. My thing against cholesterol: lots of salads, lots of vegetables and fruits too.
    On another note: I live in Florida and my thoughts go today to all those who live up north on the East Coast. Hurricane Sandy is scary… Good luck to them!
    All the best,
    Anne (Playing With Scarves)

  13. Oh, and like you, I feel bad for moaning about the heat here in LA. So worried about our friends and family on the east coast.

  14. I’m with you on the Halloween strategy! We live on the street in the Bay Area that sees 700-900 kids from the surrounding communities. After ducking it the first few years we lived in our house (we’re empty nesters), we said “uncle!” and got into it. We invite our friends over and the kids are the entertainment. Lot of adults to share candy duties and wine. We close up when the candy is gone and sit down for a homey supper. It’s become my favorite holiday (next to Thanksgiving, anyway. — Effie May

  15. Mmm, wonder if I could sub/ bourbon for the coke? And I love oatmeal too… with just a barest touch of brown sugar or maple syrup, and the milk. 450 pieces! Isn;t it fun to see all the little kids?

  16. Thanks for the brisket recipe. 🙂 I’m impressed with your Halloween strategies – there was only one year I have ever lived in a 100+ trick-or-treater zone, now we have none at all! I don’t mind the quiet at all, but yours sounds quite enjoyable too.