Cooking 4 My Girls: The Asian Christmas Meal

What is great to eat for dinner when it is 95 degrees and extremely humid outside? If you said steak stir-fry and a holiday cauliflower casserole you guessed what we had for dinner tonight. If you are thinking any of the following: “Those don’t go together!” “Why would you make that hot heavy dish when it is the middle of summer?” or “I don’t like Swiss cheese!” then you are thinking along the lines of what Jen was thinking when she saw what was for dinner.
I admit that this doesn’t sound like something I would want to eat on July 20th, but it was good. I made the cauliflower casserole because the girls ate cauliflower on Sunday and I wanted to exploit the fact that they will eat a vegetable that is healthy for them. Granted I put 1.5 oz. of Swiss cheese in with the cauliflower, but it still had something healthy, right?
When I make the Holiday Cauliflower Casserole again I will add some Cyan pepper or something to give it a little kick. It was good, but needed a little something extra. The stir-fry meat was a little overdone. I should have cooked it about two minutes less, but the sauce was good “even though I did not use all of the items that were in the recipe).

Grade: A-

Holiday Cauliflower

Ingredients
6 cups water
6 cups cauliflower florets (1 large head cauliflower)
1 4-ounce can sliced mushrooms, drained
¼ cup chopped green sweet pepper
¼ cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese ( I used 1.5)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large saucepan bring the water to boiling. Add cauliflower; cook for 4-6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain cauliflower; set aside.
2. For sauce, in a medium saucepan cook mushrooms and sweet pepper in hot butter until pepper is tender. Stire in flour and salt. Add the milk all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in Swiss cheese until melted.
3. In a 1.5-quart casserole layer half of the cauliflower and half of the sauce. Top with remaining cauliflower and sauce.
4. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Sesame Orange Beef

Ingredients:
8 ounces fresh green beans, halved crosswise
2 tsp sesame seeds (didn’t do)
½ cup orange juice
2 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS toasted sesame oil (didn’t do)
1 tsp cornstarch
½ tsp finely shredded orange peel
Nonstick cooking spray
½ cup bias-sliced green onions (I used ¼ of white onion, diced)
1 TBS grated fresh ginger (used ground)
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 ounces boneless beef sirloin steak, thinly sliced
2 cups hot cooked brown rice
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned or thinly sliced crosswise

1. In a covered medium saucepan, cook green beans in a small amount of boiling water for 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain; set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a small skillet cook sesame seed over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until toasted, stirring frequently. Set aside.
3. For sauce, in a small bowl combine orange juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, and orange peel; set aside.
4. Coat an unheated large nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Preheat over medium-high heat. Add green onions, ginger, and garlic to hot skillet; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the precooked green beans; stir-fry for 2 minutes. Remove vegetables from skillet.
5. Carefully add oil to the hot skillet. Add beef; stir-fry about 3 minutes. Remove from skillet.
6. Stir sauce; add to skillet. Cook and stir until thickened and bubble; cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Return meat and vegetables to skillet. Heat through, stirring to coat all ingredients with sauce. Serve over hot cooked brown rice. Top with orange sections and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.