Customer's Choice (a/k/a I love the parenthesis)

I have this cookbook that I treasure - The Betty Crocker Cookbook (abridged version).  It is red and old, the spine is broken and the pictures would not meet any of the appetite invoking pictures you see on cooking websites these days.  This cookbook belonged to my mom.

Back in the day, my parents owned a little eatery (not quite diner, not quite deli...a dineli, if you will) in a busy business park just north of the SR 201 (back in the day, we called it the 21st South Freeway).  Easily seen from the freeway, it is now a Subway, but you can tell from the title of this post the named it went by when we owned it.  We inherited the name, but my people's knack for naming businesses is going to be fodder for another post in the future.  I spent my entire junior high and sophomore career here.  I worked for my parents for the bargain price of $50 per week (obviously very blissfully unaware of child labor laws) and saved up to pay cash for my first car - a very chic, used, white Audi 1000.

We offered breakfast, sandwiches, a salad bar (where I discovered my dislike for the intensely tinny taste and aroma of canned beets and kept me from enjoying the deliciousness of a fresh, roasted beet for decades because I thought beets naturally came from a can), 2 different types of soup and a variety of entrees and specials each day.   She didn't need recipes for the familiar Asian dishes we served, except (I cringe to type this) the egg foo yung (a "Chinese" I'm sure no true Chinese person has ever heard of).  The curled up post-it notes mark pages in the cookbook of the recipes my mom used for the restaurant - foods that she was not familiar with cooking but she was a natural and made them all tasty - except the sweet and sour meatballs.

This cookbook was printed in 1978 and aimed for the economic young housewife (we were not gender neutral back then) - many of the recipe titles start with the word "economic".  I had thawed some ground beef without a purpose, so I pulled out this cookbook and thumbed through it.  Aha!  Economy Beef Stroganoff.  Now My Beloved loves beef stroganoff but as I skimmed through the recipe, I knew there would be quite a bit of changes.   We will call my version Upgraded Beef Stroganoff.  Definitely a success, MB had 2 plates full.

1 1/2 pounds beef for stew, cut in 1/8′ slices (ME: 1 lb ground beef)
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups beef bouillon (ME: is that the same as beef broth?  I used beef broth) 
2 tablespoons catsup (ME: though I know My Beloved would not have minded this ingredient, he puts ketchup on his tacos, but I am not of the same tongue-set.  Omitted)
1 small clove garlic (ME: accidentally forgotten - a frequent side effect of changing recipes)
1 teaspoon salt (ME: 1/2 tsp sea salt)
8 ounces sliced mushrooms (ME: lots and lots ofSa mushrooms)
1 medium onion chopped (ME: cut onion in half, sliced in thin wedges)
3 tablespoons flour (ME: 1/4 cup)
1 cup dairy sour cream (ME: 1.5 cups)
4 cups hot cooked noodles (ME: is that a whole bag?  I used a whole bag)
1 tablespoon butter (ME: already had 2 T, don't need a third)
1 teaspoon poppy seed  (ME: what the hell for???? Omitted)
(ME: 1/4 c. red wine - this is approximate.  I just did one turn around the pot of wine)
(ME: 1 t. Worcesteshire sauce)

Because I made such changes, the instructions below are the steps for my version.
- saute onions in 2 T butter until caramelized, add mushrooms and cook.  Remove and set aside.
- in the same pot, saute garlic until fragrant and add ground beef. cook until done
- add wine, 3/4 c. beef stock, worcesterhire sauce, salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- mix 1/2 c. beef stock with flour, add to beef mixture and return to boil for a minute or two (cooking off the flour taste)
- add sour cream - at this point you want to reduce the heat to LOW.  You want the sour cream to heat slowly, not boil

Serve over the buttered noodles and enjoy with some tivo'd episodes of The Daily Show!