Thanksgiving left over special- Mini grass-fed Hamburger

Do you have your dinner rolls left over from Thanksgiving? and do you run out of freezer space to put the dinner rolls in so you will need to eat them immediately but haven’t have a chance to put into your meal planning?





We got 2 bags of whole wheat dinner rolls from Macarina, our local bakery, but only finished 1 bag.  We have so much left over, so the bag of bread was just sitting in the kitchen getting dry.  Since I got a lot of grass-fed beef right before Thanksgiving, I decided to make mini hamburgers. It is good portion control and we can enjoy the grass-fed goodness.

Ingredients:
8 Dinner rolls
1 pound ground beef
½ cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
4 Provolone cheese slices
2 cup of spring mix salad vegetables
Ketchup


Directions
1) Preheat oven to 400F
2) Cut the dinner rolls into half and toast it in to oven until slightly brown. Set aside.
3) In a large bowl, mix ground beef, bread crumbs, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper together. Shape ground beef into 8 patties.
4) Bake patties for 10 minutes until patties internal temperature reach 160F.
5) Serve burgers in dinner rolls and top burgers with cheese, vegetables and ketchup.

Apple Strudel

Mr.S has been asking me to make apple strudel since the first time we watched Inglorious Bastards. Since it is Thanksgiving today and organic Granny Smith apples are on sale at Metropolitan Market, I have decided it is time to try out this recipe!


Ingredients
Apple Strudel:
1/4 cup bourbon or apple juice
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 to 3 Granny Smith apples (about 1 pound), peeled, cored, halved, and thinly sliced
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon lemon zest, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup crushed shortbread cookies
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
2 sheets phyllo dough from 1 pound package of frozen dough, defrost.
2 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing phyllo sheets, plus more if needed
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Confectioners' sugar

Glaze:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons milk

For the Strudel:
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2) In a small bowl, pour the bourbon or apple juice over the raisins and microwave on high for 45 seconds. Let sit for 15 minutes.
3) Combine the raisins, apples, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, brown sugar, cookie crumbs, pecans, and butter in a large bowl.
4) Remove the phyllo dough from the box, unfold, and cover with a damp towel. Divide phyllo dough into 6. Roll or pat out each phyllo dough sides and edges. Repeat with the remaining sheets.
5) Place the apple mixture in middle of the 1 phyllo, being sure to leave a 1/2 inch border. Place another phyllo on top of the filling and gently lift the sides and edges of the bottom phyllo then combine with the top phyllo. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
6)Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Pour over the glaze and sprinkle with cinnamon and confectioners' sugar.

For the Glaze:
Mix ingredients thoroughly.

Spaghetti and grass-fed meatballs

I have been waited for a very long time for today!!! Finally the cow that we bought was butchered the beginning of the month and today is the day to pick up the grass-fed, organic beef from the butcher. Especial thanks to CC for organizing this with me so we can share this cow with 16 friends.  So tonight's dinner, I immediately thaw out the ground beef to make meatballs :).

Ingredients

• 1 pound spaghetti
• Salt, for pasta water

Meatballs:

• 1 1/2 pound ground beef
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• Salt and pepper

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• A handful chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 10 leaves fresh basil leaves, torn or thinly sliced
• Grated cheese, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2) Place a large pot of water on to boil for spaghetti. When it boils, add salt and pasta and cook to al dente.
3) Mix beef and Worcestershire, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Roll meat into 1 1/2 inch medium-sized meatballs and place on nonstick cookie sheet or a cookie sheet greased with extra-virgin olive oil. Bake balls 10 to 12 minutes, until no longer pink.
4) Heat a deep skillet or medium pot over moderate heat. Add oil, crushed pepper, garlic and finely chopped onion. Saute 5 to 7 minutes, until onion bits are soft. Add beef stock, crushed tomatoes, and herbs. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.
5) Toss hot, drained pasta with a few ladles of the sauce and grated cheese. Turn meatballs in remaining sauce. Place pasta on dinner plates and top with meatballs and sauce and extra grated cheese.

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Crossing the Red Sea to enter Jordan……The most adventurous experience in my life

Nuewiba (Egypt) --> Aqaba (Jordan)

After spending the morning at the beach resort, we headed to the ferry terminal to board a ferry to cross the Gulf of Aqaba to Jordan. There is only one daily ferry from Nuweiba to Aqaba. This ferry has no set schedule and is extremely erratic, as it waits in Jordan until it is full and then makes the crossing to Egypt to collect passengers and return to Jordan.

When our bus arrived to the terminal, we hundreds of people lined up to take the ferry. Fortunately, our guide had us to stay in the tour bus until the gate was opened to tourists, and then we were rushed into the terminal. After we got into the terminal, we went through the customs and started to wait for the ferry. We waited in an area, with a big sign with red Arabic writings. I assumed the sign said this area is for tourist because all the locals were separated from us.

Our guide left us after a while. He told terminal personnel to let us know when it is time to get on the ferry then he left us to make the journey to Jordan alone. So we waited, in the past, the waiting time could last 4 to 8 hours. One time a group waited for 12 hours!!! After 2 hours of waiting, they started to let people to get on the ferry. All the tourists from the red sign area took a bus with only around 10 seats and an open area in the middle for people to put their luggage. Most of us stood the whole way before we were dropped off closer to the boat.


After getting off the bus, we started to line up with the local people, and the late comers started to line up in front of us. It was strange but we waited, until someone from the ferry directed all the foreigners to bypass the crowd and enter the ferry. We left our luggage at the bottom of the ferry, which was scary because that was all of our possessions at the time, and then we entered the air-conditioned interior.




A ferry employee gathered all of our passports and then took them to the customs official on the ferry. So there we were, no passports, no luggage, on a ferry to Jordan. We didn’t see our passports until we got into Jordon and were about to leave the ferry terminal. While we were waiting in the ferry to get to Jordon, there was a line of local travellers waiting to get through customs on the ferry. The line was so long that not all the travellers got through the line when we landed in Jordon.

After getting off the ferry, we got our passports and met our Jordanian guide. We were all relieved. It had been an eventful day for all of us!


We had dinner at a Jordanian shwarma place. Their shwarma is different from the Egyptian style. They use a wrap that looks a lot like a crepe or a tortilla, and then stuffed it with meat, vegetables and French fries!

The Monastery of St. Catherine’s and Red Sea

The Monastery of St. Catherine’s -> Nuewiba (Red Sea)

We started our day early to visit the Monastery of St Catherine’s, the smallest diocese and oldest Christian monastery still in use in the world, which we passed by yesterday when we hiked up Mount Sinai. Dress code was stricter in the Monastery, which women and men should wear long pants. Since they only open around 3 hours a day for tourists, so it was very crowded when we were there at 9am.

Before talking about the experience of going through the monastery, here is a little history lesson. According to the travel book and our guide, St. Catherine’s church was named after Saint Catherine in the 10th century. Saint Catherine was born in AD 294 and was from a noble family in Alexandria, was a Christian convert who was martyred in the early 4th century for refusing to renounce her faith. She herself converted hundreds of people to Christianity and accused Emperor Maxentius of idolatry. When he tried to have her broken it was claimed that she shattered the spiked (Catherine) wheel by touching it, so Maxentius resorted to having her beheaded in Alexandria. After her execution her body vanished and according to legend was transported by angels to the top of Egypt’s highest mountain, now named after her. Three centuries later this body was discovered, brought down from the mountain and placed in a golden casket in the church where it remains to this day.


After entering to the monastery, we passed by the Moses’ Well, which was the main water source of the monastery. Then we arrived at St. Catherine’s Church, it was built between AD 542 and 551. This church was richly decorated with hanging oil lanterns, mosaic, icons, and swinging incense burners by Greek monks. It has 12 enormous pillars, each a single piece of granite, was free-standing and decorated with beautiful icons representing the saints that are venerated in each of the 12 months of the year.


Stepping out from the church, you would see the burning bush. According to the Bible, God spoke to Moses through the burning bush. Our guide said people tried to break that bush into pieces and grew in different countries, and St. Catherine’s is the only place they can grow out the burning bush. The picture attached might be too hard to see the color of the bush, but the top half was green and the bottom half was brown, like burnt color.


Bell Tower was built in 1871, the tower houses nine bells donated by Tsar Alexander II of Russia. They are only rung on religious festivals.


We then took a 2 hours bus ride to our beach getaway near Nuewiba for a night of relaxation. Mr. S and I immediately changed to our swimming gear to enjoy some time in the Red Sea. We did snorkeling, and swam around the sea at the resort that we stayed at. It is our most relaxing time during the whole trip. At night, we have our last dinner with our Egyptian tour guide because we will be heading to Jordan tomorrow!