It's What's For Dinner

My sister asked me to show her our mom's way of making Beef Stroganoff the other day. We made it today and it was our first meal in the apartment. She showed me how to make artichokes. (Boil 'em to death. We like em done done.)

It was fun cooking this together. Our mom never used a recipe for this one. It's one of my favorites and so I specifically asked her to show me how to make it. Now I'm glad I did. In my young adulthood I would cook it for my mom if SHE wanted comfort food and she would cook it for me if I was wanting some home cooking. It always tasted better to us if the other made it. Mom preferred to serve it over white rice, but I always requested it over noodles. She typically used egg noodles but we had some others leftover so we used those.

These are the general steps as processed by Val and me while we were eating:

-Put a little olive oil in a pan at Med High heat.

-Add 2/3 a chopped onion and 2 cloves chopped garlic.

-Add and brown one package (more meat for Luke, less meat for sisters) of stew beef cut into bite size pieces. Salt and Pepper. (Add mushrooms at this point if you want them.)

-Continue to cook until the water is evaporated. (If there's water moisture you'll get dumplings when you add the flour/thickener)

-Once you're down to browning "fat" in the pan add about 2 tbsp. of flour to the mixture. Stir until the flour is no longer white.

-Turn down heat

-Add 2/3 container sour cream. When well blended add milk so sauce is 1/2 frying pan full. Stir well.

-Add a juice glass full of water.

-Turn to low to simmer for a while.

-Add Worcestershire Sauce, beef base, and salt to taste.

-Lengthy cooking and the sour cream should help to tenderize the tougher stew meat. Sauce will thicken as it cools.