Meats
Meat recipes
Crouton’s Dutch Oven Pot Roast
Total time, including prep? About 4 1/2 hours. And Donna loved her Valentine's Day dinner!
Crouton’s Oven-Cooked Brisket
This Thanksgiving, I cooked our brisket in the oven. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender and flavorful, and I'm going stick with slow-cooking briskets in the oven for a while.
Crouton’s Sloppy Joes
Ditalini had a busy day planned and asked me to make dinner. She left a packet of Sloppy Joe mix on the kitchen counter, along with a pound of ground beef to thaw. I was underwhelmed by the idea of using…
Crouton’s Crockpot Venison Roast
Ditalini’s sister Gina Cannolini came to visit from Michigan, restocking our freezer with venison from our brother-in-law Lengua’s most recent hunting trip. Among the cuts were two bone-in roasts. I decided to look for a good recipe, and one titled…
Crouton’s (Easier) Beef Bourguignon
When you think beef bourguignon, you think Julia Child. But honestly, preparing the dish her way (which indeed I have done) is more of a lifetime culinary achievement than a practical everyday recipe, so when I found a small chuck roast…
Venison Chili à la David Rainier
This, over the past year, has become my go-to chili recipe. It’s not the kind of chili that’ll win a Texas-style cookoff, but it’s rich in flavor, homey, and satisfying. —Crouton The Cannolis, Ditalini’s sister Gina and her husband Lengua,…
Bacon-Wrapped Venison Backstrap w/Garlic Cream Sauce
Ditalini’s sister Gina Cannoli visited over the holidays, accompanied by her husband Lengua. They brought along several frozen packs of dressed venison from a recent hunting trip. Two of the packages contained backstrap, the tenderloin of a deer, a highly-regarded cut…
Hasenpfeffer
Hasenpfeffer is also known as braised rabbit in spiced red wine sauce, but the literal translation is “peppered hare.” We made this dish often when we were first married. That was more than 40 years ago, and rabbit was not…
Braised Beef Short Ribs w/Fingerling Potatoes & Green Beans
The deMenthes dined tonight on braised beef short ribs with fingerling potatoes and sautéed green beans. Cooking the ribs is an all-day affair, but not really all that much work. If you put the ribs in the oven first thing in…
Crouton’s Cafeteria Chili Mac
Ditalini put me in charge of the kitchen last night, so I decided to indulge myself in some good old comfort food. We’ve both been away, things have been hectic and disorganized, and a simple one-dish hot meal seemed like…