Happy Birthday To Me, from my Mom!

The beautiful woman above is my Mom. She's amazing. You'll probably see me talk about her a lot on this blog. On Wednesday, the day before my birthday, I went to her house and she made the most delicious meal! Swiss steak, a childhood favorite, plus mashed Yukon golds, green beans from the farmer's market, a veggie melange from TJ's (Trader Joe's) and salad...plus a Dutch Apple Berry pie for dessert! Well, maybe we should call it a tart.. lol! It was made in a sheet pan.

In our family, there are 2 versions of Swiss Steak. One that you see in the pic above, and one that involves tomato and onion and such...which is also delicious, but not as good as this one, in my opinion. This one involves pounding the steak in seasoned flour, sauteing until deep golden brown, then simmering until tender. It makes it's own gravy, and is a simple, but wonderfully flavorful dish. The mashed spuds are a perfect accompaniment, along with the vegetables.

The pie. Wow. That took some work! Peeling and slicing nearly 3 dozen apples was the hard part. My hands were cramping around the peeler! lol Mom made a triple recipe of her amazing pie crust (I'll post the recipe during the holiday season), which was rolled out and put into the sheet pan. Along with the apples, there was cinnamon, nutmeg, tapioca (for thickening), raspberries, black raspberries, and blackberries. Such a combo! When it was done, we served it while it was still warm from the oven, with some vanilla bean ice cream. You can see in the pics how beautiful the color was, and it was so very tasty! I am eating the last of it as I type this in fact!

Thanks, Mom!!!