Silver James

I’m sure most of us have heard of smash burgers, right? And then there are crash potatoes. Well, what happens when you combine the two? You get a one-dish Crash Dinner. It has all the yummies served so conveniently all in one place. Besides being tasty, it’s a quick fix for those busy times.

Crash Dinner
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
For the mashed potatoes:
6 medium red potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch-thick pieces
water, to taste
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the beef-mushroom mixture:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (14.5-ounce) can beef broth
1/2 cup crispy fried onions

Directions
1 - In a large saucepan, add the potatoes and enough of the water to just cover them and then bring to a boil.

2 - Reduce the heat to medium and cook the potatoes until they are tender, about 10-15 minutes.

3 - While the potatoes are cooking, in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the beef, the mushrooms, and the onion and cook, while crumbling the meat, until the beef is no longer pink, 6-8 minutes. Drain the excess grease.

4 - Stir the flour, 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt into the beef mixture until blended.

5 - Gradually stir the broth into the beef mixture and bring to a boil.

6 - Reduce the heat and simmer the beef mixture, stirring occasionally, until it thickens, about 5 minutes.

7 - Drain the potatoes then return them to the saucepan.

8 - Mash the potatoes to your desired consistency.

9 - Add the butter, the half-and-half, the remaining salt, and the remaining pepper to the potatoes and stir to combine.

10 - Serve the beef mixture over the mashed potatoes, topped with the crispy fried onions.

Shhh. Don't tell and this isn't an office tip but I've been known to use Idahoan Mashed Potato mix when I'm in a big hurry.

Now that the temps are getting more comfortable, I need to add this dish back into my dinner rotation. Someone who whips this up is Katherine “Kit” Carson. She laughs a little every time she makes it for her hunky Homeland Security investigator mate, Derek Alexander. See, she’s an ARFF–Airport Rescue Firefighter. She has a bumper sticker that says “My other vehicle is a crash truck.” That’s what those weird line green fire apparatus trucks are that you see on the news when there’s an incident at an airport. Their name is self-explanatory. Anyway, Kit would often whip up this meal when it was her turn for KP duty at the fire station. It’s meaty and filing and blends all the flavors so folks who “work” for a living appreciate the hearty meal. If you’d like to learn about how Kit and Derek met, grab CRASH & BURN. While it is book 2 in the Moonstruck Wolf “series,” all the books are stand-alone if somewhat interelated because I cross pollinate my Wolves. It’s a small world, after all. Anyway, click on pic or the title or use the QR code and you’ll crash on over to Books2Read where you can find this book and all the other stand-alones and the on-line stores where they are available.

Today is the first day of Fall but it’s still warm here. Still, there are times I get a hankering for something robust but still…light. Today’s treat fits the bill perfectly. It’s quick, easy, doesn’t heat up the kitchen yet still brings a harvesty-autumnal taste to the table.

On-The-Farm Dinner
Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 8

Ingredients
1 (16-ounce) package linguine
2 cups ham, fully cooked, julienned
1 tablespoon butter
3 cups frozen peas
1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese, shredded
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
1 - In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the linguine to al dente, according to the package directions.
2 - While the linguine is cooking, in a large skillet over medium heat, add the ham and the butter and sauté, about 3 minutes.
3 - Add the peas to the ham mixture and cook, stirring frequently, until heated through, about 1-3 minutes.
4 - Drain the water from the linguine, transfer the pasta to the ham mixture, and toss to combine.
5 - Add the parmesan cheese and the heavy whipping cream to the pasta mixture, stir to combine, and cook until heated through, about 1-3 minutes.
6 - Plate and serve.

This dish is so easy even a rough, tough bounty hunter Wolf from Montana can fix it for dinner. And technically, so can his sweet, nerdy mate who sometimes burns boiling water. If you’d like to find out more about Tait and Lauren–and why her life was in danger, you can grab a copy of MONTANA MOON. Just click on a pic with the cover and you’ll zoom over to Books2Read for all the on-line booksellers where it’s available. If you’re interested in the whole Moonstruck Wolf group of stories, you can scan the QR code for the series page. While you’ll bump into some familier faces along the way, each of the Moonstruck Wolf books is a complete, stand-alone story set in the wider Moonstruck world.

In the meantime, I really hope Fall has found y’all. We’re a tad bit cooler in this parts but we’re still a long way from fuzzy slippers and hoodies.