Every week we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was Hamburger Stroganoff, submitted by reader SC Amy. Printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.  The original recipe came from The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library

Robyn’s Take:

This week’s recipe was submitted by reader/commenter SC Amy. I love me some stroganoff (beef, mushrooms, noodles? Yes, please!), so I was all for giving this a try!

Your ingredients:

Ground beef, chopped onion, butter, flour, salt, minced garlic, pepper, mushrooms, condensed cream of mushroom soup (original recipe called for cream of chicken soup, but I always have cream of mushroom on hand, so that’s what I used), and sour cream.

Cook your ground beef and onions in a big skillet over medium heat until the ground beef is browned and the onions are cooked.

Is there anything that smells better than ground beef and onions cooking? I think NOT. You might think there is, but you are wrong.

Then drain your meat and onions.

While the grease is draining off that stuff, throw your butter in the pan and let it melt.

Put your beef and onions back in the pan, then add flour, mushrooms, garlic, spices, and stir like crazy. The recipe says you should stir for 5 minutes, but since you drained off all that grease, it doesn’t take that long to cook. I think I let it cook for about three minutes before I was all “Let’s get this show on the ROAD.”

Stir in your soup, bring it to a boil (“stirring constantly”, says the recipe. I think we all know that constant stirring is an urban myth. I stirred it frequently, but not constantly. Sue me.) Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes (actually, I think I stopped around 8 minutes because I’m a rebel like that.)

Stir in the sour cream, heat through, and then serve over cooked egg noodles.

I started the water for my egg noodles right before I started the stroganoff itself, and the noodles were ready long before the stroganoff. Luckily, egg noodles are known for their patience.

HURRY IT UP, BITCH. WE’RE GETTING COLD.

Okay, before you say it – I KNOW. I know how it looks. There are some things you just can’t take a damn flattering picture of, no matter how you try.

The verdict? SC Amy, I think you are THE BOMB, but we just didn’t care for this stuff. I think it had too much sour cream in it. Fred wouldn’t even eat it a second time, and that’s when you know he REALLY doesn’t like something (he’s… “frugal” is the word he likes to use, and he dislikes seeing food go to waste, so he’ll usually finish off food I refuse to eat.) The chickens got the leftovers, and as usual they thought it was awesome.

I have no kitten picture for you today – I’m coming off a vacation to Myrtle Beach, and I am still scattered. (That’s my excuse, and I’m stickin’ to it.) Here, have this possum picture the gamecam caught in the side yard one night.

“Motherfucking STROGANOFF?! That shit is AWESOME. Hand it over, lady!”

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Nance’s Take:

Do you ever wonder what people were thinking when they decided to add sour cream to a casserole? I mean, who does that? “Oh, I think I’ll just throw a dollop of this soured milk product into my meat. Or maybe I’ll toss some into this chocolate cake mix and see what happens. The possibilities are endless!”

People confuse The Beagle.

I started this recipe out on a good note. I was cooking and stirring my meat. Apparently I stopped reading after that.

This is me being all health-conscious and draining the fat off of my ground beef. How cool is that strainer thingie? I thought it was cool and had never seen such a thing until this year. I don’t get out much.  And no, I didn’t strain it out on my stove.  I just took it over there to take a picture (so you wouldn’t see what a mess my sink was).

Following directions is sooooo hard. I fried that ground beef and then added my butter and onions instead of doing them all together like the recipe said. I should probably stop skimming so much. But sometimes there are just too many words (and I’m not wearing my glasses).

This is where I get to show you the particular brand of Crazy that I deal with on the daily thanks to Shirley (aka: my mom). Please note the size of my thumb in relation to how many noodles are left in the bag. Who does this kind of shit? Seriously? I saw that and was all, “WTF, Shirley! You couldn’t just use all of those noodles?”

True confession: I had it in my head that this was a casserole so I made it in the morning thinking that I would have it for dinner that night. Guess who had beef stroganoff for breakfast? Yup. I’m a genius.

No need to adjust your monitors. This does indeed look like something I vomited after the great Happy Meal and Southern Comfort fiasco of 1987. Not pretty. And not a good time in my life. Well, okay. It was a damn good time in my life, but don’t tell my kids because they need to do as I say, not as I do.

Sour cream. I really wish I knew who started this craze and why? A way to get some calcium? Wondering about something like this could drive me crazy. I’m going to be googling that shit until I get answers.

And now you know why I’m glad Robyn does the step-by-steps. She actually pays attention to the recipe and has the ability to focus for more than 30 seconds.

This is what it looked like after I stirred the sour cream in. I immediately thought of sausage gravy which I think is the most disgusting and foul food on the planet. Yeah, I said it. Southerners be crazy with liking that shit. lol

My breakfast (not Polish pottery).  At the end of the recipe it said that you could add parsley from your kitchen garden (as if) or a generous shake of paprika to garnish. I added both and obviously I am a wee bit heavy-handed when it comes to paprika shaking.

I did end up throwing the rest into a casserole dish and heating it up for dinner.

The verdict.  All four of us ate it and liked it.  It’s going into the recipe file because it’s a quick and easy meal.

But The Beagle is still confused. So am I, Beagle. So am I.