Journey Into Deliciousness

Slow Cooker Roast Beef with Onion Gravy

Grade: B

Time it takes: 8 and a half hours

Yield: Serves 4

Source: Hezzi-D's books and cooks - a food blog (Roast Beef with Onion Gravy)

I'm excited to report that this is the first recipe I've ever successfully made in the crock-pot. So far that is a 50% success rate - I'll work on it. The only other dish I have tried in the crock-pot was a potato soup recipe that frustrated me to no end. I was a bit apprehensive about trying another crock-pot recipe, but happily this one turned out great.

It was also incredibly easy, which is always a plus. Just a few ingredients, let it cook up, then thicken up the gravy, bam, done, time for dinner y'all. Serve it with mashed potatoes and some veggies for a hearty dinner any day of the week.

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Steak Skewers in the Oven

Grade: A (for the steak) C (for the veggies - but a remedy below!)

Time it takes: 40 minutes, plus overnight marinating (10 minutes easy prep, 20-30 minutes baking)

Yield: Enough steak for 5 skewers

Source: Marinade from The Life of Spice - a food blog (steak marinade and steak kabobs); oven baking technique from foodnetwork.com - courtesy of Emeril Lagasse (Ka-Bam Kabobs)

To go along with the chicken fettuccine alfredo, and to satisfy Chris' tastes, I made steak skewers for Christmas Eve dinner. Since I don't really enjoy steak I didn't try any, but Chris said the he loved the steak marinade and they were cooked perfectly. The only thing was that the veggies weren't done enough for him. I was planning on skewering potatoes with the kabobs and then realized they would definitely not have enough time to cook at 10 minutes. Instead I oiled and seasoned the chopped potatoes and put them on a baking sheet in the oven for 45 minutes at 450 and they came out perfectly. Next time I think I will do a baking sheet of all the veggies I would put on the skewers (mushrooms, onion, and bell peppers) and roast them for about 20-30 minutes by themselves, and keep the steak on the skewers exactly the same. A little more juggling in the end, but everything will be done how it should be that way.

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A Tale of Two Jerkies

Regular Ol' Beef Jerky

Grade: A

Time it takes: overnight and about 5 hours (cutting the meat, mixing the marinade, and placing the jerky in the oven takes about an hour, 4 hours to dry, overnight to marinate)

Yield: 4 lbs of jerky

Source: T Bird's Beef Jerky Recipe - allrecipes.com

I have made jerky for Christmas for several years now, ever since I discovered you could make your own jerky. I am not a huge jerky fan, but my husband definitely is. I actually like slim jims when they come in those double packs with part slim jim and part cheese, and then you nibble them together. I'm not sure if a slim jim is considered jerky though.

I like to make up a good bit of jerky for Christmas and ship some off to Chris's side of the family. Chris always gets possessive when it comes time to bag up some of the jerky to send away. I think he would prefer if it was a just for him thing, even though he always gets the biggest portion!

I ended up liking this jerky marinade the best out of all the marinades I have tried. It is a basic one, nothing too spicy but full of flavour. A great marinade to start out with for your first batch of homemade jerky!

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs round steak
• 4 tablespoons onion powder
• 1 1/3 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 1/3 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 pinches salt
• 1 teaspoon dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
• 1 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Directions:

Cut the meat into strips about 1/8" to 1/4" thick.

Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a big bag or a bowl that can be covered. Place the meat in the container and smoosh everything around to coat the meat really well. Cover tightly, and refrigerate overnight or for a couple days.

Preheat the oven to 150 F. There are various methods you can use to dry the meat. I like to line a baking sheet with foil and then place wire racks (the kind to cool cookies) on top and then just place the meat on top in a single layer. I fit four baking sheets into the oven at a time, and I leave the oven door open about a foot. Dry for about 4 hours in the oven switching baking sheets from the top to the bottom rack half way through.

Another method is to just drape the meat across the oven racks themselves, which is really messy. You would leave the door of the oven open about a foot still and dry for about 4 hours. Make sure to place a sheet of foil in the bottom of the oven to catch drips.

Another method is to use toothpicks or skewers inserted through the tops of the meat, and hang them from the oven rack. You would leave the door of the oven open about a foot still and dry for about 4 hours. Make sure to place a sheet of foil in the bottom of the oven to catch the drips.

I have done all those methods, and the first method is the best in my opinion. It is the easiest set up and clean up. You can do quite a bit of jerky at once and the house smells unbelievably good!

Sweet and Spicy Jerky

Grade: A

Time it takes: overnight and about 5 hours (cutting the meat, mixing the marinade, and placing the jerky in the oven takes about an hour, 4 hours to dry, overnight to marinate)

Yield: 4 lbs of jerky

Source: adapted from Jerky Lover's Jerky - allrecipes.com

This year I was introduced to a handy device called a meat slicer. Yeah, my uncle has one. It seriously made this year's jerky making a breeze. I'm very glad my grandmother mentioned he had one and went to borrow it for me. Cutting the meat straight enough and thin enough is always just a pain in the fingers, hand, wrist...maybe if I had an incredibly sharp knife, but I've already been there, done that, still have the scar. Don't let not having a meat slicer stop you from trying your hand at homemade jerky though, it is definitely the way to a man's heart. After the cutting is done - getting the meat slightly frozen helps with that - marinating it and drying it is cake. But, if you know somebody that collects completely random seldom touched kitchen gadgets, such as a meat slicer, don't hesitate to ask to borrow it!

As this jerky is spicy and hot, I didn't like it much. If it didn't leave my mouth so firey I think I may have enjoyed this marinade a lot. I liked the sweetness of it. Maybe next year I will try a sweet and non-spicy marinade. However, this seemed to be the general favourite of the two. Everybody thanked us for the Christmas goodies and especially enjoyed the jerky with the pepper flakes on it. Chris said I finally got the jerky spicy enough for him to taste the bite! And, he polished all of it off in no time.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs round steak
  
• 2 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 cups balsamic vinegar
• 5 tablespoons liquid smoke flavoring
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes, divided - 1 teaspoon to go in the marinade and the other teaspoon to sprinkle on top of the jerky before drying

Directions:

The same as the above.

Cut jerky. Mix marinade. Marinate jerky overnight. Dry jerky. Enjoy!

Lasagna

Grade: A+

Time it takes: 1 hour and 25 minutes (40 minutes prep, 45 minutes bake)

Yield: 13x9 pan

Source: For the Love of Cooking - a food blog (lasagna)

Lasagna is a fantastic meal. It is one of Chris's favourite foods. The last time I made lasagna it tasted good, but not quiet like lasagna. It had a lot of flavours going on, and not enough gooey cheese sauce and meat-ness to it. For Chris's birthday this year, I decided to give a different lasagna recipe a try. I searched and searched for a recipe with just ground beef that seemed like the flavours would be simple, apparently ground beef with Italian sausage seems to be the meat combo of choice for lasagna, but I finally found one that seemed like a winner.

Sweet Jesus, it was! It tasted exactly how I wanted it to taste. It was wonderfully gooey and cheesy, with lots of sauce and ground beef. Mmm perfection. Chris loved it, I loved it, and I even got it on the table at a reasonable time - last time it took me a lot longer than I was expecting it to. I made the sauce from this recipe, and baked up some garlic knots to go with it. I no longer need to try out lasagna recipes because this one knocked it out of the park.

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Cheeseburger Quesadillas

Grade: B

Time it takes: 20 minutes

Yield: 2 quesadillas

Source: adapted from Lauren's Kitchen - a food blog (superbowl snack throwdown: cheeseburger quesadillas)

I love reading through a food blog's entire archives. I found this recipe while doing so, and bookmarked it without reading through the ingredients. When I pulled it out of my favourites folder and took a look at it I thought um no. Really only because of frozen ground beef style soy crumbles. I don't like soy, Chris won't touch soy, so just no. But, I liked the idea so I went ahead and adapted it to my own tastes.

The one thing I forgot to do while making it though was to really drain off all the grease that the meat juices out. When I tossed it on the tortilla and started toasting the outside it got super greasy, which crisped up the tortilla rather nicely but was just a little too much grease in the end. They were tasty though, so the next time I make these I will remember to really dry off the cooked ground beef. Or, use soy crumbles if that suits your fancy...I assume those don't grease up.

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Steak Involtini

Grade: A

Time it takes: 55 minutes (30 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking)

Yield: Serves 4

Source: recipe courtesy of Giada De Laruentiis

These are fun. I love rolling meat up! Chicken is fantastic rolled up, pork is delicious rolled up, and steak is the best rolled up. I've made these a couple times, and I used London Broil steaks at first. However, they were a little too tough. Because I was making these for my uncle's birthday dinner, I wanted to use a different type of steak. Luckily top sirloin was on sale.

Now I don't know anything about different cuts of steak because I don't eat it and I rarely cook with it - this is actually the only recipe I have ever found where I enjoyed the steak. It is just not my meat of choice. I picked this particular steak because it was more expensive than the London Broil even on sale - so if it costs more it is better, right? The proof was in the pudding! They turned on nice and tender in the end. Bonus - I didn't have to pound them out for an entire morning like I needed to with the London Broil. These were already sliced into thin slabs of steak and ready to be slathered with herb-y cheese and rolled!

I doubled the recipe because I was making dinner for seven people, but I am going to write out the recipe in the original quantities and it is simple to double if you want to make it for more.

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The Perfect Hamburger

Grade: A-

Time it takes: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4

Source: recipe from Annie's Eats - a food blog, via Williams Sonoma

I am not a big burger maker - actually a lot of the time if I want a burger I just make a veggie burger from the frozen foods section. Mainly because I've never attempted to make an actual burger recipe and ground beef formed into a patty and grilled isn't the most exciting thing. But, since I wanted to make burger buns I thought I would try out a burger recipe to go with it.

I thought they tasted fantastic. Chris, however, did not like it because of the onions, and more particularly because he could see the onion bits - he is not a fan of bits in just about anything because he is weird like that. I love onions though, so I enjoyed the flavour personally. I would recommend this basic burger if you are a fan of onions and if not just omit them, or add a little onion powder so you don't get bits.

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Spaghetti and Meatballs

 

Grade: A+

Time it takes: 3-5 hours (30 minutes prep, 2-4 hours cooking)

Yield: Serves 6

Source: Annie's Eats - food blog (recipe)

I love pasta, and I really love spaghetti with a meat sauce. But, I've never made spaghetti and meatballs. I usually boil some noodles, heat up a jar of store bought pasta sauce add some ground beef and call it a day. I normally don't plan pasta as a meal for a particular day because Chris isn't the biggest fan of pasta, so it ends up being something I make for myself when I want to eat right away and Chris has something I'm not interested in. Thus store bought pasta sauce. Obviously I didn't know what I was missing - ohmygosh this was incredibly tasty and well worth the wait!

Chris and I brought it over to a friend's house for dinner followed by house sprucing. It seemed to be a hit. Everybody liked how tender the meatballs were while still being firm enough to not fall apart. I really liked cooking them in the sauce on the stove, instead of in the oven - the one time I made meatballs I made them for meatball subs and in the oven, and they were okay. These meatballs, however, are not okay...they are delicious! Chris and our friend Atty, both not big fans of red sauce, thought it tasted pretty dang good.

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Beef and Guinness Casserole

 

Grade: A +

For our wedding reception, Chris and I decided to make a bunch of our favourite recipes and have our friends and family over for dinner - sort of pot-luck style. Planning that made me realize that I really don't have too many tried and true recipes. So, I decided to try to cook up at least one new recipe each week - so that I could try out some new things, master something different, and hopefully add a good bit to my recipe box.

We received a Belleek Everyday basket weave covered casserole dish - that's a mouthful - as a wedding gift from my oldest best friend's parents (who were practically my second set of parents growing up). It came with a recipe for Beef and Guinness Casserole (by Neven Maguire). I figured it was the perfect new recipe to start off with.

Click below to expand for the recipe!