Easy Beef Tips

I have this specific recipe in my slow cooker right now. I'm waiting for my daughter to let me know if she wants mashed potatoes or egg noodles so I can have it ready when she gets home. I'll be going out to dinner with a friend. I want to taste this before I go. I've been wanting to make it for a long while.

The recipe calls for 2-2.5 pounds of beef, but I had only bought 1 pound from our tiny full-service grocery. I like them because they have a real butcher. Everything is cut fresh and this meat had been run through a grinder with very large holes, so it was perfect for beef tips. It was like thick strips of meat, but they were round because of the grinder. Because I didn't have the ingredients to make it right away (I was actually thinking of making pepper steak when I first bought the meat), I had triple wrapped it and put it in the freezer. I took it out yesterday and thawed it and today I put it together in the cooker.

The slow cooker I am using has a removable pot, so I was able to brown the meat right in the same pot it would be cooked in, so no need to dirty a bunch of pans. The small bowl and container I used to make the gravy and flour the meat are easy to clean, so I'm not too worried about those.

So, if you made this, what would you eat it with? Mashed potatoes? Egg noodles? Or rice (which my daughter won't touch, so I didn't ask her about that)?

Here is the link to the recipe: recipesthatcrock.com/slow-cooker-beef-tips-gravy/

Credit for photo belongs to the website where I got the recipe: www.recipesthatcrock.com.

I Finally Made Beef Rouladen

I've been watching television for a couple hours - something I haven't done in a couple months because we had the digital antenna disconnected so we could use the DVD. I needed the diversion. I even cooked dinner tonight and proceeded

to burn the shit out of the beef broth I had used. I mean, who knew beef broth could even burn!!! So, yeah, thankfully the rouladen were still edible because they weren't the cheapest cuts of meat (although they were a manager markdown at the end of the store's day). It is actually an easy recipe, but the only other time I made it I used Mom's electric stove. I HATE gas stoves. No matter how low I have it, it's still a direct flame. I can't just let it simmer and braise.

Seriously, though, rouladen is so easy to make and tastes great. I used thinly sliced bottom round steak, spread stone ground mustard on each one, sprinkled some diced onions on (recipes usually call for sliced onions), laid a bread-n-butter pickle slice down and topped it with a strip of bacon. Then I began rolling from the pickle end and used toothpicks to hold them together. Browned them on all sides and poured in a 15 oz can of beef broth. There's no way that broth should have evaporated (I even had a lid on it) and scorched, but it did. It didn't when I made them at Mom's. But, you thicken the gravy and they're just so tender because they've cooked like this and they're thin. With Mom's, I used cube steaks that I pounded thinner. But, I found these really nice bottom round steak slices and went for it. I have four in the freezer, already filled and rolled, to do again later. I think next time I'll use the slow cooker with the electric base and the oblong pan. I think it'll turn out better.

But, I don't like pickles and I like this. It's seriously good! Here is the recipe I used:

GERMAN BEEF ROULADEN
Time 65 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
• 1 1/2 pounds flank steak 
• German stone ground mustard, to taste 
• 1/2 pound thick sliced bacon
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 (16 ounce) jar dill pickle slices
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 cube beef bouillon
How to make it
• Cut the flank steak into thin filets; about 1/4 inch thick and 3 inches wide.
• Generously spread one side of each filet with mustard to taste. Place bacon, onions and pickle slices on each filet and form into a roll. Use string or toothpicks to hold the roll together.
• Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt butter. Place the rolls in the butter and sauté until browned.
• Pour in 2 1/2 cups of water and add the bouillon cube; stirring to dissolve the bouillon cube. Simmer the rolls for about an hour. Thicken the gravy as you desire.

This was DELICIOUS!! I first made this while I was living with my mother as her caregiver. I don't like pickles, but I love what they did to the meat! The gravy was rich and flavorful. I wish I could have replicated it this time. But, I have more for next time waiting!



Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Super Easy Crockpot Roast Beef

I live for simple cooking. If the ingredient list requires me to scroll, it’s a good bet I won’t be making that particular thing. That’s just how I am. But, if I can find a way to make something taste like I did a lot of work with little effort, you can bet it’s going to be on my must make list. This is one of those recipes.

Out of habit I buy, when I have the money and it’s on sale, bottom round roasts. That’s what Mom bought and I prefer them to chuck roasts just because I hate dealing with all that fat. The roasts that I buy range anywhere from 2.5 to 3.25 lbs (there’s only two of us), so it fits well in my 3 qt. crockpot.

I then either put a package of onion soup over the meat (without searing it) or put peeled potatoes and carrots in first with the meat on top followed by the onion soup mix. I have also used Campbell’s condensed onion soup (NOT cream of onion) with excellent results. I then add a half to a full cup of water and let it cook on low all day.

The meat comes out, usually, tender, moist and full of flavor. You can strain the onion bits if you want or leave them in the broth for onion gravy. You can also add some more water (I usually end up with 2 cups of gravy) and then use a flour/water slurry to thicken it. If you remove the meat and vegetables right away, the broth will still be hot enough to thicken in the crockpot.

French Onion Pot Roast - similar to mine

I don’t add any other seasonings because of all the seasonings in the soup mix or can of soup, although they’re not as concentrated in the can as they are in the dry mix. You can also buy low sodium onion soup mix if you want to reduce the amount of sodium.

I use bottom round roast, but one time I used a California roast (very much like a chuck roast) and it just fell apart so wonderfully. Perfect for roast beef sandwiches!!

The potatoes and the carrots are tender and flavored from the soup mix and the resulting gravy is flavored by the potatoes and the carrots. You can eat the potatoes with butter like baked potatoes or mash them on your plate to use with the gravy. It’s a win-win, as far as I’m concerned!


The photo is not my roast, but is made the same way I make mine and looks very much like mine. The photo is also a link to the recipe it goes with.

R is for Roast Beef

I wish I could say I'm having this very thing tonight, but I'm not. We do love our roast beef. The last one we had was a few weeks ago and was the first time I'd ever cooked a chuck roast. I've always cooked bottom round roasts like my  mother used to do. They don't fall apart as readily as the chuck roast does, but can be cooked until they do if you like them that way. 

Roast Beef with parsnips, carrots, onions & rutabega

Mom used to cook them on top of the stove (I don't remember any roast ever going in the oven) and they were so flavorful and tender. On occasion, she'd cook them until they fell apart and then add barbecue sauce to them for BBQ beef sandwiches. I've cooked them until they fell apart and had hot roast beef sandwiches with the shredded meat. This last time, though, we ate the beef and broth over mashed potatoes and it was wonderful!


Although I don't have any roast in the freezer (except for a small portion of that chuck), I was thinking of putting several steaks in the crockpot and cooking them like I would a roast until they are fork tender. Since we like it shredded anyway, the end result should be the same, don't you think?


I usually add onion soup mix and a bit of water to the pot for flavor and moisture. The last roast I made I used beef broth instead of water. I don't always have any on hand. If I use a full-sized crock, I'll also add carrots and potatoes. I love how the flavors blend in the broth for the gravy.


I've even made German Beef Rouladen which is not unlike bracciole in appearance, but the flavor is tart because of the beef rolls being stuffed with pickles. The gravy you get on this dish is wonderful!


What seasoning do you like to use for your roasts? Do you brown them first? Do you cook them in a crock, on the stove or in the oven? Do you do anything unique to yours that's worth sharing?

Foodie Friday - Two Restaurants and Cultures

Yes, I know it's Saturday. It was late when I got home last night, so I didn't have the thinking power to put things into words. But, I wanted to tell you about the places I went and how they were.


First, Tom and I went for coffee. I'd say obligatory, but it's actually been a while since we were there. Of course, I like Starbucks, so there was no problem there other than parking was next to impossible. There was a fire on Kings Highway, so all the parking for nearly two blocks was taken by fire equipment fighting a fire in one of the historic structures there. Then it was lunch rush, so that only compounded the problem. But, we found a spot on the next block over and walked through the CVS to get back to Kings and then down to Starbucks where we began enjoying our coffee. By then, I was so hungry. I had thought we were going to breakfast, but by the time noon comes along, there are few places left that offer it. We tossed several ideas around (he simply wouldn't take my suggestion to go for Indian three doors down seriously) and decided on a whim to try the Irish pub we'd seen up near the branch of his bank we were headed for. 

Recipe for this particular Roast Beef can be found at: http://bit.ly/eLeFYt

I dropped him off at the bank and went to park and found it to be a problem there as well, but at last did find a spot behind the pub out of sight of the bank. I went in and got us a table and the hostess and our waiter promised to be on the lookout for him. Twenty minutes later, he was still a no show. I was beginning to look like I was stood up, but I knew that wasn't true since I had the keys to the car. I looked over the menu and one item intrigued me: The Dublin Square Carvery. 


(The name of the pub is Dublin Square, located on Evesham Rd in the Voorhees/Cherry Hill area.) The menu description looked plentiful, but the reality was that there was just so much food offered. The description: Freshly sliced Sandwich of the Day, served with a cup of soup and a nonalcoholic beverage. 


I went up expecting everything to be given to me at once. That was not the case. At first I was given my choice of soups - either the potato leek soup or the daily special of lamb and vegetable soup with coconut essence. Yes, they used the term "essence". I took the lamb vegetable which turned out to be more sweet than I'd expected, but I tempered that with the addition of salt and pepper at the table. The overall flavor still came through, the meat was so tender and the veggies cooked perfectly without dissolving. 


Next to the soup was the salad. Yesterday's offering was baby spinach salad with blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and craisins and a bit of Feta cheese. There were six dressings to choose from. I went with my standard ranch. I also took a slice of bread and some of the seasoned butter (which turned out to be so full of garlic bits that I couldn't eat it.) I don't think I've ever enjoyed a salad so much. I've never had a salad with fruits on it and the Feta cheese, which can overwhelm on a good day, was merely an accent to the entire salad. I was in love! 


I went back to get what I assumed would be my sandwich to find that the roast beef (which was the meat being offered yesterday) was to be hand carved in a plentiful amount onto my plate and accompanied by two side veggies and Au Jus, if I wished. I wished. I got mashed potatoes, green beans and loads and loads of meat plus a bowl of Au Jus. I grabbed a torpedo roll and went back to my table. I made myself a roast beef sandwich and ate it French Dip style in the Au Jus plus used some of it on my mashed potatoes. I still had a half bowl of broth left as well as more than half the meat on my plate when I was done. All of this food PLUS my diet Pepsi for only $9.75. The meat, salad, soup and sides change daily, but the price remains the same. I can't wait to try it again!!


I would WHOLELY recommend this restaurant to anyone! Especially during the lunch hours of 11-3!! Oh, and the men wear KILTS!!! Hot diggity damn! Men in skirts!! (Of course, so do the women, but theirs are so much shorter and not on my list of things I'm pleasantly surprised to find.)


The other restaurant was in Chinatown in Philly. Personally, I could live without ever going to Chinatown. It isn't that I've never had a good meal there because I have. But, they always want to take me when it's raining or snowing or cold and windy and I HATE going into the city under those circumstances. I'm a country girl at heart and that just doesn't suit me. Not to mention the near impossibility of finding a parking spot without driving around and around and around, ad nauseum. But, we did go and we ended up at Rangoon restaurant, a Burmese restaurant on 9th St in Chinatown. I was in a foul mood anyway because I wasn't told where we were going and they know how much I hate going to Chinatown (again, with the previous disclaimers). But, I looked over the menu and decided on a vegetarian selection, Tomato Curry Tofu, as my main course, Golden Finger Tempura for my appetizer and Watercress Soup as well as Green Jasmine Tea. 

Rangoon Restaurant's very own Golden Tempura Fingers, http://bit.ly/fknN0E

I loved the tempura, a bit different from Japanese tempura, but a similar concept. Fingers of squash (zucchini, I think) dipped in batter and fried with a spicy sweet sauce in which to dip them. 


Excellent, although I preferred the sweet and sour sauce that came with another appetizer on the table. I happen to love fried squash, so this went over well with me.

A similar soup made with pork, recipe found here: http://bit.ly/dKTzI2

Next came the watercress soup which looked and tasted a little like Miso soup, but contained chicken. It wasn't bad, but was very hot, temperature-wise. It arrived in a bowl with a lid, which was pretty cool, I thought, as did the hot tea (mugs with lids - who knew?) I can't drink or eat things whose temperatures are scalding, so I still wasn't done my soup when our main dishes arrived. I set my bowl of soup aside for later.


My main dish arrived with a bowl of white rice and consisted of large cubes of tofu in a thickened tomato sauce.

A similar recipe found here: http://bit.ly/fHt0fb

Although it was supposed to contain curry, I didn't really taste any. The other ingredients were garlic, onion and parsley. Thankfully, the garlic didn't dominate. But, I did taste cilantro, so I'm left wondering if they used that instead of parsley. Regardless, I did enjoy the dish, even though the sauce wasn't as wet as sauces I'd had with other Asian cultural dishes (I'm particularly fond of Indian cuisine).  The guys kept snagging pieces of my tofu and, before that, pieces of my squash. In fact, Tom ate my last two pieces of squash before I had a chance to stop him! LOL


I finished my meal by finishing off my soup, which was finally cool enough for me to enjoy. Because it was cooler, I was better able to taste the flavors therein. I enjoyed it so much more then than when I first received it. I brought about half of my tofu dish home with me. It's what I enjoyed for breakfast this morning. So, although I am not a fan of Chinatown, I would return to Rangoon if being treated to dinner again. The staff was very nice and ready to help whenever we needed. I would recommend this restaurant as well.


So, I leave you with this......CATURDAY!

Baby Cat, 10 months

Tiki, 2 yrs 10 months

Chloe, my fatty catty, age 12

Recipes and Rain (and a bit of a Rant)

It is Wednesday and has been raining since before sunup (can't see the sun, but I know it's there somewhere). I thought today might be a good day to share some recipes I've tried and enjoyed. Of course, I can't do that until I've chatted a bit, so I hope you don't mind.


Yesterday, I spent all day (literally) helping Tom get his homework together and, supposedly, study for his exam at school. Getting him to do his homework was pretty much like trying to put a collar on a jelly fish. Now, you need to understand - this is NOT a child I'm talking about. This is a 36-yr old man who already has a Master's Degree from Villanova...someone who can rattle off political facts and analyses like an encyclopedia....a man who is one of the least stupid people I know. But, this is also a very spoiled man who has always managed to find someone else to do whatever it is he doesn't want to do. That's where I come in.


Honestly, I don't mind doing some of the work. I enjoy working on the computer and I enjoy learning the software he's studying (Microsoft Office and WordPerfect). (Quite frankly, tuition-free learning is the way to go.) In the long run, it helps me as well as him. My problem is (hopefully was) that he thought he could just look at the chapter a few times before class and know how to do the work. He thought that as long as he turned in homework and showed up, he'd pass. He didn't think he needed to actually apply what he was supposedly learning by practicing. That's where we parted ways yesterday.


He learned that he was failing the course. He planned to appeal that, which is fine if everyone in the class is failing. It shows a distinct lacking on the part of the instructor. But, even though this instructor has nothing but negative reviews from her students, I also felt that HE was mostly responsible for his lack of learning. The man refuses to take notes. He loves playing dumb in class and having all the girls help him. He thought the game would work with his teacher as well as his tutor. He was wrong.


He's attending school under the Trade Act for job losses due to jobs being sent overseas. The company for whom he'd worked 12.5 years let almost everyone go after sending all of their accounting, publisher contact and most of the customer service jobs to Singapore and Sri Lanka. He spent most of his last year with them in Singapore training their replacements. Now he's being retrained for future employment (he had no computer skills at all and wasn't particularly marketable with a Political Science degree). He's in the Paralegal program which I think is a good fit for him considering his ability to understand the abstract. But, he MUST learn the software. I don't care HOW much he hates computers (I feel the same way about typewriters, which is why I avoided secretarial courses passionately in high school), they are what is being used and they are what is being used EXTENSIVELY in law offices. He can learn everything he wants about law and legal writing, but he'd damned well better know how to put it into a computer since that's what a Paralegal will be doing!!


At any rate, I set out an assignment for him to do. A short one. An easy one. All he had to do was manipulate WordPerfect to change whatever it asked to change. It was pre-written!! It took him almost two hours to finish what should have taken 20 minutes at most. He got up and down, went outside to smoke, decided he needed to shave because his face itched, complained about computers, turned on the news, went to various websites that weren't work related (some of them political, but others were less than savory), complained that he was hungry, and so on. He just wouldn't get started. When he finally realized I wasn't going to step up and rescue him, he sat down and got it done. AAGGHHH!!!


So, now he's changed his two computer classes to "audit", plans to take one this summer and has gotten his counselor's approval to not take the other one (Word Perfect) if he takes and passes MS Word. I guess I can now relax as well, but someone who hates computers should have NEVER taken TWO computer courses during the same semester. Period!!


OK, so that's out of my system. Let's move on to rain. The forecast I received by email says we can expect snow today and tomorrow following the rain earlier in the day. SNOW!! On March 23!! I knew they were having snow farther north, but didn't think it would drop down to visit us here. And, it might not since it's mid-afternoon and still no sign of the white stuff. I love rain and I like snow, but I don't like that slushy stuff that's best had in glasses with a variety of flavored syrups and a straw. It's messy, it gets dirty, there's nothing at all soothing about it. Rain puts me to sleep and snow quiets the noisy world around us. Slush is mush - there is nothing at all poetic about it. So, if it's gonna snow, LET IT SNOW!! Or stay gone!!


Ready for those recipes I promised? Assuming you haven't simply scrolled down to find them? LOL


I made this one when I found an opened can of beer in the fridge (I don't drink beer, but my kids do). I found a recipe that sounded just right and this was the result. This and other recipes are posted on my GroupRecipes page under the name chatombreux.

German Beer Braised Pot Roast

• Ingredients
  
  
  ·         1 1/2 -2 lb. beef rump roast (I used a bottom round about the same size)
  ·         1 T. oil
  ·         2 pieces of bacon
  ·         1/4 tsp. salt
  ·         1 medium onion, chopped
  ·         2 carrots, cubed
  ·         1 bay leaf
  ·         3 whole cloves
  ·         1 tsp. black peppercorns, crushed
  ·         12 oz. beer or brown ale
  ·         1 c. beef broth or bouillon to make 1 cup
  ·         2 tsp. molasses or dark beet syrup (Ruebensirup in Germany)
  ·         1 T. vinegar
  ·         1 T. flour
  ·         1 T. butter (I left this out - enough fat in the liquid from the meat & bacon)
  
  
  How to make it
  ·         Heat oil in Dutch oven. Brown roast sharply on all sides and remove. Lay the bacon on the bottom of the Dutch oven, place the browned roast on it and sprinkle with salt.
  ·         Place onions, carrots and spices around the sides of the roast. Pour the beer and the broth over the roast, then mix the vinegar with the molasses and add to the liquids. Liquids should be 1 to 2 inches deep. Place lid on pan and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until meat is tender.
  ·         Remove roast and cover with foil to keep warm. Strain and reserve the broth. Melt the butter in the pan, add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add 2 cups of reserved broth, a little at a time and stirring the sauce smooth after each addition. Add pepper, salt, vinegar or sugar to taste.
  ·         Serve sauce (gravy) over roast. This roast is good with braised cabbage or mixed vegetables and potatoes to soak up the gravy.
  
  

It was sweeter than I'd expected, but still quite good. I plan to leave out the molasses next time.

One Pot Kielbasa And Cabbage Meal

• Time 210 minutes
  Serves 8
  
  
  Ingredients
  ·         1 lb kielbasa, cut into coins
  ·         4 med. potatoes, peeled and cut up into chunks
  ·         1 small cabbage, rough cut into large chunks
  ·         2 or more carrots, peeled and cut up
  ·         1/2 large onion, large diced
  ·         1 cup of frozen kernel corn
  ·         1 1/2 cups frozen string beans
  ·         1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used Italian seasoned)
  ·         2 cups beef broth
  ·         2 cups chicken broth
  ·         Salt and pepper to taste
  
  
  How to make it
  ·         Core and peel off the unusable leaves from the cabbage and cut up into large chunks. Do the same to the onion (it was about 3" in diameter). Put both in the pot. Peel and chunk the carrot, too. Add that to the pot with the two cups of beef broth.
  ·         Let this cook until the cabbage is reduced and the broth is as well. Then add the cut up kielbasa, string beans, corn kernels, the tomatoes and the 2 cups of chicken broth. Add pepper (I used fresh ground). I didn't measure it, but figure I added about 1/2 tsp or so. I didn't add salt because there would be salt in the broths as well as the can of tomatoes.
  ·         I lowered the burner flame as low as I could and let the pot just simmer after stirring to mix thoroughly. Periodically, I went back and stirred again to make sure everything in the pot got hot throughout and the flavors melded.
  ·         After just over 3 hours, I checked the carrots and the cabbage (two things I find that take longer to cook through than other things) and found them to be tender.

This was so much better than I expected it to be considering I'm a fan of neither kielbasa nor cabbage. Next time, though, I'll use ham.

photo by Tamorlan

German Beef Rouladen

Time 65 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds flank steak (or flattened cube steaks)
• German stone ground mustard, to taste (I used Guldens Brown)
• 1/2 pound thick sliced bacon
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 (16 ounce) jar dill pickle slices
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 cube beef bouillon

 How to make it

• Cut the flank steak into thin filets; about 1/4 inch thick and 3 inches wide.
• Generously spread one side of each filet with mustard to taste. Place bacon, onions and pickle slices on each filet and form into a roll. Use string or toothpicks to hold the roll together.
• Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt butter. Place the rolls in the butter and sauté until browned.
• Pour in 2 1/2 cups of water and add the bouillon cube; stirring to dissolve the bouillon cube. Simmer the rolls for about an hour. Thicken the gravy as you desire.

This was DELICIOUS!! I made this while I was living with my mother as her caretaker. I don't like pickles, but I love what they did to the meat! The gravy was rich and flavorful.

image from WisconsinMade.com

Chicken And Stuffing For Two

·         Time 50 minutes

    Serves 2

Ingredients

•         2 chicken breasts (bone-in or out, with skin or without)
•          1 regular sized box of stovetop-style chicken stuffing (or cornbread stuffing)
•          1/2 can cranberry sauce (jellied or whole)
•          1/4 cup orange juice
•          1 pkg onion soup mix
•          1 pkg chicken gravy (or a jar of chicken gravy)

How to make it

• Prepare the stuffing mix to have ready.
• Prepare the breasts (rinsing, skinning them if you want, de-boning them if not already de-boned) and season them with salt and pepper. If they are large breasts, cut a pocket into the large side and stuff some dressing in them, placing them in a casserole dish (square or oblong).
• Place the rest of the stuffing around the breasts in the casserole/baking dish.
• Take 1/2 can of cranberry sauce and mix well with the orange juice and the onion soup mix.
• Pour this gently over the breasts. Don't worry about run-off - it will help flavor the stuffing.
• Mix the gravy mix with cold water and pour it over the stuffing evenly (likewise with the jarred gravy if you use that).
• You might want to put some aluminum foil over the stuffing at each end to prevent too much overbaking against the sides of the pan.
• Place casserole/baking dish in a 350 oven (400 if you want to cook a few minutes faster - but watch that it doesn't overcook) for 40-50 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these recipes. Please post a comment if you try them and what tweaks you'd made to suit your tastes. I hope to post more soon.