A Side of Beef

101 Update

2011-12-26T20:10:00.003-05:00

Goal #1 - Complete! I went to a mozzarella making class at Dave's. We started with the curd and made fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is completely different than the stuff you get in the store. It's awesome and you can taste how it changes over time.

#2 Complete (Modified). Originally to preserve foods by canning or pickling. But I got a ton on kale from the year end PYO, that I blanched and froze. It means I didn't get to learn more about the canning or pickling process, but I've spent a bunch of time persevering foods. I also peeled and froze apples then, and recently made them into a fantastic apple pie. I also froze a bunch of turkey, vegetable soup, and cooked beans. I just got a vacuum sealer for Christmas, which I tired out on some lentil soup.

#9 New Foods: I've tried jackfruit. I tried the canned version and made an Indian type curry with it.

#23 I took a gun safety course. I fired a glock in the simulators. So no bullets, and the computer and air tank provided the feedback and kickback. I handled a revolver, semi-automatic, shotgun, and AR-15 with fake ammo and stuff.

#68 We had 3 other couples over for Thanksgiving. I had an 18lb turkey from my meat CSA. It totally counts as a dinner party in my book.

#80 Lots of date type things with Ted. We did a dinner and concert-- Dinner at a Tibetan restaurant and then saw Tornado Rider which was a fun experience. The lead has a great presences, is very funny, and plays and is a fantastic cello player. Unfortunately, his singing leaves something to be desired. However, I do love the Golden Apple Dance (which you can listen to on their website.)

#87 Winterizing the home: Well I replaced all the furnace filters, we've resealed the door, replaced the mail slot, plasticked over the stain glass window, have winter supplies (shovels, salt, sand, etc.), which I'm declaring is good enough.

Goals Updates #10, 97, 70, 27

2011-05-04T12:52:00.003-04:00

#10 - New Foods: I cooked shark recently. Didn't really care for it. Found out later that it is on the overfished list, so yet another reason not to eat it again.

#97 Read the Karma Sutra. It's not as sexy as people make it out to be. Most of it is a compilation of advice on relationships.

#70 Be in contact with my sister. Haven't been keeping precise track, but we've had enough contact since she moved to the area that I'm checking this off.

#27. First Aid Kit -- I just bought one off of the Red Cross site, so that will work well enough.

I'm definitely going to be changing some of the craft goals. But I'm happy with the progress overall.

Still more goals I forgot to check off...

2011-02-22T22:17:00.003-05:00

#10 -- I had duck tongue a while back. A bit strange. Other parts of the duck are much tastier.

#67 -- And a letter off to grandma...

#83 -- Living room has been decorated for a while now...

#90 -- Tons of pictures up. We still could use more, but there's enough up to check this off.

Other Goals Completed

2011-02-03T13:52:00.002-05:00

#21 - Finally finished that knitted sweater. It's too small (figures). I think I'll be going back to crochet.

#39 &#80 - Went ice skating with Ted. Had a lot of fun. Did lunch at the Friendly Toast first, which was very tasty.

#55 - I've been making and wearing jewelry quite a bit, so I'm counting this as done.

#64 - I only meant to go to one yoga class, but I've enjoyed it so much that I've regularly been going 3-5 times a week.

#66 - We held a Halloween party and I dressed as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Lots of fun.

#67 Christmas card went out to grandparents on both sides.

#89 Fire extinguishers, new smoked detectors and CO detectors all in good shape.

Food Related Goals #2, 3, 4, 10

2011-02-03T13:36:00.003-05:00

I've been very remiss about keeping this up to date. Since my last post I've:

Made no-kneed bread, which turned out very well. It's very easy and tasty, though I used a tablespoon or two more water than what that recipe calls for.
Made homemade butter for the bread. It's even easier than bread and wow, does fresh butter taste good! The buttermilk from making it went towards making buttermilk pancakes.
Tried several new foods, but have apparently forgotten a number of them. I do remember:

--- Red Hawaiian Sea Salt. (Okay, but I like Fleur de Sel better as far as expensive salt goes.)

--- Squid ink (as part of a tasting menu I had for my birthday)

--- Burdock root (I made kinpria goba and pickled burdock root, both okay, but not a favorite)

Goals #10, 32, 42, 75, 91

2010-05-16T19:10:00.007-04:00

Goal 10: Trying new foods!

I've recently tried cocoa nibs. I definitely prefer them to chocolate chips.

I also tried Kefir, both the solid sour cream like version and the liquid drink. The solid stuff is very, very tasty. Drinks okay, but I prefer the solid version.

#32: General doctors checkup. Finally got a primary care physician and basic checkup. She's great.

#42 Lectures: Went to a lecture on Marriage Equality and how the legislative approach to this issue may have increase backlash and delayed legal equality.

#75 Get a new job -- Done!

#91 - Cleaning service schedules for every two weeks. Glad to not have to clean the bathrooms myself anymore.

Goals 63 &101 Completed

2010-04-19T23:09:00.003-04:00

50 consecutive push-ups completed! I used the 100 push-up challenge program. The ramp up is ridiculous -- an having done it for far more than the 6 weeks indicated, I finally hit 50. Thank god my goal wasn't 100.

I also finished off Goal #101 -- watching 5 documentaries. I "watched" Stolen, meaning I had it playing in the background while I folded laundry and stuff. I like the theory of documentaries, but they never seem to hold my interest.

Goals 1, 24, 25, 37, 77, 80, 84, 100

2010-04-11T20:50:00.002-04:00

Wow it's been a while since I updated my list.

#1 - I made paneer, an indian cheese. Very easy. Tasty but next time I'll salt the milk.

#24 & #25 Red cross certified for First Aid and CPR.

#37 - Saw the Shakespearean Concert. Really like the harpist and one of the pianists.

#77 - Ah the no computer weekend. Will not be doing that again any time soon.

#80 - Date with Ted for Restaurant Week.

#84 - Hung, hemmed, and steamed curtains in the one room that needed them.

#100 - Read some classics: Read 'Their eyes were watching God". Almost done with "Song of Solomon". Neither have impressed me.

Goal 100 - The Sun Also Rises

2010-03-07T12:44:00.002-05:00

Goal 100: I read "The Sun Also Rises" by Hemingway. Surprisingly, it wasn't as slow and boring as I remember Hemingway being in high school. While it was a quick read, there didn't seem to be much of a point to it. A lot of talk about money and drinking, a few references to sex, and extensive descriptions of bullfighting / running of the bulls.

101 Goals update

2010-02-21T17:48:00.003-05:00

Goal 9: Pack a lunch every day for a week -- done!

Goal 18: Was make a gourd bowl, changed it to make homemade chocolates. Jess and I make them a few weeks ago. Overall people were quite impressed. The coconut creams were by far the most popular.

Goal 60: Get Laptop working. Done! Completely reformatted and reinstalled.

Goal 100: Read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Of all the classic books I've read so far, I like this one the best by far. I now know where the Nurse Ratchet references come from.

Goal #100 - Call of the Wild & Slaughterhouse Five

2010-01-17T14:15:00.001-05:00

Finished both Call of the Wild and Slaughterhouse Five. Not bad, not great. I prefer books with either a strong plot line or interesting charter development. Had I read Call of the Wild with the perspective that it's a collection of related short stories, I think I would have enjoyed it more. As for the random/absurd nature of Slaughterhouse Five -- it just left me wanting to reread stuff by Douglas Adams.

Goal #101 - The Spy Factory: Nova

2010-01-12T22:16:00.002-05:00

Watched another documentary - The Spy Factor: Nova. It's billed as being about the NSA, but really it's just pimping some guy's book about 9/11 from the standpoint of "what did the NSA know". Didn't really learn anything new about the NSA in general and didn't really care about the specifics of 9/11 intel.

I'd say it was a waste of time, but I watched it while cooking. The latkes and homemade applesauce were tasty.

Goals # 10, 57, 80, 86

2010-01-03T19:04:00.006-05:00

Goal #10: Try 10 new foods. New foods came in my vegetable box. Made a wheatberry salad with feta, olives, tomatoes, and caramelized onions. Also tried celeriac root, though that just went in a soup with onions, carrots, potatoes, and parsnips.

Goal #57: Organize bookmarks. Sorted through everything and deleted obsolete links. I know I should switch over to delicious, but the paranoid privacy freak in me just can quite bring myself to do it.

Goal #80: Date with Ted. We went to the science museum. The plan was to see the Harry Potter exhibit and go to the planetarium. Unfortunately, there weren't tickets available for the time we were there.

Goal #86: Buy a sofa. Should get delivered in a few weeks.

Goals # 67, 69, 92

2009-12-24T17:38:00.002-05:00

Goal #67: Sent Christmas cards to grandparents

Goal #69: Play Date with Olivia - we walked to Kaze and had shabu-shabu, which is a favorite of hers. She definitely like salmon!

Goal #92: Rekey the locks. Ted took care of this, but it's done which is important.

Goal #101 - Unknown White Male

2009-12-24T17:18:00.002-05:00

Goal 101 - Watch Documentaries

I watched the documentary Unknown White Male about a guy who basically wakes up with complete amnesia and no identification on him. I saw it after reading the fanfic Unidentified which uses the same premise. I liked the story better than the movie. The movie was okay, but slow, which I find to be true of most documentaries.

Goal #100 - Lolita

2009-12-24T15:44:00.003-05:00

Goal #100 - Read 10 Banned Books

I read Lolita as one of my banned books. While reading it, I kept wondering about the origin of the classic or stereotypical characteristics of a pedophile. Did Lolita draw from what was known at the time regarding the psychology/motivations/characteristics of a pedophile? Or did Lolita formulate that image in the public consciousness? I'd guess the former, it's just that I kept noticing how the book kept matching what "they say" regarding pedophilia, which made me wonder.

While I'm not likely to reread the book, it's definitely a decent literary work that doesn't feel like "literature" in the negative (clockwork orange) sense.

Goal #69: Play dates

2009-12-05T21:28:00.002-05:00

This goal was to do individual play dates with nieces and nephew. First up was Esme. We walked around the park, went to the playground, and watch the ice skating rink. She enjoyed watching the Zamboni. Her favorite seemed to be going and playing in the "snow" dumped by the Zamboni. Afterwords we got cocoa and a doughnut. Fairly successful all around.

Goal #100 - Animal Farm

2009-12-05T21:24:00.002-05:00

Read Animal Farm as one of the banned books. Quick read, totally see why they use it in schools. While I can tell it was very revolutionary for it's time, I think the impact is fairly weak nowadays.

Don't have much to say about it. Lolita is next.

Gaols 36 & 80 - Date at the Aquarium

2009-12-05T21:13:00.003-05:00

So I planned a date for Ted and I: going to Boston Kebab House and the Aquarium. I'm counting this as the first planned date, but Ted thinks it's number three. (We did a picnic along the river and a trip to the Ignoble awards, both of which I planned. But I wasn't thinking of them as new date things, so I don't think I'll count them.)

The Kebab House was good. If I was in the area for lunch, I'd eat there, but it's not something I'd make a trip out of my way for. I would like to try their Meze bar sometime - we got there late enough that it was pretty sparse.

The Aquarium was nice. We stayed just over an hour. Since we got free tickets from my work, I was happy with the value, but I wouldn't want to pay $20+ to see it. I really like the mini jelly fish, the penguins were cute, and I felt sorry for the octopus.

A Clockwork Orange: Goals #99 & #100

2009-11-21T21:34:00.002-05:00

So goal #99 was to read or see A Clockwork Orange. Since I decided to read the book, it also meets goal #100 because it is a banned book.

Two or three people made comments when I mentioned I was going to read A Clockwork Orange. Universally, their response was about how much they hated the book or movie.

I wouldn't say I hated the book, but I didn't enjoy it either. Of course it's not the kind of book that's supposed to be enjoyed, I think.

Honestly, I see why it's considered 'literature'. It has blatant themes and symbols, heavy moralizing and political commentary, and difficult to read writing style. It's Catch 22/Brave New World as written by Jack Kerouac.

It reads like 'On the Road' but with way too much made up slang. It was the fictious slang that got to me. I've read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, and so I understand the need to 'world build' through language choice. But this was just absurd. When half of the words in the sentence a completely made up, it's not creative. Given how rich a language English is, I feel it's a poor reflection on the writer if he needs to make up that much crap. There's a point where it stops adding character and starts detracting from the story and Burgess passed it.

I'd like to say that the book reminded me of what I think of as 'classical anime': a good story that's killed at the end when the author heavy-handedly shovels in an overbearing moralistic commentary. Unfortunately, A Clockwork Orange didn't have a good story (or really much of a story) to start with. And Burgess didn't really wait that long to start shoveling.

I'd say file and forget, but at least it's a book that might be worth making cultural or literary allusions to if I'm ever forced into a conversation with a pretentious litterary nut.

#56 Clean Clothes Closet

2009-11-08T20:28:00.001-05:00

As part of moving, I cleaned out my clothes closet. I had a friend along to help -- she made sure I got rid of the stuff that was old, didn't fit, didn't look good on me, or didn't get worn. Afterwards, she made a list of stuff I should not buy any more of, and she right.

No more buying:

Cardigans
Shells
Black, white, or black and white skirts
Neutral toned tops (beige, brown, tan, cream, black, etc.)
Shapeless or baggy clothing.

There more stuff that I really should replace -- sweaters and sweaters come to mind -- but that's not a priority right now.

Goals #31, 77, 82, and 85

2009-11-01T12:24:00.003-05:00

I'm a bit behind on posting, but I have completed several goals.

Goal #31 - Get an IUD: Done. I really like it. Aside from the excruciating pain on insertion and a days worth of cramping afterwords, I've had no problems. 5 years of not having to think about birth control. Woot!

Goal #77: A weekend with no computer: One weekend down. I'm not sure if being sick made this easier or harder, though it did help having stuff planned for one of the days. While not using a computer does prevent wasting time on-line, it doesn't prevent wasting time.

Goal #82: Buy a condo: Done. Everything's signed and official. We're now in debt again.

Goal #85: Paint a room: Well, more like get a room painted. We got the entire place painted so it now has personality and color.

I expect more of the house related goals to get ticked off soon.

Goal #101 - The James Bond Story

2009-10-17T11:35:00.003-04:00

The second documentary I watched for Goal #101 was The James Bond Story. I'm a huge fan of spy movies in general. I used to think I was a big Bond fan, but it turns out I'm more of a Pierce Brosnan fan. Bond's okay, but parts of it are a bit cheesy and too sexist for me. I love the gadgets though.

The documentary was okay, but I don't feel I really learned anything from it. Yes, there were some new random facts regarding the actors and who they were chosen. But on the whole, I feel like it didn't give me any really insights or interesting perspectives. They did talk about the characteristics different actors brought to the role andwhile I found intriguing, it was a small piece of the over all story.

Not really a documentary I would recommend. Non-Bond fans likely won't find it interesting and Bond fans likely aren't likely to learn anything.

Goal #101 - The Aristocrats

2009-10-17T11:26:00.003-04:00

Goals #101 is to watch 5 documentaries. The first of these was The Aristocrats.

Why did I choose this? Well I didn't. The Brother-in-Law (BIL) was talking to Ted about how he couldn't watch it. They got up and left the theater after 10 minutes or so. Ted and BIL ended up betting $20 that Ted couldn't watch the whole thing. And thus the movie got put at the top of our Netfilx queue.

Well, we watched the whole thing without any problems. Ted found a lot of it to be funny. I didn't find it funny, but neither did I find it offensive or gross. It was an interesting movie from a psychological perspective -- what does the content of the joke say about the person telling. How closely do they identify with it? (i.e. is it told about themselves, a friend, or as an abstract joke.)

The one part of the movie that did make me laugh was the Smoother's Brothers part. One of them didn't find the joke funny and said so. The other pointed out that it was because he's the straight man. Since I tend to be the straight man in the humor part of our relationship, I totally related to this.

So, one documentary down.

#41 Ig Noble Awards

2009-10-05T23:33:00.003-04:00

Last Thursday we went to the Ig Nobel awards at Harvard. We had a good time, though I probably won't attend again since we can watch it on the web. Saw the bra to gas mask demo live though.

Goal #100 - The Color Purple

2009-09-24T19:01:00.003-04:00

Goal 100 was to read 10 books off the most banned/challenged list. I finished the first today. I read The Color Purple. It has all the major push-buttons for challenges (sex, religion, race, dialect usage), so I'm not surprised it made the list. This is definitely an English class book -- lots of themes and stuff to discuss. Wasn't a tedious read, but I'm not likely to reread or think about it ever again.

Banned Classics

2009-09-13T15:37:00.002-04:00

#100 on my list is to read 10 banned classics. The list is from the American Library Association.

Bold = Have not read

italics = Started, did not finish

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

6. Ulysses by James Joyce

7. Beloved by Toni Morrison

8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

9. 1984 by George Orwell - I think

10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov

12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - I think

16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

17. Animal Farm by George Orwell

18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

23. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

27. Native Son by Richard Wright

28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey - not sure, may have read

29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London - It hnk

34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

37. The World According to Garp by John Irving

38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

39. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

40. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally -saw the movie

42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence

49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin

51. My Antonia by Willa Cather - not sure, might have read

52. Howards End by E. M. Forster

53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

56. Jazz by Toni Morrison

57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron

58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

59. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf

64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

68. Light in August by William Faulkner

69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James

70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence

76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

82. White Noise by Don DeLillo

83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

85. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

87. The Bostonians by Henry James

88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame - I think

91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling

96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike

98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster

99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Wow! I haven't read very many of these. Of course, a lot of them are fairly familiar, so I'm not sure if I've read them or just read about them. There's at least 10 there that I've been meaning to read, so this goal shouldn't be too difficult.

101 Goals in 1001 Days

2009-09-12T19:36:00.005-04:00

Posting this because publicly stating goals tends to increase motivation...

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Source:
101 Goals in 1001 Days website

Start Date: September 13, 2009
End Date: June 12, 2012

My List

Food Related
1. Make at least 2 different kinds of cheese (0/2)
2. Preserve at least two foods by canning or pickling (0/2)
3. Make no-knead bread
4. Make butter
5. Make yogurt
6. Make jam (that keeps)
7. Make jerky
8. Make a soufflé
9. Pack lunch every day for a week (0/5)
10. Try 10 new foods (0/10)
11. Enter a cooking/recipe contest

Crafts
12. Knit or crochet a pair of socks
13. Design and sew a quilt
14. Make dipped and molded candles (0/2)
15. Make paper
16. Make soap
17. Make lip balm
18. Make a gourd bowl
19. Make and fly a box kite
20. Finish stain glass box
21. Finish crocheted sweater
22. Carve something (out of wood or soap)

Health & Safety
23. Take a gun safety course; shoot a shotgun and a pistol
24. Get CPR/AED Certified (Red Cross)
25. Get First Aid certified (Red Cross)
26. Assemble a complete disaster kit (Red Cross)
27. Assemble a complete first aid kit (Red cross)
28. Create an emergency preparedness & fire escape plan (Red Cross)
29. Make a living will
30. Make a will
31. Get an IUD/implant/(semi) permanent birth control
32. Get a general health checkup (not Ob-Gyn)

Skills
33. Memorize Cannon in D for the piano
34. Learn to tie 10 different knots (0/10)
35. Learn how to splice rope

Do/See
36. Go to the Aquarium
37. Go to a concert
38. See a play
39. Go ice skating
40. Go out dancing
41. Attend the Ignoble Award ceremony
42. Attend at least 5 non-math lectures
43. Volunteer at least 10 hours (0/10)

Art & Writing
44. Write a song (instrumental) for piano or psaltery
45. Write and submit a non-academic math article
46. Paint a picture
47. Draw (charcoal/pencil) picture
48. Calligraphy a poem or saying
49. Submit crossword puzzle for publication
50. Revise and submit math article
51. Write a short story (fan fic okay)
52. Design a new board game

Buy
53. Be fitted for a bra and replace ones that don't fit
54. Spend $250 on something completely self-indulgent
55. Get at least one piece of jewelry for specific outfit and wear it

Maintenance/Household
56. Sort through clothes closet
57. Set up an IRA
58. Digitalize CD collection
59. Trade 2 games not played for new games
60. Get my laptop working properly

Physical Activities
61. Take a martial arts class
62. Do 100 consecutive sit-ups
63. Do 50 consecutive push-ups
64. Go to a yoga class
65. Run 10k race

Social
66. Dress up and go to a costume/Halloween party
67. Send at least 6 handwritten letters/cards to grandparents (0/6)
68. Host a dinner party for two other couples
69. Do a (1 hour min) personal play date with: Olivia, Esme, John (0/3)
70. Email or call my sister 2x a week for a month (0/8)
71. Give 5 "just-because" gifts (0/5)

Ted & Self
72. Watch 3 sunsets with Ted (0/3)
73. See 3 sunrises (0/3)
74. Meditate for 15 min /2x week for 8 consecutive weeks (0/16)
75. Private
76. Private
77. No computer from 5pm Friday to Monday morning for 2 weekends (0/2)
78. Journal every day for a week (0/7)
79. Make a list of 101 things that make me happy (0/101)
80. Plan and initiate 5 new dates with Ted (0/5)
81. Have daily sex for a month (30 days)

House Related (all dependant on #82)
82. Buy a house/condo
83. Decorate a room
84. Hang curtains (etc.) in at least 3 rooms
85. Paint a room
86. Buy a sofa
87. Winterize the home: furnace/fireplace/calking
88. Spring home maintenance: AC, screens, gutter
89. Get fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, CO alarms as needed
90. Hang pictures
91. Get maid service or clean the bathrooms and kitchen 1 per month
92. Change the locks

Books & Movies
93. Finish reading the American Literature textbook
94. Read 5 books recommended by friends, no matter what they are (0/5)
95. Watch Hamlet
96. See Jane
97. Get and read the Kama-Sutra
98. See Ben-Hur
99. See or read a Clockwork Orange
100. Read 10 new books off the banned classics list (0/10)
101. Watch 5 documentaries (0/5)

Muffin Variations

2009-03-04T17:38:00.003-05:00

I posted my basic muffin recipe here. Here's a list of ideas to mix and match from. These are from my brainstorming and have not necessarily been tested.

Extracts: Vanilla Extract, Almond Extract, Lemon Extract, or other extracts you can find. Use 1 tsp in general, but you could increase the total extracts to 1TB for very decadent recipes.

Spices: For sweet muffins, common spices include: cinnamon, cardamom, ground ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice. The amount varies -- up to 2 tsp, but for strong spices (nutmeg, cloves, allspice) perhaps only 1/2 tsp.

For savory muffins, consider cayenne and other peppers, minced jalapeno, oregano, basil, dill, rosemary.

Zests: Lemon, lime, orange, tangerine, etc would all work. Up to 1 TB.

Moist Mixins: Any kind of berries, cherries, cranberries, apples, mango, grated carrots, grated zuchini, corn. Make sure the pieces are small.

Dry Mixins: Dried fruit (apples, pears, cranberries, etc.), raisins, dates, nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds) -- toasted nuts add a nice depth, shredded coconut, chocolate chips, grated cheese (add to dry ingredients).

Flour Substitutes: Replace a 1/2 c flour with a 1/2 c of cornmeal, ground oatmeal, almond flour, wholewheat flour, proteen powder, or besan flour, etc.

Oil Substitutes: Instead of oil use melted butter, melted lard (savory only), almond oil, walnut oil, coconut oil, etc.

Sugar Substitues: Instead of white sugar, use brown sugar or (add to wet) molasses, honey, rice syrup, concetrated fruit juice (apple or orange). For the molasses, start with only substituting 2TB as it is a very strong flavor.

Yogurt: Use flavored yogurt instead of plan. This will make the muffin sweeter unless you decrease the sugar. Or use coconut milk or buttermilk.

More Muffins!

2009-03-01T16:56:00.004-05:00

Today's a muffin day. I usually do four batches of muffins at once. That gives us some variety during the week. It also uses all of one large yogurt container. This month's muffins (using my basic muffin recipe):

Apple Cardamom: Three (granny smith) apples grated, chopped dried apple, 2 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, vanilla extract.

Cheddar Corn: Omit the sugar. Replace 1/2 c flour with cornmeal. increase salt to 3/4 tsp. 2 cups corn kernels, 1 cup grated cheddar (add to flour), 1 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp rosemary (crush it), 1/2 tsp minced jalapeno (add to wet).

Cranberry Pineapple: Replace sugar with 1/4 c molasses, 1/4 c concentrated orange juice (add to wet). 1 1/2 c chopped/crushed pineapple. 1 c. dried cranberries (chopped), 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp lemon extract.

Berry Almond: 2 cup mixed frozen berries, 1 cup almond slivers. 1 1/2 tsp almond extract, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, dash of cloves.

These recipes are my own creations, adapted from recipes I've seen on the web. Let's hope they work well.

Update: I have deemed the Cranberry Pineapple muffins a failure. Three main problems. First, while pineapple upsidedown cake might be tasty, pineapple does not quite work in muffins. Second, molasses is quite a strong flavor, so even a quarter cup is a bit much. Finally, very moist fruit plus juice and molasses make the muffins a bit too wet so they fall.

Muffins!

2009-03-01T12:32:00.002-05:00

On a non-beef note, I've been making muffins! The past few months I've gotten in the habit of making a couple of batches of muffins and freezing them. I grab one in the morning, microwave for 30 seconds and breakfast is done.

Here's the basic muffin recipe I settled on:

Dry Ingredients:

2 c. flours
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
spices

Wet Ingredients

1 c. plain low fat yogurt
1/4 c. oil
1 egg
1 tsp extract
1 to 2 tsp zest (optional)

Mix-In

up to 2 c moist mix ins (frozen fruit, grated carrots, zuchinni, etc)
up to 1 c dry mix in (chooped nuts, raisins, etc.

Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Use a large measuring cup to measure and mix the wet ingredients. Add wet to dry, stir a bit. Add mix ins. Stir until just combined. Baked in a greased muffin tin at 375 for 25-35 minutes (depending on how moist the mixins are). Cool, then freeze. Makes 12.

I adapt this recipe in a variety of ways based on the mixins, spices, extracts, and zest.

Lemon Blueberry: Use blueberries, lemon zest, lemon extract, dash of cloves
Apple: grated apples, chopped walnuts, vanilla extract, 2 tsp cinnamon
Carrot Cakish: 1 c grated apple, 1 c grated carrot, raisins, vanilla extract, 1 2/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, orange zest.

The blueberry were my favorite. The apple were fairly bland. I'll play with the seasonings next time and toast the walnuts.

Catch Up

2009-03-01T12:27:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to finish off my side of beef chronicles. I made the stuff ages ago, but never posted. For the last package of stew meat, I think I made a beef paprika dish (smoked spanish paprika, tomatoes, sourcream type sauce).

On New Year's Day I used the rest. The beef bones got made into stock. The suet was rendered into lard. The last of (my half of) the liver was made into dog treats. It's all in the freezer slowly getting used.

Almost all gone

2008-11-25T14:30:00.003-05:00

With Thanksgiving approaching, the beef is almost finished. Since the last post I've made tenderloin steaks, a rump roast, and heart. The heart I sliced, floured, and fried. It was okay, but not as good as I remember mom making. It was a pain to cut up the heart. In the future I'd want it pre-sliced or perhaps roast it whole.

I have one package of stew meat remaining. There's still the lard, liver, and bones as well. When I take a holiday vacation I think I will render the lard and make mincemeat pie or something. The liver will get dried into dog treats and eventually I'll make stock out of the bones.

My BIL and I are already planning the whole pig we're getting this year....

Beef, Beef, and More Beef

2008-09-28T13:56:00.003-04:00

I'm so far behind recording what I've been cooking it's not even funny. Here's the list of everything I can remember:

Hamburgers: 4 lb of ground beef to make burgers for a labor day party.
Fillet Mignon: made like I normally make steak
Sirloin Steak: Ted cooked this up as his first steak attempt. Very tasty.
Stew Meat: 1 package cooked in a tomato-paprika sauce.
Liver: 1 lb given to a friend for her cat. The cat is happy.

We're coming up on the end of the meat. A few roasts, some shanks, beef bones, suet are the main things that are left. We'll see if we make through everything by thanksgiving. Already planning on a pig for next year though.

For Reference

2008-08-03T13:09:00.002-04:00

I've been making tons of hamburgers lately. I think I've used 4 lbs of ground beef on hamburgers alone.
I also made short ribs. I don't recall the exact recipe any longer. It was similar to this, but made without using a pressure cooker. They were decent. The leftovers got to salty sitting in the sauce for a few days.

The latest meals

2008-06-28T14:44:00.002-04:00

Well, I haven't been trying any new beef recipes lately. I made chili with two pounds of ground beef. I know it's summer, but I enjoy having chili around. I like to eat chili at room temperature, so having a pot of it in the fridge makes an easy summer snack.

I also made a sirloin steak. It was very large, more than big enough for the two of us. I cooked it like I discussed in this post, though with the temperature a bit lower so as to get the correct doneness. As always, I made green beans in the pan while the steak was resting. It makes some of the tastiest green beans I've every had. The steak was also delicious.

We're definitely working our way through the meat, though there are quite a few roasts remaining. The liver has won -- I'm planning on giving it to friends with cats and dogs. Some of the suet went for a friend's dad's bird feeder. What else can I do with suet?

Quick Noodle Dish

2008-06-07T23:04:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post. I used some top round to make a chinese noodle stir fry. I (basically) followed this recipe. I used TJ thai rice sticks instead of chow fun noodles, snow peas instead of gai lan (as it's what I had on hand), and no colored peppers. However it was very flavorful with all the garlic, ginger, fermented black beans, and spicy pepper. Definitely will make again.

Pot Roast and Nachos.

2008-06-01T22:05:00.003-04:00

I made pot roast again. This time I cooked it on the stove using this recipe. I used some "Pasta Sprinkle" I received as a gift place of the Italian seasoning. It turned out delicious -- moist and tender. Now if only I could achieve those results with my crock pot.

I also used another pound of ground beef to make nachos. Nothing exciting there.

A Quick Round Up

2008-05-22T19:09:00.002-04:00

I'm behind on posting, so here's a brief summary of my recent beef usage.

Nachos: The hubby used 1 lb ground beef to make nachos. It made enough for two dinners.

Steak: I made NY strip steak. I decided to marinade the steak for a few hours in my usual steak marinade (red wine + garlic + dill + black pepper). Honestly, the marinade didn't seem to go very well with the meat. I'm guessing this meat is more flavorful than what I used to use with this marinade.

Shepherd's Pie: 1 pound of ground beef made two small casserole dishes of Shepherd's Pie. It's always a lot of work, but tasty.

Pasta with Meat Sauce: This old stand by used 1 more pound of ground beef.

The Rest of the Roast & Hamburgers

2008-05-06T22:31:00.006-04:00

I still had half a roast to use and I was in the mood for more asian food. I sliced the roast thinly and marinaded it in the sauce I use for char sui. Quickly sauted the pieces in oil. Served with rice and a quick stirfry of napa cabbage with sriracha sauce.

The meal was so-so. Unfortunately the meat was a bit too tough for this sort of treatment. It would have worked better had I shaved it -- 1/8 in thick slices. Also, normally there's a bit too much sauce, but this time there wasn't enough (IMO) since I used more meat. Still, it was decent and everything got eaten.

Tonight we made hamburgers with a pound of ground beef. Bacon cheese burgers with lettuce, tomato, and onion to be exact. They were tasty.

Stir Fry

2008-04-27T13:26:00.002-04:00

I had been meaning to make stir fry again, but most of the cuts of beef I had on hand didn't strike me as "stir fry" meat. However, given how the last pot roast turned out, I though I might try using one of the roasts for other things. I put a top round roast in the fridge on Thursday to defrost.

Come Saturday night, it was still partially frozen. However, I was only planning on using a bit of it, so I cut off some of the edge portions that were defrosted to make stir fry.

Here's the gist of what I did. Cut the meat into long thin strips. Marinaded them while I cut the other ingredients. The marinade (all measurements are guestiments): 4 tsp ground bean sauce, 2 TB dark soy sauce, 3TB shaoxing wine, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1TB cornstarch. Other ingredients: 4 cloves of garlic, sliced, 1.5 onions sliced, 1/2 large head nappa cabbage in strips, 4 large carrots peel and sliced on the diagonal. I also used a hot pepper that I froze last fall from the farmer's market. It looked like a red jalapeño, but I don't know the type. I seeded it and sliced it. Condiments used included fermented black beans, black beans with chili sauce, toasted seasme oil, peanut oil, and chicken broth.

Put the wok on high and added the peanut oil. When hot, I added the black beans and sauce, stirred. Then I spread the meat over the bottom. Let it cook a bit, then put the garlic and pepper over it and cook some more. Once it browned a bit, I stirred it and added the carrots. I'm not good with the whole stir-fry thing-- I tend to stir a bit, wait, stir a bit, etc. Cooked the carrots a bit, then added the onions, cooked, the cabbage stems, excess marinaded, cooked, added the rest of the cabbage. Added some chicken broth, which was unnecessary, since the cabbage had a lot of water on it from cleaning it. This made the sauce to runny, so I added a cornstarch slurry and cooked a bit. When things were done, I drizzled some toasted sesame oil on it and served it over rice.

The verdict: good flavor. However, the meat should have been cut into smaller pieces. It wasn't tough, but it smaller pieces would have been better.

Filet Mignon

2008-04-24T23:16:00.003-04:00

In addition to my default ground beef recipe, a.k.a. chili (with 2lbs this time) I made fillet mignon.

The fillet mignon was labeled as beef tenderloin, since it is basically steaks cut from the tenderloin. The package had 2 in it. I took it out before we went jogging. About an hour latter I started cooking. Seasoned the steaks with kosher salt and black pepper. Put the cast iron pan on med high and let it get hot. Added a dash of olive oil. Seared the steaks for about 3 min per side. Took them off around 140F and let stand.

While the meat was standing, I deglazed the pan with some white wine. Then I added chopped onions. (I should have sauteed the onions before deglazing, but oh well.) Added some mustard, salt pepper, cream, meat juices and let it reduce.

Served the meat with the mustard cream sauce, asparagus, potato gnocci, and asian pears. The meat was actually around the recommended serving size (a deck of cards) and quite tasty. A success.

Pot Roast and Hamburgers

2008-04-13T20:03:00.002-04:00

I had a rump roast on hand and wanted an easy meal so I went with a pot roast. I basically used this recipe. Preped the veggies in the crock pot the night before when I marinaded the roast. Cooked it on low for about 9 hours. While the flavor was okay, the roast was dry (but tender). For the leftovers I made some gravy with butter, flour, drippings, broth, milk, sour cream and salt. The gravy helped a bunch.

We also used a pound of ground beef this week making burgers. Ted was craving bacon-guacamole burgers so that's what we made (with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, of course).

Ropa Vieja and some old standbys

2008-04-06T20:29:00.002-04:00

Some of the stuff I've been cooking hasn't been worth blogging about. I've used 4 pounds of ground beef making chili and spaghetti.

The interesting dish I made lately was a take on Ropa Vieja. I found this recipe when searching for a recipe using annatto seeds, since I wanted to try this spice. While I used the same ingredients, my technique deviated from this recipe. I browned 1 lb stew meat (not the 3 the recipe calls for) and then added the sliced onion and cooked for a bit. Deglazed the pan with chicken stock instead of the water, then added the rice wine vinegar, cinnamon, bay, a dash of ground cloves, and annatto. I let this simmer on very low, covered, for a few hours. Then I added about 14 oz of canned tomatoes, 1/2 c sliced carrots, and 1/2 c frozen pepper slices. Also tossed in a minced clove of garlic, the cayenne, and a bit more broth.Simmered for about 30 minutes and then served on rice.

The verdict; Okay, but not exciting.

The Week of the Rib Roast

2008-03-23T22:44:00.004-04:00

Due to some confusion on my part on just how large a rib roast is, when we bought the side of beef we didn't have the rib roast cut down. This meant we ended up with a huge 8-rib roast.

When Peter called to ask about making the rib roast for a large family dinner, I said sure. It turned out that he only made his half for the dinner, but since he had to defrost the whole roast to cut it in half that left my half remaining. I didn't think I'd have time to make it, so we roasted it that night during the dinner.

Since there had been no real plan to make it, we kept it simple. Rubbed the roast with salt and inserted some rosemary into it. Roasted it at 450F until it reached around 145F.

We've been eating roast all week. There's only two of us, so it's a lot of meat to eat through. Started off with basic things: plain roast, roast beef sandwiches, grilled cheese with beef slices.

Next I used some to make hash, basically I fried some sliced, cold, boiled potatoes, diced onions, and beef pieces in butter until brown. Seasoned with salt, pepper and bit of aleppo pepper for kicks. Topped it off with a runny, fried egg. Fairly tasty all told.

Then there was fajitas. Sliced up the beef and an onion. Briefly marinaded them in lime juice, olive oil, garlic, chipotle, ancho pepper, and cumin. Cooked until the meat was hot and the onions tasty. Also sauted some frozen colored peppers in the remaining sauce. Served in tortillas with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole. Although not as good as the other fajitas I made, I greatly enjoyed them.

With the remaining beef, I turned it into "char sui". While cooking some rice, I marinated the beef in a char sui sauce: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, shoaxing wine, honey, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, and 5 spice powder. Fried it up until the beef was hot and the sauce was sticky. Served over rice with a side of garlic-sesame spinach and an clementine. The result was so-so. The parts of the meat heavily infused with rosemary did not go well with the sauce, but the rest of it was good.

I still have the ribs with a fair amount of meat on them. I've tossed them in the freezer for now, but I intend to turn them into soup.

Honestly, I'm not thrilled with this use of the roast. If I buy a side of beef again, I definitely do different cuts and limit rib roasts to two ribs.

Greek Meatballs

2008-03-11T11:21:00.002-04:00

I used a pound of ground beef to make mini greek meatballs. I left out the greek seasoning and made the meatballs smaller than in the recipe. They turned out well, but I think I over baked them a bit.

I served the meatballs sandwich style with whole wheat pitas, tzatziki, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, feta, and greek olives. Unfortunately the pitas sort of fell apart while eating this. It would be better served as meatballs with a side salad. I accompanied it with lemon potatoes and nectarine slices. I omitted the parsley from the potato recipe. I used water instead of stock, but not quite enough at the beginning so the potatoes stuck to my pan initially. This meant that I didn't get a nice crust on all of them and some of them crumbled on me. Oh well, still tasted okay.

Steak Tips

2008-03-11T11:09:00.004-04:00

Last time I used steak tips to make fajitas, which were quite tasty. This time I decided to cook them like I did the steak. While I still used cold butter this time, I did have the pan hotter. The meat, though not cold, was not sill somewhat cool.

I was quite concerned about over cooking the steak tips since they seemed so much smaller than regular steak pieces. As a result I only cooked them for 1 to 2 minutes per side. Unfortunately, this left some of the pieces being very, very rare inside. A quick 30 to 60 seconds in the microwave fixed that.

The steak tips had very good flavor, but the pieces were fairly tough no matter how you sliced it. In the future I think I'd prefer the tips for fajitas.

Once again I cooked green beans in the leftover garlic butter. They were good, but not as tasty as I remembered them being. I think there were less yummy meat juices to coat them with this time since I undercooked the steak tips. I also made roast cauliflower to go with the meal. I used asagio cheese instead of Parmesan because that's what I had on hand. It was okay. I tried a bit of truffle oil on a few pieces to see how that would work, but decided it the cheese overshadowed the flavor of the oil.

I also made cranberry kumquat muffins as an appetizer/desert. Good, but a bit sweeter than I liked.

Cheeseburgers!

2008-03-04T13:41:00.002-05:00

So last night I made cheeseburgers using two pounds of ground beef. I kept it very simple -- sprinkled some Worcestershire sauce over the meat and then made patties. I used a quarter pound of meat per burger and fried them in a cast iron pan on med-high for a few minutes on each side. Then I melted some cheddar cheese on them. Served in whole wheat buns. Toppings included: sliced tomatoes, lettuce, sliced red onion, pickles, ketchup, and mustard. The burgers were very popular.

With this I also made spiced sweet potato fries. These are baked not fried. While they were very tasty, they did not have the crispness of fries and the pieces without skin on them were not very sturdy. I enjoyed them never the less.

The long delay between posts was due to me running out of beef! I store most of my half of the side at my brother-in-law's place since he has a large freezer. I usually stop by and restock my freezer, but recently I ran out and didn't have a chance to restock. All set to go now.

Roast Beef

2008-02-18T18:46:00.003-05:00

Today I made an eye of round roast. I used this recipe and followed the suggestions in the comments. I remembered to take out the roast out of the refrigerator early today so it was at room temperature when I started. The summary:

Grind 1 tsp black pepper corns & 1 tsp cumin seed in a mortar
Add 1/2 tsp coriander, 1/2 tsp ginger powder, 3/4 tsp salt & 1/8 tsp cayenne.
Sliver 1 clove garlic and stick them deep in the roast
Coat the roast with oil then with the spice mixture.
Brown the roast on all sides in a pan
Roast for ~45min at 275 until 115-120F
Remove from oven and turn heat to 500
Add 1" cubed potatoes and baby carrots, tossed with olive oil, to the pan
Return to oven, cook 10-15 min until 130F.
Remove roast, tent with foil, let stand at least 10 min
Return veggies to over for another 5-10 min to brown.
Season with salt and pepper.

The roast was a nice medium/medium rare. The carrots were good. Unfortunately the potatoes seemed very dry. I think this is because I used Yukon golds instead of red potatoes. I severed this with a fruit salad of pineapple, kiwi, clementine, and plum.
Tasty over all.

Tacos & Nachos

2008-02-07T23:11:00.000-05:00

I used two pounds of ground beef to make the meaty filling for tacos and nachos. In batches I browned the ground beef with some garlic, cumin, ground chipotle, cinnamon and salt. I also mixed it with some sauteed chopped onions.

Put the meat in torillas with some fixings to make soft shell tacos. For nachos, melt some cheese over corn chips, then top with the meat and fixings.

Fixings used:

shredded cheddar cheese
chopped lettuce
chopped tomato
sliced black olives
salsa
guacamole
sour cream

In all, this made some decent meals. Enjoyed by all.

Beef with Broccoli Stir Fry

2008-02-03T21:48:00.000-05:00

With the rest of the steak tips I decided to make a stir fry. I wanted to do something with broccoli, mushrooms, and oyster sauce. It turns out someone else had the same idea. TigersandStrawberries posted a recipe for Ocean Broccoli Beef the day after I made this. Hers sounds better than mine. Mine was okay, but could have been a bit more flavorful. Here's what I did.

1/2 lb steak tips, sliced in to strips

Marinade in

1 TB dark soy sauce
2 TB oyster sauce
1/4 tsp honey
1 TB cornstarch
3 TB shao xing wine

Heat some peanut oil to smoking in a wok. Add

2 TB Black bean chili paste. Cook 30 sec.

then add the meat meat and brown for a minute. Then

Top with 4 large cloves of garlic, sliced.

Cook another min to brown the beef, then start stir frying for a minute. Add

1 large onion, sliced. Stir fry 2 min.
1 package sliced mushrooms. Stir fry 2 min.
Add remaining marinade and oil if necessary
Add 3 broccoli stems (sliced), cook 1 min
Add broccoli florets from 3 stalks. Stir to coat.
Add 2/3 c chicken broth.
Cook until broccoli is done
Top with 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil.

Served it with some jasmine rice. Tasty, though I think I'd enjoy it with more spice. Hubby found it unexceptional, however. Next time I'll try the linked recipe.

Fajitas

2008-02-02T11:04:00.000-05:00

The other night I made beef fajitas. I had defrosted steak tips. I've never had anything called "steak tips" before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Given the shape of the meat pieces, simple cooking it like a steak was out. I went the strip route and decided on fajitas.

Beef Fajitas

1/2 lb steak tips cut into strips,
Marinade made of olive oil, lime juice, cumin, chipotle, garlic, and cilantro,
1 onion sliced (in the direction for wedges not rounds)
1/3 bag colored peppers from Trader Joe's (or two bell peppers sliced)
2 cloves garlic, chopped & splash of lime juice
Tortillas

Marinade the meat for a few hours. Then in a hot pan with a bit of oil, quickly cook the meat until done, about 3 min. Removed the meat and cook the onions and peppers with the garlic and splash of lime. Cook for about 3 min.

Place the meat and veggies on a tortilla. Top with your favorite toppings.

Toppings

Grated cheddar cheese
chopped lettuce
chopped tomato
sliced black olives
minced cilantro
sour cream
guacamole
salsa

We made 6 fajitas that were way too full. This likely should have made 8 or so. They were a favorite of the husband. I'll definitely make them again.

Meatloaf

2008-01-30T16:25:00.000-05:00

So I decided to try making meatloaf to use up some ground beef. (By my count this makes it pounds number 7 & 8.) I don't really have an opinion of meatloaf. As far as I can recall we only had it once when I was a kid, though I didn't like it then. The recipe I made is based of the one in the Joy of Cooking. Here it is:

2 lb ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
3/4 c V8 or other tomato-vegetable juice
1 TB stoneground mustard (dijion is fine)
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Thyme
3 eggs
1/3 c farina (cream of wheat, bear mush, etc)
salt and pepper

The farina is because I was out of oatmeal, panko, breadcrumbs, and crackers. (It worked fine though.) Mix together and put in a loaf pan. Bake at 350F until it center reach 160F, about 60 to 75 minutes. Let stand 10 min, then slice and serve.

That how long it should take. I baked it for about 95 minutes and still only seemed to get to 155F. But it seemed done so I just took it out and it was fine. It was nice and moist. The hubby said it had good flavor, but I found it a bit bland. Served it with some turkey gravy I had in the freezer. It was decent; better with gravy than with ketchup.

I probably won't make this recipe again simply because I prefer more flavor in my food, but I might try a variation on it. Other meatloaf suggestions are welcome.

Unsucessful Liver

2008-01-24T15:43:00.000-05:00

It was time take another attempt at cooking liver. Cooking liver intimidates me since it tends to turn out horribly. I feel bad mixing good food with liver since I expect it to ruin it. This means I look for liver recipes with very few ingredients or that are mainly spices.

I considered trying to make Smothered Liver or Liver in Coconut Milk. But given what I had on hand, I choose Liver Dumplings. The liver dumplings also had the bonus that the paste could be formed into patties and fried.

I followed the recipe with one substitution -- 1 c panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) and 1c crushed crackers in place of the 2c breadcrumbs. Pureed liver has an interesting, almost foamy texture. I cooked half of this as dumplings and fried the rest into patties.
I have to admit to not giving this recipe my full attention -- I made it while playing spades on Puzzle Pirates. Some of the patties got a bit dark, but I wasn't sure how long to cook them for. I know slabs of liver should be over cooked, but in burger form I'm not sure I want to eat it pinkish.

The results were less than I hoped for, but about what I expected. I took one bite of the liver dumplings and didn't really care for them. I haven't been able to bring myself to go back and give them a serious try. They are sitting in my fridge.

The liver patties were slightly better. I covered a patty in BBQ sauce and ate it. The next day I melted some cheese on two and had them on bread with tons of BBQ sauce. Given enough orange juice I managed to eat them. The sponge texture is disturbing. I didn't bother serving either dish to the husband.

If the fridge was empty and I had no money I would eat these. However, that is not the case, so I'm not sure what to do with them. I hate wasting food.

While there is a slight chance I might try to make a liver pate, I seriously thing the remaining liver will be made into cat and dog treats.

Blog for Choice Day (not food related)

2008-01-22T11:09:00.000-05:00

Today is Blog for Choice day. While I have a beef blog post to write on my latest liver attempt, I can barely face eating the stuff much less writing about it. I'll do that later this week. The writing part, at least.

Since this isn't a political blog, I'll keep this post short. Abortion rights are really about the right of a woman to make her own choices. Women are competent, moral agents. A woman can make the choice that is best for her, morally, physically, and economically.

The legal status of abortion and birth control are directly related to the life and health of women. For a comprehensive, world wide look at how different law have been enacted and their effects on women I recommend reading this link. Enough said.

Quick and Boring Pasta with Meat Sauce

2008-01-17T23:40:00.000-05:00

I wanted a quick and easy ground beef recipe for Monday night. I went with pasta with meat sauce, the sauce coming from a jar. Add some sliced pears and a side salad of lettuce, carrots, and olives and it's done.

Of course, it's never quite that simple with me. I browned the ground beef in batches and then sauted the some chopped onion. Added the meat back and a jar of Trader Joe's marinara sauce. Let it simmer until dinner time. Unfortunately I found the sauce to be lacking, so I began by stirring in 1 TB cold butter, a trick I often use to enrich a sauce. This helped, as did some fresh cracked pepper. It wasn't quite enough though. So I added a dash of Chipolte pepper. I often use Chipotle or Smoked Spanish Paprika to give depths to soup. Not a wise choice here -- smoky does not go with marinara. It wasn't bad, but I didn't care for it. So then I added a bit of thyme in hopes of fixing it. I was unimpressed, but decided to leave well enough alone.

I wasn't a fan of this dinner, but since it all got eaten I guess it was okay. I'll get a different kind of spaghetti sauce in the future though.

The Way to Cook Steak

2008-01-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit behind on my blogging -- I made steak for us last Saturday. I used (mostly) followed this piece of advice. It's short, with pictures, so go read it. Here's what I did (mistakes and all) and what I'll do next time. Even with these slip ups, the husband declare it "the best steak ever" and raved about it all night.

I used NY strip steaks, 1" thick. I seasoned them with a lot of Kosher salt and some pepper on one side. (Not as much as in the link picture, since my butter was salted and I'm not a huge salt fan.) I let them sit about 40 min. In the future I'll take the out of the fridge earlier -- having the steak fully at room temperature will help me cook it medium rare (instead of rare which I ended up with.)

I heated my cast iron skillet on high for about 5 minutes. It was clearly very, very hot. Now my pan sort of needs to be reseasoned -- it looked fairly dry when it got this hot. The original instructions didn't call for any oil in the pan, but I was worried given the condition of my pan, so I drizzled a small amount of olive oil into the pan.

This was a MISTAKE. The oil immediately started smoking and turned to ash. I know olive oil doesn't have that high of smoking point, but this had me concerned. I pulled the pan from the heat, let it cool a bit, then wiped out the ash with a paper towel. Next I poured a bit of canola oil in to pseudo-season it (as it was still very hot). After about 5 min I wiped out the excess oil and put in on the stove to reheat. I used medium high this time.

Once hot, I put the steaks salt side down in the pan and let them sear for 2 min. Then I flipped them and added 1 stick of butter in chunks. I topped the steaks with about 4 peeled cloves of garlic each. I didn't have any fresh time, so I sprinkled the tops with some dried thyme I had on hand.

Then I started basting with butter. Unfortunately, the butter I used was straight from the fridge -- it should have been room temperature, so it would melt faster. I basted for about 3 minutes. Then I removed the steaks to a plate and covered with foil.

While the steak was resting, I added some defrosted green beans to the browned butter & garlic sauce at the bottom of the pan.

After about 8 to 10 min, I served the steak with the green beans, some microwaved squash I had on hand, and sliced pears. The steak had *fantastic* flavor. The only down side was that it was more rare than I would have liked. In the future I will use room temperature meat and butter and use high heat.

This was by far the best steak I've had. I strongly recommend this method if your arteries can stand it. The green beans were also delicious. The garlic that cooked longer with the green beans was very tasty, but the stuff removed with the steak was still raw. This was no doubt because I used cold butter and so the butter didn't get hot enough.

This is how steak should be made. I doubt I'll try any other steak recipes for my NY strips.

London Broil

2008-01-12T20:14:00.000-05:00

When I defrosted the london broil to make the stir fry, it turned out that there were two "steaks" in the the package. I didn't need that much meat for the stir fry, so I saved the other one. Since my rice cooker broke, an other stir fry wasn't the ideal solution, so I decided to do a basic London Broil instead.

In searching the web for interesting ways to make it, I found this recipe from Simply Recipes. I have had good success the Elise's recipes, so I decided to make it. Basically you rub ground mustard seed into the meat and then briefly sear it in a cast iron pan. My only change to the recipe was that I used olive oil instead of butter.

It turned out well. Not as tough as I expected it to be and quite tasty. Served it with some basic veggie sides -- green beans and corn if I remember right. A nice quick meal.

Stir-Fry

2008-01-10T16:46:00.000-05:00

I made stir fry using some london broil the other night. I've been trying different things for stir fry ever since I read this series of posts at Tigers and Strawberries on how to stir fry. My stir fry skills still need a bit of work, one of my main problems being that I just can't seem to stand there and stir. It's more, stir-stir-stir, wipe the counter, stir some more, put something away, stir, etc. However, tonight's meal still turned out decent.

I sliced the london broil into thin strips (2"x1/4"x1/2") and marinated them in ziplock with 3TB shaoxing wine, 1TB soy sauce, 1TB ground bean sauce, and 1TB cornstarch. The cornstarch really helps the marinade cling to the meat and will help thicken the sauce at the end of cooking. I let it marinade maybe 45 min?

When I originally planned on making the stir fry I had broccoli and other typical stir fry veggies on hand. Those had already been eaten, so I was left with carrots and celery which are not typically stir fry options. I also had onions and sweet red peppers which I used.

I didn't want a spicy meal. Ginger doesn't go with celery in my mind, so the only aromatics I used was a bunch of sliced garlic and a spoonful of chinese fermented black beans with chili from a jar (which really isn't very spicy).

The Process: Heated the wok, added some peanut oil. When the oil was almost smoking I added the fermented black beans, stirred a bit and then layed the beef out over the bottom of the pan. Let it cook for a bit and then sprinkled the garlic slices over the top. Once the meat had browned I added the onion slices and stir fried for a bit, then added the carrots and celery. Stir fried a bit more, added the remaining marinated, cooked it a bit. Used some chicken broth to deglaze the pan into a thick sauce. Cooked until the carrots were tender, adding broth as needed. Stir in the red pepper strips, seasoned with some black pepper and a bit of toasted sesame seed oil. Once the red peppers were heated (1 min), it was time to serve.

This is when I found out that my rice cooker officially died. It had been on the fritz, sometimes not turning off or keeping time correctly. However this time when it dinged done I opened it up to find my brown jasmine rice uncooked in a pool of lukewarm water. A new rice cooker is needed. I'm considering this Zojirushi, since I'm not convinced I need a $150 model that doesn't work as a steamer.

We ate the stirfry on it's own, since I was also out of couscous and didn't want to wait for rice to cook on the stove. Glad I decided against spice. Still was tasty, though.

Stroganoff Variation

2008-01-07T18:46:00.000-05:00

Beef stroganoff is a standard, favorite meal of mine. I enjoyed it as a child -- in fact it is the first meal I remember cooking for the family by myself. I was probably 12 or 13 at the time. Growing up beef stroganoff meant beef with cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, and Worcestershire sauce. As my palette has aged, the campbell's cream of mushroom soup has been removed, but Worcestershire sauce remained a constant.

So having mushrooms and sour cream in the fridge and some defrosted stew meat, I naturally decided to make stroganoff. However, since I've already blogged about making stroganoff once, I decided to try a bit of variation. Even though Worcestershire sauce was a key ingredient in my mind, it wasn't in any of the stroganoff recipes I've encountered on the web. Those recipes often have mustard or dill in them, which I decided to try this time.

Here's the quick and dirty summary of what I did:
-Brown the beef in batches in a bit of oil
-Briefly saute a chopped onion, then add sliced mushrooms and cook for a while.
-Deglaze the pan with beef broth. Add back the meat, along with some dried mushrooms, black pepper, and enough broth to cover.
-Simmer for a while to get the meat tender and reduce the liquid.
-Add some sour cream (1 to 1.5 cups). Salt to taste.
-Add a tsp of dijon mustard and 1/4 tsp dill.
-Served on white rice.

It was okay. I liked the mustard addition, though I'd use slightly less next time. The dill didn't do much for me here.

I served this with Balsamic Brusslesprouts, using a recipe from Serious Eats that I had been meaning to try. I very nearly followed the recipe! I stirred in a bit of cold butter to finish the sauce at the end. The result: well it depends on how you feel about brussle sprouts and Balsamic vinegar. If you don't like sprouts, this recipe might be for you, since you couldn't really taste them. If you don't like balsamic vinegar, this recipe is definitely not for you, as that was all you could taste. While I like balsamic vinegar, I don't like it *that* much. I'm currently trying to learn to like brussle spouts. (I've read that it can take 10 exposures to learn to like a vegetable. This is my 5th attempt at brussle sprouts since I've read that.)

I also served it with some roast squash mixed with butter, salt, and a bit a cardamom. (Yes the flavors don't go together, but I like cardamom!)

Over all, edible but not fantastic.

New Year's Chili (& other goodies)

2008-01-04T12:08:00.000-05:00

For New Year's Eve I held a board gaming party that started at 5pm and went until about 2:30 am. I made a ton of food for it, the main course being chili, since I'm swimming in ground beef.

My chili recipe:

3 lb ground beef
4 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic
3 large cans of diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 to 2 cups beef broth
1 large guajillo pepper
cumin (1-2TBs?)
ancho chili powder (1-2TBs?)
chipotle chili powder (2-3TBs?)
cinnamon (1/2 tsp?)
cocoa powder (1 tsp?)
salt

Brown the meat in batches, and sautee the onions & garlic in batches as well. deglaze the pan with a bit of broth. Add everything together and simmer for a while. I cooked it for a few hours, but that was simply because I made it early in the day and left it on the stove on low while getting ready for the party. The spice amounts are guesses -- adjust for your taste.

I served the chili with cornbread (which turned out too dry for my taste), sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, and chopped green onions. I also had baked potatoes that could be topped with chili.

The chili went over well, though the big hit was picklewiches -- dill pickles smeared with cream cheese, wrapped in corned beef and sliced into rounds. I served veggies (carrots, celery, red peppers, greek olives) and pita with dips. I made hummus and Tsatsiki. While I used the same recipe as always for the Tsatsiki, for some reason it was quite bland this time. My best guess is that it was the cucumber, since I used a hot house cucumber as I can't get cucumbers from the Farmer's Market in January.

For sweets, I made Aztec Bark and cookies. The bark was a spiced chocolate with pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds). The nuts were definitely appreciated -- next time I'll add extra. The chocolate wasn't quite as popular as I expected, but I think it just got lost in all the other food.

I made refrigerator cookies a few days in advance and baked them up the day before. This recipe is for a base and then you mix in different flavors. Orange cranberry was the most popular of the three I made. I used the zest of four clementines, 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries, and vanilla extract. The lemon poppy seed cookies(zest of 2 lemons, 1/4 c poppy seeds, lemon extract) were also good. The coconut chocolate chip (1/2 chocolate bits, almond extract, rolled in coconut flakes) did not turn out as well as I hoped. The almond extract overpowered things I think. I wanted to use coconut extract but I couldn't find any at the grocery store.

Over all the cookies were a bit sandy, which is to be expected for shortbread style cookies. I found the dough to be a bit dry -- it didn't want to stick together when I made the logs. Mixing it a little longer helped with that. The picture of the cookies at smitten kitchen shows lovely cookies. Mine all got brown on the bottoms. At first I thought it was just baking on too low of a rack, but even moving them up a shelf didn't help. (Next time I'll try the very top rack.) I tried pulling them out early, before they browned but the cookies hadn't set yet and had to go back in. I don't know why I have this problem. However, even slightly browned they were tasty.

Along side all these goodies I also had some cheese (soft goat, castello blue, and a double gloucester with chives), since I had a new cheese board and knives to use. The only special drink I served was hot apple cided. I put fresh cider in the crockpot along with some thin apple slices, orange zest, cinnamon sticks, a smashed nutmeg and a few dashes of cloves and allspice. Turned it on a high for a hour or so before the party and let it go all night, refilling as necessary. It was quite popular.

Hope you have a fun and food fill new year!

Steak

2007-12-30T22:17:00.000-05:00

We had our first steaks last night -- NY strip, 1" thick. They were fairly large (well not by American standards, but more meat than you really need in one sitting). I decided to keep it simple, to see what the meat taste like. (Also, I was lazy and didn't get around to marinating them.)

I simply salted & peppered the steaks and let them sit for a while, as Alton Brown recommends in his book Food+Heat=Cooking. I choose to pan fry them, though I thought about broiling them. Seared them in my cast iron pan for about 3 min per side. The instant read thermometer read about 133F. Placed them on a plate, added a pat of butter, and tented with foil.

While the meat was resting, I sauteed up a half an onion, some sliced mushrooms, and a bit of garlic in the pan juices with a bit of butter. I had originally planned on making Balsamic Vinegar Brussel Sprouts, but that idea got nixed when I decided to pan fry the steak, since I only have one cast iron pan. Instead, I microwaved some frozen green beans. I also reheated some couscous left over from making Chicken Korma. (I know rice is traditional, but couscous is quicker. The korma turned out well, but I've determined I need a Sumeet spice multi-grinder.)

Right before serving, I dusted the steak with some Fleur de Sel. The steak was very good, although it was more medium than medium rare (which is how I perfer it).

Mahogany Stew -- Chuck Roast

2007-12-29T15:27:00.000-05:00

I've been remiss in blogging about this, but a week or two ago I made Mahogany Stew recipe from Epicurious. I had defrosted a chuck roast and was looking for something interesting to make with it. I didn't want to do the standard crockpot and carrot roast. Googling turned up this stew -- it's similar to Beef Bourguingnon, but has hoisin sauce in it. I basically followed the stew recipe, though I did substitute beef broth for half of the wine.

It turned out quite tasty, although it was initially a bit too sweet. The reviews mentioned this problem, blaming it on the sugar in the hoisin sauce. However, to me, the extra sweetness really tasted of carrots. I simply added some soy sauce and salt to balance it out, and all was well.

While I did use a Chuck Roast for this recipe, it sort of seemed like a waste of a roast when I had already cut stew meat on hand. But the roast was defrosted and the stew meat was not, so that's what got used. It turned out very flavorful, kept well, and was enjoyed by the hubby.

In all, a success.

Beef Stroganoff

2007-12-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

Stew meat #2 up. One of my favorite dishes is Beef Stroganoff. I used eat it a fair amount growing up and loved it. I keep tweaking how I make it trying to get the flavors of my childhood without the can of cream of mushroom soup. I based this version off a recipe from Cooking for Engineers.

I cut the meat into smaller pieces and salted it. Then, in batches, I browned it in butter. After removing the meat, I sauteed a chopped onion for a few minutes before added a package of sliced baby bella mushrooms and a bit more butter. Cooked down the mushrooms for about 10 minutes. Then I deglazed the pan with some beef broth. Added back in the meat and about 2 or 3 cups of broth as well as a few handfuls of dried chinese mushrooms and a tablespoon or so of Worcestershire sauce. I let it all simmer for 1 to 2 hours for the sauce to reduce. Then I added in some sour cream (1/2 carton) and a few spoonfuls of greek yogurt (since I didn't have any more sour cream). I seasoned it with black pepper and some mushroom flavored dark soy sauce. After tasting I wanted it a bit tarter, so I added a teaspoon or so of dijon mustard.

Served the stroganoff over couscous with a side of microwaved sugar snap peas, steamed carrots with dill, and a sliced pear. I greatly enjoyed the stroganoff and will probably stick with this version.

Nachos (Ground Beef #3)

2007-12-12T16:29:00.000-05:00

There was a half pound of ground beef left over from making pizza. We used it to make nachos, even though it's not really nacho season.

Brown the ground beef. Add a half an onion, finely chopped and a few cloves of garlic minced. Season as you would for tacos. I used Chile Pepper, Ancho Chili Pepper, and Chipotle. Since I used Chile Pepper not Chili Powder, I also added a bunch of cumin and some oregano. As always, I added a touch of cinnamon and cocoa powder for a bit of depth. Salt to taste.

Arrange some corn chips on a plate. Top with as much grated cheddar cheese as you like. Microwave to melt the cheese, then top with the ground beef. Add whatever fixings you enjoy. This time we used:

Habanero and Lime Salsa
Diced tomato
Shredded lettuce
Green Onion (thinly sliced)
Black olives
Sour Cream

In the past we've also added:

Guacamole
Parsley (finely chopped)
Squeeze of fresh lime
Cactus (from a bottle, chopped)
Refried beans (instead of ground beef)
Cucumber (finely chopped)

Served it with a glass of orange juice. It was tasty. A half a pound was the right amount of meat for the two of us.

Beef Paprika (Stew Meat #1)

2007-12-11T17:23:00.000-05:00

Used the first package of stew meat last night. Had to cut down the pieces, but that's not a problem. I adapted this recipe from a chicken dish I usually make.

Brown 1lb stew meat.
Add 1.5 onions, thinly sliced
Add 3 cloves minced garlic
Add 2TB Paprika (I used Hungarian)
Cook until onions are tender.
Deglaze the pan with 1 cup chick broth
Add 28oz (1 can) tomatoes, chopped.
Simmer for a while. (I did 1.5 hours)
Stir in 1/3 c cream (or sour cream)
Season to taste with salt, thyme (1 tsp), pepper, Spanish paprika.

I served it over fusilli. The sauce was kind of thin for pasta. If I do it over pasta again, I'd reduce the broth and thicken the sauce. I had leftovers in a mug -- it worked well as a stew. Next time I might add more tomatoes and broth and serve it as a stew with dumplings. Over all, tasty.

Ground Beef and Garlic Pizza

2007-12-08T16:46:00.000-05:00

It feels like we've been eating a ton of beef lately, but when I look at how much is remaining I have no idea how we will get through it all in a year.

Last night we made pizza with ground beef and garlic. Used Trader Joe's pizza dough and sauce. Cooked up a half a pound of beef with a half a head of garlic to put on the pizza. Then topped it of with grated mozzarella and garlic slices from the rest of the head. Baked and served with some tangerines so als not be completely unhealthy.

It turned out okay; didn't really care for the whole wheat pizza dough. I definitely like our ham & pineapple pizza or shrimp with pesto and greek olives pizza better.

Sichuan Dry-fried Beef with Green Beans

2007-12-06T12:20:00.000-05:00

Next up: Top Round

I wanted to use the piece of top round in a stir-fry. Tigers & Strawberries recently posted a recipe for Sichuan Dry-fried Beef that looked really tasty, so I gave it a try.

My dry-frying skills need work, since I didn't manage the lovely textures she describes.
It was a bit spicier than I expected, but tasty. Served it on top of some brown basmati rice with some sliced Bartlet pears on the side. Wasn't quite worth the work, but I'm glad I tried it.

Liver Attempt #1: Liver with Bacon and Onions

2007-12-02T17:47:00.000-05:00

Well I defrosted a package of liver to motivate me to use it. My past experiences with liver have been mixed. I have very dim childhood memories of my mother making liver with bacon and onions. My father still raves about it, but I remember only liking the bacon. In gradschool I had a craving for liver and got it at a restaurant. I really enjoyed it. Then I tried it again at another restaurant and didn't care for it.

Tonight was my first attempt at making liver. I had my concerns. Everything I read about cooking liver said to use calf's liver and not beef liver, which is not an option here. The other key point seemed to be not to over cook it, but no temperature readings were ever given.

I made this recipe from Epicurious. I tweaked it by added a bit of paprika, as suggested by Elise, from Simply Recipes. I was out of smoked Spanish paprika, which would have accompanied the bacon nicely, so I just used Hungarian paprika.
My liver was already sliced. Unfortunately the slices were a bit thicker than what the recipe called for, so the timing on the cooking was a trick. When I was done, they were still faintly pink inside, but no longer bloody. I'm wondering if I cooked them too long. Anybody have a suggested thermometer reading for liver?

I paired it with a mashed sweet potatato that I microwaved and some edamame I pulled from the freezer. The result?

Well I thought it was edible, but not stellar. Anything with a half a slab of bacon in it should taste better than this. The hubby almost gagged on his first bite and refused to have anymore.

I'll be looking for new liver recipes in the future. The distant future.

Ground Beef #2: Pasta with Meat Sauce

2007-12-01T21:54:00.000-05:00

We got back from a friend's birthday party starving. Unfortunately, the usual quick stand by of grilled ham & cheese with a side of veggies was not an option since we were out of cheese. While I had liver defrosted (as an encouragement to use it), I didn't want to try something new while very hungry.

The cupboard did hold the always easy meal of pasta and tomato sauce. So I threw a pot of water on the stove and decided to try the auto-defrost on the microwave. Seven minutes later the ground beef was ready to cook. I browned it up with two cloves of garlic and then added a jar of basil marinara sauce. While I normally jazz it up with my own seasonings, tonight it was left as is. Cooked some capellini and microwaved some frozen peas. Finished things off with some freshly grated parmasan and the last of our mandarin oranges. Not a spectacular meal, but quick and easy.

Grocery shopping tomorrow, most likely.

Shepherd's Pie -- Ground Beef # 1

2007-11-29T23:00:00.000-05:00

We picked up the beef the Monday after Thanksgiving. Given the tons of ground beef we have to eat through, I started with a 1lb package of ground beef. It leaked all over my fridge when defrosting. First lesson learned: defrost in a plastic bag or on a plate.

The beef looked like a coarser grind than I was used to, but it cooked up nicely. I could see little white specks of fat throughout the meat, larger than I generally see when I get it from the supermarket. However, it cooked up with a lot less grease than I see when I get the 80% ground at the store.

Since I had a huge bowlful of mashed potatoes left from Thanksgiving, not to mention some celery left from making the stuff and a few carrots and parsnips remaining from the farmer's market Shepherd's Pie seemed like a good idea. (I know that many people say Shepherd's Pie is made with lamb and Cottage Pie is made with beef. However, its all Shepherd's Pie to me, so deal.)

I'm a very intuitive cook. I love looking though cookbooks and reading recipes, but in the end I just through together whatever I have on hand. Measuring tends to be optional (unless I'm baking) and I can't seem to follow a recipe without tweaking it.

Shepherd's Pie is one of my thow everything together meals. I haven't found a recipe I really like, so I just toss in whatever suits my fancy that evening. Tonight the recipe when something like this:

1lb gound beef
1 onion chipped
3-4 parsnips, peeled and chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
some frozen corn (1/4 c?)

I browned the beef and then added the vegetables as I finished chopping them. Then I did some seasoning. Just dumped stuff in, but if I had to guess I'd say:

Worcestershire Sauce (maybe 2Tbs? I just pour a bunch in)
a couple cranks of black pepper
a lot of dried oregano. (1-2TBs? I take of the shaker and pour)
a dash of dried basil (changed my mind and decided against it)
a fair amount of chipotle pepper (2-3 tsp?)
a dash of cinnamon, since my favorite food blog recommends it with beef

Mixed it all in and cook until the carrots are almost tender. Dumped in a greased pan. Topped with (in order):

Some grated cheddar cheese
Leftover mashed potatoes. Thinned with milk and spread as thin as needed to cover the entire pan. Made designs in them using my fork.
Dotted with a small amount of butter
Dusted with Hungarian paprika

I baked it at 350F for about 30 min. It really just needs the top browned and the potatoes warmed. I should have had it on a higher rack or a higher temperature to get good browning. I forgot that I sometime just put it under the broiler. But I ran out of time and it was tasty even if it wasn't nicely browned.

Beef: It's What's for Dinner.

2007-11-29T22:24:00.000-05:00

I just bought half a side of beef. Adulthood has definitely set in.

Background
I mentioned in passing to my Brother-in-law (BIL), that I've always toyed with the idea of ordering part of a cow so that I'd have meat on hand in my freezer. He loved the idea and suggested we could split a side of beef. To get us started, he suggested I research the beef -- finding local, pasture-raised cows and checking the cost -- while he'd look into getting a larger freezer.

Surfing the web, I found many warning articles about just what we were getting ourselves into. Finding actual farms that specificly listed the prices on sides of beef was trick. Eventually we decided on Vermont Natural Beef. Unfortunately we were a little late getting our act in gear and their sides were sold out. So we went with Austin Farms, the meat purveyor at the local farmer's market.

What we got
Beef is sold by the hanging weight, that is the weight of the cow carcass after it's been slaughtered, but not aged or butchered. Beef will lose about 20% of its hanging weight in the butchering process.

Our hanging weight was 381 lbs for a side of beef. We got it at $3.00/lb for a total of $1143. That included cutting and delivery to the farmer's market. That works out to about $3.75/lb for 304lbs of beef, 150lbs being my share.

I talked through the cutting over the phone, so I don't have a cutsheet handy. Basically we went for steaks and roasts when possible, followed by stew meat, and as little of ground beef as we could (which is still many, many pounds). Steaks an inch thick, roasts about 3 lb, other things in 1lb packages. Yes to all the extra options.

The beef came frozed, wrapped in plastic. This surprised me as I was expecting paper wrap. Everything frozen solid was a benefit, since I'm not sure how long it would have taken the freeze to do it.

BIL and I simple divided it up, 1 package ground beef for me, 1 package for you, thoughout the contents. The soup bones I was expecting, the suet I was not. There's a lot more liver than I thought a cow needed.

We also got the heart and tongue. I opted for the heart since I have fond childhood memories of eating heart. BIL got the tongue. Unfortunately his wife does not have fond childhood memories of eating tongue, but that's his problem not mine.

Most of the beef is stored in his new deep freezer. Every few weeks I plan on visiting and taking a bit more of my share back home. Hopefully the hubby and I can eat our way though it all sometime this year.

The plan is to blog the things I cook with this beef and perhaps get some recipes or ideas for things to make. Especially for the liver and ground beef.

150lb of beef. What was I thinking?