I have a woefully limited set of natural skills. You can count on one hand minus at least a couple fingers the things I do really well.
Cooking is certainly not one of them.
I should point out, however, that no one in our family has starved to death, at least not yet. Before we moved to Billings, Gerald did most of the cooking, so maybe that's why everyone is still alive? Here, his job requires him to work 3 pm to midnight, so preparing the evening meal is left to me. We're still not starving, but to be perfectly honest, that is mostly thanks to such lovely establishments as McDonald's, Wendy's, Arby's, and Taco Bell.
Thinking I should really cook at home more, I am always searching for decent recipes that are truly simple. And when I say simple, I mean it. More times than I care to remember, I've attempted to cook something because a well-meaning friend (unaware of my total lack of cooking skill) has assured me how "easy" it is, only to find a complicated set of instructions way beyond my ability, and the result is, well, use your imagination.
Recently, Shulamith gave me a new recipe. She, better than anyone, understands what I mean by "simple." Confident I would be able to do it, I was stoked. All you have to do is put a package of Italian seasoning mix and a package of au jus sauce mix into a crock pot with two cups of water and stir it up. Then you put in a beef roast and cook it on low for several hours. When it's done, you have meat for french dip sandwiches and tasty au jus sauce for dipping. What could be simpler? Even I should be able to handle this, right?
Eager, I got up this morning and followed the above instructions exactly. We were to host the sister missionaries for dinner this evening, and I would actually have something good to feed them. (They have endured some of my not-so-good meals in the past, and I hoped to at least partially redeem myself today). However, at church this morning, they told me they needed to reschedule due to several appointments and a baptism this evening. This turned out to be most providential.
We arrived home from church at around 2:30 to find....okay take a guess....alright I'll just tell you: NO POWER.
Again? Seriously?
In the past three months we have lost power in our neighborhood on four different occasions. Once was on Father's Day when we had the hailstorm and tornado, so yeah, I suppose a power outage would be expected. But the other three times were just like today. No storm. No rain. No wind. NO POWER! And I'm not talking about a little flicker, enough to make the clocks blink. I'm talking about no electricity for several hours. What is up with this?
My first thought, of course, was for my roast, my lovely roast that was on its way to becoming yummy french dip sandwiches. Fortunately, the crock pot was still hot, so once I was convinced the power wasn't coming back any time soon, I put the meat and sauce in the fridge (which, of course, also wasn't working, but this seemed a better idea than leaving it out), and hoped for the best. Quite hungry by this point, we headed out to Applebee's. Yes, I know it's Sunday, but we were hungry, and I really didn't have anything that could be prepared without electricity.
An hour or so later, we returned home to find our power restored. Woo hoo! I promptly removed my roast and sauce from the fridge, put everything back into the crock pot, and let it cook for another four hours. By then, we were hungry again, so at 9:00 p.m., it was time for the moment of truth.
Are you ready? Are you sitting on the edge of your seats just waiting for the result of this nearly- thwarted cooking endeavor?
The sandwiches were delicious. Really. And the sauce? Even better! Way yum. I can now add one more recipe to my tiny repertoire. So a big thank you goes to Shulamith, and also maybe to Matt's mom (from whom I think she got the recipe?). We loved it!
As for this string of power outages, blah. Double blah. I'm really tired of it. So no more, okay?
Seriously.
Sounds like a good recipe to me. Here's another one, and it's perfect for Sundays.
ReplyDeleteOpen two cans of cream of mushroom soup and put it in a nice sized baking dish, something along the size of 2 or 3 quarts that you have a cover for If you don't have a cover, plan to use foil.
Sprinkle in half a packet of onion soup mix. Pour in half a soup can of cooking sherry (you can subsitute water if you don't have the cooking sherry or if you prefer not to use it, but if you have it, it makes the dish much tastier.) Stir everthing together, but don't worry if it's not pretty. (And it won't be...) Don't worry if there are lumps. (and there will be.)
Now add a pound of stew meat and stir it up again. So far this should have taken you all of five minutes. Cover your nice baking dish and put it in the oven at 300 or 325 degrees for 3 hours. (What a coinky-dink, the amount of time you'll be at church...)
When you get home, open your dish, stir well.(There will be some cook-down, so if you need to you can add a little water and stir it in.) But this is no longer an ugly dish, it's a beautiful stroganoff with the lovliest, smooth brown gravy ever. Make up some rice, some pilaf, or some noodles and a veggie or salad and dinner is done.
This recipe is callede "Sherried beef" and it's the first recipe I taught my girls when I was showing them how to prepare Sunday dinners because it always turns out nice. It's also reallly easy to increase, if you use a pound and a half of stew meat, just add an extra can of cream of mushroom soup and a smidge more onion soup mix, plus a bit more of the cooking sherry.
I've also used other kinds of meat, like chicken breast strips and even ground beef that's been crumbled up and mixed in (no browning necessary) but stew meat turns out the most traditional type of dish.
Susie
Yum! This sounds delicious and easy enough even for me. If we didn't have barbecue already planned, I'd try it tomorrow. Next Sunday for sure. Thanks, Susie!
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