Short and Sweet and Tangy

Nothing like a big cliffhanger then a week of radio silence, huh?

Sorry about that. This week has been crazy insane busy and I haven't had time to come up a suitable continuation of the story. I'll get back to it at some point. Here's a quick short post to hold you over until I have time to get to the bigger posts.

We dodged the BIG SNOW that plagued much of the Midwest and east coast this week. My folk's house in Milwaukee got dumped on, as much as we could tell from our security cameras. Glad we weren't there, it looked really heavy and wet. We still have quite a bit of snow lingering here but the days are getting longer and the sun is a lot warmer.

This time of year makes me antsy for spring and summer and flowers and gardening and green and flowers and the good summer smells...so I tend to splurge and buy fresh flowers to brighten up my kitchen. We have a Trader Joes in town and they sell really nice long-lasting cut flowers for crazy cheap. Last weekend I picked up a bouquet of alstroemeria and some Asian lilies for under $10. I took some pics of them with my hipstamatic phone app and they turned out pretty good.

 

I shot these against the blue-green wall in our laundry room.

 

 

This is closer to their true color without the hue mixing in hisptamatic. Nice dose of pink for dreary end of winter, don't you think?

 

I also worked on curing my winter-blues-cabin-fever with a tiny bit of retail therapy. I got an email from Coach saying they were having a big sale! Who am I to say no to a good deal?

Mama's got a brand new bag.

 

These guys have been hanging out all week. The other morning there were 8 in the woods. I am so excited for all the new little fawns who are going to be nibbling and chomping their way through my hostas this summer. And herb gardens and annual beds and veggies and and and. NOT. They are fun to watch but it's hard not to google "venison recipes..."

(And I just re-read this post and it looks like I'm shilling for fun and profit. I'm not. I'm just lazy and don't feel like typing "famous uppity organic grocery story" and "famous uppity handbag company..."

We don't have big plans for the weekend. I don't know that we have plans at all. We were incredibly lazy last weekend and I never left the house on Sunday. Sometimes that's good enough.  I did make some interesting recipes, last Friday I whipped up some veggie and shrimp and veggie egg rolls. I used a different recipe and I won't be using it again. The original recipe that I like calls for a little cornstarch to be mixed in with the vegetable mixture prior to stuffing the wrappers. This one didn't and I found the steam and liquid from the veggies caused the oil to splatter like there was no tomorrow. It was so bad I had to cook one egg roll at a time.  The cornstarch binds the liquid just enough to prevent that.  I also made my Mom's A+ Chicken Tetrazzini. It's delicious but it it makes a lot and is really rich. (Lots 'o butter and half and half. OOF)  I also made Crazy Chocolate Cake which is fun and easy. I took pictures and at some point I'll post them here.

In the meantime, if you're looking for an easy crock pot recipe, try this recipe for BBQ Beef. My chef here at work gave it to me and I love it. The sauce is very loose, more like au jus than thick BBQ sauce but the flavor is outstanding.

Chef Eric's BBQ Beef

 

 

3-4 Pound Beef Roast, preferably chuck or bottom round. If it's more than 3" thick, cut into two smaller pieces.

 

1 large onion cut into rings

1 Bottle Chili Sauce

1 pound light brown sugar

2 c. low salt/no salt beef stock/broth

1 small can diced green chilies-undrained

3 T your favorite BBQ spice blend (Weber makes a good sweet tangy BBQ blend)

 

Lay the onion rings in the bottom of the crock pot.

Rub the beef on all sides with the BBQ spice blend. Any leftover spice blend can be used in the sauce.

Put the beef on top of the onions.

In a bowl combine the chili sauce, brown sugar, broth, chilies and remaining spice blend. Mix well and pour over the beef.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on medium for 5-6. Do not remove the cover during cooking.

 

Carefully remove the beef from the liquid. Shred and set aside.

Carefully strain the cooking liquid into a mesh strainer and reserve the liquid. Discard the solids.

Serve the shredded beef on toasted hard rolls with a drizzle of the au jus and serve au jus on the side to dip. These are sweet, tangy and delicious.

*Edited to add: there is nothing wrong with the solids, you are welcome to reserve them and use them as a condiment on the sandwich. Neither HB nor I can eat onions of any quantity so I just strain them out as they don't have much flavor left after cooking for hours.