Harmons Meat Sale

For the most part we try and get the lowest price when we go shopping. That being said, you get what you pay for.  We bought some beef at WinCo a couple of weeks ago.... bad experience.  It was dry, huge chunks of fat and chewy.  Chewy meat is almost as bad as dry, burned meat.  However, I was at Harmons last week and they had a sale on their meat, 4 packages of meat for $20.  That may seem a little pricey, but for the quality of meat and the amount you get, it is not a bad deal.  The packages normally sell for 6-8 dollars.  That being said, I picked up some ground beef, a package of boneless pork spare ribs, and 2 NY strip steaks.  You can read about the spare ribs in the posting right before this one.  The steaks... were awesome.  Here is what we did,  cooking is just as much about being creative as knowing what to do.


What you need:
Steak
Butter
Garlic
Salt
Pepper

What to do:
The awesome thing about this is you can make it rich with garlic, or have just a hint.  Melt 2-3 tbs of butter.  Crush or finely chop 2 cloves of garlic, mix it in with the butter.  let this mixture cool before putting it on your steak or it will start to cook it.  When it is cool but not solid, pour it into a plastic bad, with the meat and let it marinate for 1 1/2 -2 hrs.  When you are ready to eat, heat a non stick pan, place you steak in the pan and you should hear a nice sizzle, let your meat cook on the one side until it has a nice seer on it, flip the meat and repeat the process.  The meat may be cooked to your desired temperature, if not, you can put it in the oven until it is done.  We also really like the steak just cooked with a generous amount of salt and pepper.  Enjoy!

Summer is coming

One of my favorite foods to eat in the summer is BBQ pork and corn.  It just screams summer.  With the weather getting warmer, and Nikki still not able to eat dairy, we decided to indulge in this dinner or BBQ spare ribs.  Now, we don't have a grill but the meat was so tender and juicy, I can't wait to eat it again.  One of the best things about this meal is how amazingly fast it is.  We cooked the ribs from frozen in 20 minutes, and they were so amazingly tender and moist.  Behold... the power of a pressure cooker.

What you need:
BBQ spare ribs
seasoning, what ever kind you like
BBQ sauce

What to do:
In the bottom of the pressure cooker add about 1-2 cups of water.  Pressure cookers need liquid to produce steam to create the pressure.  Season your spare ribs generously. We used the BBQ seasoning from McCormick.  Cook at high pressure for 20 minutes if frozen, 15 in thawed.  That's it... you're done.  We like to cover them in BBQ sauce, but if you want to you can just dip them, you can do whatever you like to them.
 

Chicken Noodle Soup

It turns out that our baby doesn't like it so much when Nikki eats dairy, and so, that means we get to find all sorts of foods to eat that don't have dairy.  It is way hard, just so you know.  That being said, this one is going to be worked into our regular routine.  Great for a coldish day, so I probably should have put this up at the beginning of winter, but, better late then never.

What you need:

1. 3 Chicken Breasts
2. 10 cups water
3. 1/2 C. chopped onion
4. 1/2 tsp black pepper
5. 3 T salt
6. 2 bay leafs
7. 1 C chopped carrot
8. 1 C chopped celery
9. 2 cup dried egg noodles. (As you can see we used Fusili Springs for our pasta because we didn't have any egg noodles. You can use what ever pasta you want, egg noodles are best, but the springs were great.  For extra healthy soup, you could use the colored noodles that have tomato and spinach in them.)
10. 1 tbs dry parsley
11. 3 cubs chicken bullion (This is our preference.  You can do more or less)

What to do:

       In a six to eight quart pan, mix water, onion, salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil and add the chicken.  Return to a boil, turn down and boil the chicken until through.      While the chicken is cooking, chop carrots and celery.  (try to cut them as evenly as possible to ensure even cooking)  Remove the chicken from water- DO NOT POUR THE WATER OUT!!!- Cut the meat into bite size pieces and put it back in the water, add bullion and discard the bay leafs.  (If you want to make a game out of it, leave the bay leafs in and who ever finds them gets a prize... like they don't have to do dishes that night.)     Bring the broth back to a boil, stir in carrot and celery, simmer about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked to desired tenderness.
        One of the worst things about any soup is when the pasta is over cooked.  To solve this problem, we cook the noodles in a separate pan in salted water, then just mix them in.  The reason for this is two fold. 1) If the noodles are cooked in the soup they soak up a lot of the broth and then you don't have much left.  We really don't like our soup without broth.  2) If you put the noodles in to soon, either the noodles will be done and the veggies will be crunchy, or the noodles will be over cooked and the veggies just right.  Neither way is so great. 
       This meal is great with corn bread or fresh baked rolls.