Day 16 of NaBloPoMo and Teriyaki Shish Kebabs

Well here it is the middle of the month, May 16 and I am halfway done with the NaBloPoMo Challenge and still going strong. So far it has been not too difficult. The only thing is that there were a couple times where I almost forgot I needed to post and had to do fast posts right before midnight. Now that I have a job 4 days a week, most of my blogging comes at night after dinner, which is ok even though I prefer my blogging earlier in the day. So here we are at Day 16 and so far not running out of blogging material. YAY!

The other night I made Teriyaki Shish Kebabs for dinner, I was going to grill them myself and then I thought...Why not let Nicole (my 10 yr old daughter) grill them for herself. She always wants to help in the kitchen and she can make simple meals for herself. Nicole can learn how to grill, after all, it is part of cooking and she wants to learn. It is a good life skill for a kid to know how to cook for themself or others, as she will have to do it when she gets older and all the rest of her life. So, under supervision, I let her do the grilling. Next time, I will let her grill the burgers since she did such a good job.

Shish Kebabs

1 lb beef stew meat
zucchini cut into slices
onion cut into wedges
Fresh pineapple cut into chunks
cherry tomatoes

Teriyaki Sauce
1 cup soy sauce
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp ginger
4 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp pineapple juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp water (mixed together)

To make the teriyaki sauce, mix all ingredients in a small sauce pan. (reserve about 1/2 cup of unthickened sauce for marinating the meat) Then heat just until boiling on medium heat. Add cornstarch mixture and stir until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat. Let cool.

Take the 1/2 cup reserved unthickened teriyaki sauce and put that and the meat in a ziplock bag and marinate about 2 hours or until ready to use.

On skewers, alternate between meat, onion, pineapple, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes until skewers are full. When all skewers are full, turn on BBQ and grill kebabs for about 5-6 minutes each side. Brush on thickened teriyaki glaze and cook about 2 minutes more. Serve hot with extra teriyaki on the side if desired.

We had more of the grilled asparagus from the night before still marinating, so we grilled that also with the Shish Kebabs, and it was still just as good as the night before when The Cooking Dad grilled the vegetables. What a nice and colorful dinner for the kids, and they had fun eating them. Nicole was very proud of the job she did cooking the dinner. We are pretty proud of her too, she is growing up to be a great young lady.

Sesame Ginger Beef

Asian food is always a big hit in my house. I had some beef stir fry meat lurking in the freezer from my last grocery shopping trip and when I decided what I wanted to make with it, it took some creative juices flowing in my mind to create my version of Sesame Ginger Beef. We didn't want the usual just beef stir fry so I concocted this recipe for the marinade, what I wanted in it based on what I already had on hand in my kitchen. Hope you enjoy it! We sure did!

Sesame Ginger Beef

Marinade:
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds (toasting instructions below)
1 Tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb beef stir fry meat

Mix together. Add meat to ziplock bag, and pour on marinade. Refrigerate 6 hours or over night.


2 cups broccoli florets
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced fine
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

In a wok or fry pan, heat up the vegetable oil. Add red pepper, green pepper, celery, and onion. Stir fry until done, about 6-8 minutes.



Add the beef and marinade. When it gets hot and bubbly stir in a mixture of 1 Tbsp cornstarch and 3 Tbsp water to thicken.



About 6-8 minutes before serving, add broccoli. Put the lid on the let the broccoli steam until done. Stir in to get juices on broccoli just before serving. Serve over rice or soba noodles (we used rice).



Notes:
- You can also use 1 lb of round steak cut into thin strips for stir fry meat for a little less expensive meat. Or if you buy stew meat in bulk, save some chunks out for stir fry, and slice the chunks into thinner strips or chunks. Cut while partially frozen so it is easier to cut.
- To toast sesame seeds, place seeds in fry pan (no oil) and let fry until they start to pop and turn brown, takes just a couple minutes. Do a bunch at a time and cool them off and store in airtight container so you always have toasted sesame seeds when you need them.

Inside-Out Cheeseburgers

Well, Spring has officially sprung here in the Pacific Northwest; finally, we decided to break out the BBQ today since we had 70 degree weather here (wonderful after having snow just last week) and whip up some burgers. I have always wanted to try something new with my burgers but, Richard never wanted to (he likes burgers just the way they are supposed to be as in cheese on top of the burger, not inside). So I snuck in the cheese and bacon in the middle of the patties and he was none the wiser; until he bit into it! But he really liked it, but it had to be something else other than cheese and bacon in the middle (oh and the cheese he had to put on top of the burgers like he always does anyway, even though the cheese is supposed to be in the middle and not on top with these burgers, but whatever makes the hubby happy!). In the meat itself is a great ingredient that made these burgers so flavorful, they were just amazing. I used a packet of Amazing Tastes Burger Seasoning mixed into the meat and it gave it so much flavor that it was one of the best burgers I have tasted. I highly recommend going and getting some of this seasoning at your local supermarket or if they do not have it, just order it online from their site. At just 99 cents a packet, that has to make a wallet happy since seasoning packets are getting so expensive in this economy. It makes a lot of sense to get what is inexpensive, especially when it tastes so good... It is so good, it is AMAZING! Now, on with the recipe.

Inside-Out Cheeseburgers

2 lbs ground beef
1 packet Amazing Taste Burger Seasoning
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg

Cheddar cheese
Bacon

Mix together ground beef, seasoning packet, bread crumbs, and egg. Set aside.

Slice cheddar cheese into squares about 1/2 inch thick, set aside.
Cook bacon until done, pat the grease out of bacon with paper towels. Cut into 2-3 inch pieces.

Forming patties:
Take about 1/4-1/2 cup meat mixture and form a flat patty. Then put 1-2 slices of cheese on top of that, and then 2 slices of bacon. Take 1/4 cup meat mixture and place on top and pat the ends together so you have a patty making sure that you cannot see the cheese, this way it seals the cheese in the middle and it won't run out while BBQing or broiling.

Cook about 10-13 minutes on BBQ (6-7 minutes on each side) or about 6 minutes each side under broiler. Make sure you only flip once, a lot of flipping could make them fall apart. Place cheese on top if desired for double cheeseburger effect. Enjoy!

(once again, sorry about the picture being sort of foggy, like I said many times before... I need a new camera.)

Tips:
- You can use any type of cheese, we just used cheddar since that was in the fridge. But I think a good combo would be pepperjack and jalapenos inside with a guacamole topping for a Mexican burger, just for one example.

Peppered Pot Roast

I had a hankering for some pot roast but, I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to prepare it. I decided to just put some things together and hope for the best. My husband said this was by far the best pot roast I have put on the table! I made a dry rub for the roast first and let it sit on the meat for no less than 24 hours before putting it into the crock pot to work its magic. It was so easy and uses not a lot of ingredients; all of which a person would have in their kitchen most of the time. So here it is, my latest creation.

Peppered Pot Roast

1 3-4 lb beef chuck roast
2 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp coarse salt
1 tsp season salt
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp brown sugar
dash cinnamon
1/3 cup dr pepper
1/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup water

Mix together the dry ingredients and rub liberally all over the roast. Let sit in the refrigerator for no less than 24 hours so the meat can absorb the flavors. Next day, put in crock pot with the liquids and turn on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Enjoy!!

Tips:
- if you do not want a really spicy pepper flavor, just decrease pepper to 1 Tbsp and add another tsp brown sugar to tone that down.
- strain the drippings to make a fantastic gravy by adding 1 Tbsp corn starch with enough water to make a cornstarch liquid and cook and stir until thickened on the stove.

Corned Beef and Cabbage in Beer

Happy St Patrick's Day!! Ok so I am a day early on this one. I thought my husband was going to be gone tomorrow night, so I thought that I would make this tonight instead so he can enjoy one of his favorite meals. This corned beef is so easy to make and it just takes time to cook in the crock pot, but it is worth the wait. I cook this in beer and it gives it a really nice flavor. Plus leftover corned beef makes some other amazing dishes (but those are other blog posts). You just add the cabbage in the last hour of cooking and walah! you have a great St Patrick's Day meal. If you want the green beer, just tint some beer with green food coloring to make the meal complete. Lite beer works best for green beer.

Corned Beef and Cabbage in Beer

1 corned beef brisket (use the seasoning packet that comes with most briskets at the store, it adds a lot of flavor with the beer)
1 cup Guiness beer
1/2 head cabbage, quartered

In the crock pot, cook the corned beef brisket with the beer for 4 hours on low. Then add the cabbage; put it below the brisket so the beer flavors the cabbage and cook for another hour. Serve with potatoes. (I made my amazing Herb Roasted Red Potatoes)

London Broil

For dinner tonight we thought we would have some London Broil and it turned out so good! We used the recipe from Cooks.com for our marinade which is located here: Marinade for London Broil

After you marinate the meat (we marinated ours for about 8 hours), just turn on the broiler and broil for about 8 minutes each side for rare, 9-10 minutes each side for medium rare, 12-14 minutes each side for medium, and about 16 minutes each side for well done. But since we like our London Broil rare or medium rare, we broiled ours for 8 minutes each side. Then cut against the grain and serve. You can serve it with some sauteed mushrooms or just by itself. Definitely a meat that does not need any kind of sauce or dip with it. It is so yummy by itself.

Italian Meatballs... my way!

Last night meatballs were on the menu for dinner. I made enough meatballs and sauce to make meatball hoagies and spaghetti and meatballs. They were fabulous as usual. My recipe is very easy, no fancy footwork involved to make these. Easy and tasty is my recipe for success!

Italian Meatballs

2 lbs ground beef
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp oregano
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 Tbsp fresh basil (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all in a bowl (I find it easiest to mix with my hands, so either wash really really good or wear powderless gloves to mix) until all is mixed thoroughly. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll into balls. Bake on broiler pan (so any grease goes to the bottom and your meatballs do not cook in it, it helps to hold their shape and not to taste greasy) for 30 minutes. Add to favorite sauce or soup.

Serving Suggestions:
- You can make meatball sandwiches, and garnish with some grated parmesan or mozzarella cheese



- Serve with favorite pasta and cheese, such as spaghetti and meatballs (one of my family favorites)



These can be frozen and last longest when vacuum sealed in bags. Just add frozen meatballs to pasta sauce in a crockpot to heat them right up for dinner.

Lip Smackin', Finger Lickin', Mouth Waterin' BBQ Ribs

We love ribs! Those 3 little words say it all. Every chance we get, we BBQ up some tasty ribs. In this recipe is my husbands signature BBQ rub, and the directions to get some of the best ribs out there ready on your dinner plate. If you have access to a smoker (which we do sometimes as we have an electric smoker and smoker box), you can smoke these with the rub on for about 2 hours before cooking. This helps to tenderize the meat and get flavors to smash together. The wood that we use are alder chunks, but you can use any flavor wood you want. Other flavors that we like are apple, cherry, hickory, mesquite (great for chicken), and cedar (great for fish).

Rich's Signature BBQ Rub

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raw sugar or white sugar (using raw sugar makes it not too sweet)
1/2 cup coarse salt
1/4 cup paprika
2 Tbsp seasoned salt
2 Tbsp dry mustard
2 Tbsp freshly ground pepper
1 Tbsp chili powder (not a blend)
1 tsp dry parsley flakes
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp pepper flakes (if you like a little spicy)
1/2 tsp dried basil

Mix together and store in airtight container.

For the ribs: We use a beef rib whenever we can, yeah there is more bone to deal with but if you do this just right, the meat will just fall off the bone. You can also use pork ribs and they taste good too. Note: Remember with pork ribs you need to make sure the internal temperature is 160 degrees or above or else you can get food poisoning from undercooked meat.

Rub your ribs as a slab or you can cut the slab up into individual ribs and rub that way also. We always keep the slab intact, but you have to strip the membranes off the back so they do not become tough and chewy. To do this just take a knife and get it started and then just pull it off until the ribs are very pliable (meaning you can bend the slab in half then you know all the membranes are off because the slab is not very pliable with the membranes intact. It just looks like a thin white skin on the underside of the ribs. The rib rub will not penetrate the membrane so do your best to get it off). Rub liberally with BBQ rub and put in the refrigerator for minimum 8 hours, but 24-48 hours is best for optimum flavor.

If you are going to smoke the ribs, put them in the smoker with your wood chips and turn it on, smoke for about 2-3 hours, changing chips at least twice when they burn down. You can tell you need more chips when the smoker stops showing visible smoke. If you have a charcoal grill, you can get a smoker box and smoke them as you cook them, that works well also. Just get a smoker box (take a look at this picture to know what you need to get if you are not sure about what a smoker box looks like: Smoker Box Picture ) and you put the chips in there and put it on the BBQ rack in the center and place ribs around the smoker box so all the ribs get evenly smoked while cooking.

After you smoke them, or if you are skipping the smoking; turn on the BBQ grill on low and let it heat first. Place ribs on rack and cook it very low heat farthest away from the BBQ burner if you are using a gas grill. Cook it about 4 hours or until done, some grills cook at different pace so check them frequently.

If you like wet ribs, put on your sauce in the last 30 minutes of cooking so it carmelizes on the ribs. Here is the link to the sauce that we make and enjoy frequently: Sweet and Smoky BBQ Sauce Recipe. IF you like dry ribs, just skip the saucing and have some on the table just in case you like a little dipping sauce.

**Note: if you like corn on the cob on the grill: Husk and corn making sure you get the threads off as best you can, butter your corn (we use a honey butter consisting of butter and honey until a spreadable consistency), wrap your corn in foil and place on grill rack with ribs in the last 40 minutes of cooking to get some great BBQ corn to go with those ribs**

Are you hungry yet? I thought so, now go and BBQ up some ribs and corn!

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

(BBQ Beef Sandwiches and Tater Tots)

Friday night we had BBQ beef sandwiches from the crock pot for dinner. They were simply scrumptious! (coming up is what I do with the leftover BBQ beef... I make pizza with it! coming soon) anyway, it is so super simple to make if you like BBQ like we do (during the summer we BBQ everything we can, it is hubby's choice method of cooking). I just started out with a regular chuck beef roast; mine was about 3-4 lbs. I made my favorite BBQ rub (I make my own rubs and will share the recipes) and smothered the roast with it the night before

(this is what it looks like out of the fridge after soaking in rub overnight)

Then, you just put it in the crock pot for about 6 hours on low and leave it alone. Of course you have to put liquid in with the roast (which I used what else? 1/8 cup of Coke to tenderize the meat as always) plus about 1/4 cup water and then I used the liquid left in the bottom of the baking dish that I had the meat in. The rub after a while becomes liquid in the bottom of the pan while the roast is absorbing the rub flavor into the meat. That is good stuff, by all means dump that juice in with the roast for extra flavor. You can also throw in a teaspoon of liquid smoke if you like your BBQ somewhat smoky flavored. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't throw that in; just depends on what I feel like eating.

After the 6 hours, you remove it (watch out it will fall apart upon removing and you should use a slotted spoon to get it out rather than a fork, a fork will just break it up and you would have to use that slotted spoon anyway). Place it on a cookie sheet and using 2 forks just start shredding. It should look like this, if it is tenderized correctly (see below 2 pictures):





Doesn't that look yummy? Oh it is, trust me on this one! Then after you have shredded it, put it in a bowl and put BBQ sauce over it (if you like saucy BBQ beef) or you can eat it dry like this (it still has the flavor of the BBQ rub on it so it will still taste like BBQ). We served it with tater tots and green salad. This is a family favorite!

To freeze the leftovers for something else later, just put cooled leftovers into a freezer bag and freeze. When I need this leftover BBQ beef, I will just thaw it out and use it to make BBQ pizza (which is awesome and when I thaw out the beef for something for dinner, I will post about the pizza). It is a great way to use the leftover BBQ Beef. After all, we all love pizza!

Teriyaki Beef

Richard's Aunt Linda is a great cook. Her teriyaki is to die for. So here is her recipe for Teriyaki Beef that is a quick and easy meal. The only work you have to really do is make the teriyaki sauce and let the meat marinate (overnight for best results).

(Teriyaki Beef with sticky rice and stir fried vegetables covered in teriyaki sauce)

Teriyaki Beef

1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger root or 1 tsp ground ginger
2 cloves garlic, mashed
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 lbs beef round steak

Prepare the marinade by combining ginger, garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce, pepper. Add meat. Marinate overnight for best results.

(Beef marinating)

Cook until desired doneness (broil or BBQ) approximately 5-7 mins on each side. Serve with sticky rice and stir fry vegetables.
*recipe for sauce can be doubled if table sauce is desired, just use half for marinade and half for table sauce over rice*

Shredded Beef Enchiladas

It's what we are having for dinner tonight! Last night I fixed pot roast (yeah with my soda in it LOL) and tonight with the leftovers we are having Shredded Beef Enchiladas. It is a great way to reuse leftover roast so it doesnt sit in the fridge until you have to throw it away. Here is how you do it:

With your leftover roast, shred it (it should just fall apart into string like pieces if its cooked just right and my soda helps it to just fall apart). This recipe is a great time saver since you just mix and bake. You can dice up the onion, olives, and tomato the night before or while the oven is heating up.

Shredded Beef Enchiladas (the recipe)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2-4 cups leftover shredded pot roast (however much you have left)
1 can enchilada sauce (1/4 cup for the beef and rest for the top and bottom of the dish; I buy the largest can since I like my enchiladas saucy)
1/4 cup diced olives
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 tomato (diced) (reserve some for the top)
1 can green chilies (reserve some for the top)
1/4 cup diced onion (reserve some for the top)
6-10 corn tortillas

Topping ideas
sour cream, guacamole, salsa

In a mixing bowl, combine the shredded beef, 1/4 cup enchilada sauce, olives, tomato, onion, green chilies, and 1/2 cup cheese. Mix well.

Spray a large casserole dish (8x13 rectangle works best) with cooking spray. Pour half the remaining enchilada sauce in the bottom. Fill the corn tortillas with the beef mixture and roll. Place the rolled tortillas in the dish seam side down. Repeat with remaining beef mixture and tortillas. Top with remaining enchilada sauce, then 1 1/2 cups of cheese, then olives, tomatoes, green chilies; Bake for 30 minutes.

Makes a great meal served with a green salad. Serves approximately 6-10 servings.
*See below for baking directions after freezing meals*

If you didn't want this for dinner the next night, you can also buy some freezable compartment meal trays or foil meal trays and freeze these meals and cook them when you want them. A good meal is 2 enchiladas with some salad or vegetable of choice. This is a good option if one of the family members works some nights or evenings and the other family members can take them out and bake them themselves. This works especially good if you have a take-out happy hubby who never knows what to fix (like mine LOL). Making and freezing meals ahead of time saves money from going out to eat and you get more nutritious food than you would going out.

If you are going to make this meal for freezing for later, then bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. DO NOT bake before freezing. Put them together in the trays and then freeze. Good idea if you have a chest freezer on hand.



This is what it looks like before going into the oven.






This is what it looks like just out of the oven 30 minutes later. Doesn't that look yummy? The cheese is just melted and browned and the flavors mesh together perfectly and the flavor is out of this world!