Fajita’s From London Broil

I found a nice piece of top round london broil in the freezer the other day and we decided to use part of it for fajitas. It was a little more than an inch thick, so I split it in half so the marinade could penetrate more of it. We decided half would be plenty and put it in the marinade at 8am, with the other half going in to the fridge for something else. By dinner time, neither of us felt like cooking fajitas so it was left in the marinade until the next nights dinner – so it was marinated for 32 hours.

The marinade we used came from Allrecipes and is as follows, with a slight Bev modification:

¼ cup Fresh lime juice
1/3 cup Water
2 tbsp Olive oil
4 cloves Garlic, crushed
2 tsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Liquid smoke
½ tsp Cayenne pepper
½ tsp Black pepper
½ tsp Ground cumin*

Mix everything together and pour over meat in a plastic bag.

*We like the flavor and added cumin believing most Tex-Mex dishes are incomplete without it.

For the meal, Bev whipped up some and guacamole and I cut up some onions to sauté with our julienned frozen peppers.

I used the gas grill for the meat and side burner for the veggies – we’d spent the day, starting at 5:30am, shepherding a friend who had nasal surgery, Bev then came home and made some potato soup and cornbread and took it the 10 miles to her. It was after 7pm, cold and dark when I started cooking, and I didn’t want to fool with the charcoal grill, although I know it would have been better. It was a busy day.

Here's the veggies sauteeing - my grill could stand a good cleaning.

I added nothing else to the meat, beyond the marinade, grilled it to an internal temp of 130*, rested and sliced thinly. After flipping the meat. I gave the tortillas a quick warm up on the grill.

We all sampled the meat and thought the marinade was a definite keeper and the texture was still normal following the long soak.  Here's the building of mine and since we only had large tortillas, it ended up as a burrito.

It's hard to beat a good Tex-Mex meal with delicious meat and fresh accompaniments.  The london broil worked perfect for the dish and I still have another piece the same size for something else - like country steak and gravy, perhaps.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting Almost Heaven South.

Larry

Using Up The Pastrami

We had a piece of homemade pastrami in the fridge from my last BBQ day and I decided to do a little experimenting for breakfast – I’d hate to miss out on an all-star creation.

For experiment one, I cut off a few slices of pastrami and heated them in a skillet with a little olive oil and water. In the meantime, I sliced a piece of homemade bread and a couple pieces of smoked gouda cheese. When the pastrami was warm, I laid it on the bread, topped with the cheese, and put it in the toaster oven on the toast cycle.

I added a couple of natures finest to the skillet and they were done just as the cheese was melted and here’s the result. I had a little difficulty with the eggs as I didn’t use the non-stick skillet.

For experiment two, I first sliced off enoughh of the pastrami for a nice sandwich and diced the remainder for hash.  I love hash made from corned beef or brisket and since pastrami is the same cut of meat with different spices, I thought why not.  I'd parboiled a couple of potatoes the day before and diced then along with some onion and satueed the mix in a little olive oil.  I topped with a couple of over-easy eggs (one of which I broke), shredded gruyere cheese and chopped green onion.

I thought it good, as was the first dish, but a distant third behind corned beef and brisket for this application.  I'm glad I gave them a try, but I think pastrami really needs mustard and rye bread, so I'll stick with grilled pastrami sandwiches when I want it for breakfast - this was a frequent day-starter back in our skiing days.

Someone recently commented on here that I’d eat anything if it were topped with an egg and all I can say is the truth is more like “I’d eat almost anything if it were covered with an egg, cheese, or good dark chocolate.”

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Homemade Eggnog

I’m on an eggnog roll and as I said yesterday not a big fan of the commercial stuff, but I love this homemade version of the holiday classic as was made by my former wife. It’s the drink for eggnog fans and even those who aren’t big lovers of it. Of course, your favorite libation can be added to provide the nog – as my parents used to say.

SPICY EGGNOG
Beanie Rankin
Makes about a quart

Ingredients
½ cup Sugar
3 ea Eggs, separated
Dash Allspice
2 cups Milk, chilled
¼ tsp Cinnamon
1 cup Light cream(or half and half), chilled
1/8 tsp Nutmeg

Process
1. Combine sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg.
2. In large bowl of electric mixer, at high speed, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
3. Gradually beat in half of sugar mixture until stiff peaks form.
4. In small bowl, beat egg yolks until lemon-colored. Gradually beat in remaining sugar mixture until thick and smooth.
5. Thoroughly fold into whites. Stir in milk and cream; mix well.
6. Serve well chilled, each serving sprinkled with nutmeg.
 I usually quadrupled the recipe and made it the night before and let the foam settle from the beaten egg whites. Most people like it that way better.

Go ahead and make you up a quart to try it, but make sure you have enough ingredients on hand to make more.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Eggnog Crème Brulee

One of Bev’s favorite desserts is crème brulee and the other day she asked if I could find a recipe for eggnog crème brulee to have for Christmas. I looked around and to my surprise, it’s a pretty common item with many recipes available. I’m not a fan of commercial eggnog as it’s too much of everything for me, but I love a good homemade version. One of the first I found came from Epicurious and started with cream, eggs and sugar rather than purchased eggnog and it contained rum and brandy, which also was appealing.

Ingredients
· 4 cups whipping cream
· 2/3 cup sugar
· 8 large egg yolks
· 1/4 cup dark rum
· 1 tablespoon brandy
· 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
· Large pinch of salt
· 1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar


Process

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 11x8-inch (8-cup capacity) shallow ceramic baking dish in roasting pan. Mix cream and 2/3 cup sugar in medium saucepan. Bring to simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves. Whisk yolks in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in hot cream mixture, then rum, brandy, nutmeg, and salt. Transfer to baking dish. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of dish. Carefully transfer pan to oven.


Bake until custard is set around edges but center still jiggles slightly when dish is gently shaken, about 40 minutes. Remove ceramic dish from water. Chill custard on rack until cold, at least 3 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled.)


Preheat broiler. Press brown sugar through strainer over custard to cover completely and evenly. Watching closely, broil custard 4 to 6 inches from heat source until sugar bubbles and caramelizes, about 2 minutes. Chill custard until topping hardens, at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours. Serve cold.

Rather than use the broiler, I wanted to use a torch to melt the sugar – like I see on TV, but when I tried, the brown sugar almost immediately burned. I decided I was holding the torch too close and after looking at other recipes I discovered many use white rather than brown sugar. Unfortunately, I already had brown sugar on all of them, so I’ll have to wait for the next batch to find out.

Regardless of how you get the sugary crust on top, if you like eggnog and crème brulee, I think you’ll love this version and it’s simple to make - I even liked it, as it was lighter and less custardy than the others I've tasted.  I’m looking forward to them for Christmas dinner and I’ll make sure we make a couple of extras to practice sugar melting on.  We ate them before I remembered a picture.

I’D APPRECIATE ANY SUGGESTIONS ON CREATING THE SUGAR CRUST.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Smoked Venison

When I cleaned out the freezer the other day, I removed a couple of venison front quarters just to do something with them and get them out of the freezer. I talked with my deer-hunting cousin, who suggested grinding into burger and Cowgirl Jeanie who advised she often smokes them whole. Since this required the least effort, I decided to give it a try.

I basically used Jeanie’s methodology and first marinated them for a day in Wickers Marinade and Baste (she uses Dales) – I have Wickers I need to use.  I flipped them a few times.

I removed them from the marinade rinsed them well, covered, and put them back in the fridge. I’d planned to smoke them that day but wasn’t feeling well so I put it off a day, but when I awoke to very cold, snow, and wind with a prediction of more throughout the day, I decided to wait another day – it was still in the low 20’s, but at least it was sunny.  The cooking day started at 8*.

I used a different rub on each one of them and covered in bacon to provide some fat while cooking.

I cooked them at 275* to an internal of around 135* - depending on where I checked – pulled them, wrapped in foil, and stuck in a pre-warmed cooler for about an hour. Here it is finished and then carved.

It was moist, very tasty, not gamey, and I could eat venison on a regular basis, although this part has a lot of different muscles and silver skin. It wasn’t tough but did have a chew to it – perhaps similar to a sirloin or round steak. Since I don’t hunt, I believe I’ll just stick to the loin or burger should folks want to give it to me – of course no one wants to give away their loin (backstrap in deer-speak). I’ll cut off some of the nice pieces for use in other dishes and the pups will get the rest of it.
Here’s my plate and the Caesar salad was made using the recipe recently posted by Katherine over at Smoky Mountain Café. Our anchovy paste was pretty old, so we used a tin of anchovies and we both thought it could have used a little more – it was a little short of the 2 tbsp called for in the recipe. We both thought it was very good and would definitely make it again.

I basically smoked the deer today because I was running the pit anyway to do a cold weather survey of it, and glad I did, as it is quite a bit different than in warm weather.  I have probes stuck thru wine bottle corks and stationed at various places in the smoker.

I’m smoking prime rib for our Christmas dinner, and offered to cook some for my friends, since I’m running the pit anyway. I ended up with orders for two cows worth of bone-in choice rib roast and I don’t want to mess up anyone’s Christmas dinner because I did’t know what my pit was doing.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting Almost Heaven - Arctic South.

Larry

Just A Little Steak And Eggs For Breakfast

I'm up at 4:30 this morning and with last nights weather forecast for freezing rain, I had to go outside and check it out.  Our front walk and driveway are a nice thin sheet of solid ice.  About 30 years ago, this happened while I was bowling and I had to get home with my three kids - up a few hills.  Needless to say this used every bit of the bad weather driving skills I learned growing up in northern WV.  It's supposed to warm up later today, but it's 28* right now with light rain falling and freezing on contact.  I guess I'll have to read the newspapers on-line today.  At 7:30, I went to check again and as the usual, the dogs had to go out and went running across the drive.   Before they new it, they were in a sitting position and sliding along on their butts and into a flower bed.  Needless to say, they were very cautious on the return trip - I needed a video camera.

We grilled steaks a few days ago and I’d gotten a 3-pack out of the freezer, but when Bev’s sister didn’t join us we put the extra in the fridge. A few days later, we realized we’d better eat it before it went bad, and so I pan fried it to medium-rare, and sided it with a couple of over easy eggs and some toasted homemade bread. Bev needed a good breakfast to spend the day power shopping and I needed it for a hard day of pet sitting.

Speaking of pets, Bev got this shot of Willy (Pat’s Shih Tzu), Kitty, and her best friend Coco all laying around on the couch and enjoying the fire - I think Sweetie was on my lap.

Occasionally things just work out right.  While we're struggling with very cold temps all the way into South Florida, our Lexington, Ky based kids are on a cruise in the Caribbean.  They decided to go to San Juan a day early, and ended up flying through Chicago a day ahead of the blizzard and they've picked the coldest week of the year to be on the cruise.  It was 85* in San Juan Sunday night as they were sitting on the ship awaiting the evening departure.  I love it when a plan comes together like this and hope I haven't jinxed the rest of their trip.

As always, click on any photo to blow it up.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting today.

Larry

Chicken And Dumplings

It was a balmy 8* here yesterday morning.  That's a lttle cool for a fall day (winter's a week away) in the South.

We have friends who basically don't cook and we like to regularly invite them over for a home cooked meal. Tonight’s choice was chicken and dumplings, and as with her potato soup, Bev is a purist – thickened chicken broth & milk, chicken, and dumplings. I’d prefer it be made with some veggies, like Debbie's over at A Feast For The Eyes, but this version is still awfully good. The one thing we did borrow from Debbie was to brown the chicken skin before removing it.

When the skin was browned, Bev deglazed the pan with some homemade chicken stock, removed the chicken skin, and cooked the chicken in the broth. When done, she removed the chicken to cool and added milk and flour to the pot to get the desired volume and thickness. She then de-boned and shredded the chicken, added it back to the pot, and mixed up her drop biscuits, using Pioneer Brand Baking Mix.

She dropped the biscuits in the pot a spoonful at a time and here they are cooking.

I got busy visiting with our company and sipping on some V. Sattui Gamay Rouge wine, and I forgot to take more pictures, which was a shame as my bowl looked outstanding and it tasted just as good - serious comfort food for a cold Saturday evening.

For our snow day on Monday it was chili pie and I think some recipes deserve repeating - Bev's Mexican cornbread.  We made some chili the other day and I didn't blog about it because it just looked like chili and we just added and tasted, so there is no recipe - except it was half beef and half venison and very good.  So for this meal she did as usual - pour the cornbread mixture in a cast iron skillet, top with the chili, and bake - the cornbread will come to the top.  This is the result after flipping to cornbread down when plating and adding a little diced onion and shredded cheese:

Pretty good eats, sitting in front of the fire on a cold day.  Click on pics to enlarge.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting Almost Heaven South - although you wouldn't know it from our temps.

Larry