Tri Tip Steak with Mr. Yoshida's Sauce

The other day we were in Costco and sampling their new foods.  We came across a lady in the meat aisle and she was sampling tri tip steaks.  She had marinated it with Mr. Yoshida's Original Gourmet sauce.  Oh my goodness!  This was steak heaven on a toothpick.  My whole family went CRAZY over this!  I mean the "mom you have to get this!" kind of crazy!

So I asked the lady how she prepared it and got the ingredients while I was there.  The next night we had Tri tip steak with Mr. Yoshida's Sauce and veggie kababs.  I served them over rice.

The sauce is a sweet and tangy sauce, similar to an Asian stir-fry sauce.  It is delicious with steak and veggies.  So delicious that the next day I cut up the left over steak and veggies into smaller pieces, made some more rice, and stir fried the steak and veggies.  Super yummy.

To cook the tri tip I cut it into a little larger than bite-sized pieces and marinated them for about 30 minutes in the sauce.  I cut the veggies into chunks and then put the veggies and meat on skewers.  I grilled them for about 8 minutes total, until the meat seemed done enough for us (medium).  I let the kababs rest for about 3-4 minutes before serving.

You can also cook tri tip steak on the grill in large long lengths.  Cut against the grain to make a more tender slice.

I know you can get Mr. Yoshida's Original Gourmet sauce at Costco.  I looked at Kroger when I was there but didn't see it.

Stuffed Peppers - Red Pepper Style

I am not a pepper person.  I just want to make that clear.  We had ground beef and red peppers in the house and it is just my husband and I so I thought I would try something different for dinner tonight.

I thought I would share my recipe.  I scanned the internet and took some basic ideas from the several recipes I saw and then ad libbed the rest.

Stuffed Red Peppers

1 lb ground beef
1 cup cooked rice (brown or white)
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced red pepper
6 oz crushed tomatoes
2 tbs bread crumbs
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt (or less to taste)
4 red peppers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook the rice.
Cut peppers about a third of the way down the pepper.  Scoop out any white veins and rinse out any seeds. Dice up the tops of the peppers for the meat stuffing.
In a skillet brown the ground beef, onions and diced red peppers.
In a large pot boil some water to par boil the pepper bottoms. Just a few minutes until they are just soft. Take them out of the water and set aside to cool slightly.
Once the meat, onions and peppers are cooked drain off any extra fluid then add rice, tomatoes, black pepper and salt.
Stuff the pepper bottoms with the meat stuffing and set in an oven safe dish.  Pour water in the bottom of the dish until it is about 1/8 inch from the bottom. Top the peppers with bread crumbs and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Let cool slightly before serving.

Yum!

Let's talk Spaghetti

Do you ever have the thought whilst cooking that you are on a cooking show like on Food Network and whilst cooking you start thinking in your head all the things you would say if you were truly on that cooking show? Well, from time to time it happens to me. I will be cooking dinner in the kitchen (because that is the logical place to cook) and I will be minding my own business and all of the sudden, suddenly, I start thinking, "now add a dash of this", "when you see it starting to brown....". Yup, those thoughts of what I would say if I were the host of my own cooking show pop into my brain.

So it happened tonight and I thought that I should be the next Paula Deen. Now I pick her because she cooks 'down home' meals. You know, with real butter and stuff. Now I didn't go get my camera which I probably should have but didn't. So we have no pictures here. But I thought I would post MY spaghetti sauce tonight.

I don't make mine from scratch and it would probably be good to take a moment to review my story about my father and his spaghetti sauce. You can find it here.

Now that you read that you understand that I have yet to actually make my father's world famous meat sauce. I used his suggestion and I doctor up a jar of spaghetti. So here goes:

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 TBS Italian Seasoning
1 medium onion
1 small can sliced mushrooms
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I use Prego chunky mushroom)

Brown the meat and chopped onion in a skillet. Drain the fat from the skillet and add the Italian Seasoning. Stir and cook until you can start to smell the spices. Then add the jar of spaghetti sauce and mushrooms. Cook on low (ish) until just boiling. Serve on top of spaghetti noodles and top with parmesian cheese.

Now this is a base for me. This is the normal sauce and we do eat this sauce as is often. But I have been known to doctor it up a bit by adding chopped black olives or pepperonis, or whatever else I have on hand. Sometimes I will add 2/3 ground beef and 1/3 sausage. Play with it and make it your own.

Leave me a comment and tell me what you add to your spaghetti.

Asian Style Meatball Stir Fry

Okay so bear with me. I know it sounds weird, strange and utterly odd. But this is really good.

Ingredients:

rice, cooked
teriaki sauce
meatballs, frozen pre-made
bag of frozen asian vegetables

Here's how to put it together. Take the meatballs and toss them in a pan on medium heat. When they are about 2/3 cooked through, toss in the bag of frozen veggies. Cover with a lid for a few minutes to allow the veggies to thaw and give off some of its juices. Just when things are looking like they are hot and there is a bit of water on the bottom of the pan from the veggies, add about 1/2 cup of teriaki sauce and stir so that the meatballs and the veggies are covered. If the sauce looks too juicy then allow to reduce a few minutes before serving. You want some sauce for the rice. Then put a scoop of cooked rice on the plate and then scoop the meatballs and veggies on top and serve. Now, how easy is that.

My kids love meatballs and we have them quite often as they are quick and easy to make when they come frozen from the store. This recipe surprised even my pickiest of eaters. For some of the kids I didn't put the meatballs and veggies on the rice because they don't like their food to mingle with each other. They loved the sweet teriaki sauce on the meatballs!!

I think I will sell him on ebay...

He looks like pac-man... (tilt your head to the right)

Mini Burgers

My kids love hamburgers. But they never eat the whole thing. So I tried something different.

MINI BURGERS!!

I bought some yummy potato dinner rolls which are half the size of the regular haburger buns and I made mini burgers, about half the size of a regular burger. The kids loved the small size and it was a perfect fit for their mouths. Two of the kids ate two burgers!! Dinner was a success without me fussing at them to eat more and they thought it was fun!

PS: Even my husband said, "hey, these mini-burgers are fun to eat."

Case closed!

World Famous Spaghetti

My dad used to spend all day Sunday making a big batch of spaghetti sauce. We would come in from playing outside to this wonderful aroma infiltrating every nook and cranny in our house. I remember asking as I grew older if he would let me help. He would say, "No, it is a secret recipe". I then began asking for the recipe when I moved out and got my own home. He would say, "when you get married I will give it to you." So, I got married and asked again. He then said, "You really don't need the recipe. Just get a jar of spaghetti sauce and doctor it up a bit by adding fresh onions, peppers, and other vegetables. The jars are just as good." I was so disappointed. I really wanted that recipe. I had watched him from afar many times growing up and he didn't use a jar of sauce. My dad died a few years back and I immediately went after his cookbooks and his other files of recipes. No spaghetti sauce. We finally found it later on. He had written it on a file card and titled it "Herb's 'World Famous' Meat Sauce". He had filed it under MEATS. Here it is...

1 cup onion, chopped

1 lb. ground beef

3/4 lb. sausage

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. 14oz canned tomatoes

1 lb. canned tomatoes

1 6oz tomato paste

1/4 cup snipped parsley

1 TBS brown sugar (secret ingredient)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp MSG

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp thyme

1 bay leaf

1. Saute onion and garlic

2. Add meats and cook until brown

3. Skim off excess fat

4. Add remaining ingredients and 2 cups of water.

5. Simmer uncovered for 3 hours or until sauce is thick

6. Serve over spaghetti, shells or other pasta.

7. Top with parmesian cheese

(Remove the bay leaf before serving)

Dad always had a "secret ingredient" that he would put in that would make it all that much better and a bit different from the normal.

You can leave out the MSG and I am not sure but from reading this recipe it may be 2 cans of 1lb 14oz canned tomatoes instead of one big and one little can. You may have to play with the amount of tomatoes a bit. The recipe is unclear.

Vegetable Soup!

So I am trying to lose a little weight and I made a big batch of Vegetable soup to take with me to work for lunch for the week.

Here's the recipe!

1 onion chopped
1 bunch of celery, chopped
1 large can or two small cans of stewed tomatoes (fresh if in season but you have to cook it longer)
1 can of green beans (or frozen)
1 can of corn (or frozen)
1 lb carrots chopped in slices or chunks
1 to 1 1/2 quarts vegetable broth or chicken broth
1 TBS Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt (more or less to taste)
1 TBS vegetable oil
1 tsp pepper (or more to taste)

In a large stew pot, heat the vegetable oil and saute the onions, celery, and carrots until the onions start to turn translucent. Then add all the other vegetables, broth, and seasonings. The broth should cover all the vegetables and it should look like soup. If you want more liquid you can add more broth or just add water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are as soft as you like them. Taste the broth and season until satisfied.

If you want a brunswick stew like soup add leftover chicken and potatoes and omit the green beans. Cook until all vegies are soft and then take a potato masher and mash the soup until it is thick. Serve with homemade biscuits or bread!

A Taco Trick

When making tacos from a box or mix, when you cook the ground beef throw in diced onion. It adds a little something extra to your tacos!! If you like green peppers add those too. Drain the meat, onion and pepper and add the sauce mixture and continue to prepare the way the directions on the back say.

Fried Chicken

We are having fried chicken tonight. I will put the entire recipe up later. I took two whole chickens and cut them up in pieces and they are soaking in buttermilk right now. They will soak for about 5 hours. The longer the soak the better they are. It is best when they soak overnight. We will coat them in egg wash and then a seasoning mix which I will post. Then they will fry in a cast iron skillet for 12 minutes on each side, flipping only once. Yum!!

Pork Chops

Tonight is Pork Chops on the Grill. We grill out all year long. Even in the winter my husband fires up the grill and we grill out.

Easy pork chop marinade:

1 cup Zesty Italian Salad Dressing! That is it! How easy is that? We marinade chicken, pork and shrimp in it. Let it sit for about 30 minutes, flipping the meat at least once. Then grill.

How do we get the nice criss cross grill marks on our meat? My husband loves having the grill marks and here is how he does it. He lets the grill get nice and hot. Then he places the meat on the grill, lets it sit there for 3-4 minutes and then takes the spatula and turns the meat clockwise a quarter of a turn on the same side. Then he lets it cook another 3-4 minutes and then turns the meat to the other side to cook. Lets it sit 3-4 minutes and the turns it clockwise a quarter of a turn and lets it sit another 3-4 minutes until done. Many people like to move and turn their meat on the grill often. This makes the meat dry and tough. You should only flip your meat once and you can turn the meat a quarter of a turn to make the grill marks. Other than that don't touch the meat while grilling.

Another big no no for grilling is to smoosh the hamburgers with the spatula. This dries them out because all the juices leak out when you are smooshing. Never smoosh!!

Happy grilling tonight.

Chicken Kiev

I am thinking about this delectable dish for tonight's dinner.

This is how I will make it.

3 boneless chicken breasts
3 TBS butter softened
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp parsley
Italian Bread Crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
3-4 TBS vegetable oil

Pound the chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap.
mix the butter, garlic powder, parsley, and salt and pepper together and place in freezer to harden. When the butter has hardened, place a TBS in the center of the pounded chicken breast and roll it up. Stick a toothpick in the chicken to keep it rolled up.
Coat in eggs and cover in bread crumbs.
Fry in a pan on medium high heat in vegetable oil until done (about 5-7 minutes) turning once or twice.

I will serve this with fresh squash and onions, sauted, corn on the cob and rice. Yum.

What are you cooking? Share a recipe with me!!