Category: Beef

Zlfred’s

We’ve been missing one of our favorite restaurants, Zlfred’s, so we’ve been working to recreate their most popular dish, the beef kebob sandwich. That was pretty much the only thing people ordered there.

First, the name. The story goes that when the restaurant first opened, they couldn’t afford to buy a sign. The previous business was called Alfred’s, so they just had the letter “A” replaced with a “Z” to save money, and Zlfred’s was born. The place was pretty much a dive, but every so often we’d go in for our beef kebob sandwich fix.

I tried many times to duplicate the taste and failed, but our son Jace has nailed it. I’ve found a good recipe to make the pita rolls. So I’ll post both the beef kebob and pita bread recipes, add some pilaf, and Zlfred’s lives on!

Asian Night

I don’t know about you, but when I go out for Asian food, I want VARIETY! I want the noodles, rice, a few different dishes, the whole megillah. Oh man, if my daughter-in-law is reading this, she just said, “HUH?”. She thinks I speak in some strange foreign language half the time.

OK Angela, “the whole megillah” means having it all, “the whole nine yards”, “the whole ball of wax”, “the whole shootin’ match”, “the whole shebang”. It has nothing to do with the cartoon character Magilla Gorilla, although he was pretty big. And you probably have no idea who Magilla Gorilla is anyway do you? Ah, that darn Generation Gap.

Anyway “megillah” is the Hebrew word for scroll. Reading from those scrolls on holy days was long and tedious. The “whole megilla”started out meaning a long, tedious, or complicated story. Then it also started being used to just mean the whole darn thing.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Asian dinners. Anyway, last night the kids were coming for dinner so I thought I’d give it a shot. I managed three dishes, Broccoli Beef in Oyster Sauce, Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and Sumi Salad, with a side of steamed rice courtesy of the rice cooker.

Actual cooking is easy, it’s the prep work that sucks. But I got all my ducks in a row earlier in the day, and with Angela’s help we got dinner cooked in short order.

The rice cooker took care of the rice, so I didn’t have to think about that. Angela manned one skillet, fixing the chicken dish. I had broccoli beef going in another skillet. Or, I could have made the chicken and kept it warm in a crock pot, just stirring in the green onion before serving. That works too. You could even hold the broccoli beef warm for a while if you want to get real crazy and make another dish, like some pot stickers. But I wasn’t that ambitious. Maybe another day.

Apparently Mom’s Not Cooking!

Welcome to life. Summertime is appraiser Hell on Earth. I’m lucky to have clean clothes to wear these days, let alone fix something great for dinner. But Mr. Man isn’t complaining. He’s busy fixing up the house and spending money faster than I can make it, so he’s more than willing to have me with my nose to the grindstone instead of in some cookbook. Besides, we’re both so fat we can afford to miss a few good meals.

These days he’s been cooking on occasion, for which I’m so grateful I don’t care what he fixes. Whatever it is, I’ll swear it’s the best thing ever even if I have to massage it down my throat. OK, seriously, he’s a pretty good cook as long as you like things grilled, or fried, preferably with gravy.

Or, sometime I throw something together that takes as little effort as possible. Survival Cooking 101. Yesterday it was roast in a crock pot. I’ve fixed roast every way you can think of, but I’m down to the absolute laziest way imaginable and frankly, they all taste about the same. So I figure, why work any harder than I have to?

Somebody asked me if I have any crock pot recipes the other day. So, here’s how I fix crock pot roast when cooking just isn’t a priority.

 

Cooking For The Family

If you have to cook, nothing beats cooking for those you love. (Say Awww….) It helps take away some of the pain of slaving over a hot stove, even if you have to fish for compliments afterward.

When you have company, you have to make a little more effort than usual. Well, that’s assuming you want them to come back of course. Since I rather like our kid’s company, and they were working hard out in the shop all day, I set them up with some beef kebobs for dinner.

These are pretty darn awesome, particularly if you make them out of prime rib. I didn’t have prime rib, so I used tri-tip, which is good. Still, if you really want to wow company with a special dinner, nothing beats prime rib.

I usually buy a huge hunk which is $100+. We’ll cut off a big chunk to roast on the rotisserie out on the grill, covered with my favorite rub. Then I might cut up the rest into steaks, or into cubes to marinate for beef kebobs.

When you cut the prime rib into cubes, there are always little bits and pieces of meat left that are too small to do anything else with, so I fry those up, make beef in mushroom gravy, and serve over egg noodles. I know, it’s not diet food, but you can’t throw away even a scrap of prime rib at those prices.

But enough about special occasion expensive prime rib. Last night it was just good old tri-tip, and Jace said they were the best beef kebobs I’d ever made. We were so busy eating, I forgot to take a photo. So here’s one lonely kebob. The rest were in our bellies!

Beef kebob

Comfort Food

salisbury done

Salsibury Steak smothered in gravy, so tender Grandma can eat it without her dentures. Mashed potatoes smothered with more gravy. Or not, so you can mix them into your peas and make a real mess. Now that’s what I call comfort food.

We did that last night. Everyone was happy. End of story.

Not enough fruits and veggies for you? Well, I made some carrot cupcakes and they even had pineapple in them. So, we had fruit and veggie for desert. Boom! That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Carrot Cupcakes