Steak and Cheese Subs

Leftover steaks and/or pot roast, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon oil
1 pkg fresh button mushrooms, sliced
2 onions, sliced into rings
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce

4 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise
1 (8 ounce) package sliced provolone cheese
salt, pepper and dried oregano
Lettuce and tomato

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute mushrooms, onion, and season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and soy sauce. Saute until vegetables are tender. Cut the steak into strips and then process it for a few seconds. Add to the vegetables to heat through.

3. Dig out some of the bread from the center of the bottom slice of bread, creating a boat-like shape to hold the meat and vegetables. Spread each bun generously with garlic mayonnaise*. Divide beef mixture into the buns. Top with cheese, and sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano. Place sandwiches on a baking pan.

4. Heat sandwiches in preheated oven, until cheese is melted or slightly browned.

5. Add lettuce and tomato. Serve while still warm!

Sometimes I drizzle a little Italian Dressing over the lettuce and tomato. (This is the sub shop's secret trick to give their subs a little extra kick.)

*Garlic mayonnaise

1 cup Mayo
2 cloves Garlic, ground into a paste with a little salt and the edge of a chef knife
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine in small bowl. Cover and refrigerate til ready to use.

Onion Soup Mix... for Pot Roast

I wanted to make a pot roast using onion soup mix and my pickled garlic, but I didn't have any mix left in the pantry. So, I made some myself. After searching the web and consolidating the results, I came up with this one...

2 tablespoons minced, dried onion
1 teaspoon onion powder
4 1/2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Mix together and store in a zip-loc bag.
Makes the equivalent of one package of soup mix.

I followed my usual method for my pot roast... except for the garlic. I used my pickled garlic this time.

1 small roast (able to fit in a crock pot)
1 pack of onion soup mix
1/2 cup (or so) water
6 cloves pickled garlic, sliced thin

Add to the crock pot and cook on low for about 8 hours.

I went to put it up after everyone ate... this is all that was left.

I guess the pickled garlic was pretty good! LOL

My "Crap on a Cracker" Moment

Those of you that are familiar with Penny on The Big Bang Theory will understand this and not take offense. (If not Google it and you'll understand! LOL)

My "Crap on a Cracker" Moment today...

Like the commercial on TV, I came into the kitchen this morning to find a pot pie box on the island, which let me know that my son had fixed himself a little something to eat. (The hubby brought 2 of the pies home a month ago and put them in the freezer. Something he does from time to time... I don't know why.) Anyway!!! I'm sitting at my computer working on a post and think to myself... should I really be smelling that pot pie that strongly at noon, when he fixed it hours ago? I even looked in the trash to see if he had thrown the uneaten portion in the trash. Nothing there... Back at my computer, I thought to myself, "Dang that pot pie sure smells good! That can't be what I smell! Garlic... I smell yummy Garlic!" A little while later, after thinking that my garlic loving son added garlic to his pot pie, I was feeling mighty proud that he's becoming quite the little chef... THEN, it dawned on me that I had put a roast in the crock pot last night... at 8pm!!!

17 hours later!!! Thank goodness it was on LOW!

I think it's done! LOL

Not that you'd want to duplicate this recipe... but here's what I did. I put the roast in the crock pot, and as with all crock pot recipes, I turned the crock pot on and forgot about it! LOL

One good chunk of a sirloin roast

2 cups good beef broth

1 1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp dried minced onion

Salt and Pepper

Put in the crock pot on low for about 8 hours or high for about 4-5 hours.

Sunday Pot Roast

A good pot roast with vegetables, green bean casserole, rice and gravy, sliced tomatoes and Mama's biscuits is the typical Sunday Dinner that I remember growing up. The smell takes me back to Mama's kitchen. If you add a lot more pepper to the pot roast or some fried chicken, that smell takes me to Grandmama Bradham's. The smell of cooking cabbage always takes me to Grandmama Elliott's kitchen. 

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” 
― Laurie Colwin

 

Sunday Pot Roast

4 pound chuck roast

salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

flour

2 tbsp oil

1 packet dry onion soup mix

1 cup beef broth or water

3 carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed

8 ozs button mushrooms, wiped clean with a paper towel

Season the chuck roast with salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste, on all sides. Dust with flour and brown in oil on all sides in a large skillet over medium to high heat. Place in the roasting pan and add the soup mix, water, carrots, onion, potatoes and mushrooms. Cover and cook at 350 degrees for 2 or 3 hours. (The longer it cooks the more tender it becomes, but don’t let all the liquid burn off.)

Remove the meat and vegetables. Make gravy by adding a cornstarch slurry to the juices… 1 tbsp cornstarch to ¼ cup cold water… add to the juices and bring to a boil. 

Mama's Short Biscuits

2 cups self-rising flour
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put 2 cups self-rising flour in a medium sized bowl. Take 2/3 cup vegetable shortening, and cut in with fingertips until dough looks like small peas.

Make a well in the center and add 2/3 cup milk slowly, mixing with floured fingertips until it gets sticky. Keeping hands floured, shape biscuits with hands and place them on an ungreased pan. Mama always placed the biscuit down and pressed three fingers into each one leaving ridges… Bake 10-12 minutes.

This is a very sticky dough. Don’t be tempted to keep adding flour. The more you mix, the tougher the biscuit. Just keep flouring your hands and it will coat the biscuit so that you can handle them.