22nd Pig Roast 2012

So Mike and I attended the 22nd Annual Pig Roast on October 20th. His family has this roast every year and roasts a pig, well, they haven't done a whole pig for a little while so they did two shoulders. 

So we left at O'Dark thirty in the morning to arrive around 9 or 9:30 am at the cabin.

We did get the chance to see the sunrise together and it was absolutely gorgeous. Great country scenery with a beautiful sunrise. Great way to start a day.

So 3 1/2 hours of being on the road and two pit stops later we arrived at the cabin, which is located in "middle of nowhere" USA. It's not somewhere you would just think to go and the people around the area are definitely redneck. But it was definitely a gorgeous area. The colors of fall and all the foliage. Absolutely beautiful area.

So we arrived, unloaded the truck and figured out what we needed to help with. So we checked on the pig. Well, pig pieces. Mmm, couldn't wait to dig into that, but it was only 9:30 am and the pig wouldn't be ready until about 1 or 1:30. The fire was started around 4 am that morning and the pig was put on around 4:45 am. So the pig had already been slow cooking for about 5 hours. Mmmm, that's gonna fall right off the bone. Couldn't wait.

They do have this nifty little motor to spin the pig to keep the cooking even. From what I caught from conversation they pieced it together, which is actually pretty cool. Kept the pig evenly cooked and ultimately delicious. They had a fire going and had some hickory or mesquite smoker chips/bits in there too to give it a bit of flavor.

Look at that pig, ain't it beautiful and delicious looking?

Yeah we all pretty much sat around that baby a good part of the morning, munching on the snack foods like crackers, cheese, fruit and chips in eager await of the main event.

Of course waiting on food can be a little boring, not that conversing with people isn't fun. Mike took me out on the 4-wheeler for my first ride. I've never been on a 4-wheeler. I have been on a dirt bike but cannot say my experience with that was pleasant. I did hold onto him a little to hard when we first took off down the road. Mike told me on a few occasions to lighten my grip and that I didn't need to hold on so tight. Of course going 50 mph on a vehicle that doesn't have any seat belt or really any safety feature to keep you on makes me a little nervous to start out. I eventually got to the point where I just held onto the bars on the back of the 4-wheeler and started to really enjoy it. After we had stopped and saw the lake he let me drive it back. That was fun. So got to ride and drive one for the first time. How cool. :) However, Mike didn't think I drove fast enough - it's my first time, I'm not driving 50 mph. I'll stick to 30.

So when we got closer to actually eating Mike's dad began to baste it in some good old KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce. Mmmm, that just made our mouths water even more.

Mike's Uncle and cousin did the meat carving. The smoke ring on that meat was about 1/8th of an inch and it was sooo delicious. The bone literally pulled right out of the meat. It was amazing. Mike said it was the best they had had so far. There was soo much food beside the pig. There was broccoli cheese rice casserole, macaroni and cheese, fruit tray, veggie tray, bean dip (which is evidently legendary and so delicious it disappears faster than you can blink) and then there was a delicious dutch oven black forest cake that Mike's sister made. She evidently is not cooking inclined so this was something many doubted would turn out and we were all skeptical due to the instructions of specific amounts of coals on top and underneath. So it was turned and watched for 40 minutes without looking. All wondering if this thing would turn out. It actually turned out quite well. Found that it was moist and delicious. I only got a small bite because it disappeared pretty quick and I really didn't want and entire bowl of it. There was also pumpkin pie and apple pie on top of the promise of s'mores later (which I did have.)

After being stuffed to the brim and sitting back while our stomachs settled. It was a pretty great time getting to meet his aunts and uncles and cousins. Sat back, listened to stories and laughed at his dad being his dad. His family cracks me up. I truly enjoyed myself and I know Mike did too.

We stayed the night at the cabin and his mom and dad, Mike and I sat around the fire until about 9 pm and had some drinks. I had some Jack Tennessee Honey with Diet Dr Pepper while Mike had some with Coke. That's good stuff. Smoother than Jack's original Tennessee Whiskey.

The next morning we helped pack up and make sure things were picked up, put away and locked down. Mike and I took the 4-wheeler's out one last time. He made me drive my own this time. It was a beautiful crisp morning and I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and was getting more comfortable with the 4-wheeler. Came back to the cabin, loaded up the 4-wheeler's and locked up the cabin. Soon headed back to reality. I had taken Friday and Monday off to ensure a truly relaxing weekend. My weekend hadn't started off so well because Friday morning as I tried to leave I had a flat tire - not cool. So I was delayed about 2 hours from leaving my place to arrive at Mike's. Good thing we left Saturday.

So Sunday we spent the day carving a pumpkin and making dinner for ourselves and roomie and another friend. Grilled chicken with vegetable kabobs and macaroni and cheese Mike's mom had made and sent home with us. Pretty delicious if I do say so myself.

Monday we went to the gym then ate at my favorite local sandwich shop, Mighty Melt. I love the bread there. Their sandwiches are pretty good. I'm trying to replicate their bread - of course they don't give out their "secret" signature recipe and won't tell me what kind of bread it is. Grrr, means I have to figure it out on my own. Which in and of itself is frustrating but gives me an experiment and plenty of bread around the house.

Monday we also went out on Mike's layout boat and tried out his new motor for it. Worked pretty well. Much faster than the push pole. Was entertaining and helped scout out areas he could hunt ducks. He's hoping to get some hunting in Tuesday this week and possibly Sunday next week.

This weekend I was involved in Rugged Maniac's 5k mud run in Weston Missouri at the Snow Creek Ski Resort. Can I just say the hills there were absolutely insane and totally not meant for running or climbing up.

It was crazy on that account on top of the fact that it was cold and had water obstacles. I ran at 12:30 and it was still only 35 degrees outside. There were 4 water obstacles. It really wasn't too bad once you got through the first obstacle. At that point your legs are numb and you just keep pushing through. I finished in roughly 51 to 53 minutes, considering my 3.15 mile time averages about 28:30 minutes so to add in around 15 obstacles that's not bad. I plan to do warrior dash in April in KC. Should be a lot of fun. I felt like a beast going up the mud wall with the rope. You really have to use a lot of upper body strength. I can't say I've ever had fantastic upper body strength but with the Insanity workout I just finished it has helped quite a bit.

Front: Before & After

Back: Before & After

I am at the very least quite impressed with my results. I wasn't expecting it honestly. Mike has had really great results as well with his, haven't taken his after pics yet. Though today we did get some good pictures together. My friend took pictures for me for my Christmas cards as well as some pictures of Mike and I. So all in all we have been doing well and not really been cooking a lot. I have baked a lot of bread and will update once I've made about 10 more loaves, I'm sure it will take that much haha. 

Tomorrow Mike is thinking about doing a smoked turkey breast or a smoked brisket. Either way it sounds delicious and I am totally jealous that I won't get any ;) Lucky roomie.

So that is all for this recap of where we disappeared to. Been busy is all.

Go out and cook folks.

Fabulous Friday

Do you know why it is a fabulous Friday? Hmm? Take a guess :)

Because it is actually under 90 degrees here in the Mid-West for a change. It's actually only 82 degrees currently. WOO HOO! Perfect day for a run after work and for a walk at my lunch break.

On lunch I took a walk outside rather than at the mall I typically frequent as it was actually decent. Of course because it's not over 90 degrees I am not allowed to wear shorts to work - even though everyone did anyway. So I'm wearing dark wash blue jeans, but I don't care. I chose to walk the pond near my office and get some vitamin D. My mom called so I chatted for a good portion of that walk. Normally I can only walk for about 40 minutes before having to drive back to work but today I got in a good 54 minutes. To top it off I was able to enjoy the sun and breeze and wild life.

Hello Mr. Mallard.
Your winter feathers have not come in

 I only know about the feathers because Mike is the smart one when it comes to ducks, since he hunts them in the fall :) YAY for duck season!

Sorry Daffy, I have to go with Bugs here.

So enjoying the gorgeous day out and getting some really great texts today it's been pretty good. After work I get a workout plan from a friend who is a trainer and then I get to go run and have some girl time with a new friend, my neighbor. K should be fun to be friends with. We shall see.

In any event I have experimented a teeny bit and have found a lovely Brown Sugar Cupcake Recipe since I went and made Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting and had nothing to frost.

I just want to lick the beater.

So I was scanning through the usual food blogs when I came across this fun and amusing blog "How Sweet it is"

Yummy

These little gems turned out great. Tasted delish too. I don't typically have cupcake papers on hand since I'm a cheap ass and tend to just spray the pan. So the combination of having a gas oven and having silicone for a muffin pan the edges on my cupcakes came out a bit on the more crisp side, but it was a good contrast to the fluffy and moist inside. YUMMM!!

The frosting was simple and more experimental than anything. I just didn't feel like baking so I made frosting and of course not knowing what I was going to frost with it. Cookies, nah, that means sugar usually and I don't want to cut out cookies - I really have to be in the mood for that. So next question was cupcakes or actual cake. Since cupcakes are portable, single serve and much easier to take to work and give to co-workers I opted for find a cupcake that could carry the fluffiness of Chocolate and Peanut Butter.

Yes this frosting was just absolutely fluffy and delicious. I had a few heaping spoonfuls - which I really shouldn't have but it just tasted so darn good!

Frosting to me is just the easiest thing to make. Leave out some butter and have powdered/confectioners sugar handy. From there you just add the flavors you want.

For this recipe I took a stick of softened butter, a good blob (no I did not measure, I rarely do for frosting) of creamy peanut butter then mixed on medium until mixed well. Then I added some vanilla extract (again people, I didn't measure. I just kind of go - bloop! good enough. Baking this long you can kind of tell how much each pour is. This non measuring thing gets worse the older I get). Then I added some melted chocolate I had left over from the peanut butter cups I made recently, about 1 square, maybe 2 of the chocolate almond bark.

Super simple recipe here

Mix all ingredients together then start adding the powdered sugar, S-L-O-W-L-Y! Otherwise you WILL end up with a kitchen covered in powdered sugar, as well as you. I have done it in a rush attempt to get things done and it just isn't worth the clean up, well unless you have a helper. Then maybe. Powdered sugar in the air also seems to have the properties of laughing gas. Having worked in the Costco bakery for a year, we had one incident where we were making a lot of frosting for the cakes that day and using an insane amount of powdered sugar. I think this was during the graduation rush and there was indeed a lot of it in the air, we were inhaling it at that point. However, at one moment our boss walked in, all employees are laughing and giggling about one thing or another - I can't recall what we found funny but I remember having a great day at work that day - he just looked and asked what was funny. Of course when you are already laughing, a serious question such as "what's so funny?" just makes you laugh harder. Ahh, good times. But I digress.

Once you have incorporated the powdered sugar start to whip it, whip it good! You know you're singing that song in your head now. You are welcome - I did have a publisher tell that group of us to "Dance" today (of course it was in reference to an ad called "Dance" but, whatever).

So now that you have whipped your frosting into a delicious frenzy set it aside or even place in the fridge for just a bit. Note: if your frosting is too thick add a Tbsp at a time of water or milk to thin out until it reaches the desired consistency.

Now, for the cupcakes.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I used Blue Bonnet margarine and it turned out just fine)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt, stirring to mix. Set aside. Line a cupcake tin with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk brown sugar and egg until smooth. Add in vanilla extract and milk, again mixing until combined. Slowly pour in melted butter, continuing to whisk. Add in the flour, soda, and salt. Mix with a large spoon until batter is smooth.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to liners. Bake for 16-19 minutes or until tops are puffy and golden, and don't jiggle when touched. Let cool completely before frosting.

Of course you can frost this cupcake with virtually any frosting you like and decorate accordingly. This is a good all purpose cupcake and great for when you run out of white sugar, like I have on occasion. It's quite disappointing to start a recipe and pull the sugar container down only to find no sugar. Granted you can substitute brown sugar cup for cup should you run out of white sugar, just note brown sugar has molasses in it, making it a bit stickier in the baked good. Sometime caramelizing the edges.


I also made this loveliness this week. Banana bread with chocolate shavings and cinnamon sugar crust. Can I just say that this thing made my house smell like home, that homey smell that all candle companies try to make their product smell like but can't quite capture the essence. Sugar, cinnamon and banana. Umph, perfect smell combo. Should be a perfume - men would come running, just add in a side of bacon and we are good!

Sliced fresh. Yes it's a teeny bit gooey,
but I like it that way and so does Mike

A pat of butter on the warm fresh bread, now we're talking!

 This is just a classic recipe for banana bread, I then took my cheese grater and milk chocolate block and shaved about 2 ounces of chocolate into the batter and mixed. I then combined about a heaping 1/8 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon to dust on top (which I did AFTER I baked, it was an after thought but it worked out just fine since the bread was smoldering hot, ouch!)

Here's to the weekend, I get my Insanity DVDs tomorrow, I celebrate a friends 31st birthday and then headed out to Mike's to hang out for the remainder of the weekend. Sounds good to me.

Late Night Roast

Well here we are again, time for something a bit savory again.

Mike calls me up last night and asks what he should cook for dinner. He wasn't quite sure what he wanted so doing the "what are you craving" game we came up with him making a roast, which he likes to do, he then gets to carve the meat with his ninja knives.

He used a sirloin roast and cooked it at 350 degrees with 2 cups of beef bouillon stock until the meat was around 131 degrees, yes this would be under cooked to a lot of folks, however, after sitting for a little while the meat temperature will rise and after letting it rest and he sliced he said it was just under medium rare but not rare. Perfect for reheating later this week when he makes sandwiches and other meals, as well as when the roomie eats too.

He and I will tell you, if you cook meat you need a meat thermometer. It is a kitchen must, as well as a good chefs knife, not a crappy $5 Walmart knife. Yes, you will have to spend more than $20. I just recently bought a new chefs knife, I got a hell of a deal on it but I had to spend some money to get something nice and would work in my kitchen.

yes this is in my car on on my "Starry Night" window shades
Don't judge.

He served the roast beef, which was seasoned with McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning, with a roasted veggie mix which he placed in a roast pan and simply roasted. The vegetables consisted of tomatoes (large), 1 medium container of mushrooms (fresh), and one medium onion. Being that he doesn't normally like tomatoes he said he enjoyed them. 

To round out the meal he used Knorr Beef Stroganoff noodles as a starchy side dish.

Mike's finished product meal

He said it tasted good and was a good meal, of course having cooked roast it took a bit longer than he thought and he was just eating around 9pm when I was finishing my run.

Here is the ingredient list and instructions:

Sirloin Roast - size varies depending on your needs
2 cups beef stock or similar made from bouillon cubes
McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning

3 large tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 medium pkg fresh mushrooms
(you can tweak this based on what you prefer)

Knorr Beef Stroganoff Noodles, plus pkg instructions for making.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, rub meat with seasoning and place in roasting pan with beef stock. This keeps your meat moist. Roast in oven for about 2 hours, check after 1 1/2 hours for temperature. Pull out when 5-10 degrees under what you want it to end at. 130 - 135 is medium rare so if you pull out at 120-125 your meat will be close if not at medium rare after resting for 10 minutes.

Place vegetables in pan and season to your liking and roast until tender.

Follow package instructions for noodles.

Serve and enjoy.
Allez Cuisine!

Whirlwind Weekend

 Well well well, OK having blogged in a few days. This weekend we were pre-occupied by enjoying the time together.

Mike, not normally having weekends off, came out to my place this weekend. We enjoyed the time spent, it was well spent. We didn't cook at all on Saturday after he showed up and promptly went to sleep, due to having worked a midnight shift.

So while he slept I decided to go out, run errands, tan, do my thing and blast my music in the car as I cruised down the road on a lovely Saturday morning. When I got back I figured I could try the "Happy Bread" I had recently found a recipe for. It was simple and the ingredients weren't too out there. I had everything except flour which I promptly picked up from my local Hyvee and it happened to be on sale for under $2. Always a plus for baking supplies.

So I began with the dough base, and of course as I start making bread that is when Mike wakes up.

Dough cut into 8 relatively same size pieces

Bread rolled out then layered so I now have 4 pieces.

Layered dough rolled for spirals

Happy Bread, happy Sarah

Happy bread up close

You can find the recipe here. Super easy, just takes a bit of time when you have to let the dough rise before baking. Not bad though. It was easy and actually didn't get my kitchen too warm. I will tell you if you are in the US and do not use metric then you will need to convert some measurements and temperatures in the recipe, but with smart phones and Google, I'm sure that will not be an issue, just do it BEFORE you start baking.

So after I baked and Mike had gotten up and stirred around a bit we went out to Westport for Imo's Pizza, a pizza place native to St. Louis. He's a big fan of Imo's and I had never eaten there. We got a bacon and black olive thin crust pizza. A "medium" I think it was, a 14 inch. It came to us piping hot so it was tough to try and eat until it cooled a bit, once it cooled the cheese was creamier and marvelous. I am not spoiled by being served provel cheese. If you have not had that cheese you MUST seek out provel cheese. Make pizza and make cheese sticks. Mmmm, went to St. Louis with Mike a couple months back and oh my word, we went to Rigazzi's and had their cheese sticks, which are made with provel cheese. You will never want to eat a plain mozzarella cheese stick ever again. Creamy, soft, not too stringy and so delicious. I could just eat that as a meal.

So after Imo's Mike said it was off and should try the other location. I think it would be better to stop at one next time we go to St. Louis.

So then we came back home and napped before heading out to my local hangout bar to people watch. Sitting at that bar is always interesting and there are always interesting people working or walking in and out. To top it off we were able to watch the Olympics, which I have not watched at all due to the lack of cable and even basic antenna TV, since I'm a cheapskate and refuse to pay $50 for a converter box.

So we ate like crap at the bar with chips and salsa, jack bites (pepper jack cheese squares battered and fried), chicken tenders and chicken egg rolls. All greasy and so delicious and washed down with Jack and diet Coke and Long Islands. Was a fun and good night. It was nice to get out and just chill.

So Sunday we went out to Village Inn for breakfast before the church crowd showed up then hit up some stores to scan prices and compare as well as pick up ingredients for our fish taco night we were planning. So we picked up tomato, avocado, red onion, broccoli slaw, lime, mahi-mahi fillets, whole wheat tortillas, and then some ice cream for dessert.

But before cooking we tried the new burrito place "Freebirds." That just showed up in town. That was actually quite delicious. We shared a chicken burrito bowl with black beans, roasted veggies, tomatoes, guacamole, onion, and corn salsa. We then tried their BBQ sauce, queso and chips, and their mild and hot sauce. We even tried their "Death" sauce. Which, quite honestly tastes too much like cumin, lighten it up guys. It was good food and you get A LOT of it.

So after coming home and hitting up the pool, while the kids were all away, we started up dinner.

Mahi-Mahi ready to be cooked after being seasoned

Seasoned and being pan seared

Broccoli slaw mixed with lime juice
and cider vinegar

Fresh made salsa, salt, pepper, lime juice
tomato and red onion

Such a lovely lime it deserved its own picture

My first fish taco, you can see the avocado
hiding under the broccoli slaw

So after the fish tacos we had ice cream, picked up the mini Ben & Jerry's single serve containers. Mike enjoyed his cookie dough while I had peanut butter banana Greek frozen yogurt. I, however, decided to doll up my ice cream by using a peach to serve it up on.

Grilled in a panini pan with cinnamon and sugar

Topped with peanut butter banana frozen Greek yogurt

 Mike even enjoyed a bite of my ice cream. He doesn't like yogurt at all. Frozen or otherwise. But being peanut butter and banana, it just had a great flavor and he could care less about the Greek yogurt part.

All in all our fish tacos were OK, they weren't something to write home about but they satisfied that fish craving I have had for a few weeks now. Only would have been better had it been Ahi-Tuna instead. But seemed that people were sold out. Mad dash on tuna it seems.

So this morning Mike left to go home and I left to go to work, blech. Granted who really WANTS to go work. I'd be content doing my own thing on a daily basis but still get paid what I earn, not gonna happen I know.

But before he left I insisted on a photo of the two of us. I like pictures of us every couple of months ha ha. :) I think this one turned out pretty good considering the low light.

Mike and Sarah 8-6-2012

Ciao!

Dinner and a Movie

Well, this weekend was a fantastically fun weekend filled with friends and pampering. Pampering on my part due to the pedicure and tanning that I did. Well I guess Mike getting a massage from me here and there is pampering too ;)

So this weekend after going out on Saturday and spending time with friends and shopping we chose to take it easy Sunday.

Sunday morning we went out for breakfast at Village Inn, man it was packed, guess we hit the early church crowd. Then we went off to the outdoor mall nearby to go to Adidas, Nike, and Under Armor in search of shorts, shirts, shoes and sports bras. Haha, yeah odd combo, actually I didn't buy anything. Mike got all the goodies there. Then we stopped off at Cabela's to look at knives and guns.

Coming home after we decided to pick up ingredients for lobster stir fry. Mmmmm, yes lobster stir fry.

So before making dinner, as it was only 3pm when we got home we decided to hit up the theater to see the movie "Ted." It was funny, not, laugh your ass off for 2 hours funny, but funny - good entertainment to take your mind off the world for 2 hours. But I would say, save $8-$10 and rent it when it comes to DVD.

After the movie we came back and started prep work on the vegetables. At my house I don't have the nice fancy knives like Mike does. I have one decent chefs knife, which Mike gave me, which he used to slice and dice up the veggies we bought.

The handsome knife master

Fresh Veggies ready for stir fry

We used the following:
Asparagus - one bunch
Red Onion - half a medium
White Mushrooms - 1 - 8oz pkg
Sugar Snap Peas - 1 good grand handful
Red Bell Pepper - 1 medium

Then we bought 1 pkg of imitation lobster meat - since actual lobster meat is expensive and I would be of no use if we bought live or even "dead" lobster that we would have to cook. It looks like an underwater bug - *shivers* eewww creepy. Delicious but creepy looking. *shudders*

Of course when we got the veggies all chopped and ready Mike asked, "where is your big frying pan?" I pointed to the cabinet at the end of my kitchen and said "in there." He goes over and pulls out, what I call, my big frying pan. He asks in a bit of a confused tone "this is your big frying pan?" I blinked and just said, yes. Of course it is, for me that's big. Mind you I have this old pots and pans set that is from 2007 and has been used and abused and came out of a Wal-Mart brand box set. Not the best pans but not the worst. Of course my "big" frying pan is probably what most would call medium. I can understand this since I can't say my cookware is of high quality - I value my bake-ware a bit more. I'm working on it. Soooo, in the awkward silence that followed my "yes, that's my big frying pan." I took his silence and questioning looks at my "big" pan as - this isn't going to work very well. So I said, we can go get a bigger one. Target it just right across the road. So off we went and brought home a fabulous new addition to my kitchen. A T-Fal 5-quart sauce/frying pan with two handles one short and one long and with a beautiful glass lid. Ahhhhh the beauty and fun of a new toy for the kitchen.

Veggies in the new pan

Veggies sauteing in olive oil (EVOO)

YUM

Making your mouth water huh?

And then to serve we cooked up some brown rice, not the minute kind mind you - this is why our veggies look a bit lack luster in the final photo, because we didn't manage our time and cooked the rice at the same time we cooked the veggies - oh well, lesson learned. It still tasted good just didn't look as pretty as we had anticipated.

Final Product - not as bright but still delish

I would call this a success, wasn't something we oooed and aaahhed over but was still a great idea and satisfied that part of us that wanted veggies and seafood. I ended up adding more salt, regardless of the fact that there was a good bit of soy sauce in it (mind you it was low sodium). Mike ended up adding more sirachi hot sauce to his - cleared his sinuses at least once by getting a good bite of it on a forkful.

Stir-Fry is a fun and easy way to throw together a bunch of different ingredients that appeal to you. Try different veggies, different meats, different sauces. Teriyaki, Tabasco, tomato, cheese, Alfredo. Whatever you like.

Allez Cuisine!

Whiskey Tango Steak Night!!!

Ok so maybe just Whiskey in the steak marinade, but YUMMMMM! When Mike and I are high fiving each other over such a great dinner you know we have a hit on our hands.

Again, another creation from the "big book of food." The Roomie decided steak over lamb and boy it was a good choice. So the menu for the night was:

Sirloin steak
Mashed Potatoes
Grilled Veggies
and a Mushroom Gravy

But let's embellish a little. That menu sounds like a pretty basic mid-western meal. Well you may be right but damn meat and potatoes is just a good way to go.

So here is the revised menu so you can start drooling like we did.

Sirloin steak marinated in a whiskey brown sugar marinade served with a baby red potato mashed into a heavenly smash with garlic and butter with a side of grilled California mixed vegetables with olive oil and garlic herb seasoning with a great side of mushroom gravy to serve on top of the steak and potatoes.

So now then you ask, what does this look like???? Well I am guessing you are salivating. Too bad these pictures aren't scratch and sniff, oh man you should have smelled this. The steaks only needed an added salt and pepper (light) to spice up the marinade for grilling.

So to start we marinaded the steaks in this fabulous whiskey marinade (we even bought cheap whiskey - McCormick's for $5 - tasted great! You are welcome to use Jack if you prefer). Here is the recipe:

1/4 cup whiskey (your choice to go expensive or go cheap - we couldn't tell the difference)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 Dijon mustard
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
ground black pepper to taste

Stir together whiskey, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, green onion, brown sugar, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper. Add to chosen meat - sirloin steak in our case. Marinate over night or at least a couple hours. (We marinated over night)

Marinated Steak - just started grilling

From there we started making the mushroom sauce/gravy.

The mushroom gravy we cheated a little bit and used pre-made beef gravy and added some ingredients.

So we took this "savory beef" gravy. The gravy on its own is not that tasty. So we checked out the recipe for mushroom sauce from the "big book of food" and added white cooking wine (instead of white wine as stated in the book). We then cooked down mushrooms and browned them with some green onion.

freshly cut white mushrooms: courtesy of
Mike the ninja knife master

DON'T CROWD THE MUSHROOMS ;)
or they won't brown

So now we add the mushrooms and onions to the gravy.

Thickening process

Started cooking after browning mushrooms

We ended up having to make a roux (Mike made - I do not have the patience, when I thicken gravy I use cornstarch. He says that doesn't taste quite as good. I am sure he's right.)

Here is the gravy after adding the blonde roux.

YUMMY!

Of course we also added salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic powder and the white wine. Roomie didn't care for the rosemary and, therefore, didn't care much for the sauce/gravy. But Roomie liked the steak, taters and veg.

We cheated on the taters since neither of us wanted to boil and mash (even though that's probably my favorite way to eat taters).

Can I just say though, these didn't even need butter added. It's an "add boiling water" and wait 5 minutes potato mix. Just yum!! I was shocked for a potato flake mix. Definitely recommended.

So by this point food is starting to come in from the grill.

Steaks ready to come in - veggies in the foil

Can we eat now?

Steaks smelled AMAZING when they came in. Was so ready to eat at that point. So Mike got plates out and we dug in.

The veggies came in and looked great.

Now to eat and show off the skills of cooking.

My steak was done more medium rare/medium while the rest were closer to medium/medium well. Still so so so delicious.

We will definitely make this again. Maybe next time we will mash our own potatoes and make our own gravy but in the mean time this did a great job of satisfying our hunger.