Steak Cooking Chart

Earlier when I was writing the "French Country Steak" recipe, I remembered an old meat cooking method my mom had told me about. She said that you knew when to flip the steaks when "the blood came up." The fact is, that always works for me, because it's a visible sign of when I should turn. It produces a medium steak every time.

I realized that whole "blood" thing sounded a little crazy so I did a search to see if I could find any corroboration of that tip. Turns out she was right.

Check out Ask the Meatman™. This site describes it as "meat juices bubbling up through the steak" and "moisture pooling on top surface." I suppose that sounds a bit more appetizing than "blood coming up," so I changed my previous post.

The chart on this page seems to be farily foolproof if I think about how my mom used to cook steaks. You watch the steak for how much "juice" is coming up, and turn it according to how done you want your steak. For more well done, you just leave it longer on the second side.

The other hot tip is that you never want to turn a steak over and over. The Meatman™ says that dries out the surface of the steak. No matter how bad I want to flip and flip, I will restrain myself! It will mean a better steak!

Perfecting the recipe for "French Country Steaks."

Here's a slight modification to the "French Country Steaks" recipe I wrote about earlier. This was actually an improvement over the original recipe, and I will for sure make it just this way again with no changes.

One note. I have discovered that all cube steaks are not alike. I think the success of this last batch was due in part to the fact that the steaks were a bit thicker, and obviously just better quality meat.

That being said, here was the revised recipe:

You'll need:
4 cube steaks
2T olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 can French onion soup
1 8-oz. container sour cream
1 lb. sliced mushrooms
salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash original

How to do it:

1. Salt & pepper both sides of the steaks, then sprinkle with Mrs. Dash original spice blend (yes, I am addicted to this stuff now).
2. Run about 2 T olive oil around a pretty big, deep skillet (with a lid you will need later) and let it heat over high heat.
3. Put the steaks in (don't crowd the pan), don't cover and don't bother them.
4. Meanwhile cut up one large or a couple small cloves of garlic.
5. When moisture pools up on the top of the steaks, flip 'em. Then leave them alone again.
6. When you see moisture on the second side, take the steaks out and put them on a plate and loosely cover w/foil (not tight). They will be medium at this point.
7. Add 2T butter and the garlic to the pan. Wilt the garlic, but don't burn it.
8. Add the French onion soup, undiluted. Stir, scraping up the brown bits.
9. Whisk in the sour cream.
10. When it's smooth and bubbling, add the steaks back in (and the juice from the plate). Turn them once to coat with the gravy.
11. Toss 1 lb. fresh sliced mushrooms all around the pan and on top of the steaks. – I bought mine already sliced to make it faster.
12. Cover and turn heat to low & simmer for about 15 minutes.

For Bob, I served w/biscuits and noodles to sop up the gravy. I had mine with some steamed cauliflower that I poured gravy on and it was low carb and delicious.

I am thinking you could use the same basic principles but give it a different twist if you used a can of diced tomatoes instead of the French onion soup added some diced onion in with the garlic and changed the mushrooms to sliced green peppers. That would make more like a Swiss steak.

There may be other alternatives... Have fun, be creative! The worst that happens is you throw it out and order in. After all, cube steaks hardly break the bank!

Update on Mrs. Dash Butter

As a follow up to my previous article about mixing Mrs. Dash seasoning blends into butter for use on corn, I am happy to report that other seasoning blends work equally well to the original blend. I used a capful of the Southwest Chipoltle blend and mixed it into 6 T of softened butter. I again slathered it on some sweet corn and wrapped the ears in foil and threw them on the grill, and we also put a pat on our steaks. Delicious. Why would I ever go to the trouble of mixing my own spices for a quick seasoned butter when these blends work very well and taste great.

Thought you should know.

Mini Review – The Big White

The Big White

Synopsis – Fargo meets Weekend at Bernies

Rating – ha. eww. eh.

I laughed a little, I was grossed out quite a bit, but hey, it's called a "black comedy." My new definition of black comedy is any film that uses the dismemberment of a corpse as a primary sight gag. Despite that, I really enjoyed Holly Hunter, and I thought Alison Lohman was a bright spot, playing a woman who you really believe wants to help people, but she's just sort of oblivous. There were only two things (okay, maybe I'm being generous) that really bugged me. Number one, I am sick and tired of seeing Woody Harrelson play a psychopathic weirdo, and number two, Robin Williams' accent came and went throughout the movie – where exactly was he supposed to be from!? There is a lot of foul language, and some gross scenes with the dead body, so not for kids.

Mini Review – Stay

Stay

Synopsis – somewhere between alive and dead is a lot of weird stuff

Rating – try to "Stay awake"


Really visually interesting. And except for the high water pants, Ewan McGregor is as hot as ever. But, it's like that one guy you knew in high school that just tried way too hard to be deep and came off looking silly and pretentious. I can't say definitively to "stay away"... I just found it hard to "Stay awake." There are some kind of shocking images, so it's not for kids, but no kid I know would be interested in this film anyway.

"America's Top Recipes" contest on All Recipes

You already know how I feel about making up my own recipes...so you can imagine how my little brain started whirring when I ran across this: Recipe Contest. The prize is $10,000 and the recipe is printed in USA today as well as posted on the All Recipes site. You can enter online in any of these categories: International, Kid Pleaser, Holiday Family Favorite, Healthy Pleasures, or Super Quick Suppers. You have to click the "submit" button no later than July 7th, so preheat the oven and get cookin'!

Mini Review – Hustle & Flow

Hustle & Flow

Synopsis – everybody's gotta dream...of being a rapper?

Rating – it's hard out here for a viewer

I kept watching this flick, although a couple of times I wondered. I have feelings about the subject matter (like I don't buy that someone "accidentally" becomes a pimp and drug dealer, comeon), but there was something about Terrence Howard's performance that kept me from just bailing on the whole thing. FYI: the theme song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won best original song in the 2006 Academy Awards.

Here's my takeaway from the movie. Becoming a successful rapper is like believing in Santa Claus. If you "believe with all your heart" it comes true.

There's a lot of offensive language and obviously sex & drug content. Not for kids or teens.

Five-ingredient recipe: cube steaks "French Country" style.

If you don't count the salt, pepper and a little parsley, this recipe literally has five ingredients. If you don't have sherry, leave it out and it's only FOUR ingredients! I based this off of several recipes I have seen, but modified to have fewer carbs (no flour!).

4 Cube steaks, salt & pepper both sides
1 T Butter
1 Can French onion soup
1/2 Cup sour cream
1 T Sherry

Just brown the cube steaks on both sides in a little olive oil over pretty high heat. I did them 2 at a time to keep from crowding the pan. Put them on a plate under loose foil. Keep the heat at about medium. Add the butter and let it melt, then add the onion soup, scraping up the brown bits. Salt, pepper and add the tablespoon of sherry. Wisk in the sour cream and let the gravy simmer a bit to thicken. Put the cube steaks back in the pan and cover them in the gravy. Simmer over low heat for about, oh, 15 minutes more or less. They cook really quickly, so this is more about letting them soak up the flavors of the sauce.

Bob loved this with biscuits to pour more gravy over. I'll make them again. The other bonus is they are so CHEAP! But for some reason, this recipe makes them just a TAD more elegant.

Simple idea. Mrs. Dash butter on sweet corn.

Corn on the grill is always good, but this time I did ours a little different and Bob says he never wants it any other way. The sweet corn was already out of the husks, so my plan was to wrap each ear in foil and throw them on the grill. But, I made up my own "herb butter" and slathered each ear with it before wrapping and it just really brought out the flavor. I mixed together about 1/2 stick of softened butter, and a couple of teaspoons of regular old Mrs. Dash seasoning blend. I used Original Blend, but I am anxious to try it with some of the other varieties to change up the flavor profile. The next night we didn't have the grill going, so I just put the corn in a glass baking dish, dotted the butter all around, covered it with plastic wrap and microwaved it until it was done. It was just as good as on the grill.

I could see us using a Mrs. Dash butter on any vegetable, and I could even see putting a pat of it on a just-grilled steak. I know this isn't a totally original idea, but the fact that the Mrs. Dash spice blends are... well, already blended... means you only have to get ONE thing out of the spice rack instead of 20. Try it and let me know what you think.