recipe

Today the plan is to start the beef jerky, followed by the farmers market, some errands, and watching the first LOTR movie on the big screen re-release. 

Here's what I did for the beef jerky:

Costco round roast, sliced 1/8-1/4 inch thin
Marinated in a ziplock bag in the fridge for approximately 32 hours (I had a busy day yesterday and couldn't get it in the dehydrator)
Soy sauce
Lemon Juice
Worchestershire sauce
Paprika
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Brown sugar

I keep a bin of carrot ends, celery ends, onion ends and skins in the freezer. When it's Costco Rotisserie Chicken Day, we eat the chicken, then throw the freezer bin of stock vegetables in the pot as well. To this add as many celery sticks, carrots, and onions as you like. You're looking at maybe 3 carrots, 4 celery sticks, half an onion or so, total vegetables.

Two avocados
Some cumin
Some garlic powder
Some salt
A few cranks of the black pepper grinder
The juice of one lemon (you could also use a lime, IDK. I know a lime is traditional but the brightness of the lemon is great.)
Optional: plenty of good paprika. The vibrant red will dull the green and make it less appealing. So I put paprika in only when I’m spreading this in a sandwich.

Use one of those pastry butter things to mash the avocado. Faster and more consistent than the fork.

Get a chuck roast, cut it up in 1 inch chunks. The acid in the marinade works on the proteins in the chuck, tenderizing it wonderfully. This is a modification of a recipe I found online.

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• garlic powder: lots
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• ground pepper: some

Put marinade in ziplock bag with the meat, put bag in fridge overnight, 12-24 hours.

I deeply enjoyed this recipe for tuna melts. I halved it and it worked great.



The cooking of the tomato in the oven was such a good idea (although, I think it's important to get the slices on the thin side so they cook through).



The kids were not fans. My wife said "I think it's too complicated for me", but I loved it.

So my canonical cheeseburger has:

I made some emergency gravy earlier this week and posted about it on Twitter. That got me thinking of writing down my "theory of gravy" and how I make it. This is not going to be a traditional recipe, as much as it's going to be a series of guidelines on how I make gravy. Hope you enjoy it.

What equipment do you need to make gravy? You need a pan of some sort. And a whisk. 



Gravy is a combination of four things:

Maruchan discontinued their tomato flavored ramen in 2003. It was one of my favorite flavors, and every few years I think of it fondly. 

Last year I had an idea on how I could recreate the flavor. It involved tomato powder, but I had to buy a whole mess of tomato powder and I wasn't sure about doing that for a single test.

Inspired by It's Alive with Brad Leone I picked up a copy of Firey Ferments from the library.

This is an ancient Michigan Tech elixir for keeping warm when you have to spend all day outside. You can get everything you need at the local co-op.

1 quart of water
1 rounded tsp cloves
1 rounded tsp peppercorns
1/2 to 1 full stick cinnamon
A fair sized chunk of ginger (about thumb sized)
2 rounded tsp. peppermint
Milk
Maple syrup (REAL maple syrup!) or agave syrup