Studio711.com – Ben Martens

There are a lot of choices when you want to buy a steak. But what is the best? Should you pay $9/pound for a boneless rib eye or $20/pound? While my parents were here, we had some people over to help us test this out in a semi-scientific manner.

I picked up meat from six places: Double DD’s butcher, Whole Foods, Golden Steer Choice Meats, Fred Meyer and Safeway. I bought the same cut at each place. It took a surprisingly long time just to drive around to make all these purchases but we had a cooler in the trunk to keep it all cool while we made the rounds.

We had nine eaters in the experiment. They each had ballot sheets with two required fields for each anonymous steak: rating from 1-10 and guess where it came from. I packaged all the steaks in a similar fashion and grilled two different steaks at a time. Each eater got at least two ounces of each steak and I grilled two types of steak at a time. The test stretched out over a couple hours and it was delicious!

When I was dreaming this up, I half-expected that there would be 2-3 steaks which would have the top scores. However, there was a clear winner and it was my favorite butcher: Golden Steer. They blew away the competition and almost everyone picked them as the best steak. Surprisingly, the other butcher, Double DD’s, scored some of the lowest scores. The Safeway thick cut steak got the second highest score! I did NOT see that coming.

Congrats to Ken who correctly guessed four of the six stores and won the prize for the day: the extra steak from Costco.

Here’s the final ranking of the stores:

1. Golden Steer Choice Meats
2. Safeway
3. Fred Meyer
4. Whole Foods
5. Costco
6. Double DD

If you watch Duck Dynasty, you know that Miss Kay is a great cook. We tried her banana pudding recipe a while back and it has become a staple for special family occasions. Here’s the recipe. I changed it to skip the double boiler and it works fine, but if you really want the original you can find it here.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ¾ cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
• ¾ cup of milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 bag vanilla wafers and crumbled
• 3-4 bananas, sliced

Directions

1. Slowly melt the butter and then add the sugar, salt, flour, evaporated milk and regular milk. Stir with a whisk.
2. Temper egg yolks (add some mixture to the eggs to avoid them scrambling.) Add the egg yolks to the mixture, constantly stirring until thick. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Place the crumbled vanilla wafers and bananas into a 9" x 13" Pyrex dish. Then pour in mixture.
4. Chill before serving.

Warning, it’s super sweet and it kind of sneaks up on you so don’t eat too much in one sitting or you’ll regret it!

Last year about this time, some of the guys came over and we made our first batches of hot sauce. The second one we made was called Agent Orange and that ended up being pretty good.

When my birthday rolled around last month, we decided to make another batch. This time we modified the recipe to use only mangos and drop the papaya. Logan dubbed it “Yellow Fever” and it’s delicious! The recipe is in that original post so feel free to use it, modify it, and make your own recipe. However, I do recommend that you make it outside. We use the side burner on the grill. The fumes are intense! Oh and you should wear gloves when you’re cutting all those habaneros or you’ll get a pretty good rash/burn on your fingers.

For the Fourth of July, we were looking for a delicious side dish to take to Tim and Chelsea’s party. We ended up making this and wow, it was a big hit! It’s very simple and made good use of our new food processor. The original recipe suggested serving it with buttery crackers or a French baguette but we used tortilla chips.

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temp
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (half Jack, half cheddar cheese)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies
• 1 (4 ounce) can sliced jalapenos – double if you like heat
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 stick butter, melted

Directions

1. In a food processor, add the first 6 ingredients and process until smooth. You do not need to drain either can of peppers.
2. Spread the dip into a greased 2-quart casserole.
3. In a bowl, mix breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and melted butter; mix well. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over the dip.
4. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F. oven for about 20 minutes. You want the top to get browned and the dip to be heated through and bubble gently on the edges. Do not overcook this dish or the mayonnaise with separate and you will have a grease puddle in your dip.

We heard about this one from MandyE on Facebook and really enjoyed it! You can find the original recipe from Kraft or use our slightly modified version below.

Use at least a  2 quart slow cooker

Ingredients

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, sliced
• 1-1/2lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup KRAFT Classic CATALINA Dressing
• 1/4 cup lite soy sauce
• 1 tsp. grated gingerroot
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 can (8 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained, liquid reserved
• 1 bell pepper, cut into strips
• 3 cups hot cooked rice

Directions

• PLACE onions, carrots and celery in slow cooker; top with chicken.
• MIX sugar, dressing, soy sauce and ginger; pour over chicken. Cover with lid.
• COOK on LOW 4 to 5 hours, increasing heat to HIGH for the last 30 min.
• STIR cornstarch into reserved pineapple liquid. Add to slow cooker with pineapple and peppers after it has started boiling on high heat in the previous step; stir. Cook, covered, 30 min. or until sauce is thickened. Serve over rice.

Can be made ahead the night before and placed in fridge

I dare say that I’ve gotten pretty good in the burger department over the years, but last week I tried a new recipe and it turned out really well. The secret was cooking bacon and then using some of the leftover fat to cook chopped onions which were then incorporated into the meat. YUM! As part of our semi-low carb diet, we ate these without buns.

Ingredients

• 6 slices bacon, chopped
• 3 tablespoons reserved bacon grease
• 2 medium onions, divided, 8 ounces
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons Montreal steak seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces smoked Gouda or cheddar cheese, shredded or sliced

Directions

In a large nonstick skillet, fry the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain on a paper towel-lined plate saving the bacon grease. Keep 1 tablespoon of the grease in the skillet and set aside 2 tablespoons for later. Finely chop 1/2 of one of the onions and sauté it in the 1 tablespoon grease for 3 minutes; add to the bacon and let cool.

Thinly slice the remaining onion. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons bacon grease in the skillet and sauté the onions over medium heat, covered, about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Stir occasionally. Season with salt. Remove the onions from the skillet and keep warm while cooking the burgers.

Meanwhile mix the ground sirloin, Worcestershire sauce, steak seasoning and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the bacon mixture. Form into 4 patties. Grill burgers.

Top each burger with 1/4 of the cheese; cover the pan until the cheese melts. Serve the burgers topped with the sautéed onions.

Original recipe link

Tyla and I have been trying to mix in some low carb meals. I hate looking for low carb recipes because it seems like people think low carb equals vegetarian. Give me some meat! I ran across “Linda’s Low Carb Menus & Recipes” and so far the food we’ve made from it have been a big hit. The first one we tried was the meat loaf recipe. Sorry Mom, yours is good but I think this one has replaced it in my recipe book! It’s not nearly as complicated as Hippy Loaf, but it’s quite good. I forgot to snap a picture so this picture comes from the recipe’s website.

Ingredients

• 1.75 pounds ground beef
• 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro, or 2 tablespoons fresh
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

Topping:

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 teaspoon molasses
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Directions:

• In a large bowl mix all but the Topping ingredients thoroughly.
• Mix the topping ingredients together in a small bowl.
• Place the meat in a greased loaf pan, or shape in 6 mini loaves and place in a foil lined 9×13" baking pan.
• Brush or spread on the topping.
• Bake at 375° 45 to 60 minutes for a single large loaf or about 30-35 minutes for the mini loaves or until the internal temperature reads 140-145°

Always in search of new crock pot recipes, we decided to try out one called “cream cheese chicken.” You can click that link for the original or view my slightly modified version below. When we ate it, we each ate half a breast per meal. The sauce worked out about right for that but if you think each person will eat a whole breast, you might want less sauce (or more chicken.) The sauce is completely fantastic though. It really makes the meal!

Ingredients

• 3 lbs chicken pieces
• 1 (2/3 ounce) package Italian salad dressing mix
• 4 tablespoons melted butter (divided)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 package of frozen carrots and peas
• 1 package of chopped mushrooms
• 1 package of fettuccine noodles

Directions

• Place chicken pieces in crock pot and sprinkle Italian seasoning over chicken. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons melted butter.
• Cook on low for 3-4 hours.
• Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan and sauté onion, mushrooms and garlic. Add Cream of Chicken Soup, cream cheese, wine, and veggies. Stir until smooth.
• Add this mixture to crock pot and cook on low for an additional hour.
• Serve with cooked fettuccine noodles