What's for Suppah?

Sigh.

Another rainy, dreary day here in the north woods, so what's a girl to do? Why cook and bake, of course!

We rummaged around the freezer to see what needed to be eaten and found two packages of beef, one a small cube steak and the other a package of very thinly sliced round steak, both with dates showing they were coming alarmingly close to being tossed, if not prepared immediately. With neither enough for a meal, I decided to combine them into an old German family recipe called "Geschnetzltes". (Mother, please pardon me if the spelling is incorrect).

This dish consists of beef very thinly sliced into long strips, browned briefly, combined with lots of onion and carmelized into a savory, dark gravy.

While looking through the fridge, I also spied some fresh mushrooms that need to be eaten, so in to the pan they went, sauteed with a little olive oil.


Next, I sliced the beef thinly.... Yes, I know I sliced them on the wrong side of the cutting board, but I bleached it right after cutting the meat.

Brown the meat in a bit of olive oil. The next, and most important ingredient are the thinly sliced onions - lots of them!

Brown the meat and onions slowly, adding broth or water a little bit at a time to help carmelize the onions. This part of the preparation takes time - about 45 minutes to get a nice, dark color to the gravy. As Alton Brown states in his Good Eats show, your patience will be rewarded.


When the meat and onions have browned to your satisfaction, add salt, pepper, bay leaves and a bit of red wine - about a quarter cup for the pan and a few sips for the chef! Simmer everything for another 45 minutes and thicken gravy with a flour and water mixture. I also threw in three frozen cubes of my homemade beef demiglace, but that recipe is a post for another time.

I served this with brown rice and what else, but sauteed yellow squash and zucchini with onions, garlic and fresh basil from the garden. My word, the squash won't quit!

I know, the knife is on the wrong side of the plate, but I was in a hurry to take this picture and eat.

On another subject, last winter, while pawing through the bargain section of the bookstore, I found this really neat book on Yoga. Since we have been getting on a bit in years, H and I had become a wee bit stiff and despite our frequent walks in Acadia, we felt we needed to add to our exercise regimen. This looked like a pretty good way to limber up, so we started doing yoga most mornings to work the kinks out.

We have both been amazed at how much we enjoy it. H used to complain about not being able to back the truck up easily because it was difficult to look over his shoulder. He now finds he's easily able to twist his torso to back up. I, on the other hand just look silly.

Life is Good!

Giddy