As I type this, it is 7:00 PM on Thursday, April 25, 2019, and it is 94 degrees outside. I am sitting outside because I have my AC on today and I can’t turn it back down until 8:00 PM. I’m back to living in a cave and it is dark as night inside. How is it possible that my last post was titled “The Definition of Spring” and now it’s nearly 100 degrees. Oh yeah, I live in Arizona, that’s how!

There is a slight breeze out here, so I decided to come out of the dark and deal with the heat. It’s not all that bad, honestly. I’d have to say that 100+ degrees is where my tolerance is kaput, the denial sets in and my non-acceptance is in full force. That’s when the real crabbiness and bitching seriously kick in. That could be as early as Friday, which, as you read this … is TODAY!

So, the way to live through the summer is to use a slow cooker. I have gotten mine out of the garage and it is ready for action.

For this recipe, which I made last week, I decided to use the frozen ginger cubes from Trader Joe’s. Super convenient and they worked great!

I bought 4 pounds of beef chuck roast at Costco with the knowledge that after I cut out a bunch of the fat, there would be about 3 pounds of meat remaining. I was right, of course.

I don’t say that to brag. As all of my friends and family know, my Superpower is Spatial Recognition. Give me a pan or a pot or a bowl full of stuff that needs to fit in a container to go in the refrigerator, I will give you THE PERFECT container. It’s a gift. Not a superpower useful in The Avengers sort of way, but a superpower nonetheless. Anyhow, keep that in mind when purchasing the beef, there will be waste, and there ain’t nobody who wants all that fat!

A couple of months ago I bought a 3-pound bag of refrigerated shredded beef at Costco. It had a long-away expiration date (March 2018!) and the photo of the beef on the front of the bag looked so good!

It sat in my refrigerator for a few weeks, then I took it on our trip to Carlsbad in the beginning of August, just in case we decided to make tacos or something. We never opened it, so it came back to Arizona. I finally opened it last week.

Not at all as pictured on the package. What a disappointment! Costco is known for its thorough vetting process before selecting and selling products. I’m not sure how this product slipped through. It didn’t taste all that bad, as I did end up using it for tacos one night, but then decided I’d rather use the rest in some sort of casserole. It tasted much better mixed in with other ingredients. The next time I make this dish, I’ll be using leftover beef from a roast.

Note: In a photo of the ingredients below, you may notice that the can of green chiles is missing. That is because I decided to add them as I was assembling the dish.

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It’s been raining cats and dogs in our desert for the last couple of days. Nothing tastes better or is more welcoming on a cold and rainy day than beef brisket!

This classic brisket is a family favorite. I found the original recipe nearly 30 years ago in The Silver Palate New Basics cookbook and have adapted the recipe over the years.

Basic Beef Brisket with Fresh Horseradish Sauce

• 6 pounds beef brisket, trimmed of most excess fat
• Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 large onions, peeled and sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bottle beer
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced

Horseradish Sauce

• 1 cup and finely grated fresh horseradish root (peel first and use a Microplane to grate)
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
• Pinch of salt

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Let’s say you are reading a menu at a high-end restaurant and you have the choice between ordering a Marinated Flap Steak or a Marinated Bavette Steak. Which would you order based on the name alone? My guess is that the majority of you would order the Bavette over the Flap.

Well, as you may have already guessed, based on the leading question, flap and Bavette are the same cut of beef.

The flap is an extension of the T-bone and Porterhouse steaks. Texture-wise, the flap is similar to a flank or skirt steak and as with those two cuts, it needs marinating first and then to be cooked over high, dry heat such as grilling. What makes it more distinct is the flavor and richness of the flap over the other two.

In our part of the country, the flap needs to be specially ordered. I was able to call the butcher at A.J.’s and special order the beef I needed for my Friday the 13^th Dinner Party.

I tripled the recipe so don’t be alarmed by the price of the meet in my photo.

This dish had nothing to do with the Lucky/Unlucky theme. I chose it solely based on the wish to treat my guests to something different and special.

One last party detail I wanted to share was the notion of a 14th dinner guest.

There are French socialites called Quatorziens (fourteeners), who are available to fill in as a 14th dinner guest to rescue the other 13 attendees from bad luck. Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed in this superstition and refused to have 13 guests at dinner parties.

My original intention was to have 13 but one invited guest, my dear friend Anne, wasn’t able to commit until the last minute due to illness earlier in the week. Knowing that she may be able to come, I was planning on Anne being our Quatorzien. She did and she was and Peggy made the cute name tag for her, even though the word wasn’t spelled quite right, everyone got the gist of it.

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My dad had shoulder surgery to repair his rotator cuff last Friday. He has been recuperating at our house. His favorite meal is pot roast. Since his every wish and need is my command, I made it for him.

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Do you like liver and onions? I do not! But my dad and Dave are fans, so every now and again, I treat them. Valentine’s dinner was one such occasion. Although I enjoy pâté and a few other liver dishes, the bad taste of liver and onions has stayed with me from childhood, when we were forced to eat them.

Oh, the stories I could tell about how I would “dispose” of the food I disliked from my childhood. The various methods I used to get rid of my oatmeal, on nearly a daily basis every winter, are genius by my account and legendary in my family.

The liver was more difficult to avoid, the dogs were my only saviors and my parents picked up on that one early and the dogs were put outside during the dinner hour when the liver or other undesirables were served. My list of undesirable food was long; lima beans, sauerkraut, all cereal (cold and hot but especially oatmeal) spinach, most vegetables (they were all canned) with the exception of corn, and the list goes on.

Liver and lima beans were at the very top of the list. So the fact I even make liver for others is a testament to my love for them.

I will admit that this gravy smells darn good though. The addition of Worcestershire sauce is the trick.

It’s difficult to make liver, onions, and gravy look good in a photo (all that brown on brown on more brown) so please look beyond that. If you or your loved ones crave liver, give this recipe a try, I’m told it’s excellent. I wouldn’t know, Connor and I had beef tenderloin for Valentine’s dinner this year.

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My dear friend and colleague, Kim Howard, sent me this recipe from the NY Times for my week’s worth of slow cooker recipes. I was very grateful for the recipe since it was for a pot roast. I had a serious need for a new pot roast recipe because my dad loves pot roast and had already requested it for our Sunday supper.

My “go-to” slow cooker roast recipe for my dad is This One, I was beyond excited to try something new. A huge plus was that it is by far simpler and even tastier than the old standby.

I minimally changed the original recipe, but the change I made was a major health change. How I did that was to remove a majority of the fat after cooking.

Kim, I thank you!

My dad thanks you.

Basically, we all (Dad, Dave, Connor, my visiting brother-in-law, Roger, and I) thank you for the great recipe! xoxo

By the way, the recipe for the lovely asparagus you see on the plate above will be posted later this week. It is A. MAZ. ING!

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For the 4th of July party main course(s), I made beer-boiled and grilled brats, oven-roasted BBQ chicken thighs (recipe to follow), and chile-cheese stuffed burgers.

Far and away, the burgers were the star. (Look for Sheila’s Old-Fashioned Potato Salad recipe tomorrow.)

Tram and Julie, filling their plates with burger and brat.

This recipe makes enough burgers for a crowd. It can easily be halved or quartered. One thing you’ll need is a 5-inch template to form the burgers with. The center green area of this plate is exactly 5-inches, so I used it as my guide.

The Grill Pit – where the Magic Happens!

Chile & Pepper Jack Stuffed Burgers

6 Anaheim chiles
4 large jalapeño chiles
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
12-ounces shredded pepper Jack cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 pounds ground beef, divided into 32 three-ounce portions
16 hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls, split and lightly toasted

Lettuce leaves, onion and tomato slices, sweet pickle relish, mustard, and ketchup, for serving

Roast the Anaheim and jalapeño chiles on either the grill or stovetop until blacked on all sides.

To prevent the jalapeños from falling through the grates, use a stovetop-roasting grate, which can be found at kitchen stores such as Sur La Table or ordered online from HERE.

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My dad loves pot roast. Winter, spring, summer and fall – no matter the temperature, he wants me to make pot roast.

The 1971 invention of the slow cooker (also known by its brand name Crock-Pot) made it an even easier meal to make. No heating up the entire kitchen when you use a slow cooker. Still, eating a heavy pot roast when it’s 106 degrees outside doesn’t appeal to most. Not an issue for Dad!

Dave was out-of-town this past weekend, so I indulged my dad by making his precious pot roast for our Sunday supper.  I do my best to change it up each time to try to keep it exciting since I make it so often throughout the year.

This time I reverted to a very classic pot roast recipe … well not so much the recipe … more the technique. Allow me to explain.

In 1963 House & Garden Magazine published a recipe by Elizabeth (Betty) Wason, an American author and broadcast journalist. The classic technique I took from her recipe was the way she floured the meat.

Instead of dredging the beef in seasoned flour, Betty beats the flour into the meat with the side of a plate, which creates a thicker crust and a smoother gravy in the end. It’s rather cathartic, beating in the flour with a dish, similar to that satisfying feeling one gets when kneading bread dough.

If you’re not up to pot roast in June, bookmark this recipe and remember to make it this fall or winter. I am hopeful that the fall or winter is the next time I’ll be called to make it … but it’ll probably be much sooner. Oh well, gotta give the people what they want.

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