Steak? No. Almost Better

On our budget, steak is a novelty rarely seen, let alone tasted.  (I guess if we wanted to see it, then we could go to the grocery store and look at it, or go to a restaurant and hope that the businessman next to us ordered steak.  Of course, going out to a restaurant that serves steak, well, I guess that might take some money too.)  Anyway, when we were given a package of round steak, there was some discussion as to what round steak was.  No, it's not really steak, but it sure tastes good.

After a quick call to my mom, on the best ways to cook the meat, I soon started thawing things out and peeling the potatoes.  What good is some fried round steak, if you don't have some fried potatoes to go with them.  Fried potatoes are one of my favorite foods.  They were always a pain to make, growing up, because it took a lot of potatoes and peeling and slicing to feed six people.  Now, only feeding two people, it's not bad at all.

I started the potatoes first, because I knew that they would take the longest to cook.  I peeled them, while my husband sliced them thinly.   At the same time, we had some shorting melting in the skillet, getting hot.  When then potatoes were sliced and the skillet was hot, into the pan they went.

I sprinkled some salt and pepper on top, and stirred occasionally.  If you stir the potatoes too much as they cook they start to fall apart, but if you don't stir enough they may stick to the pan.

When the potatoes were on, and the meat was thawed I coated them in a flour mixture.  It included flour, salt, pepper, and season salt.  The second skillet (for the meat) was prepared in the same way as the one for the potatoes.  Making sure that the shorting was hot for the meat.

In both the potatoes and the meat make sure that there is enough shorting that when it is melted, fills the bottom of the pan about 1/2 inch.  Let the meat cook until it is a dark brown color.  Turning every once in awhile so it doesn't burn.

When the meat is done, place it on a plate covered in paper towels.  This will help collect the extra grease as it runs out.  To check and see if the meat is cooked, cut into the middle and make sure it is all brown.

As the potatoes continued to cook, they began to turn a lovely golden color.  I like my potatoes crispy, so I left them in until they were just how I liked them.

Fried round steak and potatoes are just not the same without some white gravy.  I don't know for sure where the expression "good gravy" came from, but it would make sense to me if they were talking about making gravy.  It's something that I haven't mastered (although I'm getting better and better at it).  Drain the extra grease out of the meat pan (making sure to leave any crunchies in it from the meat).  Add some flour and milk into the pan, and stir continuously while the stove is on low to medium heat.  This is where the hard part is for me.  Too much flour and it's too thick.  Too much milk and it's to runny. Getting the exact proportions in just takes practice.  The first couple of times that I made gravy, I ended up with a large amount as I kept adding milk and flour trying to get the correct consistency.  Remember that if the gravy is too runny, cooking it some more will also help to thicken it up.  Gravy is the last thing that you want to cook right before the meal, because it soon becomes thick and harder as it sits.  Add some salt and pepper for flavor. 

There we had a great meal.  Was it steak?  No, but with the potatoes and gravy, it was almost better.

BBQ

I noticed the other day that I have a tendency to make what I called, "girly foods."  Well, I'm a girl, so that's easily explained, but I realized that my stupendous husband might want something a little different.  In a word, I'm talking about Bar-B-Que.  Now, real BBQ is not to be had at our house.  We don't own a grill, and even if we did (according to our contract) we would have to carry the grill downstairs and outside, 10 feet away from our apartment, cook on it, clean it, and then carry it back up to store it on our deck.  (It's not really worth it.)  I decided to see what I could come up with using my oven.

Here is the final product.

Well, what do you think?  Ok, the food is really more than it looks.  We have really big plates.

For the chicken I thawed out the boneless, skinless chicken breast.  When it was thawed, I put them in a pan and soaked them bar-b-que sauce with a little bit of water in it.  It soaked for a couple of hours, and every once in awhile I would turn them and use a baster to coat them more.

Make sure to cover the pan with foil before you put anything in it, because it will be really hard to clean out the baked sauce.  After soaking the chicken I baked it slowly, staring at a low oven heat, turning the pieces of chicken over every once in awhile.  The sauce bubbles up around the chicken nicely as it is cooking, and gives it a good flavor.  Make sure to not overcook the chicken, or it will be dry.

 

With our chicken we had some green beans, yummy!

I wanted something else with the meal, so I tried something new.  I took some instant potatoes and made them according to the instructions.  Then I added chopped green peppers, chopped onions, bacon bits, cilantro, and shredded cheddar cheese.

After mixing it all together, I put it into a pan, and sprinkled shredded cheese on top, and cooked it until the cheese was melted.  It was delicious and super easy!  The meal was really easy, and something that we thoroughly enjoyed.