Stupid easy food for a (small) crowd

Tonight's Menu

• oven-cooked beef brisket
  
• whole-grain tortilla chips w/bottled salsa
  
• coleslaw
  

Hey, so tomorrow is my birthday and today we had my parents over to celebrate. Which presented a TINY conundrum -- I don't really feel like I should HAVE to cook on my birthday, but throwing that duty to DH kind of stresses him out since he only cooks dinner maybe three times a year. (Which is fine; we divide our labor this way ON PURPOSE because I like to cook. Just not on my birthday.)

So, I wanted to feed everyone, but I didn't want to go to any real TROUBLE about it, you know? Which is why this particular thrown-together dinner was perfect! Ten minutes of work early in the day, and then all I had to do was slice the meat and throw a bunch of stuff on the table. Yay!

For the brisket, I made a dry rub of brown sugar, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and dry mustard. Just dump and stir -- way easy. I rubbed this all over both sides of the brisket, then put it fat-side-up on a rack in a roasting pan. I filled the bottom of the pan with water, covered it tightly with heavy-duty foil, and stuck it in the oven at around 10:00 a.m., while my coffee was brewing. It cooked unattended at 200 degrees F for about 7 hours, then I uncovered it and boosted the heat up to 400 for about 15 minutes to crisp up the fat. Sliced thinly across the grain, it was fork tender and delicious!

The coleslaw was the usual -- shredded cabbage tossed with a mixture of mayonnaise, white vinegar, sugar and celery seeds. I made this earlier in the day, too, and just stuck it in the fridge. Easy!

Here's the timeline for this incredibly easy meal:

• At least 6 hours before serving time, prepare the brisket w/rub and stick it in the oven.
• Make coleslaw and stick that in the fridge.
• Welcome birthday party guests, open presents, play a couple of cutthroat games of In A Pickle and Skip-Bo. (Assuming it's your birthday, that is.)
• 20 minutes before dinnertime, uncover the brisket and turn up the heat for 15 minutes.
• Take brisket out of oven and let rest.
• Break out the coleslaw, chips and salsa.
• Slice the brisket thinly across the grain and serve.
• Follow up with birthday cake, if you can manage it!
  

A (mostly) make-ahead meal

Tonight's Menu

• oven-cooked beef brisket
  
• fresh bread
  
• tangy coleslaw
• grilled apricots
  

My day today was such that my afternoon and early evening were insanely busy, but my morning was relatively calm. So 90% of the work for this meal was done well before the after-school frenzy, and I was still able to get dinner on the table at a decent time. YAY for mostly make-ahead meals!

The brisket was my usual. I made a dry rub of sugar, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, dry mustard, dried oregano, salt and freshly ground pepper. Then I rubbed it all over the brisket on both sides and put the meat fat-side up in a roasting pan. You could put it on a rack but I no longer have one, so I wad up some tin foil into balls and line the bottom of the pan with those, then place the meat on top. Works great! Add a bit of water to the bottom of the pan, then cover tightly with heavy-duty foil.

The cooking time and temperature can vary quite a bit, depending on the size of your hunk o' meat, the amount of time you have to work with, and how you like your meat cooked. We like a very tender, melt-in-your-mouth brisket with crispy fat; my roast was about 2.5 to 3 pounds, and I had all day, really. So I cooked this at 225 degrees F for about five hours, then uncovered it and boosted the heat up to 400 for 15 minutes or so to get the fat nice and crispy. Then I let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it thinly across the grain. You could do this same size roast for maybe two hours at 375, as long as there's water in the pan and it's tightly covered. It won't be quite as tender, but you can make up for that by slicing it nice and thin.

The bread was plain boule from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I am STILL loving that book! The authors have a blog where they share recipes, too!

For the coleslaw, I whisked together 1/4 cup each of sugar and apple cider vinegar until the sugar was mostly dissolved, then whisked in a tablespoon of canola oil and about a teaspoon of celery seed. Pour it over half a head of shredded cabbage, toss to coat, and stick it in the fridge for several hours or overnight. I like this version of coleslaw over the creamy mayonnaise type when I'm serving a fairy rich, fatty meat -- the acidity really helps cut the richness.

The apricots could not have been easier -- just cut a few in half, make sure to oil your grill grate, and grill them cut-side down until they pick up some grill marks and get SLIGHTLY soft. Don't overcook these or they will go mushy. I really like apricots with spiced beef -- something about that flavor combination just works for me!

Okay, so here was the timeline I followed:

1. Make the bread in the morning (or the day before)(or just buy some damn bread, already!).
2. Prepare the brisket and stick it in the oven (I did this five and a half hours before I planned to serve it -- see above).
3. Make the coleslaw and stick it in the fridge (you could do this the night before).
4. Thirty minutes before serving, uncover the brisket and turn up the heat to crisp the fat.
5. Wrap the bread in foil and slice the apricots in half, removing pits.
   
6. Light the grill for indirect heat (for my grill this means two burners on, one off).
7. Put the foil-wrapped bread on the unlit burner to warm it as the grill heats.
8. When the grill is hot, take brisket out of oven, re-cover and let rest.
9. Put apricots on grill; remove bread from grill.
10. Slice bread and re-wrap in foil to keep warm.
11. Take apricots off grill, cover to keep warm.
12. Slice brisket and put on serving platter.
13. Remove coleslaw from fridge and give it another toss or two.
14. Soup's on!
    

Oven goodness

Tonight's Menu

• oven-cooked beef brisket
  
• baked potatoes
  
• coleslaw
  

This was a really easy dinner. With just a bit of prep up-front, this will cook all day with no interference from you. You can even make the coleslaw the day before!

For the brisket, I made a dry rub of brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, ground cumin, dried oregano, salt & pepper and rubbed that on both sides of the meat. Then I sort of improvised a roasting rack by putting crumpled balls of tin foil in the bottom of a roasting pan and laying the meat, fat side up, on top of that. I poured a bit of water into the pan (around, but not on top of, the brisket), then covered it tightly with foil and put it into a 225 degree oven for about five hours. That's it! All you have to do is take it out of the oven, let it rest for about 10 minutes, then slice it thinly against the grain and serve. Easy!

The potatoes were likewise easy -- they were wrapped in foil and baked alongside the roasting pan for the last 3 hours of cooking time. I put out butter, shredded cheese, sour cream and chopped cooked bacon so everyone could fix their own potato however they liked it.

I would have served some freezer pickles along with this meal but I forgot to take them out of the freezer ahead of time. D'oh!

Brisket

Tonight's Menu

• spice-rubbed beef brisket
• steamed potatoes
• leftover coleslaw from last night
  

This was really easy, though it does take a wee bit of advance planning because of the cooking time. All I did was mix together some brown sugar, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, dried oregano, salt and pepper. Then I rubbed it on both sides of the brisket, whomped it into a roasting pan, added a bit of water, covered it tightly with foil, and stuck it in the oven at 325 degrees F for about two and a half hours. Slice thinly across the grain, and Bob's your uncle!

This brisket makes the house smell AMAZING while it cooks, and it comes out fork-tender. I usually cook it longer at a lower temperature, but the day got away from me and I didn't remember to stick it in the oven until after I'd picked up the boy child from school. It still came out just fine.

For the potatoes, I just quartered some red-skinned potatoes (without peeling them) and steamed them in the microwave. Drain, toss with some real butter (or margarine, if you insist), salt and pepper. Done!

Easy dinner. I was feeling lazy.

Still bored, but what the hell

Tonight's Menu

• oven-braised beef brisket
  
• dinner rolls (from frozen dough)
  
• green salad with carrots from the garden
  

Okay, yeah. I am still bored over here. Feeling very uninspired, food-wise. Not making anything remotely exciting. But I feel guilty about not posting for so long, so here! A post! A really boring post!

The brisket was rubbed with the usual spices -- brown sugar, dried oregano, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, salt and pepper -- then stuck in a pan with some beer, tightly covered, and cooked fat-side-up at 375 degrees F for two hours owing to the fact that I totally forgot to put it in the oven at 2:00 like I meant to. It was still fairly tender. I think cutting it REALLY thin after it had rested helped a lot with that, though.

The rolls were those little frozen dough balls, thawed and baked. Easy.

I hope to cook something interesting soon.

Delicious cow

Tonight's Menu

• oven-braised beef brisket
  
• sweet & sour red cabbage
  
• green beans from the garden
  

Okay. This took a bit of work, I'm not going to lie, but it was not at all complicated.

I made a dry rub of brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, dry mustard, dried oregano, salt and pepper and rubbed it all over the brisket. Then I put it in a roasting pan, poured in some beer, covered it tightly with foil and cooked it for about four and a half hours at 225 degrees F (you'll want to adjust that based on the size of your, ahem, meat).

For the cabbage, I sliced some onion and sauteed it in a large skillet over medium heat with some canola oil until the onion was reasonably soft. Then I added shredded red cabbage, a little bit of water, equal amounts of red wine vinegar and sugar (for half a head of cabbage, use about 2 Tbs. of each), some dried thyme, salt and pepper and then covered it and cooked it, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage was tender. Then I uncovered it and cranked up the heat, stirring until all the liquid had evaporated. I know this doesn't really sound like a summer dish, and I do make it fairly often for Thanksgiving, but it goes really well with slow-cooked, spiced meats like the brisket above.

Okay, now the green beans! Which were from my garden! Woo! Snap off the stem end, give them a good rinse, and set them aside. Then chop up a few slices of bacon and some onion and brown those together in a big pan. When the bacon is crisp and the onion has a bit of color, dump in the green beans along with a tablespoon or so of brown sugar (trust me on this) and add just enough water to cover the beans. Then bring them to a boil, cover, reduce to a simmer and let them go for about 15 minutes or however long it takes to get them to the tenderness you like (just fish one out now and then to test it). Drain them but don't lose the bacon and onion when you do it!

Low & slow

Tonight's Menu

• oven-braised beef brisket
  
• ranch beans (from a can)
  
• big-ass salad (made fresh last night by DH)
  

Tonight's dinner required a little advance planning but not much actual work.

First I made a dry rub for the brisket with brown sugar, garlic powder, dry mustard, chili powder, dried oregano, salt and freshly ground pepper. I rubbed it generously onto both sides of the brisket, then put the brisket in a foil-lined roasting pan fat-side up. I poured most of a bottle of Abita TurboDog (a dark beer, you use whatever but make sure it's something you'd actually drink) around but not ON the meat, covered the pan VERY tightly with foil, and cooked it "low & slow" -- four hours at 275 degrees F. It came out wonderfully flavorful and tender, but still held up to slicing (instead of shredding). Yum!

Oven brisket

Tonight's Menu

• oven-cooked brisket
  
• tiny red potatoes, parboiled then chuffed up in a hot pan with butter
  
• fresh green beans with onions and bacon
  

I was kind of scattered/spastic this evening so THANK GOD I didn't fark up the brisket. I rubbed it with a mixture of brown sugar, dry mustard, salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder and dried oregano, then whomped it into a roasting pan and cooked it with the lid on for 1.5 hours at 300 degrees F. But then I kept turning it down -- first to 250, then to 200 -- during the next 1.5 hours because I was afraid it was getting too done. Miraculously, it turned out tender and delicious. I have no idea how that happened. I think it was pure luck.

The boy made the potatoes. He's getting quite good at it! This time he got to do the prep and parboiling as well as the chuffing.

I made the green beans the only way I know how*. Snap off the stem ends and wash, then set aside. Chop some onion and bacon and start the bacon in a hot pan until it's about halfway cooked (half the fat rendered; starting to brown and curl just a bit). Then add the onion and cook until the bacon is crisp and the onion has gone translucent. Add the green beans and enough water to just barely cover them. Stir in a tablespoon of brown sugar, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 20 minutes on low heat. Strain off and serve. Yum!

*This is a lie. I know other ways. I just like them like this.

A cook-in!

Because it's winter, and too cold to cook OUT, silly!

Tonight's Menu

• oven-smoked beef brisket
  
• cornbread from scratch
  
• Ranch beans from a can
  
• coleslaw from scratch
  

No, I don't have an indoor smoker, more's the pity. What I did was rub the brisket with a bunch of spices and crap (brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, Jane's Krazy salt and freshly ground pepper) as usual. It was a small brisket and I didn't want to put it in my giant roasting pan, but I don't have a rack for my small pan, so instead I wadded up some tinfoil and stuck that in the bottom of the pan, the put the brisket on top. I added a bit of water to the pan and splashed in a few drops of liquid smoke (the mesquite variety), then covered the pan and cooked it 3-4 hours on about 200 degrees F. It got really tender and yummy and had a nice smoky flavor.

Brisket is really cheap down here and aside from the fat pad (which I leave on during cooking to keep the meat moist) it's solid meat. If you cook it "low and slow" it comes out really tender and can be sliced or shredded. Some people sauce theirs but I prefer a dry rub. Yum!

A near-disaster averted

Tonight's Menu

• ropa vecchia
  
• a crusty loaf of multigrain bread
  
• big-ass salad
  

Yes, I know it's been forever since I posted. We've been eating crap.

However, tonight's dinner was WAY yummy, the only minus being that it was supposed to be YESTERDAY'S dinner. But yesterday, everything went horribly wrong.

Here's what happened: my pal Joke posted a recipe for his grandmother's Italian version of ropa vieja (christened ropa vecchia because of the Italian thing). Bec tried it and posted some photos that had me wiping drool off my keyboard, so I decided I had to try it, too.

Here's what I did wrong-ish:

1. I used brisket, which isn't wrong per se, but I did not factor in the additional cooking time this cut would require (versus the recommended chuck shoulder).
2. I put it on the stove way too late in the day, see above.
3. I put it on way too low of a heat setting. It's supposed to be poached, but I was just kind of ... soaking it. In tepid water. My gas burners range from 6,000 to 12,500 BTUs. I started it on the 6,000 on the lowest possible flame, then moved it to the 9,000 on the lowest possible flame, when what I should have done was stick the damn thing on the 12,500 burner at the lowest possible flame and left it there. I never got any bubbles at all, and barely even any movement in the water.
   

So, by dinnertime last night I had a hunk of shrunken, greyish, not at all tender meat and that was not good, not good at all. We had leftover spaghetti instead.

I stuck the meat in the crockpot overnight and it shredded up a treat this morning. The sauce, which I made this evening, was absolutely delicious and the dish was FINALLY declared a success. Next time I'm doing the meat in the crockpot right from the beginning, yo. Because I am not so much with the poaching, apparently.

I don't usually post pictures on this blog, but I went to so damn much trouble for this meal that you bet your ASS I took a picture.

Day Six*

Adult Menu

• smoked brisket (leftover from Memorial Day; it was slightly undercooked so I re-heated it in a slow oven with some dark beer and that tendered it up nicely)
  
• red potatoes (parboiled, then chuffed up in a hot pan with some butter to form a nice crust)
  
• fresh green beans (simmered with onions, bacon and a lump of brown sugar)

Girl Child
Tried a potato and didn't like it. Tried some brisket and didn't like it. (We gave her props for trying them, though.) Passed on the green beans altogether. Ended up eating some deli turkey slices, whole wheat bread and margarine (Smart Balance -- no trans fats!) and raw baby carrots.

Boy Child
Initially passed on everything except the brisket, which he agreed to try because it smelled good while it was cooking. He liked it okay and ate a decent-sized piece. Had some bread and carrots like the girl. Then we convinced him to try a potato, which he LOVED, and he had a decent helping of those. The least healthy thing in the whole meal, but hey, he TRIED SOMETHING NEW! And liked it! So YAY!

* Days 4 & 5 were a Memorial Day picnic at my folks' house and the leftovers thereof. I don't even remember what the kids ate, nor do I care, because I didn't cook any of it.