Monday, February 17, 2014

Shattered and some Salisbury Steak

Keith had a bit of a rough weekend. He came home Saturday morning totally dejected because after a good trip coming back from Barstow, the last ten minutes went totally haywire. He flipped the wrong switch in the yard, realized he flipped the wrong switch and went back to correct it but the train had already started going through it, right in front of the yard office where everybody who is anybody saw it. He had to fill out an incident report and was sure he was going to get fired. Joe told him he won't get fired for it but may have to go to a disciplinary hearing or something. So, he spent Saturday totally depressed and once again worried.

On Sunday I didn't want him to spend the whole day depressed and worried so convinced him to put on some pants and come out in the backyard and help me get it cleaned up somewhat, weeds having been growing in the dirt part of the backyard and bricks laying all over the place from his ongoing never ending I'm beginning to think will never get finished patio and sidewalk project. I weedwhacked a bit and needed help moving all the bricks and junk to get to more weedwhacking, which I was going to do, but he picked up the weedwhacker and started whacking away, and BANG a rock flies into the glass door on the back of the house. The side of the glass door that is not the sliding part but the permanent doesn't move part and can't be pulled out to be fixed part. I have never seen safety glass shatter and was astounded at what a tiny rock can do to a glass door. One tiny little hole and the rest of the glass is still in the window but completely cracked and still popping and cracking into tiny little pieces.

Good thing we have double paned windows in this house, just the outside pane was broken so we don't have to board up that side of the door until we can afford to get it fixed. He spend a good 45 minutes or so getting all the glass out and swept up and garbage bagged. I'm kind of surprised we've never broken a window before and he said he should have known better and usually faces the weedwhacker so that if a rock flies it goes away from the house not towards, but accidents happen and valuable lesson learned about weedwhacking.

I did make a dinner that he liked yesterday. We were discussing compiling a list of easy to make dinners for the nights that he is actually home. Sometimes we just go out to eat because while he eats out when he is working and on the road, I'm still home and having to fix things for myself to eat, and we all know how much I love to cook. Not.

One of his dinner suggestions was salisbury steak, something I don't much care for probably because of all the years eating it for hot lunch at school, but if he wants salisbury steak, I will attempt to make it. I did a little recipe searching online and found a slow cooker recipe to try, and it actually came out edible and he liked it. It calls for Italian seasoned bread crumbs, but something in Italian seasoned breadcrumbs gives me indigestion so I used plain breadcrumbs. It also uses cream of chicken soup which sounds like it would make things taste like chicken, but it doesn't. It just makes a nice gravy for the meat.

Here's how to make it, I cut the recipe in half since the two of us didn't need eight salisbury steaks, but if you have a big enough crock pot you could probably put some in the freezer for another day.

2 lbs lean ground beef (I got some nice ground sirloin)
1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (plain tasted just fine)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (1 ounce) packet dry au jus mix
3/4 cup water.

So, you mix up the hamburger with the breadcrumbs and milk and make 8 patties, then you dip the patties in a little flour and brown both sides of the patties in a frying pan with the oil. They don't need to be cooked all the way through, just browned.

Stick those into your crock pot, kind of stacking them like a pyramid but my crock pot is small so they were stacked more like pancakes. Then mix up the soup, au jus mix and water and pour it over the top of the meat. Then turn on your crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours. Double check that the crock pot is actually plugged in.

It makes gravy right alongside the meat so if you are allowed to eat mashed potatoes, which I am not, you've got some gravy for your potatoes.

This is something I'd definitely make again, easy and Keith liked it.

2 comments:

lynney62 said...

I love salisbury steak but forget all about making it....this recipe sounds so easy! I will definitely be making this soon!!

Lawrence Neal said...

I’m sorry that you had to go through that unfortunate event, Elizabeth. However, despite Keith’s rough weekend, it’s nice that he was able to enjoy the dish you prepared for him. I bet the salisbury steak was amazing, enough to cheer him up. Anyway, thanks for sharing that! All the best!


Lawrence Neal @ Prime13NewJersey