How to Cook a Great Steak Part 2: The Hand Doneness Test

A few people commented that they didn't know how to tell when a steak was done. My husband (a.k.a. Meat Loving Man) uses the Hand Doneness Test. He said he couldn't remember where he learned it, but I found this link at Simply Recipes.com that has some photos illustrating the method. Basically the fleshy part between your thumb and forefinger when your hand is relaxed is what a raw steak feels like. When you press your forefinger and thumb together that area feels like a rare steak. When you press your middle finger and thumb together that feels like a medium rare steak. Ring finger & thumb=medium steak. Pinkie and thumb= well done steak. If it's tougher than that, you cooked it too much. If you don't trust this method, you can use a meat thermometer. They range from $20-100.

Rainbow Cupcakes

I found this festive idea in the March 2010 issue of Family Fun Magazine. They were fun, and my daughter loved them, but they turned out to be a little more work than I expected. It was worth it, but not something I would do on a regular basis.

1. Prepare your favorite white cake mix, then divide the batter evenly among six small bowls. (About 1/2 cup of batter per bowl.) Following the chart below, dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color.
   
   
   

   RAINBOW COLOR	DROPS OF FOOD COLORING
   Purple	9 red and 6 blue drops
   Blue	12 drops
   Green	12 drops
   Yellow	12 drops
   Orange	12 yellow and 4 red drops
   Red	18 drops

   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Line 16 muffin pan wells with baking cups. Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, following the order shown. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of a spoon to cover the color underneath.
   
3. Bake the cupcakes according to your recipe directions. Before serving, remove the paper wrapping, and if you like, top each cupcake with a whipped-cream cloud.

Corned Beef and Cabbage with Mustard Custard Sauce.

I thought I would try making something traditional for St Patrick's Day, but then I have to work on St. Patty's and the last thing I feel like doing after working 12(+) hours is making a large meal. Nor is my family to keen on waiting for said large meal that late in the evening. Instead I made this yesterday and it turned out really well, plus it was very easy. (My husband loved this meal and my daughter ate it as long as the yellow stuff didn't touch her food.) I found the recipe on Cooks.com and adapted as I saw fit. (Sorry no pictures, because my camera batteries are dead and as I was preparing to take one I discovered I don't have any more batteries of the appropriate size either. :S)

Corned Beef and Cabbage
4 large carrots, washed and cut into four pieces each
3 lb corned beef briscuit with seasoning packet
1 large onion, quartered
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/3 cup water
1/2 head of cabbage, cut into wedges
Layer first four ingredients plus seasoning in crock pot in order given, carrots on bottom. Pour water over top. Cook on low for three hours. Add cabbage. Cook for three more hours.

I found this next recipe on That Went Well, and I have to say it is pretty tasty. The real reason I decided to make corned beef and cabbage is so I could try this sauce. My husband happily ate every vegetable that I put on his plate because he was dipping them in this sauce. That's extremely high praise in my house.

Mary Helen's Mustard Custard Sauce

2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp plain yellow mustard
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
6 tbsp white vinager
4 tbsp water
Low heat stir till thickened. It should have a pudding consistency.

Pink Eye- What It Is and What You Need to Know About It

Pink Eye is the common name for conjunctivitis, and it is very common in children. What it is, is an inflammation of the clear mucous membrane that covers the surface of the eye and lines the inside of the eyelid. The inflammation is caused by viruses, bacteria or a foreign body (like a piece of dirt or pollen). It's generally not serious and goes away within 7-10 days without treatment. (It is serious if you have a weakened immune system or if you wear contact lenses. I remember my dad had pink eye when I was a little girl. He wore hard contacts and would rub his eyes with his contacts in, causing little cuts on the inside of his eyelids, which made his case of pink eye killer. He was in terrible pain and we ate dinner in the dark for a week.)

Symptoms of pink eye include:

• Redness of the eyes
• Swelling and redness of the eyelids
• Watery, teary eyes
• Itching or burning of the eyes
• Sensitivity to light
• Drainage

Pink eye is highly contagious. If you or your children have pink eye, you (they) should stay away from school, work, church and/or daycare. If it is caused by a virus you can return when symptoms improve (3-5 days). If it is caused by bacteria, you can return after using antibiotic drops for 24 hours. Most often it is caused by a virus, therefore there is generally no treatment. Seeing a doctor is your best bet, just to be safe.

Ways to Prevent Pink Eye:

• WASH YOUR HANDS and WASH YOUR CHILDREN'S HANDS!
• Never share wash cloths, towels or pillow cases.
• Stay away from bar soap.
• Dust and vacuum frequently.
• If you swim, wear goggles.

Book Review: 101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix

I have read a few Cake Mix Cookbooks, but 101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix by Stephanie Ashcraft is my favourite. My mother-in-law gave this to me for Christmas years ago and in that time I have tried most of the recipes. Only one of them I didn't like, the Tropical Getaway Cake, but then everyone else liked it, so it wasn't a total failure. Every time that I use one of these recipes and share the results I get lots of compliments. And all of them are very easy to make.

 The recipe that I use the most is for Luscious Lemon Cake. It's very moist and frequently requested. Over the years it's evolved a little, so it's not exactly what you find in the book.

Luscious Lemon Cake
1 lemon cake mix
1 small box of lemon pudding
1 Tablespoon of lemon juice
3/4 cup of water
1/2 cup of applesauce
1/4 cup of oil
4 eggs

Icing:
1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar
1/3 cup of orange juice or limeade
1 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all cake ingredients together and beat until smooth. Pour batter into a greased non-stick bundt pan. (Yeah, in theory a non-stick pan shouldn't need to be greased, but I promise your cake will not come out in one piece if you don't grease it. Also your cake most often won't come out in one piece if you just heavily grease a regular bundt pan. I know, I tried.) Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick out clean when stuck in the center. Let cool for five minutes, then invert onto a serving platter. Mix icing and drizzle over the cake.

How To Cook A Great Steak

A few weeks ago I came across this article: How to Turn Cheap “Choice” Steak into Gucci “Prime” Steak on Wisebread.com. When steaks went on sale last week at the grocery store I had to give it a try. The Verdict: Pretty good, not as amazing as she made it sound. I've had better steak. My daughter, who I didn't expect to eat them at all, liked it. I do think that I'm going to use that garlic-herb butter on some steamed veggies.

One thing that she doesn't discuss in the article is how to actually cook the steak, and frankly it's not my strong point either. My husband complains that when I cook steak, it's too dry. And he's right. I get multi-tasking, or children get demanding, and the meat gets overdone. The solution: my husband now cooks the steaks at our house. I prepare the meat, he cooks it the way he likes it and everybody wins. He developed his method of cooking steak from a few suggestions in The Art of Manliness Cookbook. (which you can download for free from this link, but you have to subscribe to their RSS feed first.)

Indoor Steak
Olive Oil
Fresh ground pepper
1. Place a metal or cast iron skillet in the oven and set for 475 degrees.
2. Apply a thin coat of oil (a few drops), then pepper to each side of the steak. (Normally he salts it too, but not when I did the "salt lick" method beforehand.)
3. When the oven reaches 475, turn a burner on high and remove the skillet (which will be VERY HOT) from the oven and place on the burner. Let heat for an additional 5 mins.
4. Place steak on one side of the skillet and leave it there for 30 seconds; don't move it.
5. After 30 seconds, flip the steak. Do not move steak for 30 seconds.
6. Place skillet and steak into the oven.
7. Depending on steak thickness and desired doneness levels, 2-5 minutes per side in the oven should be adequate. If unsure, pull out the meat early and check doneness via the Doneness Hand Test, or with an instant read thermometer. Remember: you can always put the meat back in the oven if it's not done enough, but you can't un-cook it.
8. After removed from the heat, let the steak rest for 5 minutes before cutting/serving. Cover with tinfoil to retain heat during this time.

The 30 seconds on each side helps develop a delicious crust by the Maillard reaction, the oil helps with heat transfer and crust development, and the resting the meat allows the juices to return to the cells of the meat, so when you cut into
it the juices stay in the meat, not pool on your plate.

Here's some more steak tips from The Art of Manliness: Grilling the Perfect Steak

When all is said and done I still think that the best way to cook a steak is to marinate it in Sprite and grill it over a fire. Of course, that's generally not an option year round.

BBQ Baked Beans

So last month when I did the pantry challenge, I discovered that I had a lot of canned pork in my pantry, and I wasn't really sure what to do with it. And I didn't ever do anything with it because the one thing I thought of required beans, which I discovered I was out of.  (Somehow I had never purchased dry beans before last week.) So now that we are doing regular grocery shopping again I thought I would give it a shot. When I was growing up, I remember my mom making these great BBQ beans with bacon and pineapple. I thought I could switch the can of pork for the bacon. So I called my mom for the recipe. She said "I don't know, just throw in some beans, some pineapple and whatever." Thanks, Mom for your detailed assistance. (I love you Mom!)
"Beans are high in fiber, low in fat". (The first person who can name what cartoon character sings that line gets a prize.) Beans also have protein, calcium, iron, folic acid, and phytochemicals. Plus they're cheap. Something I should probably incorporate into my diet more often. So here's my very first attempt at making BBQ beans, and I was actually rather pleased with the results, much better than I expected. Not as amazing as I remember my mom's being, but I liked them, and they were very easy to make. They do however, require a little prep beforehand. You can also easily make this vegetarian by omitting the pork/bacon.

BBQ Baked Beans
1 lb of dry beans-cooked and drained* (See below)
1/4 cup of dried onion
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 cup BBQ sauce (the better your sauce, the better your beans)
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 can (21 oz) pineapple chunks, drained
1 can (14 oz) canned pork chunks, drained or 1 lb of sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
Mix all ingredients in crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 2-4 hours, or until beans are tender. Leftovers freeze well.

Cooked Beans
The secret to cooking beans so that they won't give you horrendous gas is to change the water and cook them long and slow. (Also eating beans on a regular basis decreases their ill-effects on the body.) I soaked mine overnight, then drained the water. Then I put them in the crockpot, covered them with three inches of water and cooked them on low for 8 hours. Then I drained and rinsed them again before adding them to the recipe above. This time I used a pound of red beans, but you could just as easily use white, pink, kidney or pinto.

The Verdict: My husband and I really liked them, and I now I have found something else I can do with canned pork chunks that my kids won't eat. We love variety.