The Stuff of Nonsense

There are a few things in life I particularly enjoyed. Cheese, pasta, chicken, fish, hamburgers and tea, iced and hot.

Recently I decided to use up some frozen foods that have been sitting in the freezer for longer than I care to mention. Since they were well packaged freezer burn did not seem an issue so I decided there was only one thing to do, eat it. After all, there are children in India going to bed hungry. 🙂

Early in 2012 Omaha Steaks sent me one of those “We missed you letters” offering a decent deal on steaks and fish, plus free shipping. I had eaten the fish, sole stuffed with artificial crab and smothered in butter that would make a cockroach a tasty treat and the pork chops. But now came the moment for the beef.

I’ve not been much of a beef fan except for veal and hamburgers. I’ve even preferred vegetable lasagna. I did not know how to cook the beef. I wasn’t looking for recipes but for timing and methods. I chose to use my electric grill.

My first attempt was a NY Strip steak. I followed the directions I had found on-line to cook it well done. Much to my surprise it came out medium rare and I loved it!

And so it went with the remaining NY Strip, all done with onion and mushrooms. One in a tomato sauce, the Top Sirloin and 3 cheap Chuck Steaks.

I found the secret of beef that everyone seemed to share but me. Cooking it your own way. My way is Medium rare to medium. My mom always cooked cheap beef well done for my father who was paranoid that under cooked beef, as he called it in his words,  would lead to trichinosis and death. He never pronounced it correctly. So my mom cooked it very well done and very hot, another thing he insisted upon. So hot you could hear him suck the food down rather that chew, taste and enjoy.

This is not to blame my mother. She cooked the way the bread-winner wanted it, and he did work hard all his life in factories. No one’s to blame it’s just the way it was. Different generation, different times. Things have changed but I guess  some of us change more slowly.