Well, today is Saturday and I have been absent from here for a couple days. In all honesty I really didn't have anything interesting to say. hehe I know, my husband would say.."That never stopped you before..." but I didn't make any interesting recipes and the kid, the cats nor the dog have done anything interesting. I really didn't want to be boring this early in the game.
Hubby is working this week (nights) so I have to have dinner ready at 3pm. Today being a weekend I spend a little more time on dinner or try new recipes so we are having cube steak. If you have ever cooked cube steak you know that it can be VERY tough if you don't cook it right but this is my most favorite meal.
Seems to me that when we were first married Cube Steak was a pretty inexpensive meat, like stew beef but now I am surprised at how much it cost. It was $5 and change for a little over a pound. This recipe is from my Mom. She used to cook this when I was growing up. I don't remember her having a crock pot but I do remember her cooking in a pressure cooker. Anyway, she taught me how to make this and I have fixed it different ways.
Today we have these ingredients:
Cube Steak (enough for one piece for each family member)
2 Tablespoons oil
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons Seasoned Salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and Pepper
1 egg
1 can cream of Mushroom Soup
1/4 Cup Milk
1 Slow Cooker Liner
Put a frying pan on the stove to heat up. Put the oil in the pan and turn it on to about 6 (medium heat) and let the oil heat up.
Mix the Seasoned Salt, Salt and Pepper, and Garlic Powder and Flour together
on a paper plate or in a pie pan or on a regular plate..doesn't mater. I like to use the paper plate because you just toss it when you are done. Don't ever try to save it for next time or use it for anything else since you will be coating raw meat in it.Bacteria will grow in the flour mixture even if you keep it in the refrigerator. Just toss it. Break the egg into a bowl and whisk it up until it's all mixed. Then line the items up. First the meat, then the egg then the flour mixture.
Take one piece of meat and dip it in the egg and coat both sides.
Then in the flour and cover both sides.
Then place in the hot oil in the frying pan.
Repeat these steps with all of your pieces of meat and just brown both sides. Should take about 5 minutes per side. The meat will not be cooked all the way thru and you will still see red juices but that is ok because they will cook all the way thru in the Slow Cooker.
Once you have browned all of the servings of meat, place them in the Slow Cooker. I use the Slow Cooker Liners ALL of the time and putting the hot meat in them does not melt them. Set your Slow Cooker on Low for 8 hours.
In a separate bowl whisk the Cream of Mushroom Soup with the milk and then take the "flavor bits" that are left in the frying pan and whisk them up in the cream of mushroom soup mixture. Just scrape all of that goodness right out of the pan and into the soup. If you happen to have used more oil and there is a lot of oil in the pan then try to pick out the "chunks" that are in the pan. They are the bits of flour and meat that have been left behind and they add flavor to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the meat and close the lid.
Since I am only cooking 3 pieces of meat I cooked this on low for 5 hours and it was done perfectly. Most people will be cooking more pieces and will need to cook it longer since the Slow Cooker will be more full. You may need to use 2 cans of soup or one family size can. As you are frying the meat you may find you need to add more oil. I think 1 Tablespoon per piece of meat is a good way to measure.
I heated up a can or corn and added a tablespoon of butter and a dash of salt and pepper to that while it was heating. I baked some Grands biscuits and made some real mashed potatoes.
I figure one potato per person but I cooked more so I would have left overs. Wash and peel the potatoes then I sliced the potatoes pretty thin so they would cook faster and put them in a pan of cold water and salt on the stove. They cooked for about 10 minutes and when I stuck a fork in the potatoes and it went right thru them, they were done and I dumped the water out. I put about a half of a stick of BUTTER (not margarine) in a bowl and dumped the hot potatoes on top. I got the hand held mixer out and started mixing the potatoes and added some salt and some Evaporated Milk. Probably about 2 tablespoons of the milk but you just add the milk until you like the consistency. It's SO easy.
Can you see the sign in the picture? haha If I'm not home try Walmart..teehee
This recipe is easy to change up if you don't like Cream of Mushroom Soup then leave that out and use brown gravy instead. I have done that and added a can of mushrooms to the brown gravy. I like the jars of brown gravy. I think they have good flavor but you might need 2. I have also made this using one can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 jar of brown gravy which was also good.
I think I will start a "My Favorite Kitchen Tool" to my recipes. The other day I was talking about my kitchen thermometer. Today I will tell you about my favorite spatula. See it up above in the picture? It comes in SO handy for getting into cans and scraping every last drop out! It has a long handle and the rubber part is narrow so it can fit into all sizes of jars and cans. It is made by Sunbeam and I bought it while we were on vacation in Tennessee when we went into a kitchen supply store. Doesn't everybody visit kitchen supply stores on vacation????
My Mom tried to leave a comment but it wouldn't work..so this is what she said..."You can also use the hot water from the cooked potatoes and add powdered milk. This helps keep the mashed potatoes hot longer."
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