Easy Slow Cooker Steak Roast

I've been buying Short Round Roast in bulk at Costco, mostly because it's pretty lean and cheaper than Beef Tenderloin, and I've been making it go a long ways. Mostly it's sliced thin into strips and used for stir fry, but I always keep a good slightly-marbled version for a pot roast. It's no shoulder, but it's lean and mean and with the right amount of broth, flour, and onion soup, it's a winner.

Easy Slow Cooker Steak Roast

Makes 2-3 servings (when hungry) or 3-4 (if paired with a salad) or 1 (if drunk)

3/4 pound (or whatever is a good hand-sized short round roast) Short Round Roast

1/2 cup flour

1 package Beefy Onion Lipton Soup

1 1/2 cup Beef Broth

5 medium Red Potatoes, quartered

2 Yellow Onions, quartered

15ish baby carrots

Take slow cooker out of cabinet. I like the oval kind because then you aren't stacking things in a bucket but arranging things in a bathtub. Defrost beef overnight. When pliable, drain juice into trash (I didn't do this but it is probably a good idea) and add 1/2 cup flour and beef into a ziploc bag. Play. Put floured beef into middle of slow cooker bowl. Sprinkle Beefy Onion Lipton Soup all over the top of the beef and around it on the bare crock bottom. Pour on the Beef Broth. You can stir it around if it's too powdery but don't touch the top of the beef. It's disheveled for a reason.

Surround the roast with the quartered red potatoes (that you scrubbed with a potato scrubber - it's gross how much dirt you get off seemingly-clean-looking potatoes). Top that with the quartered onions; go with smaller ones small since the big ones would just be too big to get soft, plus it's per pound and not per each so bigger is not always cheaper. Top that with the carrots, but put 3-4 on top of the beef just because you can and dehydrated salty-oniony-beefy carrots are delish.

Put on High for 5 hours or Low for 8 hours. If you like it super soft, go 6 hours on High and 10 hours on Low.

That's about it. Lovely. Magic. It's now gone and in our tummies. Time for....zzzzzz

Tschüß!!

Chicken Cashew Curry

My, we haven't done this in a while but every time I make it, it turns out divinely. I'm happy I have most of the spices readily available. What I like about it is the act of creating a spice-nut mixture in the food processor, then frying that prior to meat touching anything. It's just kind of cool to fry up this thick mixture of pureed cashews, tomato paste, garlic, onion, and tons of spices. 

Then, add chicken pieces, fry for a moment, add mushrooms and some water - voila. Delicious. The recipe is copyrighted so I can't put it here until I modify it to make it my own...but if you want it, just drop me a comment.

Tschüß!

Old German Postcards (Alte Deutsche Postkarten) - #7

Photographie, Druck und Verlag von E. Prietzel, Steyr. 1924

In the large stack of postcards, given to me by my Grandfather Sam, this one is really interesting. It's of an area where my Grandpa was stationed, at the end of World War II. "Druck und Vorlag" means Printing and Publishing from E. Preitzel. I found at least one other postcard through internet searching, but not much else.

I love how my Grandpa marked out where he was stationed, in Oberosterreich, and the placement of Russians and Americans with his post outlined. The Enns River is a tributary to the Danube and the town of Ternberg sits at the foothills of the Alps.

Here's what it looks like now (one from a vantage point further upstream and another in around the same position). Notice how the large building is still there and the bridge remains pretty much the same as it did in 1924. My Grandfather was there in 1944.

(Thanks to you.)

(Thanks to you.)

Frighteningly enough, Ternberg was a place of terror during World War II and according to some internet sleuthing, a number of Hungarian Jews and others were brought here to build an hydroelectrical power plant.

Tschüß!!

Napa

We're going to Napa!

It's quite silly that this is our first time to Napa, given our love for The Grape, but opportunity knocked and we answered the door. It also helps that we will be going with long-time friends. We already have our lodging in Napa secured and now working on flights and the weekend post-whino-fiesta in San Francisco.

The last time I was in the Bay Area was while working at The Bank and was more of a very busy work trip and less of a fun trip. I even got stuck when our plane from Oakland to Austin didn't arrive. I spent a strange night (a Friday night, of course) hanging at a Hampton Inn watching other plans take off from the airport. The hotel shuttle guy even drove me to a nearby Vons so I could get a 6-pack of beer to celebrate my night off the grid. The funny thing about getting stuck is you relinquish all control of your agenda to the Gods, try to cope and make it a fun time, but invariably you spend a lot of time waiting way too long but not having enough time to enjoy it. "Yay, airline-paid night in a hotel room where I can do whatever I want like read a book or watch a movie...but oh I have to be up at 4 a.m. to make my 6 a.m. flight so I can't really do anything except down a Benadryl and some booze to put me to sleep, while setting four alarms to make sure I wake up." Something like that.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning more about Napa. We are obsessed (well, I am and thus Ry has to comply) with Italian wines, since we've visited there twice, so it will be neat to get some domestic obsessions other than Disney and Texas in our lives.

Tschüß!

Disney World Update (lost and found)

(I wrote this while we were at Disney World still, 1/18/2013, but our spotty wifi caused the upload to not work. Just found it again so I thought I might as well post it.)

It's hard to believe that the first part of our trip has come and gone. We're on our fourth wonderful night here at the Magic Kingdom and we are having so much fun. The real world is a blur, which is enjoyable, and the world of Disney is a joy. The most cool part has been spending time with our Godchildren; watching them continue through their lists of "firsts" is inspiring. While mealtimes can either be easy-peasy or just plain interesting, most of the other times have been easy to conquer, mostly because their parents are absolute pros at doing Disney with infants (and child-rearing in general).

So far, we've done three parks: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The latter was the subject of today's fun, complete with a 9 a.m. rope drop (after taking a boat from our hotel, Disney's Yacht Club). The park was rather crowded, as all parks have been, mostly from tour groups of teenagers from Brazil and families from Columbia. The frustrating part of that is since they may not understand the narrator they just talk over it and make their own added fun and soundtrack to the ride. Not cool. Although, riding a ride in a vacuum isn't fun either. Well, I lie...if it's a ride like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Maelstrom, or other favorites...shhh, keep your Portuguese to yourself. If it's a ride that makes you scream, then scream away in Portuguese!

We're off to dinner in Canada at Le Cellier! Then, EPCOT World Showcase is open late tonight followed by an early morning at Animal Kingdom. I'm excited to go to a new park! I'm also excited to be done with the rain/mist that has dampened the past two days. And the cold weather. It's been brisk and even hit low 40s this morning. That's wild, considering it has been in the mid-80s during the days before that.

Tschüß!