Shredded Beef Subs

Shredded Beef Subs - Italian

On cold winter days soups, stews, baked pasta dishes are staple meals. They warm the house when cooking and warm the soul when eating. Some days soups are perfect stand alone meals. Then there are days when you have worked extra hard and the soup needs to be paired with a savory toasted sandwich like a Hot & Spicy Italian Drip Beef.

Modifications Made:
The local grocery has their own brand of house foods. Some are more popular than name brand, others not. Petite diced tomatoes are one of those hot tickets items and come in a variety of flavors. Tomatoes for the recipe were flavored with olive oil and peppers.

Having made many The Pioneer Woman meals in the past, I am familiar with her level of heat on dishes. Hot cherry peppers were left out as the teen counterpart is not a fan of super spicy food but 3/4 jar of pepperoncinis instead of half were added instead.

Scaled for Likability: Good
Not as good as The Pioneer Woman's Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwich but still very tasty. What the Dr. Pepper Pork has that the Italian Beef Drip didn't was sauce. Upon several hours of cooking to break the meat down fully, the resulting shredded beef was flavorful but lacked enough sauce to soak the bread. Instructions say to serve with dipping sauce but there was not enough to serve for one sandwich much less five or six. The meat was moist but when ladled onto the bread, topped with cheese, and baked until toasty brown and melty, the meat became dry.

Unlike most recipes, the bread descriptive was general. "Griddled rolls" turns out to not be the case on what bread was needed for the sandwich. Rolls are generally soft to allow the user to soak up good stuff. The softness of the meat and the creaminess of the cheese needed a strong crunchy bread. This sandwich needed heft. A ciabata, french, or dutch. Not soft fluffy rolls.

To make this again, I would double the stock/seasoning portion of the recipe, serve it over crunchy bread, and top it with cold pepperoncinis slices. I wouldn't necessarily call it beef drip but more like shredded beef - Italian flavored. Good all the same, just needs some adjustments.

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almost tender. Green be

Sour Cream & Chive Scalloped Potatoes

Can't believe the Month of the Potato is over. There are so many more potato recipes saved. Guess I will have to work them into another month. Last week's scalloped potatoes were one of the best new recipes during the month of potatoes. With today being the last day in the Month of Potatoes, I decided to go out with a bang by cooking another batch of scalloped potatoes but this time sour cream and chive. The Best Scalloped Potatoes , or so they said. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half. Mayo was omitted and one entire package of chives were chopped and added to sauce before pouring onto layers. Scaled for Likability: Good Betty Crocker Sour Cream and Chive Box Scalloped Potatoes were the standard for this recipe. These were a family favorite for years but have long since been discounted. Bummer. Trying to replicate this seemed easy enough. Alas, it was not. These had a nice texture but were too oily from the cheese and did not contain enough onion, garlic,

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes). Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft. Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water). Bring to a boil and then add potatoes. Cover and reduc

Eating Waffles

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