Sunday, February 3, 2013

Drew's Birthday Continued & Peppered Beef Recipe

Good morning!  I nearly fell asleep while posting last night!  I had to cut it short.  So if you go back to my previous post, you can read the beginning of Drew's Birthday post.
First, I want to put up the recipe for the Peppered Beef I was talking about the other day.  A few of you asked how to make it, and I decided to copy and paste the post that I made the first time I made it.  I got up early and put mine on for today.  The following photos and text was taken from a previous post last year.
You will need about a 3 pound chuck roast, a large jar of pepperoncinis, and fresh garlic.  Trim visible fat from roast.  Make slits into meat and press fresh garlic cloves inside holes.  I used about 6 whole cloves of garlic.  You could use minced that you buy in the jar, or in a pinch, dried, but fresh is always best. Season both sides with salt and pepper.   Lay your meat into crockpot.  I turned it up to high for first two hours, then to low.
I stemmed the peppers so I poured the juice straight into the crockpot, then dumped the peppers onto cutting board to stem them, and I also ran a knife down the centers to open them up.  You can't see that the garlic is already in the meat, but it is.  I just didn't get a photo of that.
Put the lid on and go to bed.  This is what it looked like this morning.
It looks like a lot of liquid, but that gets absorbed.  At about noon, I took two forks and shredded the beef.  It shreds easily, and is very tender by this point.
For lunch, we had this heaped onto hamburger buns, topped with a slice of provolone cheese.  The flavor is unbelievable!  The peppers give it just the right amount of flavor and kick.  And the beef is so tender it melts in your mouth.
Now...I want to add that if you can find the jars of peppers that are already sliced, buy those.   That is what I use when I can.  Today we will have this on toasted deli rolls while watching the Super Bowl game.
Now...moving on to finish the post about Drew's birthday.  We ordered pizzas and salad from our favorite pizza place out here called Mountain Mike's.
I made a batch of guacamole for appetizers, but I brought it to the table when we had dinner, and I heaped some onto my pizza, just for kicks.  WOW!!!  I think I am onto something.  So then, we all did it.  This took the pizza to whole new level!!!  I can't wait to make a Mexican pizza now, and do this...YUMMY!
Sorry for the blurry pics today.  I had my camera on the wrong setting.  Trust me....this is SO good!!!  We had leftover pizza so I am going to reheat that on a pizza stone and make more guacamole for today!
Miss Claire wanted to help Uncle "Goo" open up his presents.
She was so cute!!!             A "Benjamin from Grandma!"
Miss Claire was awfully cute to help.
We sang Happy Birthday and had our dessert of ice cream with chocolate sauce.  None of our three kids like cake.  Go figure!  I always tried to do creative desserts for them on their birthdays.  Fruit Pizza is a favorite.  I did a tower of glazed donuts one year for the girls party and that was a hit.  Lots of ice cream sundaes and banana splits.  Brownie sundaes.  But hardly ever, cake!
The girls are a bit intimidated by our new big doggin.  But last night they really got to get to know him.  Hannah was adorable with her interest in training him.  She loves to have  him shake and perform his tricks.  She really is an animal lover.  She loves the chickens and Maui our calico kitty!  Ducey...not so much.
Even though he is big and strong, and clumsy, he is a big ol' love!  As soon as Hannah realized that, she was smitten with him too.
A cute photo of Hannah and her Daddy.  You can sure see the strong resemblance here, I think!
I stood up on the fireplace hearth to take this photo to get everyone in it.  We were missing our middle daughter Erika and her little boy Noah.  They are away this weekend.
The girls were working on coloring these cute paper placemats from Anthropologie.  It is a thick tablet of paper, each one with an empty plate, and the silverwear.  You color or draw whatever you want on the plate. Pretty cute!
Drew's long time buddy Brian stopped by.  Drew and Brian have been friends since they met at about 10 years of age.  They played basketball together for years.  Brian is family friend, and quite a character!!!
When I asked for a photo, this is what they did.
Then I said, okay, now a serious one.
Now...for real this time... a serious one!
Brian, you are a nut!!!  Finally....I got one.
We always laugh when Brian is around!
It was a fun night!  I spent a lot of the day remembering when Drew was born!  And how fast, the last 24 years have flown by!!!  Our two girls have birthdays coming up soon, and they are 5 days apart in May.  They will be 30 and 32!!!  Oh dear me!!!  That makes Greg and I ancient!
After everyone went home, we tag teamed the clean up.  Greg loaded the dishwasher for me, and I put away the food, and cleared the other messes.  Greg recently made some repairs to our dishwasher that I had not been using in over a year! It is so nice to have that working again.  Thank you honey!  And yesterday, he also repaired the bathroom faucet to the tub in the main bath.  The water has not been getting hot enough, and he didn't believe me.  But decided to investigate, and found out that there is a thingamajig on it that you can set to prevent the water from getting too hot, or scalding a young child.  Apparently, a few  years ago when we had that new faucet put into the bathtub, the plumber set it.  It was a fairly easy fix, and now we have all the hot water we want!  So I took a nice long soak with my Eucalyptus bath salts.   Awwwwww!
Today is Super Bowl!!  All the kids are coming back over for the game and an afternoon of eating!  Greg left early this morning to golf, and I am thoroughly enjoying the quiet!!!  Have fun........and enjoy the game!!!!
xo  Kris

22 comments:

Holly said...

I'm so glad you re-posted that recipe. I remember seeing it before and thinking I wanted to make it and then forgot about it. I'm gonna Pin it. Sounds like a great day was had by all. Enjoy the game and your guacamole.

Betsy said...

Such fun to have your children so close. I would love that. We must be about the same age since I have a 30 yr old, 33 yr. old and my baby also just turned 24! I turned 53 on Feb 1 and feel every bit of it with this darn flu bug that won't go away.

Have fun watching the game today!
Blessings,
Betsy
Http://www.betsy-thesimplelifeofaqueen.blogspot.com

Teresa Kasner said...

That beef looks absolutely yummy! It looks like Drew had a super good party - LOVED the photo of Greg with the party hat on! He's a great guy, fixing stuff, doing dishes, etc. We both lucked out in that department, didn't we? I'm so jealous of your oranges and avocados. I could live on avocados! We'll watch the game, or at least Dayle will while I play Scrabble or crochet. LOL! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Heather - The Good Life said...

Looks like a fun celebration. The chuck roast looks great, I've only used them for stew, but doing shredded beef sandwiches sounds really good. My hubby celebrates his b-day on Tuesday and we had a quiet dinner of steaks, asparagus and baked potatoes for dinner last night and I made his favorite chocolate cake with chocolate icing for dessert. Have a terrific day and happy b-day to your son. Heather

Nicky said...

Your recipe looks so nice, I will have to give it ago, although I have never heard of those peppers here in the UK. I will have to do a search for them, or a good substitute. Have a good week. Nicky xx

45th Parallel Quilter said...

Your recipe is similar to our favorite here ... we use Pepperoncini (spelling?) about 1/2 jar with the liquid and 2 or 3 tablespoons of Italian Seasoning in lieu of the garlic. Bake in a Dutch oven for 5-6 hours at 275-300 degrees until it just falls apart ... serve over toasted Kaiser rolls and top with Provolone cheese. Similar to yours and you're right ... Oh, my goodness ... what flavor and even better a day or two later! Thanks for sharing!!

45th Parallel Quilter said...

Opps ... sorry ... forgot that we also add a can of Beef Boullion or Beef Consomme soup (undiluted) to the pan ... makes for great "dipping" broth.

Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces said...

Your family get-togethers always look like a lot of fun...and the food always looks delicious!!

Taci simmons said...

Wow ... Yummy food, having the family around and now your bath tub working so you can get a good soak in the end of the day....your food looks delicious and it looks like you always have such a great time and a full house... Ope my kids will come back often to see us when they have their own homes and families. It's wonderful that you have your mainly around :)

Mereknits said...

Your family weekend sounds like so much fun. Glad your food was scrumptious, and every one looks like they had a great time. I bet you deserved another soak in the warm tub after the game last night.
Hugs to you,
Meredith

Nicolle said...

Happy Birthday Drew!
I love how your family celebrates. So much fun.
You know I'm a huge fan of that beef dish. I am so thankful to have gotten that recipe from you. I think we've made it 4 or 5 times now. LOVE it!
xo

Debbie said...

The beef dish sounds sooo good! The food for your partied sounds wonderful. Hope you enjoyed the activities yesterday!

Gloria Baker said...

Dear I really enjoyed the pictures what fun and love your meat look delicious!!

Gracie Saylor said...

Thanks for sharing your family time, Kris! Fun!! We celebrated two B'days and it was fun to watch the game that was so close. We fast forwarded through the half-time show and some of the commercials, but the game certainly had some amazing plays...that end zone to end zone touchdown...WOW!!!
xx,
Gracie

NanaNor's said...

Hi Kris, What a wonderful family you have girl-you are blessed! Thank you for sharing the Peppered Beef recipe-looks yummy. Glad you are on the uphill swing of your cold too-have you tried Muscinex DM for your cough? I've heard it is the strongest stuff for coughs. I'm using the sinus one right now and it is working-yippee!!! You sure have been busy, me not so much!
Hugs to you today.
Noreen

Linda said...

The roast sounds great!Love all the pictures...your family seems to always have so much fun when you're together...wonderful!!

my4lilgirls said...

Looks like you guys had a great day, you have a beautiful family Kris.
That beef recipe sounds so Yum, but a wee question, are those jarred peppers a particular type of pepper, like are they real spicey or mild, its just our jarred foods can be quite different & I would love to try this recipe
Karen x

Sarah said...

Yay! Happy Birthday Drew! Looks like fun. I love how the girls eat him up! It's so refreshing to see how close your familiy is and how much you all get together. You're a great mama and raised some great kids!

priscilla said...

Another good recipe Kris ! No dishwasher for a year ? OMG ! Glad it is fixed :)Beautiful happy family !

Pam said...

I love how close your family is. It looks like your son had a great birthday celebration!

The shredded beef looks amazing - I've bookmarked the recipe.

In regards to your question, I am feeling so much better! We all have healed from our sickness and my back is feeling darn good! YAY!

Unknown said...

Always a favorite around here. I usually use Giardiniera and a packet of Good Season Dry Italian Dressing. Here we call it... Italian Beef, which is a well know thing in Chicago to head out for, just after pizza and hot dogs. We do love our junk foods.

As always another fun time at your house. Glad you are better.

Robyn said...

What a great party. Everyone looks like they had so much fun! Your son Drew and his fiend Brian are hysterical. My nephew Eric and his friend Nick are the same way. They are both 24 now as well and have been friends since kindergarten..Oh and that Recipe! Definitley a winner!! My husband LOVES pepperoncinis and garlic..Thank you SO much for sharing this!
Robyn