A couple weeks ago, Meghan & I decided we need to plan out a weekly menu, in order to avoid a nightly conversation that goes like this:
One Of Us: What do you want for dinner?
The Other Of Us: I dunno, what do you want?
One Of Us: I don’t care, whatever you want.
The Other Of Us: Ummm… are you hungry?
One Of Us: Yeah, aren’t you?
The Other Of Us: Yeah. So what do you want?
One Of Us: I don’t care, whatever you want.
The Other Of Us: No, you decide.
One Of Us: … mac & cheese?
The Other Of Us: No.
One Of Us: … Jimmy John’s?
The Other Of Us: No.
One Of Us: Well, you decide then.
The Other Of Us: Ummm… pizza?
One Of Us: Really?
The Other Of Us: I don’t know!
….. etc, etc….
So, one Saturday, we randomly decided on 5 meals and then assigned them to a day of the week, so we had Meatloaf Tuesday, Fajita Friday, etc. It worked out pretty good, because we used the time we’d normally use discussing what to eat to actually cook something. And, instead of going out to eat (or going out to get something to eat and bringing it home), we actually had home-cooked meals all week. It worked out so well, we’ve decided to keep it up.
So last week, we had pork chops, chicken quesadillas, and, of course, brisket.
I came upon the brisket idea from perusing a Better Homes & Garden cookbook. The recipe (see below) was for Oven-Barbecued Beef Brisket, which seemed pretty awesome. Everyone I talked to about making brisket (including my wife) assumed I’d be cooking in the the crockpot, and after making it this time, I think I probably will next time, but since I’d never made it before, I though it prudent to stick to the recipe.
Oven-Barbecued Beef Brisket
1 3-to-3.5-pound fresh beef brisket
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon instant beef bouillon granules
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup catsup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Trim fat from meat. Place meat in a 13×9×2-inch baking pan. Stir together water, onion, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, chili powder, bouillon, red pepper, and garlic. Pour over meat. Cover with foil. Bake in a 325-degree oven about 3 hours or till tender, turning once. Remove meat, reserving juices. Thinly slice meat. Place on a serving platter. Keep warm.
For sauce, measure juices, skim fat. If necessary, add enough water to equal 3/4 cup. In a saucepan, stir together catsup, brown sugar, and flour. Stir in reserved juices. Cook and stir over medium heat till thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more. Server with meat.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
So, first of all, when we went to Cub, I could only find a 2.5-pound brisket. Which was fine. We bought it a week before I made the brisket, so we froze it. But whatever.
Other than that, I basically followed the recipe exactly, except I used a disposable foil pan that was 4 inches deep, and I think only 12×9. Also, the cloves of garlic I had were ginormous, but you can never have enough garlic, right Emeril?
And I accidentally measured out a full teaspoon of the red (cayenne) pepper, but I realized the error and scooped it out right away. The sauce did end up having a little more kick to it than I think was intended, though.
I flipped the giant chunk of meat about an hour and half into cooking, and since Meghan & Melissa were a little later for dinner than we’d planned, I put the meat back in the juices after I sliced it, so it got some extra soaking time. We also had baked potatoes with the brisket, so I left the sliced-brisket-in-juices sitting in the pan on top of the stove for the 40 minutes it took the potatoes to bake, and I left the potatoes and the brisket in the oven on warm for a good hour-and-a-half while I was waiting for the girls.
I started cooking the brisket around 2pm and we ate it at close to 8pm. All agreed it was a damn tasty, although it’s possible they were just being nice. ;^)
After making the awesome brisket, I had the great fortune of going over to Ben’s and playing some D&D, which, of course, was awesome.
And, on Saturday, Ben, Reuben & I went skiing. I made the mistake of crossing the streams my skis at one point and face-planted into the snow, but luckily I wasn’t going very fast. I did bruise my knee a bit though. I think the skiing was good for my back, too, because, while it was sore as all hell the following morning, it’s generally been much better since Saturday.
On Sunday, Ben & Kerry hosted a Super Bowl party at their house featuring various foods formed into ball shapes, including two cheeseballs, one normal, and one super-awesome dessert cheeseball (estimated recipe). I’d never had any sort of cheeseball before, but now I want to put cheeseball on the weekly dinner menu. I figure Meghan & I can each just eat a half. Would that be bad?