Today I am throwing two recipes at ya! I'm going to be honest, I have a different post I was going to share, but I have it saved so I can think on it. It's intense and full of anger (rightfully so, mind you), but I am go to think on it. In the mean time I thought I'd share a couple of recipes and welcome June with you!
This week we are seeing summer temps hit our area of Northern Kentucky and all of you who know me know I despise summer mainly because of the temps! Humidity is here, bugs are here...what's not to love, right? Well, last week we had gorgeous temps. Temps that allowed us to have the windows open all day and night. They also allowed our gardens to take root and leaves to grow strong!
The deck garden has taken off as well. We've harvested some lettuce with more to cut and two varieties of peas that are doing great and tasting incredible! We have a hard time cutting them and saving them for dinner! I feel like we just go out there to cut them for a snack, they're that crisp and good!
But I have to say, I am LOVING the flowers blooming and the herbs getting bigger! I have fistfuls of lavender and chamomile that I've already cut and it's so fun watching different flowers bloom one after the other! Makes me excited about the dahlias that seem to be doing great in the garden with the gladiolas!
And of course nature gave us another visitor the other day! As some of you may recall from my old blog, Bill and I became 'yard wardens' to two baby deer last year when their mommas would leave them 'in our care' while they went off foraging. It was the first time in our lives that not just one, but two baby deer took temporary residence in our yard. However, this year it happened again. It was a fluke that we actually got to see her/him. Bill had been out in the yard, walking all around and cutting spent flowers and stems from irises and other flowers. While he was in the side yard, the neighbor's dogs started barking at our dogs...or so we thought. Bill went over to pet them and then heard a baby deer start hollering. He had just been cutting flowers back in that area a bit ago and didn't even see it! That's when I heard him yell, "oh my God it's a deer!" at which point one of our dogs grabbed it by the neck!!!! Thankfully and fortunately Bill was right there and he had her release it. She was unharmed and Bill pet her, but she was crying because the neighbor's dogs were in her face at the fence. I had grabbed my camera to go take a pic and right after this photo, she ran between my legs! We noticed that she was extremely wobbly which told us that she was probably days old! She ran to the middle of the back yard and we knew momma had to be around, but didn't know where. Just then I saw momma in our green space and baby started running towards her. She then tried to hop the dry creek bed, but poor thing ended up rolling because she's so young...however, momma was right there for it. Not sure if it's a girl or a boy so we named it Lil' Legs, and she/he's adorable! Of course we've been outside all the time looking for it, but haven't seen it since. Look how dinky!
Anyway, I wanted to share these two recipes with you because with this lovely season upon us, I thought they would be great to share for picnics, swimming pool outings, or family parties! As you all know, Bill and I are big into really watching what's in food, reading labels, and trying to stay away from processed anything! Well, to be honest, I have no idea why I never did this before, but when I found out how easy it was to make your own roast beef deli meat, I just wanted to shoot myself! I mean, it's super easy, so much more affordable, and tastes amazing!!! Seriously, have you seen the price of lunchmeat??? Not to mention, do you know all the chemicals in lunchmeat? Yea, if you're a big sandwich eater, you have got to try this. We will NEVER go back!
First, you need to get you a roast. We go to Costco and get the two pack of eye of round. We freeze one to make later and use one for now. It doesn't matter the size, just get what works for your family to eat.
To get started, go ahead and preheat your oven to 500ºF. Sounds high, but trust the process! Next you want to get a scale and weigh your roast. This is important because this will determine how long you cook it. Next, set your roast on a well seasoned stone or well greased cookie sheet. I start by pouring some avocado oil all over the roast then I season the roast WELL. I say well because it's going to flavor your meat as well as create that wonderful outer crust. I use garlic powder, onion powder, pink Himalayan salt, and fresh course ground pepper...and lots of it! Pat it in all over the roast.
When the oven is up to temp, it's time to cook her up! Now, Bill and I LOVE a great medium rare beef, but some people have to have it medium. I don't recommend it cooking longer than medium because of juiciness. So, to get the medium rare deli meat, you want to cook your roast at 3 minutes per pound. This roast here is 3 pounds so I set my timer for 9 minutes. If you want a medium roast, then that would be 4 minutes a pound, making this roast 12 minutes baking time. Put her in the over and set timer appropriately.
After your timer goes off, DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN! You want to turn off your oven and set your timer for 2 hours. The roast will continue to cook over this 2 hour period, but just don't open the oven...trust the process!
After the two hours, remove the roast and set it on a large piece of parchment paper. You may even notice that the roast is still warm. Doesn't this look delicious?
I then take the parchment and wrap it immediately and stick it in a freezer zip lock bag. I don't zip the bag, I just fold it over so heat can escape. I then place it in the refrigerator at least overnight.
After it's been in the fridge for a day, I can now slice it up! This year I bought a 'practically new' Krups meat slicer at a garage sale for $5! My thought was to use it for our deli meat, however, after thinking about it, I decided to just slice as we go. We have a few sharp knives that allow us to slice thin enough for our liking and I think the meat lasts longer by not slicing it all at once. And here's the finished product!!!
Oh My God, it was so good! I made the most delicious sandwich with homemade sourdough bread, homemade mayo, this roast beef....amazing! And on a side note, we did use our new meat slicer the other night! Bill smoked a pork belly on our quest to make homemade bacon! We made regular, maple, and pepper....and dear God, it's so good! If you're a bacon lover (and who isn't!?) this is a must! Look at that smoke!
Now the next recipe is something I found while on social media. For years (and I mean years) Bill has always brought peanut butter in his packed lunch to have with his apples or celery. EVERY DAY.... Ironically, he's not really a peanut butter lover, he just likes it to dip his apple or celery or have the rare PB&J sandwich. However, last year he was going through some bouts of knee pain and joint pain. Of course he shares this with me daily as he knows I'm the one researching everything all the time. Nothing changed in his daily routine with food; he eats very healthy. As for labor, there were occassional hard days at work, but not anything really different. Like most people, we tend to chalk our aches and pains up to "getting old", but he really is a well oiled machine. I was pretty convinced it was coffee and peanut butter...he was also having issues with his stomach. So, with a painful heart, he removed the peanut butter. Although it wasn't immediate, the knee pain and joint pain went away! I'm telling you, you really need to do some research about peanut butter. I believe it created a very toxic environment in his body! And as for coffee, I'll leave that for another discussion. Let's just say we've moved the coffee machine to the basement.
The dilemma we faced was him loving the peanut butter to dip his apples in. So, when I came across this recipe I decided to make it to see if he would like it. Now, he's not a chocolate fan either (I know, is this guy even human?), but I made it with and without chocolate and he loved the chocolate! I've since seen it on several other platforms and everyone keeps introducing it as "caramel" dip, but honestly, it doesn't taste like caramel to me (this is without the chocolate). I believe you could add a couple other ingredients to get a more caramel taste, but it wouldn't be healthy and that's what I was initially looking for.
So this is what you'll need for this delicious dip:
2 cups of organic pitted dates
1 cup of organic coconut milk (found next to the sweetened condensed milk)
2 TBSP organic maple syrup
1 square of organic baking chocolate roughly chopped
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
splash of organic vanilla extract
First, soak your pitted dates in very hot water for 8-10 minutes to soften them
While that's soaking, add the remainder of the ingredients in a blender and blend for 30 seconds. Next, add the dates to the blender and blend until smooth (about a minute) scraping down the sides as you go.
Place in a dish, cover, and refrigerate. To serve, slice some apples or even strawberries and dip!
**You can also substitute the chocolate and cayenne with apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice!
Well as we welcome June, I bid you all CHEERS and hope you get to try one or both of these recipes! They'll be perfect to pack for any summer time event!
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