What to Get Your Brother for His Birthday...

All Pictures from Zingermans

Do you know what the hardest thing ever is?  It's trying to figure out what to give your brother for his birthday.  I mean first of all, he is a guy.  Second of all, he is your brother.  You can't pick out clothes for your brother (well I can't).  You already gave him Modern Family Season 1 for Christmas and you are pretty sure he already has access to the TV shows and movies he wants to watch.  Video games and other technology are expensive and how would you even know what to get.  Plus he lives in another state probably (or sometimes another country) and is not good at giving you his address but even when he does, big things are hard to ship.

Then there was that year you thought you'd come up with a good idea for a gift.  Turns out he did not really want the new TLC CD (the band, not the tv channel) even though it featured the hit single  "Waterfalls" (it's in your head now isn't it?  "Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that ya used to.").   He also apparently did not enjoy the hand stenciled t-shirt you gave him a few years back.   Well at least you never saw him wear it.

pic from wiki

You can take the easy way out and get him a gift card (I'm not going to lie, that's what I usually do).  Or you can just make one of those agreements where you decide not to give each other anything at all (but he's in grad school and jobless for the next few months so you feel like you should be nice).  Or you can just think really hard, in your brain and come up with something pretty good, like I think I did this year.

Meat
Cheese
Mustard
Brownies
Huzzah!

Yeah even though my Valentine's Day box of food is long gone, I'm still perusing Zingerman's on the daily, plotting my next purchase.  Then it hit me.  My brother likes food.  I'm pretty sure he likes salami.  I think his favorite sandwich is an Italian Sub (that might have salami on it).  And I've definitely seen him eat chunks of cheese straight out of the fridge at my parent's house.  So yeah I'll make him a box of food from Zingerman's.  Score!

And I think he liked it, unless he's just trying to appease me.  He wrote this in an email to my parents "J-M gave me one of the most exciting gifts I have received in quite some time - hard salami, gourmet cheese, gourmet mustard, and an excellent brownie.  Great work." 

Yay, go me!

PS-I'll be back tomorrow with the details on this weekend's birthday scavenger hunt extravaganza.

How to Make an Easy Affordable Dinner for a Lot of People...

1-Make something in your slow cooker...
I decided to make pot roast.  It seemed easy and like it would be a nice Fall comfort food dish which was my goal.

Do I look scared in this picture?  Uh yeah, I'm browning a four pound piece of meat.  Of course I'm scared.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast (Adapted from allrecipes.com)

4 pound Roast-(I think it was a bottom round roast that I got on sale, not positive on the exact cut)

1 envelope of Onion Soup Mix

1 can of beef broth

1 can of water

1 large (24 oz?) can of Cream of Mushroom Soup

Carrots (like 4)

Medium Onion

Red Potatoes (about 5 small/medium ones)

Salt/Pepper

To make this I.....browned the meat in some oil with salt and pepper.  This was the hardest part just because the meat was so heavy.  Then I stuck it in the slow cooker.  I mixed the soup, can of beef broth, one can of water and mushroom soup together and covered the meat.  I cooked this on low for four hours.  Then I added in the veggies and cooked on high for about 4 more hours.  I probably could have taken it out sooner but it was very tender and falling apart when I finally took it out and that's how I wanted it.
This pot roast cost less than $20 to make and served like 16 people.

2-Make an easy vegetarian dish

Ok I also made a semi-homemade ravioli bake. Aka I bought some spinach/cheese ravioli in the refrigerator section and I cooked it. Then I layered it in a baking dish with marinara sauce, topped it with Italian Blend Cheese and baked it at 350 for 30 minutes. People also liked this and it was good for the people who were not super in to meat.

3-Have people bring side dishes and appetizers

People pretty much always offer to bring stuff if you invite them to a dinner party.  My friends brought appetizers and salad and wine (lots of wine).  Then I conned my mom in to making her (my grandmothers) delicious mac and cheese.  It is a crowd pleaser.  She also made green beans.

4-Have it on your birthday

If it's on your birthday someone is definitely bringing/making a cake.  So then dessert is covered.

Yes I had my birthday party at my house.  But I enjoy entertaining and people brought tons of stuff.  I don't know the etiquette on throwing your own birthday party so we'll just say B threw it for me but I offered to do some cooking and decorating.

Do you like pot roast or would you have stuck with the ravioli?
Have you ever cooked a four pound piece of meat?
Does this count on my 30 for 30 list as having a dinner party at my house?  I think it does.

Valentine's Day Dinner Part 2....Where's the Beef? and of course Dessert

When I initially told my husband that I was going to attempt a gourmet Valentine's Dinner I asked him for some suggestions. He basically just responded by saying, "Steak." I guess that's what all the fellows like. But there are lots of steak options out there so my search began. My Dad (who is also a fellow) claims that Costco has the best NY strips steaks out there. So I requested that he pick up some for me on his next trip (as I do not have a Costco membership). So he did. And these steaks were huge. And quite nice looking. I have learned that my husband likes a pretty simple steak. Something where the flavor of the steak shines through. Not too much marinating or sauces or what not. So I decided to grill them and then make a compound butter to top them with. I found this awesome butter recipe by Emeril.

How I Grilled My Gigantor Valentine's Steaks
1-I sat the steaks out to get to room temperature. The cooking shows always say to do that.
2-I put a bunch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on each side and pressed the salt and pepper into the meat.

3-I preheated my grill pan to the highest heat.
4-Then I grilled them. For about 9 minutes. I seared both sides for a few seconds and then kept cooking it on one side at high heat for about 4 minutes. Then I flipped it and lowered the heat to about medium for the rest of the time. They actually turned out pretty well. I usually over or under cook steaks but these were medium to medium rare. Pink in the middle. Crispy on the outside. (They may look a little black but I think that's just the crust b/c they tasted good and not burned) Add some compound butter to the top and you are good to go.

These were the best steaks I have ever made. Normally I leave steak grilling to someone else. But I really pulled through this time.

I always like to have something green on my plate to make it look pretty so I stole 8 asparaguses (probably not how you pluralize that) from my mom and roasted them with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And then my mom told me that a lovely roasted tomato always makes a nice looking plate. So I stole two of those and put some Italian Seasoning and Parmesan cheese on them and roasted them for like 10 minutes. All in all a lovely looking plate.

Now on to Dessert......

My husband is not super interested in chocolate. I mean he likes it and all but it's not his fave. But you know what is one of his favorite foods? Bread. All kinds. Any kinds. So then all the sudden it hit me. I have to make him BREAD PUDDING for dessert. It's perfect. It's not chocolate and it's made of his favorite food and it's a dessert. I found a million recipes and wanted to do something crazy and complex with a nice sauce but instead I went for the easiest, yet highest rated one I could find on All Recipes.com. I added a mix of dried berries instead of just raisons but I followed the rest of the recipe. My Husband ate 4 of the six servings. So I guess he liked that too. So, Overall.....Worth it.

And seriously, I'm still pretty tired from making all this. Last night for dinner we had frozen pizza.