Our favorite Italian Beef

I have to print this out every year or two as the old printout is made unreadable by spills and splatters, or lost entirely after one of our mothers reorganizes the kitchen on some deeply rational utilitarian plan.

Here's tonight's supper:

Message-ID: <412A2D3C.7000205@wolfram.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 12:45:32 -0500
To: wri-recipes@wolfram.com
Subject: *Slow Cooker Italian Beef for Sandwiches*

This is a delicious and EASY recipe!  I loved it because I had
everything but the meat and dry salad dressing - and it is enough
sandwiches to feed a family for 2-3 days, or at least have a few
leftovers for a hungry family the next day.  I also have very little
time to cook, so this was great because it cooked all night and made
the house smell fabulous in the morning.

*Slow Cooker Italian Beef for Sandwiches*

Rump roast is cooked with Italian salad dressing mix and seasonings
until it is tender enough to shred with a fork.

*Prep Time:* 15 Minutes
*Cook Time:* 12 Hours
*Ready In:* 12 Hours 15 Minutes
*Makes:* 10 servings

*Ingredients*
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 bay leaf
1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
1 (5 pound) rump roast - I used a 3 1/2 lb roast and it was fine.

*Directions*

1. Combine water with salt, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, onion
salt, parsley, garlic powder, bay leaf, and salad dressing mix in a
saucepan.  Stir well, and bring to a boil.

2. Place roast in slow cooker, and pour salad dressing mixture over
the meat.

3. Cover, and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours, or on High for 4 to 5
hours.  When done, remove bay leaf, and shred meat with a fork.

George Washington's eggnog recipe

Vide. Note: it needs to cure at least 4 days.

It's good being a geek

a2ps works great under ubuntu 7.10 with an HP 950C deskjet printer. The only problem is that the page margins are screwed up when printing to a deskjet. Since I'm a geek, I don't need to throw up my hands and squeak "AIEEEEE! It doesn't work!".

The clue I needed to fix the problem was at the bottom of this stretch of config variables in /etc/a2ps.cfg:

#################################################################
# 1)    Definition of some media      #
# (Must be defined before --medium)       #
#################################################################
# Medium: name, width height [llx lly urx ury]
Medium: A3      842    1190
Medium: A4      595     842
Medium: A5      420     595
Medium: B4      729    1032
Medium: B5      516     729
Medium: Letter      612     792
Medium: Legal     612    1008
Medium: Tabloid     792    1224
Medium: Ledger     1224     792
Medium: Statement   396     612
Medium: Executive   540     720
Medium: Folio     612     936
Medium: Quarto      610     780
Medium: 10x14     720    1008

# Desk Jet users: bigger margins
Medium: A4dj    595 842 24  50  571 792
Medium: Letterdj  612 792 24  40  588 752

So, we need to set explicit margins for deskjet printers, but the given margins didn't work for my HP 950C. So there's a job for ~/.a2ps/a2psrc with numbers I derived by trial, error, and printing a dozen pages:

# Medium: name, width height [llx lly urx ury]
Medium: hp950c  612 792 10  85  578 790

Here's a script to print emails 2-up from gnus: ~/bin/printmail

a2ps -=mail -2 -M hp950c

In gnus, put the cursor on the message in the summary buffer, type `|' and tell it to run printmail.

Here's what I printed:

Subject: [cath_hs] Fwd: Zuppa Toscana

we had this last night and it was VERY good.  very spicy.  we will
make it next time, with half mild and half hot sausage.  instead of
fresh kale, i used frozen, dethawed and squeezed dry with my hands.

also, i used only 3 carrots, not 5.  diced the celery and carrots
small, since that's the only way our fam will eat them.  chopped my
taters into bite size pieces.  used light cream, but put a whole cup
in to cut some of the spice.  parmesan is just as fine for a garnish,
instead of romano.

2 quarts is 8 cups of stock. :-) rachel ray would call this a "stoup".
it's a thick and hearty soup.  nice with biscuits.  broth is flavorful
and creamy.  made a whole lotta soup.  tons of leftovers for the two
of us.

i think someone emailed me the recipe, but i can't find the original
email.  thank you!!

love mel

Begin forwarded message:

> Date: November 12, 2007 12:05:01 PM EST
> Subject: Zuppa Toscana
>
> Zuppa Toscana (adapted from Olive Garden's)
>
> 2 lbs. hot Italian Sausage patties
> 2 lg. onion, chopped
> 3 stalks celery, sliced thinly
> 5 carrots, sliced
> 6 cloves garlic, minced
> 2 qts. chicken stock
> 3 lbs. russet potatoes, chopped coarsely
> 1 bunch kale, leaves stripped of stem and chopped coarsely
> 1/2 c. cream, whatever type you like
> romano cheese to garnish
>
> Saute the sausage in dutch oven over medium heat until it is
> cooked. (If you can't find the patties, use links, just squeeze out
> the sausage before cooking.)  Remove the sausage from pan, and pour
> off most of the grease. Put onions, celery, and carrots into the pan
> and saute until onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook 2
> mins. more, stirring frequently. Add stock. Bring to boil and add
> potatoes. Cook until potatoes are done. Add kale leaves and cook 5
> mins. Remove from heat and add cream. It is now done! When serving,
> garnish with romano (pecorino romano is the best for this). This soup
> is even better the next day. If hot sausage is too much, mild italian
> sausage can be substituted, but the flavor is not as "punchy".

Off to the store

I confess... I don't drink my Guinness all that often, so I've found another use for it: surpassingly beautiful Irish-Italian roast beef. I went to start a roast for supper tonight and found that I'd used the last of my Guinness and Maker's Mark in the last batch. Off to the store. Something a bit cheaper than Maker's Mark will do, I think.

It's what's for breakfast

When I make our usual huge batch of oatmeal for breakfast I like to add stuff to it: maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, peanut butter, jelly, whatever's handy. I can't figure out why I never thought of applesauce. Today I think I'll do applesauce, cinnamon, butter, brown sugar and maple syrup - mapple-cinnamon oatmeal.

The secret, revealed

I have a lot of fun refining my tomato sauce recipe, and I've recently found a simple trick that moves it another step toward "world-class" status: let the diced tomatoes cook down to bring out their vegetably sweetness.

Dice these:

• 1/2 an onion
• 3 or 4 baby carrots, or maybe half a regular carrot
• a celery stalk
• a couple of top-to-bottom strips of a green pepper

and simmer in oil til they're soft.

Add a teaspoon of minced garlic and a can of diced tomatoes, cover the saucepan and let it simmer and bubble over low-to-medium heat for an hour or so. Keep an eye on the moisture and add bay-leaf tea as needed to keep everything hydrated. Add herbs, spices and a very little bit of sugar a few minutes before serving.

How to bake a whole chicken

Lisa's in Indiana this weekend helping her Mom recover from a knee replacement. While she's there she's feasting on baked beans and cornbread (the food I hate most) and the kids and I will have baked chicken (the food she hates most). I'll need to refer to this webpage: How to Bake Chicken.

Cola Chicken

Mom visited Saturday and brought a batch of this BBQ sauce and some chicken breasts. We dumped it all in the crockput and it made a great supper. She emailed the recipe later that night:

COLA CHICKEN

12 oz. Cola
1/2 cup Catsup
1/2 cup Bar-B-Q sauce (I used Bulls-eye) original -make sure it has Hickory smoke flavor
1/2 tsp. worchestershire
1 small chopped onion
1/2 chopped green pepper

MIX WELL
Place 4 chicken breasts on top (in skillet) cover and cook 2-1/2 to 3
hours.  Spoon sauce over chicken occassionally.  Or cook in crock pot.

She added the last bit to the recipe after our crockpot version was so successful.