Where's the Beef?

In The Chef Next Door's refrigerator, that's where!  If you could have seen the bottom rack of the fridge yesterday, you might have thought I have been on a "no beef" diet for the past 24 years of my life and yesterday was my first day OFF that diet.  Here's what all I was hoarding in there:

• 4 pounds of 90/10 Ground Sirloin
• 1 pound of Tri-Tip Beef Tips
• 2 pounds of Chuck Beef Cubes
• 2 Top Sirloin Fillets

Might not seem like THAT much, but to go from hardly any beef at all ever to all of that...it was quite a sight.

We had a really great week over here at TCND, and had the chance to make some deeelish pre-made dinners for my clients- most of which included Beef, hence the over abundance of Bovine in the refrigerator.  Taylor giggled like a school girl when I announced it was officially fall, and had the first order of "Hearty Tri-Tip Chili" come in.  He spent the autumn months last year honing and perfecting his recipe, and man oh man, he's got it down! I served his beautiful Chili with Sour Cream, Corn Chips, and Cilantro on the side (the daughter is not partial to cheese- lucky girl!!) and sent it on its merry way with a pan of Mexican Cornbread.

Here is a bit of commentary from the recipient and her 12-year-old daughter:

"BTW, Anna and I LOVED the Chili and Cornbread! Anna has never eaten two bowls of chili at one time in her life, but before I could finish, she was asking if we had more! We'll definitely be ordering that again!"
                  - Dawn Mercer

Way to go, T. :)

Another client ordered Authentic Ground Beef Tacos (I can call it "Authentic" because I was taught by a real live Latina and use real live Mexican ingredients- NOT taco seasoning packets- tee hee) as well as...........*sighs happily*..........Beef Bourguignon. Don't you hate it when there's just enough left-over to serve two hungry people?? Taylor and I were eating good last night.

 And last but not least, I performed a Healthy Cooking Demonstration for WestWind Technologies this morning, and had the participants assemble their own mini-Sirloin Kabobs with an assortment of vegetables.  Thanks to my lovely Sanyo Smoke-Free Indoor Grill, we grilled them up right there in the conference room....directly underneath the smoke detector.  The grill does what it says it will- or I guess I should say, it DOESN'T do what it says it WON'T do- smoke!  Most other Healthy Cooking Demos involve the participants sitting in their chairs, anxiously awaiting me to serve them their samples while dishing out some cooking tips.  But today, I gave out some food-safe Latex gloves,  put them to work, let them skewer their own Kabobs however they liked, then grilled them up and gave them back out.

Here's the "Mini-Kabob Assembly Line" complete with marinated Top-Sirloin cubes,  Vidalia Onions, 

Bell Peppers, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Squash, and Cherry Tomatoes.

It was a boat load of fun, and the employees really enjoyed themselves- they even stayed 30 minutes late to have round 2 of Kabobs. 

Now that the week is coming to a close and the refrigerator is back to Beef-less....I guess we're having chicken for dinner.  Until next time!

Cheers,

The Chef Next Door