Mmm..Beef Round Steaks

Wow!  I am thrilled that my round steaks were delicious!  I decided against the Sorta Salisbury Steak and combined the other recipes for frying the rounds.

  My beef rounds were about 3/4 in thick; I sliced them in half so they were roughly 1/4 inch thick.  Because the meat is normally very tough I needed to tenderize it. (shh... don't tell anyone that I used a dull serrated knife to pound my meat) I made sure to  use plenty of freshly ground pepper like the Pioneer woman suggested .  I love pepper so I wasn't shy. (Have you seen me eat my pepper with fry's and ketchup???) In addition to pepper in the flour I added some Lawry's seasoning salt.  Then I followed
 choice #1 Chicken Fried Steak for the dredge.  I liked the idea of having the extra spices on it, Tabasco, buttermilk(of which I made my own, milk plus vinegar or lemon juice=buttermilk), and fresh garlic cloves.  So it's flour, dredge, flour, fry.  I didn't have shortening so I used veggie oil a.k.a. soybean oil.  Once HOT I added 2 TBLS butter for browning purposes.   I fried the first side until the edges started to brown then I flipped it and cooked the other side for about 1 minute.  I also chose to make gravy using the oil I fried the steaks in.  I roughly followed the recipe from "choice #1"; basically I cut the recipe in half- I didn't want that much gravy.  If we would have been having mashed potatoes I would have made a full batch, but we had potatoes au'gratin.    Even though it was box potatoes they were still delicious and a perfect combo. 
Shame on me...I didn't take any pictures.

Beef Round Steaks???

What on Earth do I do with beef round steaks??

Joie and I went to the market yesterday.  Our goal was: meals for 1week=$100.  If we accomplished the goal we could get Breyer's coffee ice cream.  Normally Breyer's is all we eat; however in the States we buy it on sale typically paying about $3.  It is by far my favorite ice cream, but here in Grand Cayman its 7.50 CI that's almost $10 for the same size container.  Needless to say, we have retired our fancy Breyer's brand for the cheap stuff.  Both Joie and Jayden have been craving coffee ice cream, but they don't have it in the cheapy brand, so I figured we could splurge if we were wise with our money.

Now what does ice cream have to do with round steaks?  Nothing except that it was part of our trip to Foster's Food Fair Market.  At the check out counter, I discovered that I could save some money by getting 2 more meat selections, so I sent Joie on a mission to grab more.  After she asked what to get, I gave her the freedom to choose anything from the specified area.  She chose round steaks...

Now, what on Earth do I do with those round steaks???

Typically a tough meat and one that I have never made I have been searching for a yummy recipe.  I have narrowed it down to three

choice #1   Chicken Fried Steak    

choice #2   Sorta Salisbury Steak

choice #3  The Pioneer Woman Fried Round Steak

I am making it tonight, I really need to decide.  It would be so awesome if I could get some input and tips from others who have cooked beef round steaks.  Even if you are reading this after I make it please comment.  I'd love to hear what y'all think ;o)

  

Conch Ceviche

Can't get any more fresh.  Jacob brought one of these beauties home.  I would have rather him left it in the sea, but it was so neat to extract the animal and then eat it.  

 Eeeewww!  I'm gonna eat that raw?!  Conch Fritters are tasty but raw conch, I don't know...

Daddy-J cut it all up and made this spicy ceviche conch dish that all of us enjoyed.

Red Beans and Rice

Copy Cat Cover: Popeyes Red Beans and Rice

I love, absolutely love love love Popeyes red beans and rice.  They are smooth, spicy, and a perfect combo with biscuits or cornbread and honey.  So I decided I would try and make them myself, but had no clue as to what special seasoning made this dish so tasty so of course I checked out the wonderful world wide web.  Stumbled upon CopyKat recipes and got my ideas  Now  I didn't feel like using ham hocks or smoked flavoring because well, I didn't have it.  I had bacon, though....

Here's what I did...

For the first time ever I soaked beans to cook them instead of using a pressure cooker.  Note to self:  pressure cooker even if only used for beans is a good investment, haha. 

I fried up bacon...

\

Added beans and water to finish cooking. 

 And seasonings...

A long time later...

             the beans were finally soft enough to eat.  If I would have been a little more patient I would have cooked them a bit more.  Make sure to add plenty of salt, like potatoes, salting while cooking is essential for the taste.  I made rice on the side and then mixed together, trying to mash some of the beans in the process.  The spice was delicious.  So was the cornbread drizzled with honey <3