HOT! HOW TO COOK A STEAK...

Cooking a STEAK:

How do you

cook it????

Grill or Sauté:

Ok, lets start with GRILLING (on a BBQ) a piece of grass fed beef. Get your grill super hot!! Then salt and pepper your steak and whatever other seasoning you want. Add a little olive oil to your steak so it does not stick, then slap that sucker on the grill for a very short time.

Depending on how thick it is, cook it to your preference (I prefer rare, but I think you can get away with medium rare). But the trick when grilling is to cook it HOT and fast and of course DO NOT overcook. That’s why when you see a cook slap a piece of meat on the grill it smokes like hell!! Well, the grill is super hot. Since grass fed beef is leaner, (not tougher!), it cooks in less time, about 30% less. Cook to sear it, a few minutes each side. Then remove from the high heat (do not use a fork, this will let out the juices of the seared steak) and let cook on a lower heat for desired donesness. Here is a link to a Recipe adapted from Farmer and the Grill: A Guide to Grilling, Barbecuing and Spit-Roasting Grassfed Meat…and for saving the planet, one bite at a time, by Shannon Hayes, Left To Write Press, 2007

SAUTEING is much the same. You usually use clarified butter to sauté in. Clarified butter has the solids taken out so you can heat it to a super hot temp. Clarified butter actually flame burns but does not blacken (like the egg on drugs commercial that HAS the solids) but without solids you cook super hot and keep the flavor of the butter.

Get your pan nice and hot!! Add your clarified butter, then the meat. Cook to desired temperature and remove then add your red wine, shallots, onions or whatever you want butter then season and pour over your streak.

You can also blacken your steak!! Whatever it is, the trick is of course to never overcook which people do ALL the time and that’s the mistake. They also cook it to low in temp and the meat gets tough. Here is a link to describe "how to test the doneness of a steak," http://tinyurl.com/3nzjm

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING CLARIFIED BUTTER:

Clarified butter is butter that has had the milk solids and water removed. One advantage of clarified butter is that it has a much higher smoke point, so you can cook with it at higher temperatures without it browning and burning. Also, without the milk solids, clarified butter can be kept for much longer without going rancid.

It is very easy to make. Melt the butter slowly. Let it sit for a bit to separate. Skim off the foam that rises to the top, and gently pour the butter off of the milk solids, which have settled to the bottom. A stick (8 tablespoons) of butter will produce about 6 tablespoons of clarified butter.

Another method is to simmer the butter in a saucepan until the mixture separates. After the water has evaporated, the milk solids will begin to fry in the clear butterfat. When they begin to turn golden, remove the pan from the heat and pour the butter through a fine strainer lined with damp cheesecloth into a heatproof container. If the cheesecloth is damp, all the butterfat will pass through, otherwise some will be absorbed by the cloth. This method is a little fussier, but produces a clearer result.

Tacoma Rescue Mission-Give Thanks Luncheon

http://www.rescuetacoma.com/

Tacoma Rescue Mission-Building Strong Families

I was invited today, by friend Klaudia Conradt (see below) to the Tacoma Rescue Mission, "Give Thanks Luncheon" at the Tacoma Convention Center.

We were entertained by the children of Tyler House, from the Tacoma Rescue Mission. Key Note speaker was enlightening by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias, M. Ed. www.AppleSt.com (Applied Learning Systems)

Here is Klaudia. She sponsored my table. The "Give Thanks Luncheon,"

was very heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

Thank you Klaudia for all that you do.

Remembering and honoring our United States Veterans. Children at Southworth Elementary, Yelm.

http://www.encognitive.com/node/7249

Grass-Fed Beef: The Superior Protein

"Not all beef has the same nutritional profile. The cattle used to produce beef have traditionally been fed diets of grain. However, many farms are switching from grain-fed to grass-fed beef because of the numerous proven benefits to human health.

Overall, grass-fed cattle are healthier than grain-fed cattle. The livers of grain-fed cattle have a 30-fold increase in abscesses, 8-fold more blood vessel disorders and a 3-fold greater frequency of liver contamination (Roberts 1982). Many clinical studies have compared the nutritional content of grass-fed to grain-fed beef. Beef from grass-fed cattle has been shown to have better overall quality in terms of color, lipid oxidation and alpha-tocopherol levels than beef from maize-fed cattle (O’Sullivan 2002). This study found that maize-fed beef had the poorest color while grass-fed beef had the best. Lipid oxidation, which has negative impact on beef flavor, color, and nutritional value, was highest in maize-fed beef and lowest in grass-fed beef. Alpha-tocopherol concentrations (the form of whole food vitamin E that is preferentially absorbed in humans) were also highest in grass-fed beef and lowest in maize-fed beef." Copied from Natural Health Is Our DNA-EnCognitive.com

Grass-Fed Beef: The Superior Protein

http://www.WilcoxAngusBeef.com/

Beef, it's what's for dinner! Please let me know what you think about eating local, fresh, beef. Do you know where your beef is from? What and where has your hamburger been? How many hands have touched your beef? Buy from a local buyer where you can meet the farmer.

Just trying to figure out my "LOGO"

Wilcox Angus Beef

Chris and Lisa Wilcox have been raising organic, grass-fed, Angus Beef on the Wilcox Family Farm in Roy, Washington. This property is unique because it sits in the Harts Lake Valley on the century old Wilcox Family Farm. All of the farms pasture has been certified Organic, by Oregon Tilth.

Chris and Lisa are now offering these Angus for sale to restaurants and individuals. See our

website: www.WilcoxAngusBeef.com

Check out what your local grocer charges for Angus Beef. Then check out what they charge for Organic Grass Fed beef. Ask youself, where is this meat from? Do you even know where? On the Wilcox Farm, you can see the cows, the pastures, and talk to Chris Wilcox himself about how the animals are raised and fed.

When you get your meat butchered you can talk to Tracy at Heritage Meats. It is your decision how your meat is cut and wrapped.