We made it to Sunday!

I just have to share this with all of you. Women will understand and the typical male will say that they never do this! I hope you all enjoy the laugh as much as I did and eventually so did Drew.

We prepared the food for a party, at a friend’s home, that we were catering without a hitch. Everything was loaded in the truck and we headed out to Georgetown…it’s only about a 35 mile drive and we had plenty of time to get there. Drew decides to take some back roads to avoid the holiday traffic that is still jamming up our local roads. Not a problem, I love being able to sit back and enjoy the countryside. I do have to admit that I help drive even though I am in the passenger seat…you know, the invisible “brake” thingie. Some of those curves were a bit too sharp for my taste but we were enjoying the beautiful clear day. Somewhere along the way Drew must have made a wrong turn, not sure where but we just kept driving even though I was starting to frantically look at my watch. We passed a sign on a fence that read “Russell Springs!” Yikes, I knew we really had gone out of our way!! Not to worry, I was told, it’s only a farm name sign…whew. We passed a really great place called Boyd Orchards. It’s a great place to take your family for apple pick’in! Over an hour later we finally pulled into the destination driveway and our friends were there anxiously awaiting our arrival.

We immediately commenced to getting the rest of the food prepared and setting up the tables. I have to say that fun was had by all, even the birthday gal who was turning the dreaded 50! We saw some old friends and met some new ones. We were very pleased with how everything turned out. We were invited to sit down and have a relaxing bit of conversation and a beverage before we started our trek home. Okay, now it’s beginning to get dark. I tell Drew that it’s time to start home because my “brakes” don’t do to well in the darkness of night. We all hug and say thank you and head out for the ride home.

Geez, I thought the ride to the party was fun! You wouldn’t believe the ride home. Drew decides that he figured out where he made the wrong turn before. Okay, I’m game even though there is no scenery to enjoy in the night darkness. Heck, I can’t even see the street and route signs! I get myself situated and have my “brakes” ready to use. The first few miles of the trip are great. Oops, here’s the first major decision…right or left? Right is the correct way to go according to Drew. Hey, there’s Boyd Orchards off to the left, so we must be on the right road, correct? Wow, those “brakes” are getting a workout on these curvy, narrow roads! EEK! Calm down, Karin…Drew is in charge and he knows where he is going, so make some light conversation and talk about the folks we got to see tonight. The food was good, their dog is a darling, I don’t think the triplets look anything like each other, etc.,etc.,etc.

Hey…there’s Boyd Orchards AGAIN! Only this time it is on the right side of the road. Didn’t we pass that awhile back? I commented and Drew assured me that he was in control. Must be a man thing! I’m sitting there smirking to myself thinking “yeah right big guy!” Uh Oh, that seems to be the Bluegrass Parkway ahead…how the heck did we end up here? I sigh and Drew lowers his head in semi shame…he missed the turn again! We backtrack and finally end up on major roads that I am familiar with and I can finally relax and let my “brake” ease up. I do manage to give him instructions…right, right, right, left and finally a left into our parking space at the farm!

We’re home, safe and sound..finally! And, by the way, Boyd Orchards really is a very nice place, you just don’t want to be driving past it three times in one day! Go visit them for some big smiles. http://www.boydorchards.com/

I just read this to Drew and he informed me, in his defense, that he really saved us actual miles even though he made a wrong turn. That’s okay, big guy…you believe whatever you want to. HaHa!

I’m off to the kitchen to start some fried taters to have with our, leftover from the party, ham and eggs.  They’re real easy and quite tasty when you’re in a rush to eat.  Simply wash and cube taters and boil them until semi done.  Drain and dump into a hot skillet with bacon drippin’s.  Give them a good shake of Good’n Garlicky and a really good pinch of Paprika.  Toss them so that they all get coated well.  Contiue to “fry” in a medium heat skillet until the ham and eggs are done.  They’ll brown nicely in just a few minutes and they’re already cooked so all you are doing is basically heating them up.

It’s Saturday and we’re home!!!

Holy mackerel! It’s Saturday morning and we’re still home at 7AM! That hasn’t happened in almost 10 years. We both laughed as we kissed each other goodnight and said “sleep with angels” before going to bed last night…we didn’t have to set the alarm for 2AM and yet we both knew that we would probably wake up anyway. Well, I did but Drew managed to snore right through our usual wake up call. I have to admit that it felt kinda funny not rushing around, printing last minute recipes and trying to decide which Herb’n Renewal “uniform” to wear to the market. Instead I get to sit here in my jammies and put my thoughts into this box they call a computer!

One of Drew’s friends is throwing a 50^th birthday party for his gal today and he asked us to prepare the food for the party. We spent yesterday chopping, dicing and blending. Drew managed to get two turkey breasts smoked and carved…I managed to steal a sample and boy was it good! The only thing left to do today is to make the fondue and cube the bread. We were busy folks yesterday. One of the spreads that Drew made happens to be one of my favorites and it’s so easy to make. Here’s the recipe…

Cajun Seafood Spread

8 oz. Cream cheese

2 tbsp. Dried chives

4 oz. Salad shrimp*

½ cup mayonnaise

4 oz. Can crab meat

2 tsp. Cajun Wing’n Season

Blend mayonnaise, softened cream cheese and Cajun Wing’n Season until smooth. Fold in chives, crab meat and shrimp. Refrigerate overnight. Serve with crackers or veggies!

*We like it really “shrimpy”and we’re lucky enough to have some fresh frozen Wild Caught Georgia Shrimp in our freezer so we used about a half of a pound, chopped up after we gave it a good old fashioned shrimp boil with our Rub’n Season Fish!

This recipe has always been a crowd pleaser so give it a try for your New Years party. If we have any leftovers I’m going to try something new… spread it on a slice of French bread, top with a bit of Muenster cheese and broil till bubbly. I love when I come up with brainstorms! Lol

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday.

After Christmas Thoughts!

Happy Birthday Pappy…I know you are watching over me.

Speaking of what would have been my dad’s birthday, my mom would have had one on the 19^th of this month too. And, they would have celebrated their anniversary on the 21^st. Stick Christmas in the middle of all of those celebrations and they usually ended up with one big gift under the tree with a tag that said “Happy Everything!” Mom told me to make sure that I didn’t get married in my birth month cause you get shorted in the gift department! I miss her weird sense of humor.

Okay, it’s the day after Christmas and I hope Santa was good to everyone. We haven’t done the “Christmas light thing” since Drew had his first blood clot a few years back and we both commented that we missed our usual 11,000 light show! But, neither of us miss the taking them down, tagging them and then packing them for another year. We have a garage full of lights and decorations just gathering dust! We don’t buy each other gifts and we didn’t even bother to put up a tree. It looked kinda boring around here on Christmas Morning. We did the usual Merry Christmas calls to family and friends and then sat here trying to decide what we could do for some excitement. Brainstorm!!! My dearest friend had a stroke last year and I don’t get to visit her nearly enough because of the price of gas. Well, Bernie bit the dust and we have borrowed a truck that gets much better mileage so we decided to head off to Ft. Knox to visit with Linde and Joe.

We didn’t bother to call until we got to their road and what a surprise. I was talking to Joe on the cell phone as we pulled up into their driveway…asking him what they were doing and as it happens they were eating dinner. I continued the banter between us as I just walked in the front door hollering Merry Christmas! I wish you all could have seen the look on their faces. It was like the commercial on TV…priceless! Joe has become the “houseman” since Linde can longer do the cooking and cleaning. He’s one of those folks that couldn’t boil water before and now he reads cookbooks! We took him a large basket full of our blends along with a recipe file so he can play in the kitchen…he was thrilled and so was Linde. I think she’s bored with his bland cooking. HaHa! Anyway, we had a great visit and it was one of the best presents I could have received.

Christmas eve was another priceless day. We had some gift baskets left after the market and although we could have taken them apart, I decided to give a little something to unsuspecting folks in town. We drove around the various parking lots and when I saw someone who looked like they needed a bit of cheer I jumped out and handed them a gift basket! I think some of them thought I was nuts but I sure hope they all enjoy their special Christmas present from Herb’n Renewal. I know we got a great one just watching the smiles.

Drew has headed towards town to see if he can figure out what the heck is wrong with Bernie and I am going to tackle “the room!” EEK!!! Our spare room has become a catchall room with Lord knows what in it! Who knows I might find some treasures worth selling on eBay. We could use the money seen as how we are now both officially unemployed without the market. YIKES! Maybe I’ll work on getting the shop finished so we can open up and start to gain some much needed $$$. I don’t know but we’re hoping that we can open next week and I need to clear some cobwebs from my brain before we start.

I’m off to start…somewhere. Have a great day all.

Ahhh, Sweet Sunday!

Sunday is normally a day of emptying Bernie so that we can sort through and decide what we need to replenish for the next Saturday market. This Sunday is very different cause we don’t have to worry about the market next week. It’s a bittersweet feeling. Drew and I both felt very odd unloading the tables for the last time. Putting the tubs that we use to cart our goodies to the market away was another sad time. I guess when you’ve been used to a certain routine for 10 years it leaves you with an empty pit in your stomach when you don’t have to follow it. But, we’ve made our decision and we’re sticking to it! No more Lexington Farmers’ Market for us.

We had many of our customers stop by and wish us well yesterday…even had a few tears and a bunch of “oh no’s!” Everyone understood why we did what we did and we were pleased to find out that they all asked how to continue to buy our seasoning. We explained that we had a party to cater next week and then we’ll figure out something…we just want to take a break and gather our thoughts. But, you can guarantee that we won’t let them down…Herb’n Renewal will go on.

Enough looking back…we’re moving forward and today is a start of a new life for us. We’ve both been thinking of all sorts of things that we want to do around the farm, things that have been neglected in the past few years. So, I’m going to start by tackling my soap shop! I’ll bet that I find scents that I didn’t even know I had!!! Drew has to head into Lexington cause we’re borrowing a truck from a friend. We think our dear Bernie was trying to tell us that we made the right decision to quit the market cause he coughed and sputtered all the way into town yesterday. I guess he’s tired too. He’s going to get a week of rest and a bit of an overhaul.

Oh, I’ve got to share the drive to the market with you..it was so funny and so typical male! We had no sooner pulled out of our little country road when I noticed a burning smell. I commented to Drew and he of course told me I worry too much. Well, I guess I do because I hear (and comment on) every little knock, thud or whatever that Bernie makes. A few minutes go by and of course I am panicking. Then I smell smoke and comment on that. Once again, the typical male in Drew takes over and he let’s me know that nothing is wrong and to quit worrying. Than all of a sudden, in the early morning darkness, I notice him reaching under his seat. He hands me a flashlight and tells me to look for a fire…EEK! I knew I was right…something was burning! But I couldn’t find it and the smoke was filling up the front of Bernie. We pulled over in the first lit area that we could find and checked him out. Thank heavens there was no fire…so where was the smoke coming from? Drew finally decided that it had something to do with the manifold…whatever that is. And sure enough when we restarted him the noise was really loud. We are now the proud owners of what folks around here would call a redneck van! HaHa! We roared our way into town and both laughed at what folks attending the U.K. Basketball game would think when we started him up for the drive home! And you thought they roared when the Cats scored a point…they hadn’t heard anything yet!

Well, I guess I better get started with my new life..I’m off to the soap shop! Hope you all have a wonderful day and if you’ve procrastinated on buying those holiday gifts, may you end up in a short line at the checkout counter!

 

 

Final Market Saturday!

Here it is the day that we really wished didn’t have to come…our last day at the Lexington Farmers’ Market. It’s going to feel so funny not having to wake up at 2am on Saturday’s anymore. We’ve been doing that for 10 years. We were talking about how much we are going to miss some of the farmers, our customers and the general “happening” feeling that the market brings to each of our Saturday’s. But then we remembered that the reason we are no longer going to be members is because the “happening” feeling seems to be gone. We have felt like we were going to a resellers market for the last few years and that just isn’t our idea of a real farmers market. Times sure have changed at the market. Folks used to make a day out it and now it seems like most are stopping by, getting what they need and heading home without enjoying what used to be a great atmosphere. I can’t say that I can blame them. The market just ain’t what it used to be.

Drew and I have agonized over our decision to leave…it’s been our livelihood and lifestyle for the past 10 years! It will be life altering to say the least. But, we just didn’t feel like it is heading in the direction that we want to go. We’ve never enjoyed the flea market atmosphere and that’s what it feels like to us now. The resellers are in abundance.

And, don’t get me started on the “rules!” Rules are great and every organization needs to have them but they should be the same for all members…not just a chosen few. We’ve watched vendors/farmers break rules left and right and then two booths down it’s perfectly okay for that person to do exactly what the other person was told not to do!!! It’s become more a matter of who you know, not just the fact that you have paid your dues and expect to be treated equally. Speaking of dues…they doubled this year!  It seems like they don’t want us little guys anymore. Oh well, it’s time for us to move onward and upward.

We’re scared stiff at the thought of losing our weekly income but we have high hopes that we can make it on our new plans for the future. Herb’n Renewal will go on and hopefully we’ll be better than ever. I know Drew and I will feel better once we get over the shock of changing our lifestyle.

Enough talk about the past, let’s move into the future, with one exception…the recipe from today’s market sampling! This is a great and no hassle recipe for some wonderful party fare.

WING’N WIENERS

2 12 oz. bottles chili sauce

2 tbsp. worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 cup grape jelly

1 heaping tbsp. Cajun Wing’n Season

4 tbsp. Bourbon

3 lb. hot dogs, sliced 1/2″

Bring first 6 ingredients to a boil in a 4 qt. pot, stirring constantly. When well blended, add hot dogs and return to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer one or more hours…stirring occasionally. These are great kept warm in a crock pot at parties!

As a final thought for the day we want our customers and fellow farmers to know how much we will miss not seeing you each week but we hope you understand how we feel. And, we hope you will continue to follow us into the future!

Hope you all have a great day and stayed tuned for more developments in the Herb’n Renewal life!

Whew Wednesday!

Whew, we are finally done with the holiday basket filling, mailing, etc. thingie! Yippee!!! I was beginning to dream about gift baskets in what little sleep I’ve been getting. We’ve got one more market this Saturday and then we’ll officially take a break from Herb’n Renewal for a few days. Believe me, we both need it.

Today is a get ready for Saturday market day so not much excitement today…just loads of printing labels, packing and loading into to crates for the trip to Lexington. Normally we do this on Thursday and Friday but we’re on a roll so we’re not gonna stop!

Drew fixed a great big “Sunday” breakfast today and now I really need a nap! HaHa! No time for napping today. Just thought I would share his wonderful Cowboy Fried Taters recipe with you before I head out to the shop…they are yummy!

 

Cowboy Fried Taters

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 lb. white potatoes, cubed 1/2”

3 carrots, cubed 1/2”

2 tbsp. Herb’n Cowboy

1 cup onion, diced

¾ cup green peppers, diced

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add potatoes and carrots, give them a stir and then cover. Cook for approximately 20 minutes or until fork tender. Give them an occasional stir and flip! Remove cover and stir in the Herb’n Cowboy, onions and peppers. Continue cooking for an addtional 10-15 minutes. Don’t forget to give them an occasional stir and flip!

You can speed up the recipe by par boiling the potatoes and carrots until fork tender. Drain and cool them a bit continuing with the recipe.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and hope to see you all Saturday at the Lexington Farmers’ Market in Victorian Square!

P.S. Happy Birthday mom…I miss you.

 

 

We survived the casserole!

Well, the “gunk” casserole wasn’t bad at all! I have to admit that it would have been much better with a tomato sauce versus the ketchup concoction…it was a bit on the sweet side. It didn’t have much eye appeal but it was gut wadd’in! And, I’ll make sure Drew dons an apron and makes us some griddle cakes to go with it next time. It’s amazing what you can do with an empty cupboard and fridge!

Hopefully we’ll have the empty problem solved today. We’re heading to the big city to mail some some orders, make a deposit at the bank and buy some groceries. We’re also dropping some posters off at Malabu Pub. They have asked us to “do” a show on Sunday. It’s a small neighborhood bar and grill and they use many of our seasoning blends. Apparently the customers want a chance to purchase some gift baskets for the holidays. We’re happy campers because it means a bit more income during an otherwise very slow time at the market. So, if you’re not doing anything on Sunday you might want to stop by Malabu Pub and Grille on Surfside Dr off of Nicholasville Rd. We’ll be there from 2 until 5.

I’m sitting here typing while wearing a pair of shorts! What happened to the cold December weather? We have had the windows open for the past three days. I guess I should not question Mother Nature because if the rain we’ve had lately had been snow, we’d be buried in the white stuff and I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. And, I darn sure don’t want the ice that much of the country is being covered with. I feel for those folks because we went through a similar ice storm a few years back. It was awful.

Okay, enough chatter for one day. I have to get my body into the shower and get ready for the trek to town. Have a great day all.

Cupboards are bare and the fridge is not much better…what to do!

How the heck can two grown folks end up with a bare pantry and virtually nothing but leftovers in the fridge? It’s called money is tight and we didn’t want to waste the gas going to town for just grocery shopping.. We had stuff to do on the farm today so “we” decided that “I” could create a miracle out of virtually nothing. That is yet to be determined seen as how it is in the oven right now.

Want to know what I think is going to be a great meal? Okay, here goes…

Take 3 slices of bacon (how do you end up with only three slices?) and cut into small pieces, fry it up. Next you add the half of a green pepper (diced) and the half of an onion (diced) that just happened to be in the fridge, to the bacon in the pan. Okay, now it’s time to check the pantry and you amazingly discover a little bit of plain old white rice in a bag with a twist tie! Yippee!!!! Add that to the stuff already in the frying pan and toss it around until it looks like you might be on the verge of browning it. Now is the time to find out if that head of cabbage that you planned on using two weeks ago is still edible. Yup, it is so go ahead and throw out the icky leaves and then slice the good stuff…give it a good wash and set it aside to drain. We’ve usually got some good old bacon drippin’s in the fridge so I threw a blob of it into a Corning Ware casserole dish and nuked it just enough to melt it so I could spread it around. I then dumped about half of the cabbage into it and then spread the bacon stuff in the skillet on top. Somehow it just doesn’t look like enough so I head to the fridge for one last hunt. Holy mackerel…how did I miss the “we’ve already eaten three meals” leftover meatloaf? That’s the perfect solution to making my creation wonderful!!! I cut it up into pieces…well, I really just crumbled it and then spread it over the bacon skillet stuff. Top it off with the rest of the sliced cabbage and start to wonder what the heck is going to be the “liquid” in this masterpiece. Head back towards the pantry and discover that you have absolutely no tomato anything. Try looking in the freezer to see if maybe you might have missed a bag of frozen tomatoes that hopefully you didn’t use the last time you made that wonderful spaghetti sauce…no such luck. Okay, make that brain work for a minute. I got it…ketchup!!! I took some ketchup and mixed it with some water, worcestershire sauce and a really good pinch of Rub’n Season Herb’n All. Pour that over the gunk in the casserole dish and bake in a 350 oven until bubbly.

So, do you think it was a keeper or a “wow, thanks for the food” that comes with a slightly strained  smile, meal? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s thoughts and I’ll let you know.

It’s a working Sunday!

Sunday is a day to relax…or is it? We just finished reading the local newspapers and had our usual discussion about each others paper. I read the really local one and Drew reads the big city, Lexington one. Mine didn’t have me doing the usual “why would you name your child that” comments. I still can’t believe that parents can come up with some of those names…remember that your child has to live with it for the rest of their lives!!! But, there was a really different one today that I kinda liked, I’m sure it was a combination of dad’s name, Christopher, and maybe a grandfather, Russ…Rustopher. Unusual to say the least but I still think it’s a great middle name. Drew couldn’t help but make the comment that “his” paper didn’t even mention our Herb’n Renewal seasonings and gift baskets in an article about local gift giving. He’s still scratching his head trying to figure out how come we didn’t get mentioned. Lord knows we do all that we can to support the local community with gift basket donations to a gazillion charities and folks seem to really like our herb blends. Heck, we’ve been in business for 10 years! Guess we’ll just have to work harder on getting some local publicity.

Oh well, the newspaper reading hour is over and it’s time to unload Bernie. We left a full display of our gift baskets and other goodies at Victorian Square yesterday, so the old boy is only half full. Once that chore is finished we’re going to sit down to a good old fashioned biscuit and gravy breakfast and probably a short nap afterwards. It has to be short cause I have a bunch of orders to get ready for shipping on Monday. Good news for the dust bunnies in our home…they get to live another day! Drew will be busy blending in the kitchen so he doesn’t have time to do inside work either. The poor guy walked into a dustweb the other day and commented that he felt like he was living in the Munster’s home! Geez, I really need to get better at housekeeping.

I promise that I will take the time to fix us a nice dinner this evening and I always make sure that the dust guys stay out of our home kitchen so not to worry about catching anything or any added garnishes!   Drew is a fanatic about his commercial kitchen…he’s knows better than to let me in there!  HaHa!

 So, what I am I creating tonight?  We bought more of those wonderful Yukon Gold taters at the market yesterday so they will be cooked and smashed with plenty of butter. Add that to some wonderful homegrown green beans that I froze during the summer months and a meatloaf seasoned with our Rub’n Season Beef and you’ve got a great Sunday dinner.

Here’s the recipe for a good old fashioned meatloaf…

Herb’n Meatloaf

2 lbs. Ground beef

2 tbsp. Olive oil

1 cup onion, diced

½ cup green pepper, diced

2 heaping tbsp Rub’n Season Beef

2 eggs

½ cup ketchup

½ cup milk

1 ½ cup plain bread crumbs

additional ketchup*

Saute’ peppers and onions in olive oil for 5-6 minutes. Mix with remaining ingredients, except the additional ketchup. Shape into a loaf and bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 1 hour or until the juices run clear. Drain excess grease from the pan. * See note below! Allow loaf to sit for 5 minutes before slicing.

* If desired, you can coat the loaf with additional ketchup and bake for 10 more minutes. We mix ketchup with a bit of our Cajun Wing’n Season or Hot’n Sassy for some extra zing!

It’s a gloomy, rainy day in our neck of the woods so a comfort dinner will surely hit the spot! Hope you all have a great Sunday.

Brain Fart Friday!

I swear, there are days when I wish I could just turn my brain off. Trying to get some much needed sleep when your mind is going a gazillion miles an hour is not easy. I finally gave up and crawled out of bed at 3AM. I’ve been sitting here playing computer games in a semi fog! I’m becoming quite the Mahjong champ!!!

Know what I was thinking about? Life in general. We are about to make a major transition in our lives and it’s a bit scary. Our farmers market has doubled our membership fees this year and it’s got to be paid by January 1^st if we want to sell there next year. It boils down to a big question, which for us is an easy one…do we pay the mortgage payment on our farm or the membership fees for the market? We already know the answer…we’re not giving up our farm! Of course that means that a big chunk of our yearly income will be gone. After 10 years of setting up on our corner it will be sad to say good bye to the market. But, we love our farm and we believe in our business so we’re about to start all over again. Yup, it is scary! Heck, maybe we’ll win the lottery and then we can afford to join the market in 2008. You just never know. But if we don’t we’ve got to come up with an alternative means of supporting ourselves. Anyone need two old herb folks? HaHa!

I think one of the hardest parts of leaving the market is going to be saying good bye to our many loyal customers. Many of them have become our friends and the thought of not seeing them each Saturday is sad. Of course, there are many farmers that we will miss too. Johnny always walked past and asked Drew what he was cooking for lunch. Steve made wisecrack remarks about Drew’s bald head. I strolled through the market before the shoppers arrived so that I could see what everyone had that day…it sure helped us direct customers towards an item that they were searching for. Mary, the peach lady always had a bright smile for me. Jay would try to lock me in the port-a-potty! These are just a few of the many folks that will be missed.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally sad about leaving. We haven’t been exactly happy with the direction the market has been going in the past few years. We always thought of it as a “farmers” market and lately it seems to be more of a reseller and flea market. The new price increase will only hinder the hopes of new farmers joining. Guess commercialization has finally come to the market and that makes me sad. Oh well, times are a changing and so are we!

Our future is still up in the air but you can guarantee that Herb’n Renewal will continue to survive! We have too many folks who have cupboards full of little brown paper bags filled with our seasoning. That makes us smile. We just need to figure out a different venue to sell those little bags full of wonderful herb seasoning! Maybe the new market in town? Maybe our own store? Maybe a farm stand on our farm? Maybe a joint partnership with a restaurant downtown? Maybe just internet sales? I don’t think we’d be happy doing that because we love the interaction with our customers. Only time will tell where we are going but wish us luck cause we’re off on a new venture!

Enough of my thoughts, how about a recipe that happens to be one of my favorites…it is sooooo good and I can guarantee that your friends and family will love it as much as I do!

 

HERB’N SWISS BEEF TIPS

 

2 1/2 lbs. round steak, trimmed & cut into 1/2″ pieces

2 1/2 tablespoons RUB’N SEASON BEEF

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, cut into strips

1 green pepper, diced into 1/4″ pieces

2 tablespoons sugar

2 ribs celery, sliced into 1/2″ pieces

1 14 1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 29 oz. can tomato sauce

1 8 oz. can mushrooms, drained

 

Toss beef in RUB’N SEASON; let sit in fridge for 30 minutes.  In a large pan brown beef in olive oil on high heat.  Add onion, pepper, celery and cook for 5 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Transfer to a large covered casserole dish and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.  Serve over noodles or rice.