Saturday, January 7, 2012

This Recipe is a Crossdresser.

I was going through one of my many cookbooks (I have enough to fill a 4 shelf bookcase) and came upon a recipe for "Beef Tips".  As I read the ingredient listing, I noticed how similar it was to beef stroganoff, but without the sour cream.  So I got to thinking (that can be a dangerous thing when it comes to cooking) that I have a package of beef cubes, but, don't want stroganoff, just made chili two weeks ago, stew would be nice, but I don't have too many veggies on hand this week.  Alright, lets go with the beef tips idea and play with that; what if I take part of the ingredients from beef stroganoff plus part from pepper steak with onions and create a monster?

The monster ended up being a tasty beast of beef, peppers, onions, mushrooms over egg noodles which sopped up the rich brown sauce. The scent throughout the home was drool making. However, I did do a little more experimenting by adding some sour cream to a cup of the creation...yep, just what I thought it would become; beef stroganoff with peppers. So there you go, how to take a couple of basic recipes and create a classy, sassy impersonator.


Beef Tips over Egg Noodles

Ingredients:

3 lbs beef cubes, about 1 inch pieces
3 Tbsp flour
1 large onion; cut into strips, cut strips in half
1 large bell pepper (red, yellow or orange); cut into strips, cut strips in half
1 (8 oz) carton of sliced fresh mushrooms
1 (10.5 oz) can beef broth
2 (10.5 oz) cans cream of mushroom soup
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp crushed dry thyme
2 tsps ground black pepper
1 lb cooked extra wide egg noodles

Preparation:

Spray a 6 qt crock pot with nonstick cooking spray; set on low heat. Coat the beef cubes with the flour; layer the beef, onion, bell pepper and mushrooms inside the crock pot.

In a large bowl, mix together the broth, soup, garlic, Worcestershire, thyme and black pepper; pour over ingredients in crock pot. Cover and cook for 8 hours; serve over cooked egg noodles.

Makes 8 servings.

Mary Cokenour