Lookin' to blame someone...

It rained again.  The rain gauge fills up almost faster than we can empty it.  Complaining about it doesn't seem right considering our fellow citizens in the Mid-West who are dealing with record droughts.  Get ready for the price of commodities to rise this fall due to the drought decimated crops.

I looked around the pasture and think I may have identified the culprit for all this rain:  Maggie!


Rainmaker

An old wive's tale says that cows lying down is a predictor of rainfall.  Actually, I'd stick to watching the weather report on your local news as cows lying down in a field just means they’re chewing their cud, rather than preparing for rain.  Now, if you see a cow with an umbrella, however...

Since it rained a lot and it was too wet to do anything outside, we decided we'd make some beef jerky.  Some good friends of ours had a food dehydrator that they no longer use and they blessed us with it.  How nice!  We decided to make some beef jerky first.  First you buy some round steak and slice it up.  Then mix up a marinade.  Here is the recipe for beef jerky marinade:

• 4 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tablespoon tomato sauce
• 1 Tablespoon grated ginger root (Add this - it adds some ZING)
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Marinate the sliced round steak for 4 - 6 hours, then drain.  Below is a hunger inducing shot we took after popping the top off the tupperware tray we were marinating the jerky in for 6 hours:


Ready to go in the dehydrator



Layering the jerky on the trays



So here are 3 trays of beef jerky ready to be dried:

This is so easy a caveman could do it.  All you gotta do is plug it in, set the dial to Meat/Fish which dries at 145 F.  Depending on how thick you cut the meat, it will take between 4 and 15 hours.  Tricia sliced them thin, so I'm looking to sample at the lowest end of that range.  You can really tell when it is done by sight:



Looks done to me! (After 3 1/2 hours)

So we gobbled down a few and wow, the beef jerky turned out great.  We'll pack the rest in jars and eat later.  Jerky lasts 2 - 3 weeks at room temperature, but it'll be gone long before then.  We packed it in a quart Mason jar for snacking.  (Odd picture, I know, but I was being compliant.  Tricia asked that I not get a picture of her head.)


The Headless Jerky Maker... AHHHHHHH!!!!

We were so excited about how it turned out, we figured we'd try something else.  Banana chips.  Tricia sliced up bananas and made a glaze of local honey, cinnamon and water.  She dipped the bananas in the glaze and loaded the trays.  These aren't done yet, but here they are going in.

Rain, beef jerky, college football, relaxation.  Not a bad Saturday.  Not bad at all.