Hey folks, it’s been a long year, but there is a lot to be thankful for.  Among other things, I am thankful for you all – for the many friends I have, and for how much I have learned from you.  In honor of that, here is a special recipe …  maybe late for Thanksgiving, but on time for the coming holidays, and of course great in the summer.

Back in the 80’s and 90’s a group of us used to congregate at Owen F.’s barn/camphouse, and hunt at his ranch.  He’s a great cook, and he made many fine meals for us.  Among them were mesquite grilled pork loin, Rancho Guajalote beans, salad with Leonard’s Dressing, occasionally catfish and even lamb (like you’ve never tasted).  A perennial favorite was a potato salad known as Suzanne’s Potato Salad. I believe it was given to him from a Swedish friend of his – Suzanne.  It is a unique potato salad, has lots of dill and capers – two of my favorites.  Anyway, I found this long lost recipe while cleaning out the recipe folder – it was printed on thermal fax paper from 1999, and just about gone.   Enjoy!

Suzanne’s Potato Salad

For 8-10:

8 med/lg potatoes

2 lg onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup +/- olive oil

dry dill weed

6 lg eggs – boil & peel

½+ cup mayonnaise

½+ cup yellow mustard

salt and pepper

capers – a lot of capers

Scrub or peel potatoes, cut up in large pieces, place eggs in potatoes cover with water, bring to boil, turn down, cook until potatoes tender but not overcooked, drain water, place eggs in ice water to chill, pour olive oil over hot potatoes, add minced garlic while hot, roll in oil, looking to have enough oil to coat and be soaked up by potatoes, add dry dill weed, salt and pepper.  Roll in oil, let cool.  Add chopped onions, drain 90% liquid off capers, add capers, add mayo and yellow mustard, add chopped boiled eggs.  Add dill salt, black pepper to taste.  End result light yellow color and right taste … “royalty is $5 per batch”  Sept 5, 1999

From Janet G.  and  her friend Clayton M.:

“Cook a couple of onions in half a cup olive oil til translucent.  Then add the beef and brown them together. Add Chili powder and a large can crushed tomatoes.”

That sounds simple enough for me!

‘Nuff said!

Be on the look out for steak specials, as well!

This was posted in comments, but I didn’t want anyone to miss it.  Eventually we need to get these recipes in the regular recipe section, as well, and will do so.  Mean time, keep ’em coming!

From Bernardine:

“Another great use of the steakburger is Hobo Beans. Basically a baked beans recipe but use 3 kinds of canned beans (baked, kidney, and navy) and a pound of cooked ground steakburger. So brown some onion and maybe some green or red pepper, add the steakburger and cook until done. Add the beans, some ketchup, mustard, worchestershire sauce and brown sugar. Pour into a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. You can add some cooked bacon also if you like.”

As I mentioned in the comments section, I am always looking for things that are relatively simple but that have the potential to turn out extravagant.  I am guessing this is one of those, and I can’t wait to try it out! (MP)

From CIWF in the UK, which compiled the nutritional findings of 76 studies:

Grassfed beef has:

• Up to 50 % less fat.
• Up to 430 percent more of the healthy Omega-3 fats.
• Higher levels of anti-oxidants.

Source (summary):  http://www.ciwf.org.uk/your_food/nutrition.aspx

Source (full paper):  http://www.ciwf.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2012/n/nutritional_benefits_of_higher_welfare_animal_products_report_june2012.pdf

Thanks to the American Grassfed Association for bringing this to our attention.

Here’s a recipe from my sister-in-law, Karen P.   My brother says it turned out great!

Note that Karen sliced her 2″ London Broil into two pieces that were each 1″ or so thick – this makes the London Broil easier to cook quickly, on a hot grill.

Also note the thin slicing on a 45 degree angle – I had seen this before but hadn’t captured it in any of our prior recipes.  The taste of these London Broils can’t be beat, I don’t think.

Hats off to Amber Griffith and all of the talented, hard-working, Barbie Q Queens!  This past Saturday they cooked and entered a Condalia Farms Brand brisket into the Taylor International BarBQue Cookoff.  They brought home Fourth Place!  Excellent!  Thirty eight teams were in the competition this year, and believe me, it is competitive.

Before I forget, Amber and her partners do this for fun, but for work they run a catering business which you might want to try, you can find them on Facebook.  These camo and pink-clad gals have the drive, the spirit … to succeed at a barbeque cookoff OR to make your event a success!  Nuff said!

A month ago my youngest son and I traveled to Cottage Grove, Oregon to “Stove Camp” at Aprovecho Research Center. Basically, this was a networking event for folks who desire to work with “improved wood stoves”. You see, a half a billion people cook on open fires in the world, and most suffer from a lack of enough fuel and too much smoke inhalation. “Improved Wood Stoves” are about two things: 1.)lower emissions (less particulate matter and lower carbon monoxide) and 2.)more efficient use of scarce wood resources.

Anyway, we spent 3 days camping on a river, working with others from around the world to build and test a variety of stoves using state-of-the-art test equipment. Aprovecho has a huge collection of almost every improved cooking stove ever designed. Simplistically, the stoves tested can be divided into two major categories – Rocket Stoves and Top Lit Updraft Stoves, or TLUD’s. Rocket stoves are based on what I call “verticality”, ie that heat rises. So they concentrate the fire in an area that allows the natural updraft to carry the heat to the pot. Meanwhile, TLUD’s are a little more high tech – they involve burning the wood (or wood gas) in two stages – with a primary stage drying and pyrolizing the wood and generating the wood gas (ie, not enough oxygen to burn it completely), then a second stage burning the wood gas with additional air entry directly under the pot.

Anyway, at the forefront in TLUD stove development is Dr. Paul Anderson, aka Dr. TLUD, aka “Doc”.   A retired professor, Doc has been working on this project for about ten years. One of his goals is to perfect a design that will allow local production – almost anywhere in the world – with limited tools and only sheet metal, some wood and few screws. In doing so he achieves the additional goals of providing productive work and keeping the cost low enough that more can afford the stoves.  Doc’s most recent stove is called the Quad3 TLUD, and he brought ten of them over from Uganda (pieces made there) in two 50 lb max “suitcase boxes”. We had the good fortune of working with Doc, who showed us how to assemble the stoves and taught us what makes them “tick”.  We also purchased two and shipped them back home for further use and testing.

So, Saturday before last my good friend Ray M. and I assembled the two stoves. Our assembly process uncovered some difficulties, but ultimately was successful.  In fact, our difficulties have already been “fed back” into the design itself, and the production process. Cool!

What to cook on your new Quad3 TLUD?  Why Condalia Farms Brand Steakburger, of course! I fired my Awamu S/N 30238 stove with Ray’s hand chopped mesquite and cardboard starter pieces.  It started right up, and soon we were cooking with gas … wood gas that is. We coated the Lodge cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and filled it with exactly 2 pounds of Steakburger patties. Soon I was able to tweak the damper on the stove and create a steady heat. The burgers came out great!

Here we are, just after we began cooking, fuel that was used is in the boxes to the sides:

Steakburgers about done, here:

Hats off to Dr. Paul Anderson and his production partners in Uganda for creating a great stove!

Oh, you might be wondering what “Awamu” means.  Doc says it means “together” in Uganda.  Cool word, cooler concept.  Seems like a “hyperlink word”, a simple word filled with a broad meaning.  After a few days at Stove Camp with some really gifted folks doing work that will help so many, potentially, we totally understand Awamu.

Incidentally, Awamu is our philosophy here at Lone Star Grassfed.  We enjoy producing great grassfed beef, free from antibiotics or hormones, for our families and yours.

Read below for another rare glimpse of Odessian culture, circa 1960’s, courtesy Janet G. Also, some great tips on tweaking a “Steakburger Steak”. Thanks, Janet!

“When I was young, in Odessa, Texas, alcohol was illegal. Unless you were a member of a private club, and then you could keep liquor in a private box at your club, and the club could serve you mix drinks. Yaaaaa. Because the oil business was moving to Odessa, and they were not prepared to forego drinks and wine with dinner.”

“What I remember about the menu at the Golden Rooster is the chopped sirloin steak with mushroom gravy, which came grilled and with a boat alongside filled with the delicious sauce. To this day, I like a nice gravy or sauce on my chopped steak. The steak I tasted today, from Texas cattle out on the range ( just like when I was a girl), was delicious Anyhow, I actually reduced some cream, and then poached two eggs in it for two minutes for the sauce. Pour it on top. Man that was good.”

“If you grill steaks in a heavy skillet, you could make the sauce there as well. Into the pan drippings, melt 4 oz of butter, and blend in 4 tablespoons flour. Cook the flour a little bit in the butter, but before it can toast, start adding two cups of hot cream. One fourth teaspoon good salt. Or saute some mushrooms and add a good broth…”

“Any sauce would be good on this steak, and that includes Catsup.”

Janet G. graciously hosted the Cuernavaca Chicken Club meeting at her home last night, and she provided a neat little beef entree, using some Condalia Farms Brand Beef.  It looked simple, and is, but I knew if I tried it without a recipe it wouldn’t be the same.  So, she shared the recipe!  I know I will be using this a lot, as it is … simple!

According to Janet, this recipe dates from Odessa, Texas, 1963.  Odessa is home of the Permian Basin oilfield services and workers – for those who aren’t familiar – and also the home of Odessa Permian High School, of football and Friday Night Lights fame.  1963?  I can only imagine.  Cool!

“Brown a lb of ground beef in a little butter.  Add a chopped onion till golden. And a can of Whole Foods organic Ranch beans.  Cook half an hour.”

Thanks, Janet!

(Adding back a little “fat” of your choice is a good thing to do with our beef – whether in hamburgers, or steaks.  It starts out so lean, anyway!)