Tag: American cuisine

cooking

I haven’t cooked something in a long time. I don’t think that reheating a frozen dinner or making microwave popcorn counts for cooking, and that’s about the extent of my time in the kitchen in recent months. I baked a few pies, but again, not exactly a dinner entre. Yesterday I was at the grocery … Continue reading “cooking”

I haven’t cooked something in a long time. I don’t think that reheating a frozen dinner or making microwave popcorn counts for cooking, and that’s about the extent of my time in the kitchen in recent months. I baked a few pies, but again, not exactly a dinner entre.

Yesterday I was at the grocery store picking up a few items, and I found myself browsing the beef section. For some reason, the strip steaks caught my eye, so I picked up a small package of them. Today, I made a single portion of rice, and while that was steaming, I fixed the meat. In a pan with a little oil, I added a single portion of the strips, dusted them with black pepper, and fried them until they were done. Just before the meat was thoroughly cooked, I added a handful of chopped onion. When the rice finished, I forked it out onto a plate and threw the steak strips and onions on top. Then I salted it.

Wow! Amazingly good tasting, and it wasn’t too hard or complicated to make. I really need to stop being so lazy about cooking for myself and just do it.

maid-rite

For as long as I can remember, my mother has made a variation on the standard sloppy joe that is simply browned beef, condensed cream of mushroom soup, ketchup, and mustard. She said she got the recipe from a church potluck when we lived in Iowa, and my family has always called the sandwich a “maderight” – or at least, that’s how I spelled it in my head. It made sense to me, since I didn’t like the regular sloppy joe, a maderight was made the right way. Tonight, I was chatting with a friend from Iowa and mentioned that I had made this yummy sandwich for dinner. She knew exactly what I was talking about until I mentioned the ingredients. First of all, the original maid-rite (note the spelling) did not have condensed cream of mushroom soup, but it also isn’t quite like the messy sloppy joes they served in my Ohio elementary cafeterias. You can see some pictures of the sandwich at the Taylor’s Maid-Rite official website. I still love my mom’s version of this “loose meat” sandwich, but now I’m curious to know where she got the recipe with the condensed cream of mushroom soup and why she called it a “maid-rite” (or “maderight” as my mental spelling always put it).

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