As I mentioned yesterday, it is my week to cook around the farm. Today was also a day for me to do some subbing at the school where I last worked. How in the world do you make dinner happen when you are 45 minutes away from the farm?
Yep, trust me, it is really hard to make that happen. Honestly what’s the hardest is trying to find good recipes that you trust to either cook in the shop oven, which can be temperamental at times, or good crock pot recipes. Both areas in which I lack a good amount of recipes.
So naturally, I go to the standard BBQ recipe. Which this would be a great place to add that BBQ is actually a cooking method, not just that yummy sauce you pour over chicken or ribs.
The BBQ method is cooking a piece of meat in a hot controlled area within the smoke of a fire of wood or charcoal. Some even will allow propane to be considered one of these hot smokes. Depending on who you talk to.
BBQ to me is hamburger, or any other type of meat thrown in a crock pot and put on the shop counter with sandwich rolls to make a “man sandwich” (Couldn’t miss the pun to Manwich!)
Anyway, my sister in law makes a really good BBQ- or at least I think it is a really good BBQ. Every time she says that is what she made for dinner and it’s at the shop, you better believe I am there to get myself a sandwich. I’m not sure what her secret is, and she told me once her ingredients, but I never can remember…so every time I make mine I kind of add what ever I want.
This morning before I left for school I decided to actually measure out my ingredients and take some pictures since so many people loved the brisket recipe yesterday. Well, my ingredients for today…that very easily could change next time I make this recipe.
1/2 package of dry onion soup mix
1/2 Cup of brown sugar
2 Cups of ketchup
1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon of Dry Mustard
Swirl of regular mustard in a bottle or jar
2 lbs of hamburger
I am not afraid to use the store brand on a lot of things..although as you can see ketchup, mustard, and the Worcestershire are three of the items that are not in that store-friendly brand for me. The real thing tastes better.
Basically what you do next is cook the hamburger. Nice and easy right?
While the hamburger is cooking mix all the other ingredients together. I say swirl of mustard simply because that is what I do, a swirl. I like a lot of mustard, so sometimes I put a lot…other times I am not in a mustard mood, so I don’t. It’s up to you how much you put!
But…Remember once you get it mixed together you have to try it, especially before you add the hamburger. If you don’t like it, then chances are other people won’t either. I have found that trying my BBQ sauce at 6 AM is not my favorite thing to do…but I do it.
Next add your hamburger and mix it in really good with the sauce.
In terms of presentation of the meal this plastic crock pot liner really doesn’t do too much..But, if you are serving a meal to a bunch of guys in the shop, where most likely they won’t take the time to clean out your crock pot when the meal is over, they are AMAZING…So, if you don’t use them- consider them. If there is anything I hate more than washing dinner dishes it’s washing a crock pot dish after dinner.
Lastly, put the crock pot on WARM, not LOW…you already cooked the hamburger. Now you just need to keep it warm through out the day. Hamburger shouldn’t be left to sit at room temperature for longer than 4 hours! (Rule of 4 when cooking Meat!)
**Try to ignore the broken knob…I dropped the stinkin’ thing on my foot last time I put it away. I swore when it hit my foot and swore when I saw what it did to my knob!
It can prove stressful to be a teacher and farm wife. I found that out when I took a temporary position teaching and still doing the farm wife thing. I found myself at the shop before school trying to make hedgeway on my book work..and spending any spare time I had doing the other things my husband has on his never ending list. And trust me that list is never ending.
A few things I have learned in order to succeed if I want to Farm and Teach:
1. Sleep is over-rated.
2. Plan meals a week in advance.
3. Life is more organized if every thing in your house is labeled, even those kitchen drawers.
4. High School students really do know if you didn’t get enough sleep.
5. They also assume the reason why you didn’t get enough sleep is because you were making babies all night.
6. If you start a project during the week, just plan that it won’t get finished for at least a month.
7. Take the time to read a chapter from your favorite book at the end of the day.
8. It’s okay to sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing for 10 minutes of your weekend.
9. The $100 Franklin Covey planner I bought last month gets full use.
10. Take one night a week to make a daiquiri and enjoy it for all it’s worth.
And to think we want to start a family…I made need to do some more labeling before we get to that point.
- 1/2 package of dry onion soup mix
- 1/2 Cup of brown sugar
- 2 Cups of ketchup
- 1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tablespoon of Dry Mustard
- Swirl of regular mustard in a bottle or jar
- 2 lbs of hamburger
- Hamburger buns
- Cook hamburger until it’s done.
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Make sure to do a test, add more of some of the ingredients if you feel like you are missing something!
- Add to a crockpot.
- Serve on hamburger buns.
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