Year: 2009

Crockpot BBQ Beef Brisket

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There is nothing better then smelling BBQ beef brisket simmering in a crockpot all morning and afternoon in anticipation of being ready in time for Sunday night football with the Chicago Bears. The lingering aromas of the homemade BBQ sauce will leave you drooling and constantly peeking at the crockpot in hopes that everything magically cooked itself in minutes.

This recipe is enough for 7-9 servings pending serving size

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds beef brisket*
  • 2 yellow onions
  • 1 green peppers
  • 4 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 1 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground mustard
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

  1. Prepare your beef brisket by trimming away any excess fat on it. Or you can do this process once the meat is tender and ready.
  2. Rub the mustard, cumin, and liquid smoke on the brisket. You can either wrap in foil to marinate in the fridge, or just use it immediately.
  3. Cut the onions and green pepper into strips of your desired width, mince the garlic and put it into the crockpot.
  4. In a separate mixing bowl combine the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, chili powder and cayenne pepper. Mix the ingredients until the sugar is dissolved and liquids are combined.
  5. Place some of your onions on the bottom of your crockpot, then place the beef brisket on top. Place the remaining onions, green pepper, your mixing bowl (which is now your homemade BBQ sauce), and beef broth over the brisket.
  6. Set your crockpot to low and let it simmer for 7-8 hours until brisket is tender.
  7. When the brisket is ready, it should be falling apart. Take a large prong fork and shred the brisket within the crockpot.
  8. If your mixture is still a bit watery, you can add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to 1/4 cup of cold water. Stir in the mixture little by little to achieve the desired thickness.
  9. Once you have your brisket shredded, you can leave it simmering on low for another hour to allow it to soak in more of your sauce.
  10. Serve your shredded brisket on a yummy kaiser roll and dribble some of your new BBQ sauce over it and serve up with a side of cottage cheese and a huge dill pickle spear.

* In lieu of the costly beef brisket, you can always use skirt steak or even pork tenderloin for a pork version.

Crockpot Beanless Chili

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I’m a big fan of chili and an even bigger fan of using a crockpot. When I put together this recipe, I didn’t realize I was out of beans (chili, red and lima beans–I don’t care which kind, I use whatever I grab), but I went through the recipe and decided to add in more vegetables to compensate for the loss of texture and thickness.

This recipe is enough for 4-5 servings pending serving size

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground chuck/beef
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 1 green or red pepper
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 garlic clove (minced)
  • 1 8oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 5.5oz can tomato juice
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

  1. In a large saucepan cook your ground beef, onion, garlic over medium heat until the meat is no longer raw, then drain the grease.
  2. Dice your cucumber and green pepper to your desired sizes, then place in crockpot.
  3. Add the tomato sauce, tomato juice, water, spices then your cooked ground beef to the crockpot.
  4. Turn crock to low if you wish to let it simmer for 4-6 hours, or on high for 2-4 hours.
  5. Serve in a bowl with some diced onions and cheese on top and enjoy!

You are free to manipulate this recipe to your own palette. I prefer my chili with a kick, lots of spices, veggies and meat. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried this recipe and what you think of it; I’m open to any and all comments!

Patience is a necessity

Personal

On Tuesday of next it’ll have been three months since my accident. It’s so weird to see the progress I’ve made, which is a lot, but that I still have a lot more to go through in the upcoming months. Thanks so much to everyone that left comments, it meant a lot to me!

Today I had my 30 day follow-up with my orthopedic doctor to get my wrist cast off and to check on my hip and tibial plateau. The good news is that my cast came off, and I had a little more mobility than he expected. The bad news? Looking over the xray for my wrist he noticed that I have about a 4.5mm gap by one of my carpels. He said this is because I have some sort of torn or damaged tendon. Either way, there’s a high chance I’ll be referred to a hand surgeon to have it repaired or reconstructed in the next few weeks. This is all pending though since I go in next week for an MRI on the wrist. I’m hoping it’s not too bad but seeing as though it’s been 3 months, surgery seems likely.

My knee is doing perfect as far as healing goes. The only noticeable thing is some calcification forming over one of the pins, but it won’t affect any mobility as it’s on the inner side of my leg. The biggest disappoint during my appointment was my hip’s poor recovery. It’s been 11 weeks post-op, and the piece of broken femur that’s re-attached with three pins is still not fusing with my original femur. As such, I have to wait another 30 days for my next checkup, and still cannot do any physical therapy to start walking again. I’m also stuck wearing my hip brace for a long time, as he mentioned he’ll have me wearing this while I’m going through PT.

The only real good news was that he was comfortable enough to allow me to increase the weight-bearing status of my right leg. I can put up to 30lbs of weight (or pressure) on the leg. So while it wasn’t what I wanted, it’s still something I can deal with. I was really just hoping to be able to start PT this month, so by October 6th (my best friend Amy’s birthday) and October 11th (Steve‘s birhday) I’d be able to go out and have some fun to celebrate their birthdays. But alas, my extreme dance moves will have to be put on hold for awhile!

Other than that I’ve been quite busy with my hosting company, and two other side projects of mine. My goal right now though is to start getting back into freelancing full-time as my cast is now off. Reason being is not only has my money dwindled quickly (insurance, bills, yadda yadda) but all of my bills from being in the hospital have been coming in like crazy. I do have health insurance now which thankfully covers almost 90%. I still have a lot of bills to be processed but my biggest one ($235,000) is actually being processed right now so this is my main bill I’m worried about.

Well, this post is long enough so I’m calling it quits! 😛

My Road To Recovery

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This post is long overdue, but I’m finally putting aside some time to write this. On July 9th I was finally released from the hospital after 32 days. 32 days that I can never get back, but 32 days I’ll never regret.

I don’t remember my accident at all. However, for clarification, my use of the term “accident” implies the impact of Robert Slager’s (of Slager and Son Masonry) truck against my car and the time from impact until I was conscious moments later after a grateful bystander came to my side to keep me calm and whom also called 911. I remember 10 minutes beforehand where I had been at a stop sign answering a call from my sister Morgan. I told her I was on my way home and that I’d talk to her in 10 minutes or so since I wasn’t too far away. Next thing I know I’m waking up and hearing a man’s voice praying to the Lord for him to look over me. Then a huge wave of pain spread throughout my body. I couldn’t open my eyes, but my “guardian angel” noticed I was conscious and asked for my name, then phone numbers for my parents. He told my I had been in a bad accident and that the paramedics were on their way.

Everything else was a blur that night. From the time I was removed from my car to getting to the ER, it felt like 15 minutes had gone by. In actuality it took 1 hour to extract me from my car, and another 15 minutes to drive to the hospital. I had been in so much pain that I was in and out of consciousness. After a short time in the ER, I was finally able to open my eyes and at that point just kept asking for my parents. I then remember the nurses telling me they were going to cut my clothes off, and I said the least expected thing. I told the nurse she couldn’t cut off my tops because they were my favorite t-shirt and undershirt. It’s a bit of a blur trying to remember everything that night. I finally got to see my parents, my sister Morgan, and Steve. My best friend Amy wasn’t there yet, but she came while I was in surgery.

Forewarning: the rest of this post is unbelievably long. Continue reading “My Road To Recovery” →

Broken bones and a totaled car

Personal

On June 8th around 9:40pm on my way home I was in a car accident. I was turning left when I was tboned by a truck being driven by Robert Slager (Slager and Son Masonry) going 55mph.

I’d go into so much more detail but I’m typing this from my iPhone right now.

I suffered a fractured left wrist, a fractured left foot, a severely fractured right tibula and knee, and a displaced and fractured hip ball. The right side of my face had deep lacerations.

I’ve been in the hospital since the accident. Have had three surgeries for my hip so far with one of those fixing my wrist and foot fractures, and stitching my face.

In an hour and a half I’m going into my fourth surgery to fix my fractured hip. I’d write more but my tummy hurts and I’m thirsty (but I can’t eat or drink before this surgery).

So until then.. Wish me luck.