mrsteak

Tuna noodle casserole made with a box of mac and cheese, can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of tuna. After the first try I learned to drain the can of tuna before adding it.

Spare me - the best BBQ is not in Texas - it's here in Oklahoma! And we have the best hamburgers! Some place called "Mc" something or other. Can't miss it - yellow arches on the outside. Silliness aside - the "best" is what you personally believe to be the "best" for you.

I think ours multiply by themselves in the middle of the night. Some night I'm going to stay up and see if I can catch them at it.

To those who use lettuce on a burger - next time substitute fresh basil leaves and you'll never go back to lettuce. At least I didn't.

"Maybe we should all make a sign that says "support your local butcher shop" and stick it on the neighbors lawns. Instead of a local political campaign we'll have a local 'meat' campaign." Hee-hee! That would be fun - our next door neighbors on one side of our house are rabid vegetarians! So is my brother, so I'll mail him one for his front lawn! We get bacon from our butcher and it's better quality and less expensive than the higher end (Oscar Meyer) brands of packaged bacon. We usually only cook it for our dogs (we make them bacon and eggs on Sundays - I know, weird - but it's a tradition). But we still have a can in the fridge for the bacon grease. Sometimes will slather it on baking potatoes and use it to re-season cast iron skillets. If it gets too old we just toss it out with the trash because you sure can't put it down your drain. Back to steak - tonight I have a beautiful sirloin waiting for me to give it a soothing bath in Merlot, rosemary and garlic for a while before giving it a heat treatment on some hot coals.

Find some place that sells it and try it. It has a different flavor and texture and that can vary according to the time of year that it was finished and the region it was raised in. I have tried it a few times from a couple of different sources and it just didn't ring my bell - but I know people who love it. Just a matter of individual tastes.

I'm in the Tulsa area and, simply put, we pay less for prime cuts because we're better than Texans. Seriously though, larger metro markets are always higher priced - the Tulsa area is only about 500,000 in population. There's only 3.5 million in the whole state. I've been to Dallas many times and have thought that many things seem higher priced there than in Oklahoma - housing, hotel rooms, etc. So the fact that meat is higher is not a surprise. I grew up in a North Shore suburb of Chicago and if I could plunk the house and land that I live in here in a suburb of Tulsa into the town I grew up in it would be worth 10 times more than what this is worth here. Just market dynamics. I know, "Oklahoma? Who wants to live there?". Some members of my family have been giving me a hard time about my moving here for almost 30 years. And I don't mind that attitude - it keeps the crowds I grew up with away.

"The prime ribeye didn't leave behind a cloud of yellowish juices in the skillet like the Walmart steaks" Well, now I'm feeling sick. A good comparison report - there's nothing like doing "Ribeye Research" is there? Ribeye for $5.49 per pound? That's downright scary, but so is Albertsons. I shop sometimes in Walmart, never for food, but I have looked at their meat and it looks like it was possibly packaged in some undisclosed location and embalmed for your dining pleasure. That Albertsons "Blue Ribbon" beef is Select. Yes, there is a law about the grading of beef, but only for the inspectors grading it on the wholesale side - the stores do not have to disclose that to shoppers. Respectable stores will, and, to me, Albertsons and Walmart do not fall into that catagory when it comes to meat. When one of the mini-chain, family owned supermarkets that have real butchers and sell both Prime and Choice Angus that I mentioned earlier in this thread opened near us the Albertsons that was a mile away only managed to chug along for about a year before it closed down. I pay $12.99 - $13.99 for prime ribeye but the family raises their beef locally and this is cattle country so I know we get somewhat better of a price here. Their filets are $17.99 - $18.99 but although that cut works well in some dishes I still believe a ribeye has the best flavor and texture. Now I'm hungry for steak again but there are some chicken breasts that need to be eaten tonight. Oh, well.

Yep, fake story and the reporter has been arrested. Was trying to bolster his reporting career by jumping on the heels of the real food problems in China.

As far as pork chops, and other meats and poultry, we buy it from a butcher shop and do only package two in a package. But, using pork as an example, we buy thick, bone-in pork chops and neither of us can always finish a whole one. And we're not thin people, but not overweight either. Just can't always finish it all. And even though they're not talking, I know in my heart the dogs are glad about that. Speaking of dogs, they are the best food critics of what you make because they will always eat it. Well, there have been one or two times that they've turned up their noses - what a way to hurt your feelings! I'm making some individual beef wellies for dinner tonight and the dogs can forget that one - if there's any left I'll eat them cold and leftover tomorrow! Grosses my wife out.

Chemo does very much suck. I haven't had it myself but my late wife did. I'm not being negative with the "late" comment, she was asymptomatic for too long - meaning she had no early symptoms where most people do for that type of cancer - so the diagnosis came too late. It was unusual. This was years ago and back then her oncologist got her on a new federal program wherein he was able to prescribe some THC (pot) pills for her and it really did help her appetite. We had to do a bunch of fed paperwork then and I doubt it is offered now since so many states have passed medical marijuana laws now. Whatever she felt she could eat and had a whim for something in particular, I'd run out and get it for her. Cancer sucks.

Butcher shops are a better place to buy meats, but unfortunately they can be hard to find at times. The big Red Meat Scare years ago caused many to close. At least around here, and this is cattle country (Oklahoma). We are fortunate to have a family owned mini-chain supermarket nearby that has a butcher shop in their meat department. It is attended by butchers who will gladly do special cuts if you would like. The beef in their case is only prime certified Angus that they have cut from the sides of beef. If you'd like,say, a porterhouse, they will put the tray of them on the top of the counter for you to choose one. No surprises like when you get the plastic and styro wrapped meat home to only turn it over and find out that the other side doesn't look too swift, hidden fat that should have been trimmed, etc. However the wrapped beef that their stores sell in the usual meat cases nearby is all choice Angus and is good as well, depending on what you're doing with it. For a good grilled steak I always go with the prime. The family/company raises their own Angus locally so it's not beef that has traveled for weeks in transport. They even have U.S. raised wagyu occasionally and I have broken down and spent the $40.00 a pound a couple of times. To me, even if you have to drive a ways to get good cuts of beef it is worth it. I also wonder if the porterhouse you bought was a select grade as opposed to choice? Of course, now I'm hungry for beef and luckily have all I need to make some individual beef wellies tonight. Yum. "Beef - it's what's for dinner"

Chufi - I wish we could get it down to no leftovers. The kids have left the nest for school for over two years now and even though we try hard to cook for two it just doesn't usually work out that way. We also shop often and have the butcher wrap things in portions we think would only be for two, but we still end up with leftovers. Usually small amounts, but when you spend a lot of time and money on a dish it is a shame to waste even small amounts. But before they "die in my fridge" (I liked that one) they get fed to our dogs as snacks. Sounds wasteful but not as wasteful as tossing them. The dogs certainly have no complaints. I tried some software - MasterCook - because you can use their recipes or plug in your own and then scale them down to serve two, but that didn't work well, not even as a guideline. I've plugged "cooking for two" into a search engine and a lot came up but I'd rather just not fool with all that.

I read that this morning. Not just cardboard but cardboard picked up from the ground.