French Dips, Oriental Cabbage Salad, and Baked Fudge

 While watching Food Network this morning, I saw The Pioneer Woman making french dips and baked fudge. They both looked so simple, so I thought I would give it a try. It was suppose to be Jake's night to cook but he was busy with band practice and a bowl a thon for band, so I thought I would be nice and go ahead and fix dinner. I did however change a few things in the first 2 recipes. For one, I wanted to try to use things I had in the house, 2nd it's close to payday so not a lot in the budget, and lastly, some of the ingredients are not allowed in Jake's diet.

 For the french dips she slow cooked a nice beef roast, I had 2 thick steaks I got on reduced for quick sale. I threw them in the the oven to cook, I coated them with some seasoning I got at grocery outlet, it's an A1 seasoning. For the dipping sauce, I took some beef broth and the drippings from the steak and put it in a sauce pan with 1 medium chopped onion and 3 cloves of garlic, I let that simmer for about 30 minutes. Then I added a package of french onion soup mix, 1 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs worcestershire, not in the recipe but I added 4 sliced mushrooms, and a tbs black pepper. I let that simmer. I let the steaks cool, then sliced it very thinly. When sauce was ready, she had drained it and then said to discard the onions and all the good stuff, but I didn't. I placed the sliced steak in the sauce for about 5 minutes. When I was ready to assemble the sandwiches I removed the steak from the sauce, I layered the steak on toasted bolio rolls, on my sandwich I put a layer of the steak and a layer of the onions and mushrooms. On the show she had added a slice of cheese, but Jake has had enough dairy for the week so I skipped that part.

 Earlier I made a salad with a recipe I got from a co worker. This is the original recipe, 2 tbs. sesame seeds, 1/2 cup sliced almonds, 1 tbs butter, 3/4 a head of shredded cabbage, 1 bunch sliced green onions, 1 package chicken top ramen, crushed, for the dressing 1 flavor packet from the top ramen, 2 tbs. sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 3 tbs. rice vinegar, 1 tbs. sesame oil, 1/4 tsp. pepper. Saute the sesame seeds and sliced almonds in the butter, set aside. Mix together the cabbage, green onions, toasted almonds, sesame seeds, and crushed top ramen. Combine the dressing ingredients and toss with salad before serving. So because of Jake's food allergies I had to change this up a bit. I just did not add the sesame seeds or the sesame oil. I did buy a small bag of almonds at the Dollar Tree but only added it to what I was going to eat. I also added some carrots and radishes, only because I like I to eat colorful foods. Instead of the vegetable oil I added olive oil, and omitted the sesame oil.

 I did make Jake make dessert, it was hard twisting his arm to get him to do it. Here is the simple recipe. 2 whole eggs, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbs (heaping) cocoa powder, 2 tbs flour, 1 stick of butter, melted (1/2 cup), 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Beat the eggs until light in color. Beat in the sugar until just combined, add the cocoa, flour, melted butter, and vanilla. Mix gently until well combined. Pour the batter into 4 large ramekins. Set the ramekins into a large baking pan halfway full of hot water, careful not to get the water into the ramekins. Bake until the upper crust is crispy and the rest of the batter is firm but not set, 40 to 50 minutes. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. We used some ice cream we had made a few days ago. Our recipe for that is 1 1/2 cups lactose free milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla, and a few squirts caramel ice cream topping, we put it in our ice cream maker. I had to have the ice cream and whip cream.