Happiness is Italian beef sandwiches and fries made at home

My version costs $2.13 a serving vs. $6.99 plus tax at Wally's in Park Ridge, IL. No offense to Wally's, who saved my sorry butt more than once in 1988.

The beef was $4.49/lb. The jar of peppers $3.35. The 8-pack of buns was a buck. The giant bag of french fries at Sam's was $6.88 for 32 servings!


















Italian Beef and French Fries

3.2 pounds beef chuck
1 jar Dell' Alpe Pepperoncini
1 package white hamburger buns
Ore Ida Fast Food Fries


Brown the chuck in a large cast iron skillet on medium, ten minutes on a side.

Drop the chuck into a Le Creuset oval oven, dump the pepperoncini on top and put on the lid.

Bake at 170 degrees F for ten hours.

Remove from the oven and reserve the peppers for serving, drain the liquid and shred the beef. Return shredded beef to the pan and keep warm, adding back juice to moisten as desired.

Bake the fries per the package directions.

Serve a half cup of the shredded beef on a bun with the fries on the side.

Easy peasy. Weepy cheapy.




h/t Don Wade, may he rest in peace

Happiness is Yogi Berra saying "If I had to do it over, I'd do it again"

Yogi Berra 1925-2015: May he rest in peace

Happiness is Chinese braised beef with 5-spice seasoning you can make from scratch

Chinese 5-spice seasoning


1.5 T anise seed
2.5 t fennel seed
1.5 t ground cinnamon
0.5 t ground black pepper
0.5 t ground white pepper (optional)
0.5 t ground clove
0.5 t ground ginger (optional)

If you use them all it's 7-spice seasoning, right?! The dominant spice is obviously the anise seed.

Put them all in a coffee grinder and pulse until powdery, about 15 seconds.

This was wonderful for a nice Chinese beef braise I made today.

Recipes for that will vary, but I used one teaspoon (t) of the above for about 3 pounds of beef chuck, as well as 6 big cloves of garlic pressed, a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root finely diced, a bunch of green onions chopped and .25 t hot red pepper flakes (or use a fresh red chilli pepper).

You coat the raw cubed beef with 2 T salted flour in a freezer bag and brown that in a pan in batches in oil. Take your time and do that right and you won't be sorry. The browned meat then goes into the crock pot, after which I very briefly sauteed the mixture above in the fat left in the pan, a couple of minutes.

Then I added 2 cups of beef stock I had ready, made from a bouillon cube, 3 T of Tamari sauce, 3 T of red wine and 2 t sugar to the pan, heating and scraping and mixing until nice and hot.

The contents of the pan go over the meat in the crock pot, then cover it and cook on low at least six hours.

Serve the meat and gravy over Jasmine rice with a vegetable on the side. I chose green peas.

It was so good I wanted seconds and thirds and fourths.

Happiness is Dominick's wild white Gulf of Mexico shrimp on sale for $8.99 a pound

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a coffee mug in the microwave, add 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and 3 teaspoons of hot curry powder.

Mix thoroughly.

Peel the shrimp and place in a broiler pan in a mound.

Pour on the mixture to coat, spread out in one layer and broil on high for 8 minutes.

Serve with pasta and a fresh vegetable.

Wedding anniversary dinner, just like that!

Happiness is a late summer grilled paprika pork chop served with a glass of cold Moscato

• Prepare a hot charcoal fire burned until all the tops are thoroughly gray, banked to one side.
• Season the pork chops liberally with kosher salt, ground black pepper, and paprika on both sides. Press the seasonings in with a fork.
• Grill for five minutes on a side with the grill cover on. First side over the coals, second side overlapping the perimeter of the coals, bone end over the coals. 
• Serve with fried green beans in butter and boiled potatoes, and a glass of cold, cheap Moscato.
• Happiness is that easy.

Happiness is the Reinheitsgebot of 1487

Happiness is Gussie Fink-Nottle saying "Madeline makes me sick!"

Richard Braine as Gussie

"Madeline! Don't talk to me about Madeline! Madeline makes me sick!" he hissed.

-- P. G. Wodehouse, Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, 1963

Happiness is an old Conway Twitty joke

Why wouldn't Kitty Carlisle marry Conway Twitty?

Because in the end she didn't want to be known as Kitty Twitty.

Happiness is French girls marching for the traditional family in Paris

To keep "who" and "whom" straight, just remember this

Bob "Zoey" Tur threatens Ben Shapiro

There once was a fairy named Bloom

who took a lesbian up to his room

They spent the whole night

having a fight

over who would do what with which to whom.

Happiness is a new clothes washing machine

GE Top Loader GTWN5650F2WS, a cross between an old fashioned agitator type and a high efficiency. You can fill it to the level you choose, or let the machine do the choosing for you. Retails for $699 and replaces a fancy Whirlpool Cabrio which failed in its seventh year. Now that I've caught up on all my laundry, I can state that I'm very pleased with the ease of use, performance and appearance. And Lowe's does a great job from in store experience through installation.

Which gin are you?

I'm a Beefeater. Take the gin quiz here.

Happiness is that he came home a winner . . . 70 years ago

Happiness is the rich almost chocolatey taste of Kimbo Espresso napoletano

Happiness is new product available exclusively at Lowe's

Here.

Happiness is a sunny 76 degree F Sunday and a gin and tonic

Happiness is clean running water

One in nine in the world lacked access to safe water last year, about 11% of the world's population in 2014.

Happiness is an actual email from Radio Hall of Famer Garry Meier

We miss you Garry! Enjoy the beach! WGN's nuts!

Yeah their nuts, and their ankles, too.

Johnsonville hits a homer with its all new Naturals line of sausages and bratwurst

I tried a package of the Mild Italian sausages last night, and they were tremendous, and no headache the day after either because they contain no MSG. The package says "Mild" but these sausages pack a nice little punch which reminds you of a hot Italian sausage without being hot.

They bake up a wonderful golden brown in the oven in no time at all, and go wonderfully with pasta and red sauce.

Thank you, Johnsonville.

Happiness is the first rain of spring

Sweet rain is falling

the grass is growing green

children look to heaven

their faces washing clean.

-- Honeytree's "Sweet Rain", 1973