A Beef Jerky Kind of Day

The weather here in Calgary has not been kind this last week... After weeks of balmy unseasonably warm temperatures and no snow, we got hit hard with frigid -29 and colder days along with a few inches of snow.  After what seemed like forever (only 5 wicked days) we got the news that Saturday was going to be a welcome relief at only -12.
In anticipation of some tobogganing weather, I decided to prepare some yummy snacks to take along and keep us fueled for the inevitable, repeated trips up the hill. First thing that came to mind was beef jerky.
A little prep goes a long way when toboganning with kids... having snacks and drinks ready to go makes a couple of hours at the hill a breeze!

Here is my recipe for a yummy jerky marinade:
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup Worcestershire
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper
1 Tbsp liquid smoke (I like the mesquite with this recipe, but have used hickory which was nice too)
1 Tbsp tobasco or your favorite hot sauce (totally optional)

Mix all ingredients together and pour over thinly sliced meat (I use beef, but this would also work for deer, elk or moose)
Marinate overnight and then dehydrate in your oven or dehydrator at 160 F.
I slice my meat around 1/8 of an inch thick and it is finished dehydrating in about 3 hours.

This is a super awesome energy boost when out toboganning, hiking, camping or even when you're sacked out playing video games.
I served mine with hot chocolate :-)

Enjoy!

Getting Coloured On... AKA Tattoos

Permanent art... Some people like them... Some people hate them. I love them! Well, I love mine... Good thing, cause they are permanent. I just had some work done this afternoon and thought i'd share it with.... The Entire World.

My Salsa Doesn't Come From A Jar.

So I was just whipping Up some salsa and thought... Hey! I downloaded a mobile blog app on my phone so I'm going to attempt to use It! Weird... It capitalizes strange things... Anyways... Salsa is my favorite condiment, and i'm not talking about the somewhat homoginous (yeesh how is that word spelled?) Stuff that comes out of dusty jars on a grocers shelf. I mean the good stuff!
So here's my recipe(ish). Play with It. Taste It. Make adjustments to your liking.

This time I used:
2 mangoes
2 tomatoes
1 onion
2 limes (just the juice)
1 yellow pepper
1 small bunch of cilantro
And this is Dead simple... Chop Up the ingredients... Squeeze lime juice over it and mix. Taste. Add salt & pepper if you like. Add a jalepeno... I didn't because the kids don't like it like that.
I've used peaches or upped the tomato and omitted the fruit. Whetever you like. Just enjoy. Serve with tortilla chips or over chicken.

Here I Am I Am Here

So... I bet there are a lot of posts like these out there... and by 'there' I mean on the internet... which is to say that there are a lot of posts like this existing anywhere and everywhere..... a post where someone says "Hey internet! I have a voice...." okay... maybe voice isn't the right word because typed words can only be heard by someone in the room where the words are being typed... and then they don't really know what the words are, it's just the incessant tapping of fingers on keys.... Anyways... what I mean to say is this: I have officially reserved a place online for me to post stuff. Maybe ramble on about what I think is really going on... maybe I'll post cute stories about how much I love my kiddos or maybe I'll post my favorite recipes... or maybe just pictures of my favorite recipes.... maybe I'll post pictures of my dog with cutsie captions like those cat sites... (but probably not). Most importantly I am just going to chronicle my existence and the things that I find important or interesting. So without further ado...... (this is where I wish I could have one of those super awesomely dorky 'Hello my name is' stickers) Hi, I'm Angela.... my friends call me Ange. Nice to meet you :)