The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

REAL Taco a.k.a. Carne Asada

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Tomorrow is Tuesday, so dinner calls for TACOS!  Taco Tuesday is something my family can always get behind.  It satisfies my husbands Mexican craving and it is such an easy meal to adapt for the kiddos.  This recipe has a lot of names- Street Tacos, Carne Asada, Steak tacos, Taco bus tacos, but at our house there is only one name I need to say and everyone knows what I am talking about- REAL Tacos.

The Rancher lived in Mexico, near Tijuana, for a couple of years and fell in love with ALL Mexican food and all the things that makes Mexican food so good.  Things like freshly squeezed lime juice, avocado, pico de gallo, and cilantro.  These are some of the critical things that make these tacos REAL tacos.  But the kicker is the beef.  A flank steak, thinly sliced and marinated with lime juice, cilantro, and jalapeno with a little seasoning, flame grilled for just a few minutes on each side and it is SO GOOD! Its so good that you don’t even have to have it on a Tuesday.

Just a few tips when you make this delish dish.  I have seen some grocery stores that carry a cut of meat called carne asada that is made just for sort a thing.  It is thinly sliced and ready for the marinade.  But you could also grab a flank steak and do the cutting yourself.  If this is the case, when I say thin, I mean super thin.  Like 1/8″ thin.  Between the thin slices and the great grain, you have tender bites perfect for a taco!  It will be a little easier to cut thin if it is a little frozen and if you start in the center of your steak and cut towards the ends.

When it comes time to grill your carne asada, you are going to want a hot grill.  The idea is that you are only going to grill it for a few minutes on each side so you want a good sear on the outside without losing the juices in the middle.  Salting the meat, even just a little, will help keep the juices from dripping out as it cooks.  Let the meat rest for a few minutes and then cut it up across the grain for the best tacos your Tuesday has ever seen!

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Carne Asada

The best tacos your Tuesday will ever see!  These tacos start as thinly sliced steak marinated in spices, cilantro, freshly squeezed lime juice, and jalapeno, grilled hot and end up as taco perfection! 

Ingredients

  • 1/4 Cup olive oil
  • 2 limes, juiced
  • 1/2 Cup cilantro, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno, diced
  • 1-1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 lb flank or skirt steak

Instructions

  • Cut steak into 1/8" thin slices and place in glass baking dish.  In a separate bowl. mix together all other ingredients.  Pour over steak and make sure that all sides are well coated.  Let marinate for at least 30 minutes.
  • Heat grill up to high heat.  Place steak on the grill and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from the grill, wrap in tinfoil and let rest 10 minutes.  Cut into thin slices against the grain.
  • Serve tacos on your favorite tortillas- corn, white, or homemade!  Top with pico de gallo, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, lime juice, queso or your favorite taco Tuesday fixins!

French Dip Sandwiches

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**Before you start reading this…. I need to say something up front.  I am no food photographer. HAHA… If the pictures don’t look too appetizing, I apologize.  But I do make a promise that every recipe is delicious, easy and family friendly!

Dinner time can be a fight, yes?  It can be hard come up with something easy and fast and something that everyone likes.  When we find something we like we hang on to it for dear life.

Over the last few years our little family has collected a good handful of beef recipes that we come back to time and time again.  One of the first recipes that I loved as a new wife and head chef in my home was these French Dip Sandwiches.  It was easy, it called for ingredients I already had on hand, and it was so GOOD.  It was something that worked well for just me and The Rancher but it was also a great option to feed a crowd.  And it works for feeding the little people in my life too.  If they aren’t interested in a sandwich, the roast makes for a great supper.

This is a pretty ideal recipe when you need something to through in the crock pot early in the day and you want it ready for dinner when you come home.  Come time to eat, all you will have to do is slice up the roast, load up your buns (ha…ha…) and pour a little broth in a bowl.  Then dinner is on.

We dress up this sandwich in all different ways.  I like it with some fancy cheese when I can but The Rancher just puts on good ol’ American cheese (we affectionately call it “slimey cheese”).  Sometimes we cook up some onions and peppers and add them to the mix.  Most times The Rancher puts a little steak sauce on with it.  And every time, we have the yummiest sandwiches ever!

Just a few tips when it comes to making these French Dip Sandwiches. 

-Toasting the buns will help keep your sandwich from getting too soggy.

-If you want the cheese melted, pile it on your meat and put ONLY the meat and cheese in the microwave.  This will keep the bun from getting soggy.

-To change up your sandwich, add peppers, onions, cheese, or mushrooms.

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French Dip Sandwiches

A simple recipe for a delicious and easy dinner that the whole family will love.  A beef roast sandwich dipped in savory broth that will hit the spot every time!

Ingredients

  • 3 pound chuck roast
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/3 cup soil sauce
  • 1 tbsp onion flakes
  • 1 tsp italian seasonings
  • 1/8 tsp garlic powder
  • 3-4 peppercorns
  • 6 buns

Instructions

  • Place the roast in the crock pot.  Salt and pepper the roast.  Mix together the water, soy sauce, onion flakes, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and peppercorns.  Pour over the roast.  Cover and cook the roast 7-8 hours on low.  When getting ready to serve, ladle off the fat from the broth.  Remove the beef and cut into thin slices.  To serve, fill buns with roast beef and serve with broth for dipping.

Notes

*Toast the buns to keep the bread from getting too soggy.
*Add cheese, cooked onions or peppers to spice things up. 

Going Nuts Over Branding

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With all of my years of ranching and branding there is something that I have never done.  Ok, there are plenty of ranchy-branding things that I haven’t done… But there is one that I took pride in not doing until just a few weeks ago.  I don’t know if I should be proud for what I did, but I did it.

Here is what I did- I ate a nut.  Not like a nut nut, but like a calf nut.  A lemon peppered, battered, deep fried calf testicle.

Gross, I know.

Like I said, I don’t know if I’m proud of myself for doing it, but I did.

My brother-in-law, Cowboy Pete, had some buddies that thought it would be a great idea to fry up some nuts and have a party about it.  So all day long, we were collecting nuts as we were branding.  He even had his mom bring a tupperware with water that he had in the cooler with the vaccines to keep the nuts clean and cool.  He went to some pretty extensive lengths to make sure that everything would be just right for their dinner that night. 

So Cowboy Pete gets home, pulls out the nuts and made up his own little recipe for some gourmet fried nuts.  All day he kept telling me that he was going to bring them over for me to try and I just laughed him off, so sure that he wasn’t going to do it and even if he did cook some, he wouldn’t bring them over. 

But he did.  

He comes over with his buddies and his plate of fried testicles and wafted them in front of my face as if its tantalizing aroma would be something I couldn’t resist.  He grinned from ear to ear as he was trying to convince me just how good it was and that I HAD to try them.

I waffled back and forth on what I should do.  Because really, one bite wouldn’t kill me.  And if it was nasty, I could just spit it out.  But I didn’t want to give in to him and justify his claim that his deep fried calf testes were good. 

Just then, my husband reached over grabbed one and took a bite.  I was super surprised because no one had been goading him to eat one and he JUST DID IT!  And he liked it!  Or at least I think he did.  He at least didn’t spit it out, although he didn’t have another bite so maybe he didn’t like it so much.

After that, I knew I had to do it.  If I didn’t, I would be the weak one.  The one that wasn’t brave enough to even eat a little nut.  So I took a bite.

I still shudder to think about what I did.  I stooped to eating genitalia…  Gross.  Except, it was good.  Or at least not bad.  They seasoned them enough that it just tasted like a lemon pepper beef nugget (like chicken nugget, but beef… get it?).

Now I have done it all.  And I will likely never do it again.  Cowboy Pete did say that no self respecting ranch blogger couldn’t call themselves legit without trying a nut at least once. I tried it once, now I’m legit and have great credibility with my people, right?

Let me know if you want Cowboy Pete’s Deep Fried Calf Nut recipe ;). 

Dinner For a Rancher

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The other night I made dinner and, as our life goes about now, The Rancher had to head out just as I was putting it on the table.  I fed the kids and myself a tasty dinner of grilled steaks, fresh pineapple, salad, and green beans.  Everything I love and my kids too!  It went over with flying colors and any dinner that I don’t have to coax my kids to eat every bite is considered a win.

But with The Rancher it was a whole different situation. 

He came home sat down ready to eat.  I was pumped for the steak and the pineapple was a fun treat.  But he looked at me and we had this conversation:

Him: “So where is the rest of the food?”

Me: “The rest of it?  I think you got it all out.”

Him:  “But, like… where is the filling stuff?”

Me:  “The filling stuff?  What does that even mean?”

Him: “Like potatoes or something.  I’ll eat this, but I’m still gonna be hungry if I eat JUST this!”

I couldn’t help but just laugh and laugh!  Heaven forbid he had some fruit and veggies in his diet.  He thinks that he is going to shrivel up and die if he doesn’t have meat and potatoes for every meal.  Actually, I did hear him say once (and I’m sure it will be the only time in his life!) that he was a little tired of potatoes…   But that only lasted a few days.

But seriously, cooking for a rancher can be tough.  With such a physically demanding job, he needs some serious calories to help him make it through the day.  Over the years I have learned a few things about cooking for a rancher.

Things like how a salad will never cut it for him.  It may be yummy and it may be nutritious, but it will only last about an hour before he is back in the house looking for a snack to help him make it to the end of the day.  Only once has a salad been ok and that was on a hot summer night when the idea of a hot meal was just more than he could handle.  Lesson here is, a salad can only be a side, not the entree!

It may be because we raise beef, but I’ve learned that EVERY meal needs to have meat in it.  I didn’t even have to attempt a meatless meal to learn this lesson!  I think it came with the wedding proposal, something like, “Honey, will you marry me and not EVER make dinner without some meat in it?”  I can’t blame him though.  Protein is essential part of a healthy diet and it is even more essential for a physically demanding job like his.

Making sure the menu meets his criteria isn’t the only thing I had to learn when I started cooking for The Rancher.  His daily schedule is anything BUT predictable, which means that his dinner schedule is also anything but predictable.  So what I do is ask him what time he thinks he will be home, add at least 45 minutes to that, but make sure that the table is set if he manages to make it in early so it looks like I believed him.  Ok, not really…  I think we have had a few reheated meals or overcooked and mushy noodles or the kids and I eat without The Rancher.  Its what happens when dinner is on schedule and a calf needs pulled, a cow gets out or something breaks down.  Its what happens when you are married to a rancher!

Dinner for a rancher isn’t typical or predictable. Usually I don’t even know what is for dinner until it was time to get fixing and all to often I have to ask The Rancher what he wants for dinner (and his usual reply is “I dunno…”).  But dinner at our house is delicious, nutritious, never meatless, and full of love, because every dinner is a chance I have to take care of my rancher so he can do a little bit better at his job.

What is dinner look like at your house?

About Me

Hello! I'm Allison, The Rancher's Wife! There's nothing I love more than being out on the ranch with my husband and kids. Join me for a look at what goes on here at the ranch and the life being a rancher's wife!

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