Once More Unto The Beef, My Friends
It's late February, and on the ACBN, that means it's BEEF WEEKEND
[I awaken from a dream in which I was visited by three ghosts who delivered a sobering message about my fate. Hurrying to the window, I throw open the sash]
ME: You there, boy! What day is it?
THE VICTORIAN STREET URCHIN I PAY TO HANG OUT IN MY FRONT YARD INSTEAD OF JUST BUYING A CALENDAR: Why, ‘tis Beef Weekend, sir! [coughs]
ME: Beef Weekend! I haven’t missed it! The spirits did it all in one night! Of course they can! They can do anything!
URCHIN: Are you sure you didn’t just have weird dreams after eating Skyline again? That stuff’s not good for you.
ME: Has my wife been talking to you again
URCHIN: She told me not to say
ME: Nevermind that. Do you know the butcher shop in the next street?
URCHIN: Yes, sir, I do!
ME: An intelligent lad. A remarkable lad!
URCHIN: You send me there like twice a week.
ME: You know the prize beef in the front window?
URCHIN: The one twice as big as me?
ME: That’s a really weird way to describe a piece of meat, you know. Just a note going forward. But now that you say that, it probably is too big for my purposes today. Tell you what, can you just run to Kroger and pick up a couple pounds of ground beef and some hot dogs?
URCHIN: And some eggs, sir?
ME: What? No. I’m not made of money. Now, off with you, boy! [hurls some coins at his head]
URCHIN: [coughing consumptively as he trudges to the store] You know, Kroger delivers.
Friends, it’s Friday again at The Action Cookbook Newsletter, and it’s a very special Friday.
It’s Beef Weekend! (The urchin out front shoulda told ya.)
If you’re a longtime reader of the ACBN, you already know what I’m talking about, but if you don’t, well, some background. Way back in 2020, I decided that this time of year needed a new holiday—specifically, a culinary holiday to break up the lull between the Super Bowl and grilling season.
I dubbed it Beef Weekend.
What does one do on “Beef Weekend”?
I dunno. I usually just make a beef-focused recipe.
Is it a thin premise for a holiday? Sure. But my kids were off school this week for something called “Presidents’ Day” (?), so the bar is honestly pretty low.
I’ve had a good deal of fun doing this over the years.
Scott Hines
Scott Hines
Scott Hines
Scott Hines
Scott Hines
I’ve also had some pretty great recipes come from this, including my Julia Child-inspired spin on Sloppy Joes, “Sloppy Julias”, a Coca-Cola Braised Beef with Chipotle Peppers, a childhood favorite known as Chestnut Burrs, and my kid-friendly Scout Dad’s Chili (one I’ll be making again this weekend for my son’s Pinewood Derby):
Scott Hines
Scott Hines
Scott Hines
Scott Hines(This is where I should note that I really don’t cook beef at home all that often, and if you don’t eat meat, I suggest you check out my Thicc Vegan Chili, a robust, rib-sticking blend that I made without the use of any fake meat substitutes):
Scott Hines
ANYWAYS. That’s a lot of intro.
It’s Friday, and I’ve got a fun beef-centric recipe at the heart of another jam-packed ACBN Friday Newsletter—a recipe I’m pairing with an inventive cocktail, some exciting new music, a terrific book, and more!
It’s Friday, and we’ve got beef.
In which I show a cross-cultural appreciation for a weird meat sauce served over spaghetti
To tell you how precisely I arrived at making today’s recipe, I should give you some backstory.
A couple of weeks ago, my son got to go on an overnight snow-tubing trip for his friend’s birthday, and my daughter was feeling a bit left out. She loves cute things, and my wife had just seen an Instagram post for a new “kawaii” themed pop-up shop near us with karaoke machines, claw machines and all sorts of imported toys and candies. We took her, and she had a blast.
While she was working on getting a stuffed Yoshi out of one of the machines, I took to perusing their racks of imported foodstuffs.
