Recipe Share: DIY McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning

My most missed spice seasoning blend.

*Mad Scientist laugh*  I've done it!!!  I've finally cracked the "code" to make a good variation of McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning that is garlic free!!!

Ahem.  Okay, well it's not perfect, but it's still a darn good spice mix if I do say so myself.  This would be a good one if you just don't want to shell out a whole bunch of money to buy grill seasoning too (which I used to do without even a second thought.  I still miss some of my spice blends).

I'm still working on a Worcestershire Sauce alternative (I THINK I'm on the right track now), but for the time being folks, here's a good spice blend to start your day.  By the way, blogging was delayed over the weekend because something in my internet connection died.  After doing everything but beating my computer with a rubber chicken and shouting, "Out!  Out! You demons of stupidity!!!" I was able to get my internet connection working today through some miracle.  Even with little sleep and a bad chest cold.  So, yay me :).

This recipe is actually a tweak off of a recipe that my mom sent me that my sister found online on some forum a while back, so don't ask me where it originally came from as I have no idea.   But, anyway, here's my attempt to make a good alternative to McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning.  Enjoy!

DIY Montreal Steak Seasoning

• 4 TBS salt
• 1 TBS ground black pepper 
• 1 TBS onion powder or 1 1/2 TBS dehydrated onion
  
• 1 Teaspoon Cheyenne Pepper, or to taste (or you can substitute 1/2 TBS crushed red pepper flake)
• 1/2 TBS dried thyme
• 1/2 TBS dried rosemary
• 1/2 TBS dried fennel seed
• 1 Teaspoon dried orange or lemon peel

1.  This is essential.  If you are use "chunky" bits in the recipe above (dehydrated onion, chunky sea salt, thyme leaves, whole rosemary leaves, etc) instead of powders you will want to put them ALL through a coffee grinder for a few pulses to make a powder along with the fennel seed.  This VASTLY improves the final quality of your spice mix and makes it adhere to meat better and incorporate into ground meats MUCH better.  I learned this the hard way.

2.  If not using chunky pieces, place your orange and/or lemon peel (I've used both home made dried orange zest and lemon zest in this, so I ended up with bigger pieces that needed some pulsing) in a coffee grinder along with the fennel seed.  Pulse a few times to make it more "powder like" and then add all ingredients to a mason jar, shake to combine well and store in a shaker or spice container of choice.

Use as you would grill seasoning in all of your grill seasoning needs.

I have tweaked this recipe a LOT and tried doing the "chunkier" version like McCormick does where you could actually see things like the fennel seed, but it just plain didn't work as home made versions tend to lack the binders that commercial products use (like starches) to get them to adhere to the meat or something. Honestly, I'm not sure if they add anything to their spices, but all I know is that every time I did it where I didn't at least partially grind the spices first I'd just end up with a very bare piece of meat after it was all said and done because the seasonings would just plain fall off of whatever I was grilling/browning...especially things like fennel seed.  And with just plain dehydrated onions, unless you were cooking say meatloaf, the onions just wouldn't cook/rehydrate before the meat was done, so you'd end up with a pretty crunchy onion-tasting piece of meat.  Not my thing.

I am very pleased with how the powdered version worked, though.  I even found that I LIKE the Cheyenne pepper in it, and I'm usually not a person who likes heat in my spice mixes (I'm not even sure what inspired me to put that in there honestly *laugh*).  It gives a LITTLE bit of heat in the background, but nothing too over-powering and you don't even miss the garlic (least I don't).  If you can add garlic to your things or like garlic, I'd add like 1 teaspoon to 1/2 TBS garlic powder to the mix too.

So, there you are folks.  My own home made recipe for grill seasoning.  Enjoy it!

Cheap (and Healthy) Eats: Make Your Own Cereal

Thanks to Wikipedia for use of the image

And no, this isn't your usual fare of "Make Your Own Granola" you see everywhere (although I really do miss home made granola *laugh*).  This article is really cool and you can quickly make these recipes as allergy and gluten free as you need without needing a lot of creativity to do it :).

Go HERE where Rodale.com shares different recipes for home made cereals.  I love some of the ideas for puffed cereal and am really thinking of trying my hand at making my own flake cereals :).

Thanks to Kaleidoscope Farmer's Market (Facebook Page) for sharing this!

Have Fun With Your Food: How to Make Yogurt!

Image Courtesy of Faithful Provisions

Main reason I'm sharing this is because I'm making it tonight and am praying it comes out okay *laugh* (I'm just making 2 quarts though).  I bought some Vosko's yogurt special at Carrs to try this (look for live active cultures in your plain yogurt for your yogurt starter).  I hope it comes out okay, as I'm looking forward to some yogurt pie (one day I'll share the recipe), frozen yogurt and smoothies in my near future.

Go HERE where Frugal Granola shares a recipe for making yogurt that is so simple even I'm thinking of trying it *laugh*.

Enjoy!

DIY: How to Make Butter (super easy)

Thanks to "Over the Hill and on a Roll" for use of the image!

And yes, this DOES work with ultra pasteurized cream.  It DID take I'd say about 8 or 9 minutes, though, not five (I used Organic Cream).  Just wait and if you have a super duper powerful mixer (like my Viking) you MIGHT want to turn it down from the ultra high setting or all it does is continue to whip the stuff into an emulsion instead of getting the separation of buttermilk from milk fats like you want.  I whipped the cream for a good 7 minutes or so with nothing but hard peaks forming and then turned my Viking down to about speed setting 8 (down from 12) and it started to IMMEDIATELY separate :).

2 Pints of cream yielded me 1 lb of butter.  For about 5.00 total cost (and if you can find regular heavy cream, not organic on reduced it'd be cheaper yet!) I thought that was pretty awesome for home made butter :).

I just used my kitchen scale, made the butter into 4 oz packages (since butter weighs the same by weight as by volume) to make "sticks" and then sort of jammed it into a block like shape in some wax paper and then I froze the now wrapped sticks stacked in a Gladware container (can never be too safe from freezer funk).  So now I have home made butter to go with special occasions.  Booyah!

So, go HERE where Over the Hill and on a Roll shows you how to make butter in under 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

DIY Thanksgiving Style: Spiced Pear and Cranberry Relish

Thanks to "Daily Bites" for use of the image!

Ever since I got the recipe for a cranberry relish off of my husband's grandmother I have made it every Thanksgiving since.  Course, the recipe I use is much shorter than this one, but I can't say enough good things about cranberry relish.  I SO prefer it to the jellied cranberry goup that comes in the can :).

Go HERE where Daily Bites shares a really yummy sounding Spiced Pear Cranberry Relish recipe for your table this year. 

Just as a note, yes you can omit the nuts (if you have allergies in the house) and it'd taste just fine without it :). 

Enjoy!

We Preserve It Wednesday (late): How to Make Crock Pot Yogurt

Thanks to savingslifestyle.com for use of the photo!

Okay, so I've gotten a really low batting average on doing these posts consistently on time.  Sorry folks!  But, anyway, if you're trying to preserve some milk that is going to go bad in your fridge you can go HERE where "Savings Life Style shows you how to make home made yogurt in your crock pot.

A couple of quick notes though. Try not to use ultra-pasteurized milk as it doesn't set with the bacteria in the yogurt (too many bacteria in the milk get killed I think), always look for live active cultures in your yogurt when buying your "starter" and be prepared that home made yogurt is NOT going to be as thick as store bought yogurt as most store bought yogurts have corn starch added to them to thicken them up (always good to know that for any possible corn intolerances out there too :).

DIY: Caramel Cheesecake Dessert Dip

Thanks to "Fake it Frugal" for use of the image!

Okay, so back into the blogging saddle I go *laugh*.  It's been a long week, so sorry for the lack of posts.  Today I had a BUNCH of posts planned, but my husband threw a monkey wrench into the works by wanting to take the kids to Bouncing Bears for the first time (well my son started the making the day start late by staying up till 6:00 am so I ended up dozing on and off till 10:00...sort of wrecks your morning when you sleep that late)...and honestly how could I say no?  So, once we got home from doing that and running to Target (diaper and wet wipe run) we got home, played outside, I made dinner (and only set of the smoke alarm twice...I love grease bubble overs) and so yeah...that pretty much describes my day in a nutshell.

At any rate, when I saw this I HAD to share it.  This is such a CUTE dip!  It'd look awesome on a Thanksgiving Day table!   It sounds like it could potentially sock on about 10 lbs onto your body frame, but you'd so enjoy getting there too ;).

So, go HERE where Fake it Frugal teaches you how to make your own Cheesecake Dessert Dip.  Can anyone say, "Yum"?

Enjoy!

We Preserve It Wednesday (early): How to Make Crock Pot Applesauce

Thanks to Good Cheap Eats for use of the photo!

Looking for a way to use some of those cheap apples at Fred Meyer this week?  How about making and freezing some apple sauce for use this winter?

Go HERE where Good Cheap Eats shows you how to make apple sauce in your crock pot (talk about EASY!).  You could also can this when you were done too if you wanted :).

Enjoy!

We Preserve It Wednesday: How to Make Salmon Pickles and Squaw Candy

Sorry for the lack of posts.  It was a busy day just in general, but then I cut up my home made soap (the real stuff this time :) into bars and had to find a good place to cure them so that took a bit.  So, needless to say, blogging took a back seat to real life today.

Okay, so Matt, one of our blog readers who follows us on Facebook asked me to share the recipe I linked to for one of our readers on Facebook about Squaw Candy Recipes.  Seems like some of you out there have time to do this thing called "fishing" and get these things called "salmon" that will sit in your freezer for quite a while and you want different methods to help preserve them.  Well, I'm here to help :).

Go HERE where Free Republic.com did a neat article on how to make salmon pickles and salmon candy (aka squaw candy).

And if you want to try something faster, I found this recipe through the Alaska Extension Service.

Go HERE where "Cook Eat Share" shows you how to make an 8 hour squaw candy that gets pretty good reviews.

Enjoy!

Keep Warm When the Weather Turns Cold: Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (Gluten Free Friendly!)

Thanks to Good Life Eats for use of the photo!

Yes, yes yes I have a pumpkin problem this year, what can I say?  I'm seriously just enjoying the taste of the stuff in all kinds of dishes (and in my coffee...yum!).

Go HERE where Good Life Eats shows you how to make Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.  I'm so making this this weekend :).

And by the way, to the gluten free folk out there (and really peanut allergic too) this recipe can EASILY be adapted to fit your needs.  Just use gluten free oatmeal and gluten free vanilla and you're set.  And if you're peanut free...well I'd use Blue Diamond almonds since they aren't processed in a facility with peanuts and just omit the pecans myself...haven't found a non-contaminated pecan yet :).

Enjoy!

Home Made Peppermint Patties: A Yummy Christmas Gift Idea

Image Courtesy of Google

Holy COW, I can't believe I have gone this far in my life without joining Lynn's Kitchen Adventures e-mail subscriber list.  I've gotten her recipes for the last week and man not only do they make me hungry, but they are also motivating me to bake more :). And if you join her mailing list right now you can click the link in your e-mail to download her free e-book for entertaining for the holidays (the reason I joined the mailing list to tell the truth).

I wanted to share one of the recipes because I think it would make an awesome Christmas gift.  I made home made chocolates for my husband for our first anniversary (with some help from my "more crafty than I am at the whole candy making thing" sister-in-law) because we were so terribly broke and nothing looks more awesome than some home made chocolates put into a little box with some tissue paper (and Target sells the little boxes for like 2.50 for like four of them, so if you make more than just enough for one person's gifts, you can get off REALLY nice and cheap...and yummy :).

Lynn shares a recipe HERE for home made peppermint patties.  They look pretty darn simple to make, sound totally delicious and I seriously can't wait to try making them.  Just remember to store home made chocolates in the fridge so they don't melt.  That can be messy.