In a past career, I used to travel quite a bit. In many cases I was traveling three out of four weeks. While I love travel, it can get a little old at times but it does allow you to see some interesting places, and as importantly, eat at some great restaurants.
When I travelled, I made it a priority to call home virtually every night I was on the road to talk to my family. I found that a good time was often when my work day was done and before I headed out to a restaurant. Depending on the time zone I happened to be in, I would often catch my family preparing or eating dinner. Invariably, I would ask what they were having.
The Ranting Wife can cook, but when it was just her and two young boys, she often went for both convenience and foods that would be easily accepted by the boys. So often her answers was things like pizza, mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. The Ranting Wife would then ask me what I had planned for the evening. Often I would have plans to go to a great restaurant and possibly some entertainment after but always felt guilty telling her that, so sometimes it would be “um, I don’t know…I’ll probably stay in and order room service.” I rarely ordered room service.
One regular staple that I stocked for the family when I was traveling was Oncor Salisbury Steak. I think of the 40 or so boxes I’ve purchased in my life, I’ve only eaten out of five of them.
Classic Salisbury Steak
Not Oncor, but besides being a little blurry, it was rather good.
Beef, shrooms and a few other items.
Flatten out patties and fry in onions.
Saute the shrooms.
Make the gravy.
And serve.
Classic Salisbury Steak
source Tastebook.com
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound extra-lean ground beef
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons dry whole-wheat bread crumbs (just toast some bread and crumble)
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon horseradish
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, divided
- 1 can beef broth (14 oz )
- 3 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- slices of wheat bread
DIRECTIONS
In medium bowl, combine first 6 ingredients, mixing lightly but thoroughly, then shape into 4 oval ½-inch-thick patties.
In a skillet over medium heat, heat oil until hot and place patties in the skillet. Cook about 7 to 8 minutes or until no longer pink and the juices run clear, turning just once. Remove patties from skillet and keep warm.
In the same skillet, sauté mushrooms till soft. Remove mushrooms and add broth, using a wire whisk to scrape up the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Allow broth to simmer till slightly reduced. Mix cornstarch with cold water, mixing well till combined (no lumps!). Add to broth mixture and cook over medium heat (it needs to simmer) for 3 to 5 minutes or until thickened. Add back the mushrooms and stir well, serving the mushroom gravy over patties on top of bread slices.
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
I agree, nothing like expense account to try new things on
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I took my mother on a trip to the Bahamas for her 70th birthday. Her favorite meal on the entire trip was the Salisbury Steak on the airplane. She was not a very adventurous diner.
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Reblogged this on Brownhills Barry's Blog.
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