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.
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):
(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):
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.