Salisbury Steak

Today I went to my local Farmer's Market.  I had a $100 budget.  I spent $40 at my favorite butcher shop.  I got 3 pounds of fresh ground chuck <poor chuck :) >, a 12 pack of pre-made jalapeno poppers, a dozen lumpia.  At Skipper Farms http://www.skipperfarms.com/ I also spent almost $40 on 2 bottles of their very own produced honey (made right here in Chesapeake!!!), some small new red potatoes, some HUGE white mushrooms and a big beefsteak tomato.  Of course, we stopped in at the bakery for some Red Velvet truffles for Billieanne, some Peanut Butter balls for Breezy, strawberry banana bread for Nick and a Turtle cheesecake for Paulina.  I think I spent the remaining $20 bucks there!  Total yum.  I also grabbed about a pound of yellow squash from another farm vendor.

I came home and decided to make Salisbury Steak.  I have only ever had the frozen icky kind that is really cheap in the red package at the store but I knew I could do way better.  I did not really have a recipe to follow, I just did what I usually do and stood in front of the stove and threw stuff in a pot.

  I mixed 1 1/2 pounds of my ground chuck with seasoned bread crumbs, garlic salt, garlic powder, mesquite seasoning and an egg.  While the meat rested a bit, I chopped up half a large sweet onion and sauteed it in some real butter.  I patted my ground chuck mixture into five fairly fat, large patties.  I pulled out the BIG skillet for this and started browning the patties on medium high heat.

While this was browning, I rinsed my red potatoes and threw them in a big pot to start boiling.  I also got my sweet daughter Paulina to wipe off my mushrooms to get rid of any excess dirt.  It was fun sharing with her how you don't put them in water as they absorb so much and they have so much water in them already.

After browning the meat on both sides, normally you would have to drain excess grease from the hamburger BUT since my meat was so high quality coming from the butcher, there was almost none so I left what little there was still in the pan.  I threw my sauteed onions on top.  I took a can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup (a large one) and mixed it with a soupcan of milk and poured this over my meat.

While this started to heat up, I sliced my large mushrooms and added them to the mix.  I think I addded almost a pound! They were huge and yummy.  Next I sprinkled on a dry Brown Gravy mix from McCormick.  I think it was my secret weapon.  It gave the gravy a rich flavor.  I added more milk.  And, by the way.....it's not just any ole' milk.  This milk came from Oberweiss dairy.  Yum, the best.  I put the lid on and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

While all this was going on, I sliced my yellow squash and started sauteeing in real butter.  My potatoes were boiling and I threw the jalapeno poppers in the oven.  The only thing that would have made it better was some fresh bread.  Oh well! It was SO yummy.  The gravy should be declared a food group all on its own!  I wish I had taken pictures but we inhaled it all before any thought of photographic evidence could be taken!!