Ooh la la!

Last night was French Dip and they were delicieux.

I made my regular roast beef--take a rump roast, trim off most of the fat, cut slits in it and stuff garlic cloves in the holes, then cover the whole thing with lemon pepper. I roast that on a rack in a pan for 1-2 hours, depending on the size and shape of the meat. This method, guaranteed to make a tasty roast, unfortunately turns the pan juices to carbon. So this time, I transferred the roast to a dish when it was done and collected all the juices that came out while it was resting.
Then on to the dip part of the French Dip--to make au jus, I read a bunch of recipes on line and settled on a mixture of styles. I minced an onion and 4 gloves of garlic and sauteed them in butter. Then I added a little dried thyme and rosemary. I added a healthy slug of red wine, the collected juices, and a quart of Swanson's beef broth. I let it simmer for about an hour while I sliced the meat. Yay meat slicer!
To serve, I put the sliced meat in a pan with some of the jus to heat up. Then I put some jus in a frying pan so we could dip the bread in it during the assembly. The rest of the jus went in a saucepan, to serve out into ramekins for dipping.
The sandwiches went together beautifully. Pieces of baguette, sliced lengthwise, then dipped cut side down in jus. Then meat, horseradish and cheese (provolone or Swiss) if desired. I made two smaller sandwiches--one with and one without cheese. It's hard to pick which was better.
And what do you serve with French Dip? French fries, of course! And Peru!


We hosted some sandwich night newbies--Beth's coworker Jennifer and her two kids, Anja and Ben. Anja loves to bite things--including sandwiches larger than her head! Jennifer's husband Steve couldn't make it--he became the second recipient ever of a Sandwich Night to-go order. I'm told was gratefully received.



Karen and Kate came, too. Kate said she had been craving the French Dip ever since it was a poll option a few weeks ago. I hope you're happy now, Kate. We also had a double feature viewing of Heroes and last week's America's Next Top Model. And Kate brought apple cake. Truly an epic night.