Is your tinsel tangled and a light burned out here or there? You ate all the favorites in the candy bowl and there are sparkles on the floor from holiday wrapping and ribbon?

Then you must have had a Great Christmas!

Time to rest up because 2025 is coming soon and another occasion to celebration.

Some folks are stayer-uppers to greet the new year, I happen to be in the other camp. It will be here when I wake up in the morning.

Whichever your plan is for meeting 2025, good luck, and if you get something to sip on, I will fill you in on how our Christmas was on the T-J Ranch.

Life on the Ranch

Christmas morning the cows got alfalfa. We unroll the big round flag bales with the truck. Ranchers are on duty everyday. We all have to eat, and the cattle are very happy when you show up.

That is all they want, a full belly, water to drink, and a soft place to lay down out of the wind.

That makes me think of the Christmas Story. Joseph and Mary just needed something to eat and a place to get out of the wind.

What do you really need? A home and good food to share with your family? Well we got the Beef!

This Christmas it was 47 degrees out. We have had Christmas' that were - 47 degrees, and this was way better!
That was a wonderful gift for us and all the folks traveling in our neck of the woods.

So after we got everyone fed, water checked, mineral out, we spent most of the afternoon on the phone visiting with our boys, grandkids and my Dad. We didn't work on any other projects that day.

This weekend we are going to have a late Christmas in South Dakota with Eb and his family. Our neighbors will come and feed for us while we are gone. We are very grateful to have their help so we can leave for a couple days.

The cow bunch and heifer bunch will be getting alfalfa every other day now, with some grass bales here and there if it is going to be cold. They are in their 2nd trimester of pregnancy. We will watch their body condition and feed according to how they look and when they get to their 3rd trimester, increase their feed.

The beef we took in last week are dry aging. They have a 14 day dry age before the meat is cut up and packaged.
Dry aging improves the flavor and tenderness.
Part of the reason our beef is so tasty and makes for such good steaks.

Welcome to the T Bar J Ranch Roundup

Thank you for showing up this week. The holidays are a busy time, and we appreciate you making time for us. Production agriculture is a new experience for some folks and for others it brings back memories. We are glad to share our everyday with you.

Hearty Holiday Hamburger

So in view of dry aging and what we had for Christmas Eve dinner, Our hamburger recipe this week is going to be:

Balsamic Glazed Steak Tips and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2# sirloin steak, but you could use flank steak too.
• Cut in 3 inch pieces
• Put this in a gallon ziplock bag.
• Then mix together in a small bowl or measuring cup.

• The marinate.
• 1/4 C soy sauce
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 T sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 t Dijon mustard
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t black pepper
• Mix together well, then pour over the steak in the bag.
• Seal the bag and turn over to coat.
• Refrigerate for 1-4 hours.

• 1/2 hour before mealtime:
• Wash up 1# of Cremini mushrooms, cut in quarters
• You can buy these mushrooms in bulk, they are large, but not the expensive $11.00/# ones.
• Keep handy.

Heat up a cast iron fry pan to medium heat, add 2 T olive oil.
While that is heating,
Take the steak out of the bag and pat dry.
Put the steak in the fry pan and sear until browned.

Leave a little pink in the middle. Or not if you like well done steak.
We think it is better to take it out earlier than later.
When it is done, put on serving platter.

Place the mushrooms in fry pan.
You may need to adjust the heat, but cook for 5 minutes or until tender.
Add 2 T balsamic vinegar and simmer 1 minute.
Remove from heat and add 1 T butter.
Stir until it is melted and glossy.
Pour over steak tips and serve.

We have this with Smashed Potatoes
12 small round potatoes boiled, about 20 minutes.

Heat oven to 450 degrees

Place the potatoes on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
Smash with a potatoes masher, rotate the masher 1/4 turn and mash again.

Drizzle potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for 20 minutes.

This is a real crowd pleaser and very easy to make for large groups.

If you need a beef share so you have sirloin steak in the freezer, I included the link to our website page with those on.
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/collections/all

Our beef shares come with a freezer, ground beef in bundles, and some beef shares come without a freezer for those that don't need one. Right now we are into June/July delivery for beef shares. We have ground beef on hand.

From Our Customers

This 5 star Review came in this week:

Delicious Beef and excellent customer service
"Amber and Al are the sweetest couple you’ll meet. Amber has always kept us abreast with each step of the process and milestones. Because of the unreliable delivery service they have delivered our beef in person. A great experience all around. Our first meal from the beef we purchased was an osso bucco stew with polenta…out of this world delicious."
Angelica K.