You Forgot To Thaw The Beef. Now What?
If you don't know what's for supper tonight...read on.
Have you ever looked at the clock late in the afternoon and thought...
What am I going to make for supper?
And then remembered all the meat is still in the freezer?
I hear some version of this from customers quite a bit.
People like the idea of having a freezer full of beef, but sometimes there's one little mystery standing in the way:
“Don't I have to remember to thaw it the night before?”
Nope. Here's what I do.
In the morning, I decide what we're having for supper, take the beef out of the freezer, and put it in the refrigerator to thaw during the day.
By supper time, it may still be a little frozen in the middle.
That's okay.
In fact, for tonight's supper, that actually makes the steak easier to slice.
What's for Supper This Tuesday?
T Bar J Steak Bites & Cast-Iron Fries
This is an easy supper that doesn't take much planning — and you don't have to remember to thaw your steak the night before.
You'll need:
- • Steak — sirloin, sirloin tip, bottom round, or eye of round all work
- • Potatoes
- • An onion
- • Olive oil
- • Pepper
- • A little Italian dressing
Start with the fries.
Heat your oven to 425°F.
Cut your potatoes into homemade fries. Put a little olive oil in a cast-iron skillet, add the potatoes, and move them around until they're coated. Sprinkle with pepper.
Put the skillet in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the fries are tender and browned the way you like them.
While the fries are cooking, make the steak bites.
Cut your steak into bite-sized cubes and chop up some onion. If you took your steak out of the freezer that morning and let it thaw in the refrigerator all day, it may still be a little firm or partially frozen in the middle. That's just fine. In fact, it can make it easier to cut.
Put a little olive oil in another cast-iron skillet on the stove. Add the steak bites and onion, then add a little Italian dressing and pepper.
Cook, turning the steak bites as needed. They cook pretty quickly, so keep an eye on them. We like ours with a little pink left in the middle.
By the time the steak bites are done, your fries should be about ready too.
Add a lettuce salad or some sliced fruit and...
Supper is handled.
And if you want something easy for dessert, make some vanilla pudding and top it with sliced bananas or a spoonful of blueberry pie filling. 😊
That's one reason I like having beef in the freezer.
You don't have to be someone who plans every meal a week ahead.
You don't even have to remember supper the night before.
You just need to remember sometime in the morning: What's for supper tonight?
Then you can walk to the freezer, choose something that sounds good, and put it in the refrigerator to thaw for the day.
And that brings me to something else I've been hearing from people.
Sometimes a quarter or half beef sounds like a pretty big first step. It doesn't have to be.
Our 1/8 Beef Share is about 45 pounds of finished, packaged beef with a mixture of steaks, slow-cooking cuts, and ground beef.
For a couple or smaller household eating beef about twice a week, that's roughly six months of beef.
Not a year's worth.
Not an enormous freezer full.
Just a nice supply of good beef waiting when you need to answer that daily question: What's for supper?
And you don't have to take my word for it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“We exclusively buy all of our beef once a year, for the entire year, from here. Wouldn't do it any differently... Significant increase to our standard of living.”
— Tom Gebes, longtime T Bar J customer
Tom buys a year's worth. You certainly don't have to start there.
Maybe a 1/8 is the right amount for your family. Maybe it isn't.
But here's a pretty good question to ask yourself:
Would having about six months of good beef already in your freezer make life a little easier at your house?
If the answer is yes, a 1/8 might be a good place to start.
A $350 deposit reserves your share. The remaining $599 is due later, and shipping is included.
And while you're filling your own family's freezer, we'll donate 5 pounds of T Bar J ground beef to the Montana Veterans Meat Locker in your name.
Not sure what size makes sense?
Email us and tell us how many people you're feeding, about how often you eat beef, and how you like to cook. We'll help you figure out what would work best for your family.
If you have a minute this morning, take some beef out for supper and put it in the refrigerator.
All day long, you'll know dinner is already started. You won't have to come home wondering what to make—or make another trip to the store just to get supper going.
Amber, Al and Fritzie
T Bar J Ranch
Molt, Montana
P.S. If not today, then tomorrow morning, before the day gets away from you, take something out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator. Supper will already be one decision closer to being handled.
