Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 boneless beef round steak, trimmed of fat, cut into 1 inch thick slices

2 onions, sliced

1 T. garlic pepper blend

2 t. water

1 T. beef bouillon granules

2 large green bell peppers, cut into bite size strips.

6 slices American cheese, cut in half

6 hoagie buns, split

Directions:

Spray 3 to 4 quart slow cooker with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, sprinkle beef and onions with garlic pepper blend; stir to coat evenly, Spoon mixture into cooker.

In a measuring cup, stir water and bouillon granules until granules are dissolved. Pour over mixture in cooker.

Cover; cook on low heat setting 6-8 hours. About 20 minutes before serving, stir in bell peppers.

Place 2 cheese pieces on bottom of each bun. Using slotted spoon, spoon beef mixture over cheese. Cover with tops of buns. Beef mixture can be kept warm on low heat setting up to 2 hours.

Makes 6 sandwiches. Total time 6 hours 15 minutes.

Verdict:

I have never had a Philly cheese steak sandwich so I do not pretend to be and expert. With that said...I did not like these. I don't like fake cheese. The meat was OK but that was it. Just OK.

Red Wine Braised Beef Brisket

Ingredients:
2 T. plus 2 t. olive oil
3 1/2 lbs. beef brisket, cut into 3 inch pieces
coarse salt and pepper
8 shallots, halved
6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
3 c. dry red wine

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. In a large dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 2 T. oil over med-high. Season brisket with salt and pepper; In batches, cook turning occasionally, until dark brown on all sides, about 20 minutes total.
Transfer brisket to a plate and discard fat from pot. Return pot to heat and add 2 t. oil and shallots; cook, stirring, until shallots are browned, 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring until fragrant, 1 minute.
Add wine and simmer rapidly until reduced by three-fourths, about 15 minutes. Return beef to pot and add just enough water to cover meat (5 to 6 cups). Bring to a boil, cover, then place pot in oven.
Cook until beef is tender, 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

Makes 6 servings. Total time 4 1/2 hours.

Verdict:
For all of you that may be leery of cooking with wine, I did a little reading. Most sources say that alcohol is cooked off once it is boiled. Upon further reading I read that some alcohol needs to be cooked for longer than 2 hours to have no alcohol. (My assumption from reading is that the ones that need to be cooked longer are the ones that have a higher alcohol content.) I don't mind cooking with alcohol as long as it is not heavy liquor and/or boiled. For those of you that don't like cooking with alcohol there are normally substitutes or you can normally omit it all together. This is not one of those recipes.
I won't lie, I felt a little weird asking my sister to pick me up a bottle of wine from the State liquor store. I was a little surprised at how inexpensive it was. The bottle cost no more than 4 dollars. With that said, dinner was so good. It was like a really good pot roast. Although it does have a long cooking time, very little time is spent on prep. I cooked mine the full 4 hours. One more thing. When browning the meat make sure that you don't crowd the pan. It will help the meat brown better instead of boiling it.