It's What's for Dinner… And Dessert!!!

During May, KMZU hosts the Best Beef Recipe Contest. We've had the contest for a few years now, five I believe. If there is a day that people get to work early, the beef cook off is the day. As promised, I'm posting the winning recipe here. We'll also have the rest of the recipes in our KMZU cook book, as soon as I finish typing it. This year's book will contain all the recipes submitted last year and this year, so there is bound to be something you'll enjoy.
This month is National Dairy Month so we've decided to continue our delicious savory summer with a Dairy Dessert contest. It's underway now. The dessert must include some type of dairy product and the deadline for entry is June 26th. We'll announce the winner for this contest on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009. Recipes can be sent to KMZU Dairy Dessert, 102 North Mason, Carrollton MO 64633.. or email it to us at farmdept@kmzu.com

The 2009 winning Best Beef recipe was submitted by Tom Ecklund of Brookfield. According to Ecklund, it's a concoction he uses for elk and has modified it for beef. His recipe helped him when this amazing Treager Grill which I'm sure he's already put to use!! The recipe is creates an elegant, delicious home cooked steak… Even our die hard grilling guys loved it. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

PAN SEARED FILLET OF BEEF
With a Cranberry Merlot Sauce

Ingredients
Steak: 1 9oz Fillet
Olive Oil
Seasoning: 1Tbsp Cracked Pepper 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Ground Pepper 1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp White Pepper 1 tsp Season Salt
½ tsp Cayenne Pepper 2 Tbsp Salt

Sauce: 1 Cup Water ½ Cup Sugar
½ Cup Dried Cranberries
1 1/3 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2/3 Cup Merlot (Does not have to be expensive)
¼ Cup Butter

Preheat your Oven to 450 Degrees

Preparation
Seasoning: Place all ingredients into a small plastic container with a lid, Shake until combined. Stir with a fork before using, because oregano will sift to the top when you shake it.
Sauce: Using a 12” Skillet on high heat, bring the water & sugar to a soft boil. Add Cranberries to the water and let them boil for one minute. Then add the merlot and Worcestershire, let it reduce for 7 to 8 minutes. Turn heat to low, stir in the butter, you are finished when the sauce coats the back of a spoon. (You do not what it to be syrupy but if it is really translucent just let it reduce longer.)
Steak: In a 10” Stainless Steal skillet, sear all sides of your fillet.
1. Get your pan hot
2. Dust all sides of the fillet with the seasoning
3. Drizzle just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan
4. Sear all sides of the fillet (including edges), roughly 10 to 15 seconds per side
5. Place in 450 degree oven for 6 to 10 min depending on your oven. You want it to be Medium Rare for best results, but you can go to medium if you must. I wouldn’t go over that because then the steak will become tuff

Put it all together: Cut the fillet against the grain into four to five equal strips. Fan the strips out on a plate and spoon some cranberries and a little extra sauce over the strips. You will have extra cranberries and sauce left but if you cut the recipe down too far it doesn’t work out as nicely.

Tip: While your water comes to a boil for your sauce, sear your steak. While your steak is in the oven, finish your sauce. This way you should be done at the same time. Otherwise make your sauce first and take it off the heat and just bring it back to temperature before you top the steak with it.
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Hope you enjoy the recipe and don't forget to send in your favorite Dairy Dessert by June 26th. We're building a great prize package for the winner!!

Get to Typing!!!

That's what I've been telling myself, and others have told me, for the last few weeks. I've typed up a few notes here and there but didn't feel there was much excitement to share. At least that's what I thought until I took a stroll through some random pictures from the last couple months where I discovered a few points of inspiration.
First, this is a shot of the mess in the office during National Ag week. Why do we have a mess at that time (or more of a mess, my coworkers would ask)? During National Ag week we work to educate kids throughout the area about agriculture. This year I visited about 10 different schools and spoke to more than 400 elementary students about agriculture. The students usually enjoy the program but really get excited when I tell them they get a free KMZU t-shirt for listening so well. That means a lot of shirts pass through the farm department over the two week period. This is just a sample of the cotton headache that was in the office before the school visits got started.
This photo.... it's a shot of the car after the schools visits came to an end. It takes a lot of energy to talk to 400+ enthusiastic kids. This is how I build up the energy to survive the week. In hindsight, it appears I may have a dew problem.

I have a new toy in the world of blogging!! Maybe I should say a new feature...

Ahhh Spring...Please don't go!!

It's been an eventful few weeks in Farm country. There are plenty of things to keep you busy... Springtime is typically no exception, although it seems to rain every time you turn around. There's been enough rain that the majority of spring planting is delayed. The pattern is a couple days of precipitation followed by a day or two of sun. When the ground is close to where it needs to be…. along comes another rain to postpone action once again.
The Missouri Ag Statistics Service reported last Monday that 4% of the Missouri corn crop was planted… the report that came out this afternoon?... it's up to a whoppin 7% complete. That means a few folks have made it to the field, but the majority of that is in the Bootheel. Typically for this time of year 42% of the states corn crop is in the ground. We've started our spring soil temps now so we'll keep our fingers crossed that will bring along positive spring planting vibes. Good. Luck!!
Speaking of spring planting, I personally don't have any fields to take care of, but I do have a couple small flower beds in need of a little color. With the sunny/cold pattern followed by the rain/frost/sunshine pattern, there hasn’t been much outdoor activity for me. During Easter I made it home to visit mom for the weekend, and we were very productive. We did a little flower shopping for the flower beds then did a little plant digging for the same reason. Mom has a nice selection of Iris' and thought she would share a few with me. We spent the afternoon digging up and separating a few bulbs (by few I mean store bags full). Later we made the trek to the "back 40" to find the horses. My gelding has the tendency to enjoy the lush Spring grass a little more than he should so we brought them up for some dry lot time, though it wasn't easy. The neighbors mare has been with them for a while and… to be honest, she's a little to friendly. It's handy if you want to catch her, but geezzz girl, back off, give me some space… get outta my way!
It took some work because King was torn between the two mares… "Who do I follow? Mom or trouble maker.... mom or trouble maker".... In horse speak I'm sure he doesn't refer to either of them like that but you get the picture. As he stood in the middle of the pasture I could see his dilemma, he called out to one, then turned to call out to the other. Usually mom (my mare Ginger who I was riding), wins the battle hands down, but this year the fella was torn. After making a few adjustments to our plans, and the neighbor showing up to help on his 4-wheeler, everyone was where they were supposed to be. By the way, I'll take this opportunity to brag up Ginger. Sure, I suppose she's no spring chicken, but when your riding a horse who hasn't been around 4-wheelers and she still does what you need her to do... you've got yourself a good one.
By the end of the adventure, my rear was dirty from bareback riding, my legs were a little wobbly from the chase and the horses, well I sure they would have preferred to have been left alone. However no complaints here. Any day horseback riding, pain or no pain, means a great day has been had... by me at least.

On the Go...

Things have been a little hectic at The Farm recently. As a little side note, The Farm is KMZU, my home away from home. You can also refer it as KMZU World Headquarters. Think big = be big so having world headquarters is a great place to start. Now if they could just build that airport, that would put us one step closer. Something to think about.
Back to what I mentioned, about things being a little hectic. A couple weeks ago I had a road trip to Grapevine, Texas for Commodity Classic. That's the annual convention for the American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association and the National Association of Wheat Growers. This year the National Sorghum Producers Association also joined the mix. I'm always amazed to see so many people with similar interests gathered together for an event like The Classic. I compare the feeling to the National FFA Convention during my high school years. Unlike the FFA convention, there's no sea of blue FFA jackets. Instead you spend your time scanning more than 4,000 name tags trying to learn where people are from. Some of those tags are nicely pinned to the coat. The tricky part is reading the tags that are on a lanyard dangling from someone's neck. Either way the writing is much smaller than the ol FFA Jacket, but you get used to it.
Something else that's a little different between the two events: no chaperon! You can stay out as late as you want! Not that I do would do that of course, but I could if I wanted to.
I failed to grab any pictures from the convention but I did grab a shot of the Golden Arch landmark when I was driving south. As a kid many a holiday hours were spent on the road to Texas to visit my mom's brother and family in Arlington or traveling further south to San Antonyah (as grandma would say) to see my grandparents. Needless to say, Christmas in Texas is a lot warmer than Missouri, so I always enjoyed the trip but dreaded the drive. One thing I remember most is I always wanted to stop here. It was the largest Golden Arches I'd ever seen and it was built over the Interstate. It was on the way but mom would never stop. On this trip, I was behind the wheel and operating on my own schedule… I still didn't stop. I suppose my priorities have changed and I wanted to get where I was going. Hindsight however, stopping would have been a good idea. Turns out the toll road dudes only take cash… Turns out they can be a little grumpy too…

Will They Melt in Your Mouth or in Your Hands?

So I've been trying to think of something interesting over the last few weeks. There have been a few things, including a trip to the Commodity Classic conference in Texas. However, when something comes to mind, I forget to blog until I'm away from the computer (a vicious cycle of "what was I going to do?") Yesterday I was sorting pictures on the cell phone and I came across a shot that made me smile and think of a story.
First, a little background: when I travel and have time to pick up gifts, I put a lot of energy in to one shopping point. I always try to find something from that area. Art is my favorite find, but not always available or affordable. When that fails then it needs to be something that will represent the region. An example: in Mexico I found a colorful clay tortilla warmer which I liked so much I got one for myself too.
Now, the photo I came across is of the gift I picked up in France for my nephew Caleb last year. France is well known for olive production. In fact we visited an olive farm where I purchased a couple bottles of olive oil for the family. Caleb likes olives but I didn't think he'd like his own bottle of olive oil. Finally, during the last day in France I came across a colorful candy store full of goodies. While scanning the aisles I found this package of chocolate covered olives! First thought…ewwwww disgusting. That however was quickly followed by an evil little chuckle and the second thought of, absolutely perfect!! Chocolate and olives!! He loves both of those, maybe not necessarily together but I couldn't resist! I couldn't do better and the look on his face would be priceless!!
Now fast forward to Christmas. There were several nice gifts in the mix, but it was this little package of chocolate covered olives that I was looking forward to the most. When he opened the gift the response was, gee… thanks Aunt Janet…. What is it? The label was in French so I explained what was inside the pretty green little package. Despite the concern, he was game to give it a try… With a little hesitation he opened it up pulled out one of the colorful olives and took a bite… as he slowly chewed the unusual treat, there was no ewww. In fact he gave me a curious look and said it tasted like almonds.
That's odd. He tossed me a green one and I took a bite.
After thousands of miles and months of waiting for the fun reaction, my ornery surprise was in fact chocolate covered almonds made to look like olives!
Guess I should have learned to read a little French while I was there. I wonder what the chocolate covered bacon really was?

Knock, Knock?...

When I realized I was locked out of the house that evening, I tried to come up with another option. After circling the house, I finally determined it was going to be harder than I'd hoped. With that I called it a night and crashed at a friend's house.
The following morning I admitted my latest dilemma to my loving coworkers. After laughing and poking fun at the predicament, my boss decided he could probably help.
When we made it to the house that afternoon I followed along as he pretty much did the same as I had the night before. Our final stop was the front door where he tried the door knob. I know you're thinking it was probably open all along, but you'd be wrong! At that point he admitted it was going to be more of a challenge than he thought too.
After the little Ring-around the house-Rosy, I made a couple more calls and a neighbor came to help. I just happen to know all the windows are locked tight with the exception of one which happens to be on the upper level of course.
Now, how do you reach a window on the second floor? The ladder was locked in the house along with tools and anything else that might be useful. Thank goodness for my neighbor who came to the rescue with a very tall ladder and a full toolbox. When we finally reached the window, I was able to climb through but my life was at risk. To move from the ladder through the window, I had to balance on the table under the window. At the same time I had to move lamps and stuff off the table so I could get safely away from the ladder and the window, not fall off the table or out of the window then place my feet on the floor. Thankfully, I made it. Nothing broken, including me, and I was standing in my house. I immediately unlocked the door then started searching for the spare key. Not only did I quickly locate the key, but I also found the garage door opener…. the one I thought I threw away.