Gift Exchange Recipe

Every year, we have a Christmas gift exchange with Jay's extended family. Everyone brings a $10 gift, and then we open and "steal" each other's presents. It's all in great fun, and there's always a nice mix of surprisingly good gifts and surprisingly terrible ones.

This year, Aunt Jo selected a huge wrapped gift. It was heavy, and we all wondered what could $10 possibly buy that would be so big? Turns out, Graham (Jay's cousin's boyfriend) thought it was a $20 limit and brought an old cooler and filled it with meat. Yes, meat. A smoked ham. Ribs. A beef roast.  I found this hilarious. Typical past gifts have included cookbooks, DVDs, tool kits, etc. No one has ever brought a cooler full of meat.

I can't explain why, but I wanted that meat. If only so I could have this story. Anyway, I stole the meat locker from Aunt Jo, then Graham stole it from me, then I stole Jay's gift so Jay could steal it back from Graham (there's lots of rules with steal-backs and maximum number of steals in this gift exchange. One must sometimes be a bit crafty to be victorious)

Anyway, the meat was ours! We graciously gave the used cooler back to Graham (who likely took it out of his parents' garage without telling them), and we now had half our freezer full of Gift Exchange Meat.

Last night, I pulled out our Gift Exchange Beef Roast and made some delicious Italian Drip Beef sandwiches with the recipe below.  It comes from one of my favourite recipe sites. It was delicious. Thanks, Graham!

Photo from: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Italian Drip Beef

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/drip-beef-two-ways)

Ingredients

• 1 whole Beef Chuck Roast, 2.5 To 4 Pounds
• 1 can Beef Consomme Or Beef Broth
• 3 Tablespoons (heaping) Italian Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon Salt (if the Italian Seasoning doesn't have any salt)
• 1 cup Water
• 1/2 jar (16 Oz) Pepperoncini Peppers, With Juice
• Buttered, Toasted Deli Roll
• Provolone or Mozzarella cheese (optional)

Preparation Instructions

• Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot. Stir lightly to combine seasoning with the liquid.
• Cover pot and simmer (very low heat) on the stove for 6 hours, or until beef is fork-tender and falling apart. 
• Shred meat with two forks until all large chunks are gone. Serve immediately or continue to simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Mixture can be refrigerated overnight. Remove hardened fat from top of pan before reheating.
• Serve on top of toasted, buttered deli rolls. Top with cheese and place under the broiler if desired. Serve with juices from the pot.