May 16-18 Rescued BBQ Beef

May 16     Leftover penne with balsamic butter transformed into mushroomy goodness

May 17     Late dinner at Gio's

May 18     Rescued Beef with BBq Sauce, coleslaw and potato/yam wedges

This will be a weird week for me. Shack went off to start his movie last week, which means that he is not here for dinner during the week anymore again until next fall. Right now they are prepping so he is hungry when he gets home so I have to keep him in mind but once they start shooting, he is fed at work so he just leaves the equation. Then it will just be me and The Kid for dinner.

The only thing that we both love that Little Shack hates are mushrooms so when The Kid is not around, we often make something ridiculously mushroomy. It made sense to transform the leftover penne with balsamic butter into something loaded with mushrooms.

Tuesday was supposed to be gnocchi in a mushroom cream sauce but Shack wanted to take me out for dinner since it was our only evening alone before The Kid got home from his retreat and I couldn't say no to that.

Wednesday came and I  knew I either had to deal with last Sunday's bland roast beef or throw it away and I really didn't want to do that. A perfect solution was to turn it into bbq since it was all falling apart and would be perfect for shredding and serving like a pulled pork sandwich. I settled on a good, old school style bbq sauce by Bobby Flay from his Mesa Grill coookbook. A couple small changes but pretty much followed the recipe. This bbq sauce is really good. It's kind of sweet, not very spicy and really full of flavour. It will be delicious with chicken or pork or even basted onto a burger.

This was the perfect thing to make too because it was delicious right away but it just got tastier the longer it sat so by the time Shack got home, it was still great after I heated it up.

Rescued BBQ Beef Sandwiches:


BBQ sauce (about half the mesa grill recipe for one roast)
1 tri tip roast, cooked all day in the slow cooker until it's falling apart, cooled and shredded
Soft white buns
buttermilk coleslaw


Mesa Grill BBQ Sauce for my Rescued BBQ Beef
Makes about 3 cups

2 tbls vegetable oil
1 large spanish onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 28oz can plum tomatoes, pureed
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup worchestershire sauce
1/4 cup molasses
3 tbls grainy dijon mustard
3 tbls dark brown sugar
2 tbls honey
6 tbls chile powder
1 tbls chipotle chili puree
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a heavy bottomed medium saucepan. Add the onion and cook for about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook one more minute before adding the tomatoes and 1 cup of water. Bring that to a boil and cook, stirring from time to time, for ten minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients, lower the heat to medium and simmer, stirring from time to time, until thickened. It should take about 25 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and pour into a bowl, set aside and let cool to room temperature. It keeps in the fridge for a week.



I took my previously slow cooked roast, shredded the meat, tossed it in the bbq sauce and slowly heated it up over medium low heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Served on soft hamburger buns with coleslaw and potato wedeges.