Saga of a soupy recipe

What goes into cube steak in a crockpot.

Earlier this week a friend posted a recipe on her timeline—at least, it was a partial recipe. A list of ingredients for a crockpot dinner. It didn’t have a cooking time or crockpot setting, so I posted a note asking. But I thought surely it was a no-brainer: six hours on low would cook some cube steaks. I told Christian about it, and he agreed it sounded good for Sunday supper. When we can, we like to make a family event of Sunday supper—something a little different from the usual weeknight rushed meal. I gave him a choice of which was easier: bring the crockpot out to me and I’d cook, or he could take the recipe inside and he’d cook. He often likes to spend Sunday cooking, so he chose the latter. And it’s a good thing.

This morning he came out with the recipe in hand and said, “I need more direction.” That’s the difference between us: whereas I tend to barge ahead figuring I know how to cook, Christian wants precise instructions. I told him the best my friend could offer was that she was looking for the recipe. He stood over my shoulder while I went back to the Facebook web site where she’d found it. It had no more information. With Christian pointing here and there, we explored on the computer. Finally, he threw his hands up in the air and said “I’ll do some research.”

It was a good thing he did. The recipe called for six cube steaks and a couple of soups. I had intended to put the steaks in the crockpot and pour the combined coups over them. When Christian found the recipe it called for layering the steaks with onions, so they didn’t just melt into one huge glop of cube steaks. Then there was one more soup than my sketchy recipe had indicated, and it had to cook for seven hours—that sent Christian scurrying to get it started.

We had dinner at seven-thirty, which is about the usual times for us (my goodness, it took me a long while to get used to that late dining).

Soupy cube steaks

Six cube steaks

One sweet onion

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 envelope dry onion soup

½ soup can water

¼ tsp. black pepper

Layer steaks and sliced onion in crockpot. Separately mix together two cream soups, water, and pepper. Pour over steaks. Sprinkle dry soup mix on top (Christian chose  to stir it into the soup mix).

Cook on low for seven hours. Serve with noodles, rice, or potatoes.

It was delicious. Both Jordan and Christian harped a little on cube steak being tough, but when they ate it their tune changed. Christian said it was the most tender he’d ever had, and I found it fork-tender. Plus lots of gravy—always important to me. It’s a keeper recipe.

And a big hat tip to @Harriet Gerick Hunt for sending starting us on this saga and yay to Christian for fixing a really good supper.