Slow Cooked Tri Tip

Busy week, must eat, remember? That's exactly what I've been doing.... eating my heart out. This morning I had quite the fun time in the kitchen. I had my tri tip marinating in the fridge from last night, and got a pan nice and hot to brown all the sides. I then threw it into my little slow cooker, poured some beer over it (nothing like opening up a beer at 6:30..AM...) (I used Kona Brewing Co. Wailua Wheat) added a bay leaf, a few spices and went to school. Weirdly, I went to a class today to learn how to take pics with an dSLR. I wish I got more from it...but learning how to take pics of teeth won't really help me with my photos here. I'm still waiting for the right time to upgrade. I love my camera, but it was never the camera that I wanted to get at the time. I am thankful that I saved so much money on it but I think it's just time for that upgrade. I want the images to be sharper. The blurriness drives me crazy. I would like a better camera body :( Oh well. Working my way up to the 5D Mark II...maybe the Le Creuset will help me build my strength so that camera doesn't seem so heavy.....

What I found while looking up a recipe was that people don't put tri tip into their slow cooker. I didn't feel like grilling, and I know how tough this cut of meat could be... so I thought if I slow cooked it for 10 hours, it should be super tender right? Right. It was all sorts of falling apart.... just the way I like it... paired with some super crusty homemade bread... and that just became the bright spot of my day. I love coming home to this. My apartment smells like roast beef, and the sandwich was a filling pre-dinner ish after a cleaning in clinic today. This is the life I have dreamt about. :)


Slow Cooker Tri-Tip Roast 
Makes 3 sandwiches

1.25 lb tri tip beef, trim the fat if there's a lot
3 tbsp soy sauce
2/3 bottle of beer
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

1. Marinate the beef overnight with the soy sauce and pepper
2. Heat a pan on the highest setting, brown all sides of the beef for a few minutes
3. Place the beef into a slow cooker, pour beer over it, make sure it goes at least 2/3 the way up the piece of meat, add all other spices and bay leaf. Cook on low for 10 hours.
4. Remove from slow cooker and let rest for 10 minutes before cutting or shredding.

Up next: Baby Shower Cupcakes. My friend commissioned me to make cupcakes for his friend's baby shower. Cool. More reason to break out my cake decorating kit... cuz it is February (I'm trying not to have that bog me down this year especially.) I'm not going to do anything fancy, and I've done it before. Hopefully it will be ok. He had to give me a talk about ways "not to fail" ... people know me so well... there's just so much trust in that statement... haha