Busy Day Swiss Steak

Craig's Favorite Recipes

In 1988 I accepted a position with British Petroleum Minerals America (BPMA) at their Alligator Ridge gold mine in Eastern Nevada. There I met a Mining Engineer by the name of Thomas Behling. Tom and I became close friends. BPMA was bought by Rio Tinto and the name of their North American operations where changed to Kennecott. In December of 1989 I transferred to their new operation, the Denton Rawhide Mine near Fallon Nevada. Tom transferred to Rawhide a few months after I did.

Tom was a very intelligent individual. His social skills were lacking, so he didn't have many friends. He use to talk on the phone with Professor Stephen Hawking on a somewhat regular basis discussing his theories with him. Tom wrote a book titled "Introducing Life into Physics". He was a devout catholic, but never married. In 2001 Toms health took a turn for the worse. He had some serious heart problems. Soon he was force to retire. He just couldn't work with his poor health. In 2002 Tom was traveling in Minnesota to visit family. I received a call from Toms sister to let me know that Tom had taken ill and had lost his life. Tom was in his early 50's.

Soon after Toms death I was surprised to learn that Tom had willed many of his possessions to me. Mostly his hunting, fishing, and camping equipment. But also all his books. The books included some cookbooks of his. Tom had on occasion invited Angela and I to his house for dinner. This recipe was found in one of those cookbooks, Southern Living, Cookbook from 1967. We have often cooked this dish, because it is easy, it taste great, and it is good for the tougher meats, like round steak. It makes them very tender.

Now that was a long story to get to a short recipe, but here goes;

Busy Day Swiss Steak

1 tbsp. butter
1 pkg. of dry onion soup mix
2 lbs. of steak (top round, cube steak)
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

dot the center of a large sheet of heavy duty foil with the butter. Sprinkle half of the dry soup mix. Place the steak over this; spread with the mushroom soup. Sprinkle the remaining dried soup mix. Fold the foil over tightly closing, making sure to pull the ends up to avoid leaking. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 1 hour.

This dish is great with either mashed potatoes or baked potato. There is lots of 'gravy'.

Enjoy.