Making something new

I eat meat. It's not my favorite thing and I'm pretty sure I could do without it, but I eat it. I have a mild iron deficiency but usually forget all about it until it comes time to donate blood when I only have enough iron about 50 percent of the time to actually do the donation. But every once in a while my body reminds me by crazy red meat cravings. Usually in the form of really wanting beef jerky, which normally I don't even like very much. This time instead of buying the expensive, slightly disgusting store variety, I hijacked my dad's dehydrator and made my own. It was really easy and turned out so good! Here's the recipe I used from allrecipes.com with some slight variations from me:
Buy a 2 pound roast or steak or whatever your butcher recommends and get him/her to slice it thinly for you (most will do it for free). This saved a ton of time and headache.
1. Mix together:
    * 1/4 cup soy sauce
    * 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
    * 2 tablespoons liquid smoke
    * 2 tablespoons brown sugar
    * 1 teaspoon salt
    * 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
    * 1 teaspoon meat tenderizer
    * 1 teaspoon garlic powder
    * 1 teaspoon onion powder
    * 1 teaspoon paprika
2. Place beef strips in the bottom of a large bowl.
3. Pour seasoning mixture over meat and mix to assure all the strips are evenly coated. (I put the lid on and shook it up.)
4. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.
5. Arrange the meat strips on the tray of a dehydrator and dry at your dehydrator's highest setting until done to your liking, at least 4 hours. Store in an airtight container or resealable bags.
(I'd post a picture, but beef jerky isn't very pretty!)

My next adventure is making goat cheese (chevre). I told you wanted to order a cheese making kit in the I Heart Goat Cheese post. Now I finally ordered a kit from Urban Cheesecraft on Etsy. It's taken me trips to grocery stores in three towns, several phone calls to other stores and calls to two goat farms, but I finally found goat milk that isn't ULTRA-pasturized at Campbell's Nutrition in Des Moines. I am going to pick some up on Monday. I'll let you know how my first batch turns out. I am hoping it's good enough to take to the in-laws for Thanksgiving.