This week is my husband’s birthday and Father’s Day, and I knew I wanted to do a “nice” Father’s Day meal for all the dads out there. Are there dads out there?? Probably not, but let’s err on the side of caution anyway. So, I started this week by searching the far reaches of the internet for the manliest foods when I stumbled upon this Huffpost article that mentions Meat Shot Glasses. While my husband was repulsed by the idea of drinking out of a cup made of meat, he did quickly get on board with filling meat cups with a variety of different foods. For those of you that still think it’s a good idea to drink out of these, I question your sanity, but the recipe recommends pairing with a Bloody Mary or bacon vodka.
This recipe is adapted from the ManBQue.com recipe blog that apparently no longer exists, but we give credit where credit is due anyway. Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef, 80/20
5 cloves of garlic, minced (or 8 – but for the love, get yourself a garlic press)
2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Stuff to put in your meat cups
My husband enthusiastically decided on 4 flavors of meat cups:
Italian – noodles, jarred marinara sauce, Parmesan cheese & fresh basil
7-Layer Dip – bean dip, queso, salsa, lettuce, guacamole & tortilla chips
Elotes – corn, mayonnaise, cotija cheese, Everything but the Elote seasoning & lime juice
Bacon Blue Cheeseburger – caramelized onions, shredded white cheddar & bacon
First, we made the meat cups by mixing the beef, seasonings, and garlic together. We took a mini muffin tin, greased it with Pam, and formed the meat around each “muffin” spot. I seasoned the outside of each with taco seasoning, Italian seasoning, or seasoning salt. I was originally going to bake these, but hey, it's Father's Day, so we put them in the smoker at 225 for 35-ish minutes. Put more meat than you think you need in each meat cup because remember kids, hamburger shrinks as it cooks. Once you take your meat cups off the smoker, let them sit for about 15 minutes so they hold together when you put the filling in. In fact, make yourself a drink and sit yourself down to rest. Our meat cups looked a little raggedy when they came off the smoker because I didn’t use enough beef for each cup.
Side note: Never thought I’d say “meat cups” so much in my life. I hope this isn’t a recurring issue. Also, maybe DON’T do an internet search for meat cups.
Now, this is the part that took forever and made me adamantly against ever making these d#$% things again. The fillings! I made elote by cooking corn and butter in a skillet until it was browned, and then mixing it with mayo, cotija cheese, lime juice, and seasoning. For the other fillings, I chopped and caramelized onions, made guacamole, grated cheese, shredded lettuce, and pawned every task I could off on my husband during the process. Thank goodness he’s a good sport.
Once all your fillings are done, you can put them in your meat cups and enjoy! We put them on a pretty tray to pretend like we were at a wedding where the waiters serve you fancy appetizers and dug in.
My favorite was the Italian version, which tasted just like spaghetti and meatballs. I avoided the elotes version like the plague, because corn. (Ick! Fight me.) My husband said all of these were “dope” and “legit” and thought we should “make these again some time.” *SIGH* The dogs were very interested in the meat cups, but because of a recent veterinary stay for the little one, we opted not to let them try the fruits of our labor this week. But they lurked hopefully anyway. My daughter suspiciously said she wasn’t hungry. But was hungry 5 minutes later. I'm onto her game.
Final Rating: My meat cups bring all the boys (and dogs) to the yard, just maybe not the kids. Also, my husband really loves me if he puts up all this nonsense. Happy birthday, babe!!
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