Ms. Suzanne's Swiss Steak

1½ lb. round steak

1 cup flour

1 tbsp. Lawry’s seasoned salt

1½ tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tbsp. ground pepper

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup white wine

2 cups water

Mix flour, seasoned salt, seasonings and pepper in a plate.   Heat oil in pan set on med-high.  Cut steak into four, even sized pieces.   Dredge both sides of each piece of beef in flour mix then place in hot oil. Set flour mixture aside.  Brown beef on both sides around 7 minutes each side.  Remove meat from pan and set aside.  Empty all but a couple of tablespoons of oil into heat proof container to discard later.  Pour white wine into pan to help scrape up drippings, place meat back into pan with the wine.  

Pour water gently into pan, bring to a boil , cover and simmer for one hour.  If the liquid starts to evaporate, pour in a little more water making sure the liquid always stays just beneath the top of the meat.  After an hour sprinkle in some of the seasoned flour and whisk quickly to thicken the sauce and to make the gravy.  Serve with white rice,  mashed potatoes or egg noodles.

If you have a meat and potatoes man like I do then this dish is for you.  I learned to make this from Ms. Suzanne around 26 years ago.  She was my neighbor when we both lived on the army base at Ft. Bliss.  We became good friends and she was more than willing to teach me a lot about cooking and baking.  She quite often invited me over to watch a movie in the afternoon and she would always have dinner started and simmering away as we sat down to watch the movie.  Every time she made this recipe, the house would fill up with lovely smells that deep down inside I was really hoping she would ask me to stay for dinner.  I really miss those days with Ms. Suzanne.  Today I served it with egg noodles.  They taste so good with the gravy.  ~isavortheweekend