As my last few weeks are winding down at Texas Beef Council, time seems to be going by even faster! Thankfully, I have been involved in so many wonderful events over this semester that I will be able to write about new events and reminisce over the next month.

Texas Beef Council and H-E-B have a great relationship. Quite a few times over this semester I have been able to participate in the H-E-B Bootcamp which is sponsored by the Texas Beef Council. This is an amazing program and every time I was involved I learned something new!

Different H-E-B’s Stores from across the State of Texas will bring in close to 20 different managers from their stores to spend a day at the Texas Beef Council. They arrive early in the morning and walk into the joy of breakfast pizza. I will never forget the first event I worked and walking into the office to the smell of the breakfast pizza. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. If you have never made a breakfast pizza before, you should definitely try it! On our pizza we included hamburger meat, black beans, corn, pico de gallo, eggs, and lots of cheese!

After breakfast, they are given an introduction to what the Texas Beef Council is and what it is that we do. Next, our amazing Chef Tiffany comes in and does some cooking demonstrations. This part is really fun because I learn something new every time. Chef Tiffany does a pan broil, a pan fry, a stir-fry, a Mexican pot roast, and an oven finished demonstration. All of these are done with different cuts of meat and all cooked differently. Let us just say that my family is very thankful for these demonstrations as I am cooking a lot more at home now.

The participants are split up into separate groups and each group has their own work station set up. They each have different recipes on their stations and have to work together to cook it and have everyone sample it! This is also a lot of fun, as you get to watch how the members interact with each other and even get to taste and see how their final product came out.

After this, the groups are moved outside and given a Grilling 101 lesson. I promise I will write a blog about the famous Grilling 101, but our Grill Master Jerry McPherson does a phenomenal job with this, so first I have to make sure I have all the steps down perfectly! While the groups are letting their grills burn down, Chef Tiffany sits down with them and talks to them about marinade and rubs. There is a really awesome test that she does with jelly beans. The jelly bean test shows them how you can taste something first and then when you smell it, you can actually smell what it is you are tasting. For example, you can taste a sweet jelly bean, and after holding your nose, you can breathe in and know that it is a cherry flavored jelly bean! It is really neat how it works out!

After their Grilling 101, the participants go back to their groups and work stations. They have another recipe to make, which is normally a salad with Beef of course! This recipe is also for a contest, so the groups must make sure that their presentation looks amazing as well as being able to explain it really well. They are then able to eat the goodies for lunch. After the amazing lunches, they are introduced to the nutrition aspect of the program. Normally after this section, the day is over. Every participant has a full belly and definitely full of more knowledge about Beef.

Some may ask why we do this program with managers who are not in the meat department? Well, every person that we interact with can impact a potential customer. There could be times when someone who works in the floral department sees a particular cut of meat in a customer’s basket and they can offer a recommendation on how to cook that particular cut of meat.

I feel that the more promotion of beef the better. At the end of the day, it all comes back to supporting the producers that we represent. Without them, we would not be able to have the fine beef products that we currently have.

2 Corinthians 5:7 – ” For we live by faith, not by sight”