Swiss Steak (recipe for Pol Martin)

When I was young, many, many moons ago, there was a book sale at work.  The girls were at home still and they had a cookbook that I thought looked super good for them.  I ended up buying 3 of them, one for each daughter and one for Dave's brother, Ron, who loved cooking.  Somehow I ended up getting one back, one got lost and his brother has since passed away and I don't know what happened to that book.  He actually made several recipes from it and so have I.  It's called "Easy Cooking for Today" by Pol Martin.  If you like good, comfort food, this is the best cookbook.  He is/was? a Canadian chef.  He has a couple other books out there too, but I'm not as impressed with those.  I bought them online a few years back, used, and I am glad I didn't pay a lot for them.  Anyway, here is the Swiss Steak recipe.  I usually always serve it with baked potatoes and salad, but tonight it's going to be the potatoes and squash because someone gave me a couple today in exchange for a few gladly given away black walnuts from the trees, and it sounded good.  It's one of those darkish fall days today..

Swiss Steak:
3-1/2 lb cube steaks (he used round steak and tenderizes it himself, but not me!)
1 cup flour
3 Tbsp bacon fat or vegetable oil
1 yellow onion peeled and sliced thinly
1 garlic clove smashed and chopped
28 oz tomatoes (I used fresh or a quart of canned)
1 Tbsp beef base
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
a little dried or chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 350.  Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in large frying pan.  Salt and pepper meat on both sides and dredge in flour, shaking off excess.  Brown well on both sides.  Put in an oven proof pan with sides.  add onion and garlic to fry pan and oil if needed.  brown onions until light golden brown and place them on top of steak.  Then add tomatoes to the fry pan with beef base and seasonings.  simmer about 10 minutes and then pour over the steak and onions.  cover with foil and bake in the oven for 1-1/2 hours.  (that's why I have baked potatoes, less dishes and same cooking time pretty much).