Rebekah's Steak Dinner

There is nothing I love more than a medium rare New York strip. If you have been following this blog for a while you may remember how I feel about steak that is cooked more than medium rare. If you haven't been reading this for very long, I highly recommend that you click that link for a recipe for a delicious steak sandwich. Don't hit the link if you order your steak well done and will be offended by me calling you an idiot.

This steak dinner came entirely from my head, and it was delicious.

Beef Tacos

There is only one thing that can come close to the love I have for pizza, and that is the love I have for tacos. Tacos combine a few of my favorite things like beef, cheese and not using a fork. Which brings me to the real reason why I love tacos so much, which is that no one can eat tacos neatly. It is the only meal where I am not the only person at the table making a hot mess of themselves.

The following is for my sister E, who loves when I demonstrate my mad Paint skills on the Internet.

Sad but true. I am a mess.

Cheesy Chili

I realize this is not necessarily the most appetizing picture of chili. I can admit that it looks more like a soup than a chili, and there's not actually any chili in the recipe, so it's possibly not really a chili. And you could be asking yourself what the stringy white bits are, answer: melted cheese.


All this aside, would I post a recipe that I didn't think was good? Would I post a recipe that I wouldn't encourage anyone to make? Probably not. So keep an open mind, and check the recipe out, because it's quite good. After all, it came from the Domestic Goddess herself, Nigella Lawson.

Taco Cups

I was watching Eat, Shrink and Be Merry the other night. On the show two sisters always compete with a restaurant's signature dish. The restaurant makes it the way they usually do, and the sisters make the recipe over in a healthy way.
The episode I watched was taco salad, and it inspired the following.

Sandwiches

A couple weeks ago I mentioned how much I love Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce, when I made buffalo chicken wraps. I used the sauce the other night to make Buffalo Chicken Burgers. If you love buffalo wings in any way, you must buy this sauce, and make these burgers.

Rebekah's Buffalo Chicken Burgers:

1) Take a lb of ground chicken, an egg, and a 1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs and mix together in a large bowl. You could also add a bit of diced onion, or some seasoning (I used about a tbsp of Clubhouse's Tex Mex seasoning) if you like.

2) Split the mixture evenly into four. Flatten into round patties.

3) Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high. Add the patties, cook for roughly four minutes on each side. Before removing them from the skillet, cut into the middle of the patty to make sure the chicken is cooked through. (The meat should be white, and the juices should be clear!)
If you notice the chicken is browning too much you can turn down the heat, or slide the skillet into the oven and finish it off by baking at 350 F. Make sure your skillet is oven proof, of course.

4) When the chicken is finished, add 1/2 cup of Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce to the skillet, and turn the patties over so they are completely coated in deliciousness.

5) Place the patty on the bun of your choice. I used whole wheat, and I had toasted it in the oven while the burgers were cooking.

The burgers can be topped with lettuce, or blue cheese, but I chose to just spread some ranch dressing on the bun. (I used Renee's Buttermilk Ranch, the half fat version). I served the burgers with carrot and celery sticks. Delicious and healthy!

A while back I made the following sloppy joe, and I got the recipe off of sparkrecipes. Sparkrecipes is a database of healthy recipes, and they have quite the amount. I had a craving for sloppy joes and when you search their website for sloppy joes the top recipe is Diet Coke Sloppy Joes. The main ingredients are ground beef, Diet Coke, reduced sugar ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, white vinegar and mustard powder. To make the ground beef is browned in a skillet, then the rest of the ingredients are added and cooked together for 30 minutes.

I used Coke Zero instead of Diet Coke, and regular ketchup instead of the reduced sugar variety. I will make these again, because they were quite good, but I would add some chopped onion to it. And maybe some garlic. Even though it was good, it was kind of plain.

I served the sloppy joe with a spinach salad. I just piled raw spinach leaves on the plate and topped it with Everyday Food's Shallot Vinaigrette. It is one of my all time favorite homemade salad dressings.

Steak Sandwich

I was talking to an idiot the other day. How did I know he was an idiot? He said "I don't eat red meat very much, and when I do it has to be well done. Like burnt well done" This never ceases to amaze me. How can you take something as beautiful as a steak, and do something so terrible like overcook it? You might as well eat shoe leather. I feel very strongly about this, and those of you who know me, know that I have a hard time keeping my opinions to myself. Especially when someone does something terrible like order a steak well done. There is nothing "well done" about it.

The other day I made a steak sandwich. And it was beautiful. The following recipe made enough for 2 sandwiches.

Rebekah's Steak Sandwich

1) I took a New York strip (my favorite) rubbed it with olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper. I placed it in a skillet over medium high for 3 minutes on each side.

2) Remove the steak from the pan and place it under foil. Add half a sliced onion to the skillet with a small amount of extra virgin olive oil, lower heat to medium.

3) When the onions have been on for a minute or two add some sliced mushrooms. (I used 4)

4) When the onions and mushrooms are slightly browned (2 or 3 minutes), remove from heat and sprinkle with a bit of dried thyme.

5) Slice the steak thinly removing the fatty pieces. The steak should be medium rare. If you desire to cook it more, do not waste your money on a New York strip. Buy some cheaper steak to ruin.

6) Take the bun of your choice (I used multi grain ciabatta rolls) split it open and toast under the broiler until golden brown.

7) Mix together horseradish and Dijon mustard. I used roughly a tbsp of horseradish, and roughly 4 tbsp of Dijon mustard. Spread as much as you desire on the toasted bun.

8) Place about half of the steak meat on the bun, and top with about half of the onion and mushroom mix.

DELICIOUS! No joke, this sandwich was pretty awesome.

You must make this!

To go with it I debated a few things. I thought about sweet potato fries, but anytime I make something like fries in the oven that are crisp when they come out, they are always squishy when I heat them up the next day.

Then I remembered a dish that my aunt makes. And I love it. So here it is, and this should serve roughly 4 people.

Tante's Beans:

1) In a sauce pot (sort of large), fry up 2 slices of chopped bacon. You do not want them to be crisp, once they start to turn brown add half a cup of chopped onion to the pot.

2) After about a minute add a can of pineapple tidbits. (I drained the pineapple first, but you can do what you like)

3) Add a can of rinsed kidney beans, and a can of brown beans (I used the Heinz maple kind)

4) Add 1 tsp of mustard (I used mustard powder), 2 tbsp chili sauce (I didn't have any so I used ketchup) and a tbsp of brown sugar. Since the beans and ketchup were sweet enough I added molasses instead. Call me crazy.

Lower heat, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

I love love love love love these! They are sooooo good! I would recommend that you stir the pot every few minutes. I just let mine simmer and then after a half hour I went to check it, and a layer had burnt to the sides. I managed to salvage a fair bit, but if you don't stir it, you will end up with something like this:

Not good.

Magical Steak

I had C over for dinner the other night. Back when we made our seafood feast, we had intended to make crab won tons, but we ran out of time and stomach space. We nixed the crab won tons, and put the crab meat in the freezer to use another day. So the other night I decided to make them to go along with an Asian flavoured steak.

I made the filling, which was a simple mix of green onion, cream cheese, ginger and crab meat. I had taken the won ton wrappers out of the freezer the night before and placed them in my fridge. I set up my won ton building station and went to pull off the first won ton sheet from the pile. It didn't budge. I picked up the pile and tried to separate any of the wrappers. They wouldn't come apart. I'm getting frustrated with these, and finally C says "that looks like puff pastry". Then it hit me, the last time I used puff pastry, I only needed half the pack and I had frozen the rest in a freezer bag. Sure enough, I was trying to tear apart puff pastry. (In my defense they look similar in their frozen state)

We quickly ran out to the store to pick up won ton wrappers. Luckily, T&T Supermarket stocks refrigerated ones that wouldn't need to thaw overnight.

Once the won tons were assembled, they are fried for a small amount of time (I used canola oil) until golden brown and crisp. I served them alongside VH Thai Market Sweet Thai Chili Sauce. The recipe for the won tons can be found here.



I really liked these. The filling was super quick and easy to make. The sauce was perfect with them. And if you make more than what you plan to eat that night, place them (raw, not fried!) on a baking sheet in the freezer, until frozen and then place them in a freezer bag until you want to cook them. I know this isn't a healthy dish, but everything in moderation right?

The steak is one of my all time favorite steak recipes. C's mom served this once, and I could have eat about 10 lbs worth of it. It's an Asian style marinade, and I placed the steak in the marinade overnight in my fridge. This will turn the steak from bright red, to an unappealing grayish brown color, but it is so so so worth it.

When C's mom made this, the steak was magical. I am not exaggerating. I don't have a BBQ, so I cooked it on my stove top grill pan. The end result wasn't as good as the one I first had, and I think it was because it wasn't done on a BBQ. However, it was still pretty good. Not too mention flank steak is a pretty cheap cut of meat, that tastes best if it has been marinating in something overnight.

The steak is topped with gomashio (according to the recipe title) or gomasio (how it is spelled according to Google). Which is a mix of toasted sesame seeds and sea salt that have been partially ground in a mortar and pestle.

The recipe can be found here. I changed a couple things, like marinating it overnight instead of 3 or 4 hours, and instead of sambal oelek, I used Sriracha sauce. I didn't make the asparagus in the recipe either.

To round off the meal I served it with a Dole Salad Kit. Specifically, the Asian Island Crunch one. Usually I will make my own salad and dressing, but I was feeling lazy and overall I have enjoyed the salad kits that Dole makes. The dressings are tasty, and they include great toppings for the salad, like the Asian one comes with dried pineapple chunks.

Tasty!

Chili/Soup

On a particularly chilly day last week, my mom mentioned that she had made hamburger soup. Hamburger soup is something she would make quite often for us when we were younger. The soup is easy to put together and also falls under my definition of healthy.

Hamburger soup:

1) Brown half of a package of ground beef in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven on med-hi.

2) Add half of an onion, chopped or thinly sliced, and 3 carrots that have been thinly sliced. Cook for about 2 minutes

3) Add a peeled and diced potato

4) Add a 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes (I used chopped tomatoes with Italian seasonings)

5) Add a bay leaf, and a Tbsp of dried oregano

6) Add enough beef broth to cover. About 1.5 cups

Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, roughly 30-40 minutes

This made enough for 4 servings. You could also add some diced celery at the same time as the onion and carrots, I had forgotten to pick some up though.

The next night I made a chili. It's a recipe from Ellie Krieger, who has a show on the American Food Network called Healthy Appetite. I like her philosophy about food, which is basically that no food is off limits, but some foods can be eaten everyday, and some should only be eaten every once in a while.

I only made half of the recipe (using my leftover half onion, and half a package of ground beef from the night before). I left out the red bell pepper, because I had forgotten to pick one up. I also used 3 chipotles in adobo (which made it quite spicy so only do that if you like things spicy). Also in her recipe, Ellie adds 2 cups of water to the chili, which I left out.

I'm glad I left out the 2 cups of water, because I feel that the chili was thin enough. I have never used carrots in a chili before, and I don't mind them as an addition. You can serve it as is, or topped with some grated low fat cheddar and tortilla chips. (As seen in the top picture of this post)

This weekend I had some friends come up from Calgary. On Saturday night we had "make your own" pizza night, and Sunday morning I made Eggs Benedict. The pizza left me with chopped onion, red bell pepper, green bell pepper and sliced mushrooms for leftovers. The Eggs Benedict left me with back bacon. To use it all up, last night I made fried rice.

I heated up about 1 tbsp of safflower oil in a large pan, and sauteed the veggies (leftover from pizza night, and a half cup of frozen peas) for about 4 or 5 minutes. I took the veggies out of the pan, added another tbsp of oil and then 1.5 cups of cooked, cold jasmine rice. The rice has to be cold in order for it to fry. Once the rice was glossy (about 2 minutes), I added the veggies back to the rice, and tossed in some chopped back bacon. Then I added a sauce made from combining 1 tbsp of soy sauce, mirin, honey, Chinese cooking wine, rice vinegar, and a tsp of Sriracha sauce.

I think fried rice is the way to go to get rid of leftovers. Just about any veggie or meat will work in it.

Fajitas

I don't know what is wrong with me, but I have had a lot of motivation recently to work out. Yesterday morning I even rolled out of bed at 5:30 am, got dressed and went for a jog. Sure, what actually happened was more like a brisk walk with bursts of jogging, but I at least was moving. I plan to jog, or "jog", before work a few times a week to build up more endurance.

Then I got the crazy idea to go to the gym after work. My gym had been bought by another company a few months ago, and my scan card still said the old name. I very sheepishly handed my card to the desk girl and said "I haven't been here in a while" NO JUDGEMENT.

Anyways, I am really excited that I have the motivation to work hard at getting into shape, and have been trying to cut down on the less healthy foods I eat.

Monday night I made fajitas. I had intended on using skirt or flank steak, but when I was at the grocery store a really beautiful New York striploin caught my eye and I couldn't say no. I used the spice rub that was in this Everyday Food recipe. (I still do not have brown sugar at home, so I omitted it). I used a very small amount of olive oil to coat both sides of the steak, and rubbed in the spice rub. I used a non stick spray on my skillet and cooked the steak 3 minutes per side on medium high heat (for medium rare). I took the steak out of the skillet, and placed it on a plate under foil, to rest for 5 minutes. LET YOUR MEAT REST, PEOPLE! I have said it before, if you let your meat rest for 5 minutes after cooking, it will taste so much better!

In the same skillet I poured a very small amount of olive oil, and added an onion that I had peeled, halved, and sliced thinly. Once the onion had sauteed for about two minutes, I added a sliced red bell pepper and sauteed until just warmed through. When I am eating fajitas I like the peppers and onions to still have a crunch to them. If you like yours overcooked and limp, keep cooking them until they become that way.

I sliced the steak thinly, and removed the excess fat. I took a whole wheat tortilla and topped it with 1/4 of the meat, 1/4 of the red bell pepper (capsicum) and onion mix, some salsa and a sprinkling of low fat cheddar cheese. I ate two of these for dinner, and two for lunch the next day.

They were delicious. The meat was spicy and tasted 100 times better than using a store bought fajita seasoning.

Mini Meatloaves

Almost every day I check my blog stats to see how many readers I have, and where they are from. Not surprisingly, most of them are in Calgary or Edmonton. (Thank you, my friends and family) Recently I noticed that someone from New York was reading my blog regularly. I was really excited to have a reader I don't know, until I remembered my aunt, Tante, was visiting New York. Thank you Tante for checking this so regularly.

Pictured above is the Mini Meatloaves I made last week, well one of them. The recipe is courtesy of Everyday Food. As always, I tweaked the recipe a little. EF calls for adding cheese in the meat mix, and topping the mini loaves with more cheese. I omitted the cheese because I don't feel that it adds enough taste to justify the added calories.

I went to make the honey mustard ketchup topping, and noticed I was out of mustard. So I figured I would use a ketchup and brown sugar mix, only I was out of brown sugar. So I searched my fridge and found a VH Thai Market Sweet Chili Sauce and spooned that on top of the mini loaves.

Turns out, it was delicious. I have also made these before with the honey mustard mix in the recipe and that was also delicious.

I served it alongside some frozen corn, which I thawed in a strainer by running it under cold water, and then warmed it up in a sauce pan with a small amount of margarine. I also served it with a potato dish of my mom's called Hot Potato Salad.

To make it, you take some potatoes, peel them and chop them into large chunks. Place in a pot with whole eggs and set to boil. The eggs are removed once the water has boiled for 10 minutes. (The eggs should now be hard boiled) When the potatoes are fork tender, drain them. Place the potatoes back in the pot. Shell the eggs and place them back in the pot. Mash. Add some Miracle Whip and pepper. Mix.

I used two potatoes. I wanted to use two eggs, but one was stuck in the carton and as I applied force to remove it, I cracked it open. I used maybe a 1/4 cup of Miracle Whip. To make more, I would keep the potato to egg ratio at 1:1. Add the Miracle Whip to taste. Delicious. As a kid I grossed out my entire family by pouring Kraft's Catalina dressing on top. I swear it tastes ridiculously good.

Cute Cake

This past week has been extremely chaotic for me. It's been a whirlwind of ups and downs and I have neglected my blog in the meantime. Last Friday I had intended on blogging about a very important event, and I missed it, and haven't been able to make up for it yet. So let's all suspend reality for a minute and pretend it is March 19 again. Ready...



Like I said, an important event in history. This might surprise you, given the high quality of the image, but I made it using my impressive skills in Paint.

The other night I made a Tortilla Pie. I loosely based it off this. Since it's loosely based, and not the same with only a couple tweaks I will write the recipe below for what I made.

Rebek's Tortilla Pie
1) In a large skillet brown up a pack of ground beef. Once browned, add a package of taco seasoning, half a cup of water, a can of kidney beans (rinsed), and a can of black beans (also rinsed). Add some chili powder as well if you like things to be a bit spicy.
2) You will need tortillas, I used a whole wheat flour variety. Pick a round baking dish the same size as your tortillas. Place a tortilla on the bottom, and spread a thin layer of salsa over it. Layer some of the meat mix on next. Sprinkle with cheese. (I was feeling lazy so I used a pre-grated Kraft Mexican mix). Top with another tortilla, repeat the salsa, meat, and cheese layers. Do it again. And again. For the very top, sprinkle the cheese generously.
3) Place in a preheated oven (350 F) for 20 minutes or so. Until the cheese is melty, and the top tortilla is browned and crispy.

This was really tasty. I served it alongside some salsa and and a Cilantro Lime Crema. Which is sour cream with lime juice and cilantro mixed in. If I was feeling lazy, I probably would have added some chopped onion, and a can of tomatoes.

Cute dishes!

I also made Miniature Coffee Cakes. The coffee cake does not taste of coffee. Apparently it is called this because it goes very well alongside coffee. These were fantastic. I did have to tweak a little though. I had no pecans, so I used slivered almonds instead. I did the first part of the recipe in my miniature food processor, but for the mixing I used my stand mixer.
I also only made half the glaze, and added just a wee bit of vanilla to it.

They were great fresh from the oven, as well as the next day. I will be making them again very soon.

Meatballs

My mom is an incredibly talented woman. To start off with, she raised four kids almost on her own. My dad was a truck driver (he works in an office now which is why that is in past tense) and he was rarely home. My mom also survived cancer, that left her with an arm that doesn't work as well as it did pre-cancer. And even with a wrist that doesn't work to its full capacity, my mom is very crafty. I mean in the artistic way, not in the deceitful way. She makes beautiful quilts, and I would love to be able to scrapbook anywhere nearly as good as she can.

There are a few meals that my mom made, that are my all time favorites. One of them is the meatballs pictured above. My twin and I love these. (No, I don't really have a twin, one of my sisters is convinced that she is my twin so we sometimes call each other that).

The original recipe called for adding diced onion to the meat, which I substitute for onion powder. My twin and I also didn't think the original recipe had enough sauce, so we doubled it.

If you are feeling particularly lazy, you cannot just brown up some ground beef and pour the sauce in with it. My twin did this once, and the result was not good.

To make the meatballs you combine:

1 package of ground beef

just over half a cup of rolled oats

1 egg

a couple pinches of onion powder

a couple pinches of garlic powder

a dash of Worcestershire sauce

if the mix seems a bit dry, you can add a bit of milk.

Roll the meat into balls that are bigger than ping pong balls, but smaller than tennis balls. Place them into a baking dish.

To make the sauce combine:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup ketchup

a pinch of garlic salt

a dash of Worcestershire sauce

Pour the sauce over the meatballs. Cover the dish and bake at 350 F for an hour.

Every single time that I have made this is serve it over white rice, with canned brown beans on the side.

After supper I had a hankering for cookies, so I made Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal cookies. I did a couple things differently. I didn't have all purpose flour, so I used bread flour. I had googled whether or not that was ok, and I was warned that the bread flour might make the cookies dry. The mix did appear to be dry, so I added a bit of milk. I was out of vanilla, so I used Kahlua instead. The recipe said drop the cookies in teaspoons, but I did them in double tablespoons. Which meant after 12 minutes, they were not done baking, and they took about 5 or 6 minutes longer.

Even with all my meddling, the cookies turned out really good. I gave one to my brother in law to try, and he said that there wasn't enough chocolate chips. He is right, so if you bake these use a cup of chocolate chips.

Red Meat Makes the World Go 'Round

Spring has reached Edmonton, at least for the time being. I'm sure we will still see another cold front, and perhaps a couple more snowfalls before it is actually spring. But for now, it is beautiful outside. I did a bit of spring cleaning yesterday, and then I took a step out of my normal hermit tendencies and went out in the world. I picked up some pasta and a bottle of balsamic vinegar from the Italian Centre. I went to Chapters and bought a couple books. It would have been an entirely perfect trip out in public, if it weren't for 3 things.

1) The small child who was accompanied by both parents at the Italian Centre, neither parent willing to control him in any way

2) The guy, who when saw me trying to cross the street (on foot) in the Chapters parking lot, debated whether or not he should let me cross, and then sped up, while turning his stereo on really loud, and proceeded to not let me pedestriate. I waved at him, using both hands but not all my fingers.

3) Remembering once I got home, that my car has a sunroof. A sunroof that should have been open the entire time I was driving around, but I forgot it existed.

The first two are huge pet peeves of mine. I know that kids have a mind of their own, and you can't control them all the time. But if your kid is a hellion, should you really bring him to a busy grocery store on a Saturday afternoon? Should you let them drive the "cute" little mini-cart? I think the worst is when a kid is driving the little cart, and runs into you, and the parent glares at you, like it's your fault you choose to stand in little precious' way. You don't see me hitting kids with my cart and then glaring at you for bringing them.

And I hate stupid drivers. The guys who drive really slow in the left lane bother me the most. In fact, I think cops should stop handing out speeding tickets, and crack down on the real hazards. The people who drive under the speed limit, the people who see your signal light when you're trying to get out of a lane with a broken down car, but they just have to get past you and not let you in.

Woooooo. Ok rant over. Spring is here, and life is good.

The other night I made a perfect meal. Steak with potatoes and money beets. I took a perfect New York strip, brushed it with olive oil, seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it for 3 minutes on each side in a skillet over med high heat. (Then I took it off the pan and let it rest for 5 minutes under foil). This will make a medium rare steak, which is the only way to eat it.

What is on top of this perfect steak? Steak butter. I made it by taking a 1/4 cup of white wine, the juice of one lemon, and a minced shallot, and boiling the mix in a saucepan until it reduced to a tbsp. I then let the mix cool. Once cooled, I added it to a half of cup of butter that I had whipped in a food processor.

Delicious! Also note the super cute little red dish. My sister E got it for me for my birthday. The white dish underneath is tear drop shaped and I got that for my birthday from C's parents.

I made the potatoes using a Chef Michael Smith recipe. You take a cooked baked potato that has cooled down and smash it by placing it on a flat surface and then pressing a plate on top of it. You drizzle it with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. and then bake for 30-40 minutes at 45o F. The reason you use a cooled potato is that a warm potato will crumble, and a cooled potato will hold its shape when smashed.

The exposed flesh will go crispy and brown in the oven, and the potato under the skin will stay tender and fluffy. Very very good.

About half way through cooking time I drizzle a bit more olive oil on the potatoes. I think it makes them a bit more crisp.

To make the money beets, I peel the beets (wearing rubber gloves), and then grate them. I put them in a saucepan with a bit of water and white vinegar, roughly 1/4 cup each. I put a lid on the saucepan and cook the beets on medium for about a half hour. Then I drain the liquid, add a bit more white vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Oh yeah, those are the money beets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_P1-ipWdWg

Watch that video if you want to know what money beets are. I do not know how to post the actual video on the blog. Sorry.

Surf n Turf

When I first moved to Edmonton I was living in a townhouse that had ample storage place. The kitchen had enough cupboards that I could place all my kitchen stuff in them, and I still had empty cabinets to spare. I had a huge pantry with lots of shelving as well. After a couple years in that condo, I made the move into an apartment. While there is so much about my apartment that I like better than my condo, I really lost out on a lot of storage areas.

This has made things trying at times, but in the most recent weeks I was so frustrated with this that I felt like throwing out all of my belongings. Instead of throwing everything out, I got rid of a lot of things that I had been holding onto for no reason. I knew that to create more storage space I needed to buy a couple bookcases, so on Saturday I went to IKEA.

I invited C to tag along. One, because she loves IKEA, two, because she has an SUV, and three, because I just plain love her company! Since C was so generous with helping me transport my purchases, and helping me carry them into my apartment, as well as helping me put them together, I made her dinner.

A while ago my doctor told me that I have high cholesterol, and I needed to change my diet. He told me to eat lots of almonds, fish, fruit and vegetables. He warned me against red meat and butter. The meal I made for C would make my doctor cry. I almost cried too, it was so good. I will warn you, this meal is not for anyone who is watching their waistline, or is concerned about their arteries.

I'll start with my least favorite from the menu. The roasted cauliflower. I have had no previous experience with roasting cauliflower. To be honest, I wanted to boil it but the rest of the dishes were using up my burners. I poured some oil on the cauliflower and season it with salt and pepper. I placed it in the oven at 350 F. About 15 minutes into it I noticed that the cauliflower was still raw hard. So I poured some water into the dish so it would steam at the same time. This didn't work. So we had cauliflower that was still sort of hard, and not at all fork tender. Though really, once you see the rest of the meal you will see why we didn't care too much about the cauliflower.

I still think it looked pretty. I will get to the sauce on top of the cauliflower momentarily. Right now, I want to talk about the potatoes. I made the potatoes using a recipe from Nigella Lawson's How To Eat. You boil new potatoes until they are fork tender. (I used red potatoes for color, and to make them pretty I peeled a strip off the potato around the middle). Once tender, you drain the potatoes and toss with a bit of butter until the potatoes are glossy. Then you pour a bit of truffle oil on the potatoes, being careful not to use too much or your potatoes will smell like a barnyard. Nigella's words, not mine.

Truffles are an extremely decadent and expensive ingredient. I know I couldn't afford to every use them, and a lot of recipes use truffle oil to bring a bit of the decadence to the dish without having to actually use the truffles. When my friend D came to visit me she brought me a present, and when I opened it to find truffle oil I was ecstatic.

I loved the bottle so much I have to show a picture of it, as well as a picture of the potatoes.

The truffle oil adds a certain taste that I can't identify. It's very earthy, but something about it reminds me of something I had once. A very nostalgic and comforting ingredient.

The sauce on top of the cauliflower is a Bearnaise sauce. It also came from Nigella's How to Eat. You can find the recipe here. This links to a recipe for steak with the Bearnaise sauce, but we only used the recipe for the sauce.

The Bearnaise sauce's main ingredient is butter. And it is delicious on steak. To make my steaks I took two new york strips, rubbed them with oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and placed on my hot grill pan for about five minutes on each side. I was careful not to move them once placed in the pan, and I let them rest under foil for five minutes after they came off the pan.

Since this meal wasn't already completely indulgent, I made scallops as well. To make the scallops I heated a bit of oil and butter in a pan, and when it was hot I placed the scallops in to sear. To sear the scallops the oil and butter must be hot, and once placed in the pan they cannot be moved. When meat of any kind (including shellfish) is placed in a hot pan the meat sticks to the pan. If it's moved right away it will tear. You have to wait until the meat naturally lets go of the pan so it can be moved. The scallops take roughly one minute on each side to cook. They are finished when both sides are brown and the middle is opaque. DO NOT OVERCOOK THE SCALLOPS.

To serve, I place the steaks on a plate, poured the Bearnaise on top, and then placed the scallops on top of the saucy steak. Then I took the pictures, and drowned the scallops in more sauce after that.

I was eating the steak and scallops separately until C told me if you take a bit of steak with a bite of the scallop it tastes really really good. So I took her advice, and she wasn't lying. When the two are put together something very magical happens. I'm not joking. Please try it.

More Lemon

I am going through some major with drawl. My apartment still isn't fixed yet, and I haven't been behind a stove in over a week. I'm itching to get back to cooking. I did find some pictures today on my camera from a dinner I made last week before the power problems. (Which someone is coming to look at tomorrow).

I should scratch that last paragraph. I am currently typing this with Intervention playing in the background on television, and I am nowhere near an addict.

New start:

The power to my kitchen is still out. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how I can make an actual hot meal using only outlets, without the use of my stove, oven or microwave. Being the idiot that I am, I didn't even think to use The Wife until I got home tonight, which is kind of late notice to put a meal together in a slow cooker. I do miss being able to cook though, and I am getting tired of take out. The only reason why I have a post to put up is that I found some pictures on my camera today from a meal I made last week. (I believe this is the one that was being made at the time the power started going wonky)

When I was at my friend C's parents' place on New Year's Eve, the topic of conversation led to food. Someone brought up my blog and some of the dinners that I had been making and someone asked me why I would want to put so much effort into a dinner that only I will enjoy. I'm not sure what I had answered with, but it would have been along the lines of why wouldn't I?

I have to eat every night, so I might as well enjoy my meals. I did admit though, that sometimes trying to cook for one with recipes that are made to serve four or more can be a pain in the ass.

This is when C's mom pulled out a couple of magazines with recipes designed to serve two people. This is perfect for me since I like to make enough food in one meal to serve me twice, once at dinner and once the next day for lunch.

One of the recipes was Lemon Sirloin with Feta Tabbouleh.
Tabbouleh is a Mediterranean salad that consists of bulgur, vegetables, and herbs. I have never worked with bulgur before but from the picture in the magazine I knew it would be similar to couscous or quinoa. The bulgur grains are slightly bigger than couscous, which I liked. The salad is incredibly healthy, it's loaded with vegetables and the oil used in it is the heart-healthy olive oil. The only unhealthy item is the feta, and I did use a bit more than what the recipe called for. Because I love feta. I could eat it straight out of the container.

The only issue I had with this recipe was due to my lack of experience with a grill pan. My aunt had called me a couple weeks ago. She was at Canadian Tire and they had a sale on KitchenAid grill pans, and she wanted to know if I wanted one. As soon as she mentioned "70 % off" I said yes, without even asking what color it was. (It was red by the way, so obviously I was meant to have this pan)

I didn't heat the pan up slowly, and I also didn't let it get hot enough before placing the steaks on. This will explain why there are no grill marks on the steak. Also why you don't see much of the steak in the picture, it isn't very pretty looking. The lemons look beautiful which is why the picture is even getting posted.

Overall, I loved this dish. I don't normally think to pair lemon with red meat, and I think they make a great pair. The tabbouleh was incredibly tasty and I can see it making a regular appearance at my table.

Lemony Snickets

I was thrilled to receive The Cook's Book of Everything for Christmas. I had been eyeing it up at Chapters for a while, although when it comes to cookbooks there is very little I don't have my eye on. This particular book really does have a recipe for everything. It also has an herb and spice guide which is very informative.

My grocery store has this one produce aisle, I call it the miscellaneous aisle. That aisle is home to a random assortment of vegetables or herbs that can be unusual. The problem I have with this aisle is that I can't always count on a certain item to be there. For instance, I have seen Thai basil in the aisle on occasion, but not every single time that I shop there.
When I was walking down that aisle recently I saw lemongrass, an item that I have never noticed before at Sobeys. I went home, forgetting about the lemongrass, and opened my new cookbook. No joke, I opened it up to a recipe for lemongrass beef. Not seeing this as a coincidence the next night I picked up some lemongrass and made the dish.

Lemongrass Beef

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbs grated ginger

4 lemongrass stalks, white part only, finely chopped

1.5 tbs vegetable oil

600 grams lean beef fillet, thinly sliced (I didn't know what they meant by beef fillet so I just used steak)

1 tbs lime juice

1-2 tbs fish sauce

2 tbs kepap manis

1 lg red onion, cut into small wedges

200 g green beans, sliced

To make:

1)Mix together garlic, ginger, lemongrass and 2 tsp oil in a large, non-metallic bowl. Add the beef, toss well to coast, then cover and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes

*note: when working with lemongrass, peel off the outer leaves*

2) To make the stir-fry sauce, mix together the lime juice, fish sauce and kecap manis. (Kecap manis is a thick, dark sweet soy sauce used in Indonesian and Malaysian cooking. If not available, simply stir a little soft brown sugar into regular soy sauce until it dissolves) Sobeys did not have kecap manis, so I used the soy sauce and brown sugar combo

3) Heat the wok (or large skillet) over high heat, add 1 tbs oil and swirl to coat. Stir fry the beef in batches, 2 -3 minutes, or until browned. Remove from wok and set aside.

4) Heat the remaining oil in the wok over high heat. Add the onion and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the beans and cook for a further 2 minutes, then return the beef to the wok. Pour in the stir-fry sauce and cook until heated through.

Delicious! I have never worked with lemongrass before, and I have to say their smell reminded me of lemon wet-naps. Some people might find that to be an unattractive quality, but I love wet-naps so I didn't think this was a bad thing at all. I was skeptical of first of how lemony the lemongrass would make the meat taste, but there was a very strong citrus flavor to it. Not exactly like lemon, but lemon with a hint of herb.

The other night I used actual lemons in another recipe from The Cook's Book of Everything.
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Ingredients:
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs Chinese rice wine
1 spring onion (scallion, or green onion), finely chopped
1 tbs finely chopped ginger
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
100 g (1 cup) cornstarch
oil, for deep frying
Lemon Sauce Ingredients:
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp cornstarch
To make:
1) Cut chicken into slices. Place in a bowl, add the soy sauce, rice wine, spring onion, ginger and garlic, and toss lightly. Marinate in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight.
2) add the egg to the chicken mixture and toss lightly to coat. Drain off the excess and coat the chicken pieces with the cornstarch. The easiest way to do this is to put the chicken and cornstarch in a plastic bag and shake it.
3) fill a wok one-quarter full of oil and heat to 190 C (375 F), or until a cube of bread dropped in the oil turns golden brown in 10 seconds. Add half the chicken, a piece at a time, and fry, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes. Or until golden brown. Remove with a wire sieve or slotted spoon and drain. Repeat with the remaining chicken. Reheat the oil and return all the chicken to the wok. Cook until crisp and golden brown. Drain the chicken. Pour off the oil and wipe out the wok.
4) To make the lemon sauce combine all the ingredients.
5) Reheat the wok over med heat, add the lemon sauce and stir constantly until sauce thickens. Add chicken and toss lightly until the chicken is covered in the sauce.


Sadly I was in a hurry to eat so I just quickly threw it all onto a plate. As I was about to take a bite I remembered I should take a picture of it for the blog, which is why the picture seems to be lacking.
The chicken was so good. I think next time I would use honey instead of the sugar in the lemon sauce, and I would add another tsp.
I have used cornstarch as a coating for fried chicken before, and I liked the results. This time around I LOVED the results, I credit it to dipping in the egg first, but also frying the chicken twice. The chicken is very crisp this way.

Even if only half the recipes in the book turn out as well as these two did, I would have to say no home should be without it.

I can't resist making this post even longer without telling this story. A friend and I were out at a pub when we ran into her neighbors. Her neighbors turned out to be the biggest germaphobes I have ever met. They were telling us that they wash all their produce in soap and water before they will eat them. They also mentioned that they will never buy a lemon or a lime. Ever. They use the bottled lemon or lime juice. You see, one time they watched a documentary on what happens to a lemon or lime from the time it is picked off the tree, to the time it gets to one's house. At this point, you should be able to tell what kind of people they are judging their entertainment picks. During this enthralling film a lemon had been handled by 4 people who had picked their nose, which had scared them off buying lemons and limes forever.
I had a couple problems with their theory. I can understand being thoroughly grossed out by this but:
1) Wouldn't all fruit/vegetables that are hand picked off trees or wherever, also have a chance of being handled by nose pickers? Or is nose picking only limited to the lemon and lime workers?
2) If you bought a lemon or lime from the store, you could take it home and wash it in water and soap, and feel confident it is clean, but the bottled juice is made from actual lemons and limes. Are we sure the factory cares enough to wash the fruit before juicing it?
This is only one...quirk this couple had. Perhaps over time I will share what the entire, very painful, evening had to offer.

(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight

I think I am going to have to make my next week a light week. Most of this past week has been laden in sugar, butter, and all things delicious. I'm a firm believer in "all things in moderation, including moderation", yet there hasn't been much moderation at all lately.

Before I start attempting a "light week", I will finish off "slowly blocking off my arteries" week.

The vegetable for my supper tonight was beets, roasted beets. I stick whole beets in a baking sheet with about an inch of water @ 375 F. The beets I was using were on the large side so it took about an hour for them to be fork tender. Count on 40 minutes for small beets, 60 minutes for medium to medium large beets, and 80 minutes for the money beets.

Those of you who watch the Office might remember Dwight talking about money beets when he said "First rule in roadside beet sales, put the most attractive beets on top. The ones that make you pull the car over and go, 'Wow. I need this beet right now.' Those are the money beets"

After the beets are fork tender, let them cool for about ten minutes so they are cool enough to handle. Then peel and quarter them. Use a paring knife to aid in peeling. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

For my meat part of dinner, I made my all time favorite pan-fried New York strip loin. The recipe is from Everyday Food. I take a skillet and on med-high I heat up enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Season the steak with salt and pepper on both sides. Place in the pan for 3 minutes, flip and cook for another 3. This will make a medium rare steak. (And really that's the only way to eat it). Remove the steak from the skillet and place under foil for 5 minutes. In the pan pour 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, and a 1/4 cup Dijon mustard. Pour the sauce over the steak after its 5 minutes resting period. (Cut into the steak before it rests and you are really doing yourself a big disservice)

Wow. I'm not going to lie, I will eat this sauce with a spoon. It is that good. Then again, I am an addict.
The final part of my meal was ravioli with a brown butter balsamic sauce. Yes, everything had balsamic in it, I did just admit I was an addict!

Cook the ravioli according to its package directions (I would use cheese ravioli as a meat one might overwhelm the very simple sauce). Meanwhile heat 6 tbs of butter in a saucepan, until the foam has subsided and the butter has turned a golden amber color. Remove from the heat and let cool for 1 minute. Add 2 tbs of balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. When the pasta is done, drain it, and toss with the sauce. Top with Parmesan cheese.

I forgot to add Parmesan though. The pasta was very delicious and I imagine if I had added the Parmesan it would have even been better.