My ruminations on my life, my family, cooking, baking, and whatever else comes to mind
Another night grilling dinner. This is a very tasty and simple non-recipe. Sprinkle skinless boneless chicken thighs lightly with lemon pepper seasoning and grill over medium heat for about 12 minutes total, or until cooked through. I served this with some grilled asparagus that I cooked for the same amount of time in a little grill-top skillet.
This is an incredibly simple and refreshing salad for summer. It easily scales up, so make however much you need.
Tomato and Cucumber Salad
Serves 2
½ lb tomatoes
½ lb cucumber
⅛ tsp kosher salt
⅛ tsp black pepper
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Cut the tomato into bite sized wedges and place in a large serving bowl. Peel and slice the cucumber and place in the same bowl. Sprinkle with the salt, pepper, and vinegar, and toss to combine. Let sit for 10 minutes for the flavors to meld before serving.
This was a very tasty and slightly unusual dinner. My local grocery stores just recently started carrying buffalo, so I picked up some little eye of round steaks for dinner tonight. This was grass-fed American Bison, raised free range in Montana. I’ve had buffalo before, but it’s been a long time. Shaun had never had it before. He described the flavor as sort of a cross between trout and beef, with the fishiness of the trout replaced with beefiness. A strange but accurate description 🙂 I served this with a Tomato and Cucumber Salad and some crimini mushrooms sautéed in butter and garlic with a sprinkle of kosher salt and black pepper.
If you’ve noticed the theme of grilling in the past several days, it’s because we’re having a record heat wave here in the Pacific Northwest. Neither of us have any desire to turn on the oven, or even use the stove for any length of time, so the grill has been our mainstay, not that we mind! :-p
Grilled Buffalo Steaks
Serves 4
1 pound thinly sliced buffalo eye of round
½ tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp kosher salt
Preheat the grill to high.
Lightly brush the steaks with the vegetable oil and sprinkle both sides with kosher salt.
Turn one side of the grill down to low. Put the steaks on the hot side of the grill and sear for 2 minutes on each side. Move the steaks to the cool side of the grill and cook for another 4 minutes on each side for medium.
Remove steaks from the heat and let rest 10 minutes before serving.
Celebrating Shaun’s birthday a bit early, we made Homemade Chicken Noodles today. We did most of the cooking early in the day while it was still cool, and just enjoyed it for a late lunch / early dinner and watched movies on the couch. A nice relaxing day 🙂
I found this recipe in “Picnics, Potlucks, and Barbecues” Taste of Home special magazine. Here is a link to the original recipe for Sesame Pork Kabobs. I used less onion, increased the garlic a bit, and used fresh ginger. This was decently good, but I think it needs longer than an hour to marinate in order for the flavor to really penetrate. Smaller strips might help as well. It ended up mostly just tasting like grilled pork – not bad, but nothing special. I’ve also changed the name here to “skewers” rather than “kabobs,” as technically the word kabob refers to lamb cooked on skewers, not just anything.
We had this with steamed jasmine rice and zucchini chunks also grilled on skewers.
Sesame Pork Skewers
Makes 4 servings
For the marinade:
⅓ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sesame seeds, toasted
¼ cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
5 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
For the rest:
2 pork tenderloins (about 2 lbs total)
In a large zip top bag mix all of the marinade ingredients. Cut the pork into ¼ inch thick slices and add them to the bag. Seal and toss to coat. Let marinate for an hour.
Thread pork slices onto skewers and preheat grill to medium heat. Grill for about 20 minutes total, turning about halfway through, or until the meat is cooked all the way through and nicely browned.
We just spent most of the weekend grazing rather than actually making meals, so we made a nice grilled dinner tonight. I got some fresh white corn and some halibut fillets, and then I saw these humongous shrimp on a super sale since they were getting close to their expiration date, so I picked them up – just 6 shrimp to a pound! I just grilled them plain, in their shells, along with the husked corn and a foil packed of the halibut sprinkled with kosher salt and layered with lemon slices (like this salmon). A lovely fresh and quick dinner!
Shaun and I were in the mood for a sweet tonight, and I had a bag of coconut lying about, so I dug through my cookbooks to find a macaroon recipe that I could make without going to the store. Joy of Cooking came through with a recipe I could throw together. The original recipe calls for using a measuring tablespoon to form the cookies, but I wanted larger ones and used my trusty Oxo medium cookie scoop. I also love vanilla and tend to overfill my measuring spoon, so I used closer to 2 tsp. Shaun really liked these. I felt like there was something missing, but I’m not sure what. Maybe the ground almond that Nigella’s recipe called for…
Coconut Macaroons
Makes 15 medium sized cookies
⅔ cup sweetened condensed milk
1 large egg white
2 tsp vanilla
⅛ tsp salt
3½ cups flaked sweetened coconut
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Mix together the sweetened condensed milk, egg white, vanilla, and salt until smooth and well blended. Stir in the coconut to combine.
Drop the batter by large tablespoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop) onto a parchment lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten each dome. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until nicely browned.
Lift the cookies on the parchment paper to a cooling rack and let cool completely before serving.
| Calories | 128 |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 5 mg |
| Sodium | 85 mg |
| Carbohydrates | 16 g |
| Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Vitamin A | 1% |
| Vitamin C | 1% |
| Calcium | 4% |
| Iron | 2% |
This was a definite success. I was trying to make a garlic bread similar to the old recipe at Buca di Beppo before they got bought out last fall by Planet Hollywood, and while I did not succeed there, I did nonetheless succeed in making a very tasty bread! I started with a Bobby Flay recipe that got great reviews, and proceeded to change it up entirely 😛 I added about 10 cloves of roasted garlic to the dough and topped the bread with 10 thinly sliced raw cloves of garlic and some dried oregano and basil. I cut the bread into about 20 small-ish squares, but big wedges would be great too as a heartier side.
Garlic Focaccia
Makes 1 loaf
For the bread:
2 teaspoons rapid-rising dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
3½ to 4 cups flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
¼ cup olive oil
10 cloves garlic, roasted
Cornmeal, for dusting
For the topping:
10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced lengthwise
½ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
Mix together the yeast, sugar, and water in the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolving the sugar. Let the yeast proof for 3-5 minutes or until the surface of the water is covered in foam. With the dough hook attached, turn the mixer on low and slowly add 3½ cups flour Dissolve the salt in 2 tbsp of water and add it to the dough with the olive oil. Add the garlic cloves and turn the mixer to medium. Let the dough knead for 10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Remove the dough from the mixer and form it into a ball. Place the dough in an oiled bowl and brush with olive oil coat. Cover with a damp paper towel and allow to rise for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Brush a baking sheet with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Stretch the dough out into a roughly rectangular shape about ½ inch thick and place on the backing sheet. Gently press the garlic slices slightly into the dough and sprinkle with the salt, oregano, and basil.
Bake the bread for 15-20 minutes or until turning lightly golden brown.
Serve warm.
| Calories | 115 |
| Fat | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Sodium | 234 mg |
| Carbohydrates | 20 g |
| Fiber | 0.5 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Vitamin A | 0% |
| Vitamin C | 1% |
| Calcium | 1% |
| Iron | 6% |
This recipe came from the flank steak package. It wasn’t too bad, but I don’t think we’ll probably be repeating this recipe. I’m posting it just in case one of my three readers might enjoy it more than we did 🙂 I used closer to ⅓ cup lime juice (about 3 limes) rather than ½ cup, and I didn’t bother to reserve any of the marinade for basting. The recipe recommended serving with grilled bell peppers, but I didn’t have any on hand. I served it with roasted broccoli and mushrooms sautéed with some garlic, salt, and black pepper. My version of the flank steak is below.
Southwest Marinated Flank Steak
Serves 4
1 beef flank steak (about 2 lbs)
For the marinade:
½ cup Italian Dressing
⅓ cup fresh lime juice
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp cumin
Mix together the marinade ingredients in a zip top bag. Add the beef and marinate for 8 hours.
Preheat frill to medium heat. Remove steak from marinade and grill for about 15 minute total, turning halfway through. Let meat rest for 10 minutes, then slice across the grain and serve.
Tonight I grilled up some chile rubbed pork tenderloin and served the meat with tortillas, salsa, and refried beans. I added a tsp of onion powder to the rub and used more like 5 cloves of garlic. It took about 25 minutes on the grill, low heat, turning halfway through. It was a nice warming meal on a rainy evening!
