Balsamic Skirt Steak with Polenta and Roasted Tomatoes

Some people were SURE that the SO ate the mini meatloaf meal, but nope, he wouldn't even try it. I am sure a lot of people think, how do you put up with that?! But other than the food nonsense, he really is a wonderful guy so I don't push it. I have been with him for almost 8 years and I realized several years ago this was just one thing he would not budge on.

I promised a little more beef action this week, so here we go! Bring on the red meat!


I cut this recipe in half.


this also came from the Everyday Food magazine.


Get your water boiling for your polenta first!


I assembled my ingredients. I love grape tomatoes, they are flavorful year round.


Green onions


I chopped them into white and green parts.


keep them separated.


Toss the tomatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and the white parts of the green onion on a baking sheet lined with foil. I loaded that in the toaster oven that was preheated.


My water is boiling so time to grab the corn meal to make the polenta.


stir it into the boiling water


Now that this is going, grab your steak.


I have never worked with skirt steak before and I was unsure of how tough it was going to be. I shouldn't have worried, it was not tough at all and turned out moist and delicious. I will definitely be buying this cut more often. I totally missed photographing the meat while it was cooking!


Get your meat out of the pan and pour in the balsamic vinegar.


Let your meat rest, covering it with foil is a good idea to keep it warm.


your polenta should be thickening nicely, keep stirring it!


Here is my first failure so far, I totally burned the balsamic vinegar! It looks ok here, but in a few moments it turned into a sticky napalm like substance. FAIL! Back to the polenta...


Toss in the butter




stir in your parmesan cheese and let that hang out.


grab your veggies out of the oven and slice up your steak. since I burned the balsamic reduction I just poured a little of the vinegar straight from the bottle on to the steak.


This was very good. The roasted onions were one of my favorite things on the plate. Don't get me wrong the steak was outstanding, but I love roasted veggies. The polenta was creamy and delicious.

Mini Meatloaf with Roasted Potatoes and Spinach Salad

I realized that I have not posted any beef recipes yet, so here is my first. I don't eat a lot of beef but I have a couple of recipes coming up for all of you steak and ground meat lovers.


I subscribe to a lot cooking magazines and have a lot of cookbooks so don't fear that I may run out of recipes any year soon.


I cut this recipe in half.


This recipe is actually very easy and easy to time to have it all ready at the same time.


First thing I did was grate the cheddar.


A regular old box grater will work.


Next you need to get your egg. But, how do you only use half an egg?


It is very simple, get your whisk


and whisk it all up. Once you have it combined you can pour in half of the egg and then save the other half to fry up with your dog's dinner.


grab some honey mustard (or combine 1 part mustard to 1 part honey)


gotta be Heinz!!


get those two combined together to make your glaze for the mini loaf.




If you don't have Panko breadcrumbs you can use regular breadcrumbs. Panko are the latest food fad and are used a lot as breading in Asian dishes.


so into the bowl goes your egg, breadcrumbs, cheese and some salt and pepper.


mix it up with your hands and form it into a mini loaf on a cookie sheet. Get your hands washed and grab your potatoes.




get them washed and quartered


drizzle them with olive oil, salt and some garlic powder. Add whatever seasonings you like.


get them all mixed up and spread them on a cookie sheet. I put the potatoes in at this point while I finished the loaf.


I got my glaze and a brush. If you don't have a brush a butter knife will work.




once it is covered with the ketchup and mustard mix sprinkle it with the remaining white cheddar. Put it in the oven, you will start smelling this glorious thing very quickly.


While the loaf cooks get your salad fixings out. Olive Oil, Red Wine Vinegar and some more of the honey mustard.


I didn't have any Boston lettuce so I used spinach. I promise this photo was taken before the "enjoy by" date. I have meals queued up to share with you guys.


yin and yang


drop in your honey mustard and mix it up


dress the greens and set them aside until your meat and potatoes are ready.


This thing smelled so amazing I could barely wait to eat it. I let it rest for 5 minutes while the potatoes finished up.


serve it all up and enjoy!


The meat loaf was so incredibly good I did not finish the potatoes. It was so moist I am guessing you could do this with ground turkey or chicken. This is definitely on my list of things to have again and again!

Pasta with Leftover Chicken and Asparagus For One

I tend to always end up with leftovers so this is a quick meal that incorporates some of the random items in my fridge.


First thing, get some water boiling.


I got some Parmesan cheese, asparagus, and some butter. I also had some chicken but managed to not get a picture. Sometimes I am just too hungry and miss a step.


Some flavored pasta.


And you guessed it, some garlic


I chopped the asparagus and tossed it in a pan with some olive oil. I threw the lid on and let it cook for a couple of minutes.


I tossed in my chopped garlic for another minute or two.



Chop up your chicken and throw your pasta in the water.


Once the pasta is done throw it in the pan with the chicken and asparagus.


Add some butter or olive oil and give it a quick toss. Plate it up and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.


Dinner is ready in no time at all.


You could do this with broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts or peas. Have a great week!

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

I told you earlier that I would be posting a recipe for using up some of your leftover Prosciutto so here it is! You can find this at All Recipes.com This is very simple but looks and tastes like something very special. This serves 2, or just one because you are NOT going to want to share these.

INGREDIENTS

* 1/4 pound prosciutto, sliced
* 1 (8 ounce) package Neufchatel cheese, softened
* 6 spears fresh asparagus, trimmed

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Spread prosciutto slices with Neufchatel cheese. Wrap slices around 2 or 3 asparagus spears. Arrange wrapped spears in a single layer on a medium baking sheet.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until asparagus is tender.


All you need is some Asparagus, some Prosciutto, some cream or Neufchatel cheese and a cookie sheet.


Trim the bottoms off the asparagus.


The prosciutto is kind of a pain to work with because it is so thin, but be patient, it is so worth it.


Smear it all up with cream cheese.


lay your asparagus at one end and roll it up, so simple!


Stick them on a baking sheet and get them in the oven. Pull them out after about 15 minutes and that is it, done!


I served them along side some of the leftover chicken, which I did not end up eating much of after I tasted these things.


They were so so tasty. The Prosciutto is rather salty but I really like salt so it was fine for me. I will be making this side dish often. yum.

I would like to thank you all again for the comments, I appreciate them. I would also like to thank one of my readers who gave my blog an award of Excellence. I am humbled, thank you so much.



You should check out her blog here. She is a talented writer and tells the most wonderful stories.

Quick Tortilla Pizza with Goat Cheese, Chicken and Spinach

I often have random leftover items in my fridge. I had read somewhere about making pizzas on a tortilla and thought that would be a great way to combine a lot of different leftovers. I had leftover chicken from the roasted game hens and put together a delicious pizza. First step, get your oven going at 450 degrees.


look at all these random leftovers I found for my pizza. Chicken, spinach, goat cheese, and sauce from some delivery pizza.


I am going to serve with a salad dressed with my favorite store bought vinaigrette. I love to make my own, but this stuff is very good.


I am using goat cheese and some sauce from a local place called Tessio's. We got breadsticks which came with this sauce. The breadsticks are long gone but I just cannot bring myself to throw away food, so I saved the sauce.


I am all about flavored tortillas. The chicken was pulled from the second game hen I roasted earlier that week.


I get my salad together first, because your pizza will cook very quickly.


I threw a couple of grape tomatoes into the salad as well.

Now lets get our pizza together!


I have a pizza stone that I got from my sister about 10 years ago. I LOVE it. It never leaves my oven and I have probably cooked close to 500 pizzas and leftover pizza slices on it. I am not kidding that the SO eats at least one pizza a week cooked on this stone. In addition to allowing you to heat and reheat pizzas it provides a nice temperature regulator for your oven. If you would like to read 15 different folk's understanding of how and why it regulates the temperature click here. ok back to the task at hand, spread your sauce. I am not a huge sauce fan, so a little goes a long way.


Add your toppings. I have chicken, goat cheese and spinach.


bake it for about 5 minutes and you are done!


You have a delicious pizza just how you like it!


don't forget your salad!


YUM. The possibilities with this kind of meal are endless. It is the perfect weeknight dinner.

Stuffed Cornish Hens with Swiss Chard

This recipe also came from the most recent issue of Rachael Ray's Magazine. It is simple, but so so good. I cut this recipe in half.




I am glad I started cooking these little guys. They are inexpensive and have great flavor.


Lets start making the stuffing! Grab your shallot.


If you can't find prosciutto you could use ham or bacon, but if you can find it and you can afford it, use it! Stay tuned as later this week I will show you something to do with this stuff that will amaze your taste buds.


Delicious


Dried Mango


chopped up


I adore this bread


here is a tip for cutting cubes of bread, use your pizza wheel! you can cut two slices in no time.




gotta have your garlic!


I use my dough blade to transfer things from the cutting board to the pot.


get them nice and soft



it looks so pretty with all the colors!


add your broth after everything is all mixed up and get your chickens ready while this cools.




get them all nice and stuffed and tie them up. I don't have kitchen twine so I use embroidery thread.


I keep my flour in a plastic gallon sized bag. I realized when I made this that I have had this same plastic bag for probably 7 years. Obviously not the same flour though.



toss in your garlic



drop the flowered chickens in the pot


I should have browned them more, I am always so impatient! They went into the oven and I grabbed my chard.


I picked the rainbow chard because its just pretty.




you only want to use the leafy part of the chard, not the stems.


it is going to look like you have a mountain of greens, but they will cook way down.


this is what you have left when you are done cutting.


throw the towel over the greens until the hen is done.


get your chicken out of the pot and reserve some cooking liquid






throw in your greens and watch them shrink. stir them around a bit as they cook.




there they go! add the reserved cooking liquid as they shrink.




The stuffing was so incredible, I should have made extra to have more later. I will show you some tips for more leftover chicken later in the week, and as I mentioned, more fun with prosciutto!

Simple Shallot Pasta

This recipe comes from the Rachael Ray magazine. I know a lot of people hate her, and I cannot stand more than 5 minutes of any of her shows anymore, but her magazine is pretty great. I have cooked a lot of recipes out of it and there are always cool cooking and serving products to drool over.


I love shallots so this recipe immediately caught my eye. I sort of just improvised on the quantities. First things first, get some water boiling for the pasta.


2 shallots


Sliced them up nice and thin


It is Olive Oil, NOT EVOO, I used about a tablespoon


In with the shallots!


You gotta have your cheese


This is more of that delicious pasta my sister sent me. Wine in the pasta, genius!


The shallots start to caramelize and they smell amazing


After your shallots have cooked for about 15-20 minutes get your pasta in.


Dump it in with the shallots and give it a stir.


Top with the cheese and parsley for a delicious meal.


I only wish that I would have added MORE shallots, they were so sweet and so good.

Grilled Bison Burgers

Since today is Valentine's Day I thought I would share a meal that my SO actually ate with me. I grilled some bison burgers with some delicious and healthy ground bison.


I am very simple with my burgers. Chopped Red Onion, Worcestershire sauce and seasoned salt.


Get it in a bowl and mix it all up.


Make your patties however you like them and grill them up for about 10-12 minutes depending on how rare you prefer them to be.


I served with a side of rice and cheesy cauliflower. Curious as to what the SO's plate looked like...?


Yes, he likes pickles :)

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out there!!!

Fake Steak Fajitas

I like to cook with meat alternatives when possible to save on fat and calories. There are a lot of good varieties out there these days.


I found these at the British based store Fresh and Easy, which is new here in AZ.

I cut the following recipe in half:

1/2 c. Viva Italian dressing
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. vinegar
1/3 c. Worcestershire sauce
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lime
2-3 lbs. skirt steak

Cut steak into desired fajita lengths. Blend all ingredients in large bowl; add meat. Cover bowl and marinade meat overnight in refrigerator. Stir 3 or 4 times and grill.


Marinade liquids...


and other ingredients...


Liquids in the bag ready for the fake meat to dive in


It looks a little less than appetizing now, but just wait...


Into the fridge it went


I wanted to serve with some red peppers and onions, my favorites on fajitas.




This is a regular yellow onion, not a shallot for once.


I cooked them over medium heat just until they were softened, about 7-10 minutes.


I removed them from the pan and got the fake steak in.


It looks meaty and delicious!


grab some tortillas


and whip up some "Secret Sauce" which is just some salsa and sour cream.




You will not miss the meat in this meal at all, the fake meat was delicious and soaked up all the marinade flavor. This was a great low fat and easy dinner.

Chicken with Cashew Sauce and Smashed Potatoes

Today's sauce comes from the book 400 Sauces. I really like this collection of recipes. I needed a sauce to use on my leftover chicken breasts, so I pulled this book out.




I just made the sauce and disregarded the rest of the recipe.


I always have tomato paste in my freezer. Each individual frozen pellet is 1 tablespoon.


I have never cooked with this spice mixture before, but I have read about it in a lot of recipes. It is very good!


The spices really come together with a unique flavor.


If you are interested in nice high quality spices, check out Penzey's. I am lucky enough to have a location near my home. Request their catalog, even if you don't buy anything you will learn something!






Cashews


Chili Powder


Turmeric


Garam Masala






shallots and garlic are waiting in the mini chopper...everyone went in for a spin!




I transferred the mixture to the sauce pan that I used to cook the giblets for my dog. Feel free to say ewwwwe here, but I think it added a nice flavor.

To go with the chicken I am making Smashed Potatoes. After I got the sauce mixture in the pan I just let it hang out until my water was boiling for the potatoes.








I am sure regular milk would work fine also, but man did this stuff make a difference.


Don't worry, I made this dish a while ago, before the onions expired.


I diced up the whole package since the SO likes to use it on his tacos and nachos that he eats once a week.




Once the potatoes were nearly done I heated the sauce for a minute and then just layered the leftover chicken breast over the sauce and dropped the heat low. I put the lid on the pan just to let the chicken heat through.


Smash up those potatoes!




Once the cream was added they looked heavenly.


I ended up with leftovers of the cashew sauce and ate that on some pasta the next night.




Simple and delicious!

Leftovers become chicken salad and more to come...

After I ate the chicken for dinner I tore it apart. This process grosses the SO out to no end but I enjoy finding every last bit of meat.




I will be doing more with the breasts in an upcoming post. For now I am concentrating on the rest of the meat I picked off the bones.

This is one of my recipes so I am guessing on quantities here. I think I had about a cup of chicken, maybe a bit more.


Half a shallot, which I diced up.


Cashews, about 1/3 of a cup, I just ran my knife through them.




Into a bowl they went.


I like celery seed in my chicken salad if I don't actually have any celery on hand. Just a sprinkle will do.


Use as much or as little mayo as you like.


Mix it all up.


Add whatever other veggies you like on your sandwiches and serve it up!


I had this with some chips and salsa.


Delicious and easy.

Roasted Young Chicken

I know I posted a recipe for a roasted cornish game hen that was similar to this, but this is a larger chicken and I will follow up with some great leftover ideas. I am posting this just before the weekend because this makes a great saturday or sunday afternoon meal so that you can use the leftovers throughout the rest of the week.

Here are the general instructions I used, from www.chow.com

Preparation: Whole Chicken:

1. Remove the neck and giblets from the cavity (use the neck, gizzard, and heart for stock; use the liver for stuffing). Rinse under cold water, pat dry, and season inside and out with salt, pepper, and any desired herbs.
2. Place lemon halves and herb sprigs inside the chicken cavity, or stuff as desired. Tie the legs together with butcher’s string to keep its shape. For crispy skin, massage the chicken with softened butter or oil.
3. Roast at 400°F for 15 minutes.
4. Reduce the heat to 350°F and cook for about 1 1/2 hours for a broiler fryer, 2 hours for a capon, 2 1/2 hours for a roaster, or until it reaches 170°F on a thermometer stuck in the thickest part of the thigh and the juices run clear.


I got this whole chicken for $2.50 so I could not pass that up. I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I bought it but that is how a lot of my best meals start.


I got some root veggies to roast in the pan with the bird.

I am not going to make any assumptions on skill level here and inform you that there are giblets in these birds and you should remove them before cooking.


You can use the giblets for gravy later OR you can feed them to your dog. I chose the latter.


I trimmed away the excess skin around the neck also.


lemons


in they go! this could not be easier!


when I work with raw chicken I pour salt out to use so that I am not putting contaminated hands in my salt pig.


This is a secret ingredient from my childhood. We always had baked chicken with paprika on the outside.


nice and seasoned


I didn't have butchers twine to tie the legs but I had embroidery thread and it worked fine.


I used my mister to douse the bird in olive oil


I got the potatoes and cut them into pieces.


delicious garlic


Its not a shallot, amazing!! Just a regular yellow onion.


I added some carrots and got them in a bag.


I tossed them with some salt, pepper and olive oil.


I got them in the cast iron pan and sent the whole deal to the oven.


My handy meat thermometer verified it was ready to eat!


It turned out GREAT.


I went right for the wings and some dark meat.


the veggies were utterly delicious. I also ate a nice big piece of crispy chicken skin and enjoyed the heck out of it.


Look at those sweet, buttery garlic cloves. You better believe I ate those.

Stay tuned for ideas for the rest of the chicken!

Baked Artichoke Dip and leftover ideas

This is a two for one post, I will show you how I made baked artichoke dip for the super bowl and then used the leftovers for a quick weeknight pasta dinner.


This could not be easier...


Assemble your ingredients.


I have this great plunger style measuring cup thanks to my sister's efforts with Pampered Chef. It really is useful when you are working with things like honey, peanut butter and mayo.


You pull the plunger down to the appropriately marked measurment and load it full of your food stuff


Press the plunger up from the bottom and give it a scrape! So easy!


I had never worked with canned artichokes before. They are very wet and even after draining the can I gave each one a squeeze to get out the excess moisture.


If you have a mini chopper you can certainly use it. As this was the first time working with the artichokes I really wanted to hand chop them to get a feel for their texture and firmness, etc.


Everything into a bowl and mix it up!


I made this a few hours ahead of time and just dropped it in my small dutch oven


and into the fridge it went until 20 minutes before serving.

I preheated the oven and popped it in for 20 minutes and it came out gooey, bubbly and delicious.


I served it with tortilla chips. The SO tried it but did not like it so I ended up with leftovers. I realized there was no reason why this could not be revived on a little bit of pasta so when I got home from work Monday that is just what I made.


I got the water on


dragged out the leftover dip


I threw in some more of the specialty pasta my sister got me and then mixed it all up once the pasta was done. Reserve a tiny bit of pasta water to mix in if it doesn't combine nicely.




It was VERY good and so fast and easy.



I drank this during the big game...



Did you make anything good for the game or have something good to drink?

Sweet Garlic Pork with Cheesy Cauliflower

As you may have figured out, I love my grill. I use it as much as I can, so this book gets thumbed through a lot.


This recipe calls for an entire HEAD of garlic, but that is for four servings, so I cut this recipe in half.


I made the marinade the night before.


yummm

I had read somewhere that if you take a bunch of cloves of garlic and put them in a bowl and shake the crud out of them, they would magically peel.


I shook, the dogs barked like mad and this is what I ended up with. One peeled clove. I think what I should have done was cut the root end off of each clove first.


SO I peeled the rest the usual way, with a good wack from my knife.


Sugar!


It went in the little magic chopper and turned into paste!






In with the rest of the ingredients.


I gave it a whirl and stored it in the fridge until the next day.


I never used to cook with pork because my memories of pork was dry and not flavorful. BUT if you treat pork right and don't over cook it you will be very happy with your results. If you are worried about food poisoning or the like, just buy yourself a food thermometer, you can get them cheap.




Into the bag goes the marinade and then park it in your fridge for an hour or two. I did this on lunch because I am lucky enough to come home on my lunch break.


This is my super cheating side dish. I love these veggies in cheese, I admit it.


The pork comes out and gets going on the grill


I grill my pork 4 minutes on each side. I do 2 minutes and rotate it so I get nice grill marks. Once its flipped over to the other side I start the nuker...




Cheesy goodness :)


Let the pork rest a few minutes


Then serve it up!


The pork was great and VERY garlicy, so beware. I saved the 2nd pork chop for leftovers and even though it was stored in a ziplock bag my fridge smelled of glorious garlic!

Wine Library TV hits 400 episodes!

I know that I say I dine alone everyday but I actually share my dinner most nights with Gary at Wine Library TV:



What in the heck is Wine Library TV you might ask? Its a daily FREE wine education show hosted by one of the most charismatic people I have ever seen, Gary Vaynerchuk. I have learned a lot about wine from this show, but mostly I watch because it makes me happy. Its 20 minutes a day where I am guaranteed to smile and laugh. They are approaching their 400th show and they have asked for viewers to do a tribute post to try to get more folks to tune in for the 400th episode. I figure that this show makes me happy everyday so its the least I can do!

The commercial is over, I will be back tomorrow with food!

Sweet and Sour Chicken Breast with Soba Noodles

I did this with one nice sized chicken breast.


There are instructions for broiling the chicken for you guys who can't grill, but I grilled mine! I am making this with Soba noodles so I got some water boiling.




I have mentioned before but a zester is a handy tool. If you have a Microplane grater or even a box grater you can use that as well. Just be careful to not get any of the white part of the skin, just the fragrant and delicious yellow part.


Mix up your sauce.


I seasoned my chicken breast with salt and pepper and got it on the hot grill. Once you have it cooked on one side, I flip and start brushing with the sauce.


I got some Soba noodles last time I was at the Asian market, but you can find these in a lot of regular grocery stores also.


Into the pot they go and back out to my chicken I went. I flipped and kept basting with the sauce.


I drained the noodles and got some broccoli in the pot where the noodles were and got those heated through.


I threw the noodles in and tossed it all with some sesame oil and salt. I grabbed the chicken and let it rest for a minute on the counter.


And there you go! Grilled Sweet and Sour chicken with Soba Noodles and broccoli. It was delicious!!! The sauce on the chicken was really flavorful.




I couldn't eat the whole breast so I sliced it up and had it for lunch the next day with a little BBQ sauce on a Kaiser Roll. YUM. I hope you all have a great Super Bowl weekend!