The Best Steak EVER

So, by special request, I made a steak tonight. A friend of mine from the IRC (Hi, podman405!!) asked me if I wanted to make a steak tonight for dinner and he would follow the same recipe. At the end of the night, we would see whose steak looked better. I don’t mean to toot my own horn but damn that steak was good.

My steak was a .72lbs NY Strip. It was the second smallest one in the case. We followed the directions on the food network’s bastard child website http://www.food2.com for the Perfect Steak in a Skillet.

Ingredients:

New York strip steak, room temperature
Fresh ground pepper (not too fine)
Sea salt or kosher salt
Canola oil (I used about 3 Tbsp)
1 tablespoon butter
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
A few sprigs fresh thyme
Special Equipment: seasoned cast iron skillet (10 inches in diameter)
*Instead of salt and pepper I used Montreal Steak Seasoning. I know this is a dangerous thing because the garlic and other spices in the mix can burn fast but it worked out for me this time*

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Coat the steak with pepper and then with a heavy sprinkling of salt. Heat the cast iron skillet until extremely hot (approximately 10 minutes). Add oil to the pan. Sear the steak on the first side 1 to 2 minutes until it develops a nice crust. Flip it, baste it with the oil, top with butter, garlic and thyme and place in the oven. Check every 2 minutes; cook to desired temperature *I cooked mine in the oven for 3 minutes total and it was PERFECT* Let the meat rest until the juices redistribute and slice across the grain on a slight bias. *About 5 minutes resting time*

Chef’s Note: “Warning: Please heat your pan cautiously. 10 minutes or under will suffice. Any longer and the oil could catch fire! Have a fire extinguisher ready, just in case.” <—-This is good advice!! It tends to smoke a little.

I also made my garlic mushrooms and a salad to go along with it. OK! Pics!

Pics of podman405’s steak can be found here: STEAKS!

 

Raviolis with a cool sauce

I watched Giada De Laurentiis make this recipe this morning on her show on the food network. I made a couple of minor changes to the recipe but for the most part, it is the same. I also wrote a review on the food network for it!! I used Wild Mushroom Angliotti ravioli from Buitoni for my ravioli. I couldn’t find arugula at the market so I used Spinach. Also, I used fresh tomatoes that I had sitting around instead of diced canned. I added 2 cloves of garlic to the recipe as well. It was slightly salty but that could have been from the pancetta I used.. Who knows. I only used half the amount of pancetta the recipe called for though because I only bought one package… I didn’t realize that it was supposed to be 6oz! XD

Ravioli with Arugula, Tomatoes and Pancetta
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Show: Giada at Home Episode: Busy Day Menu
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Cook: 20 min
Total: 30 min

Ingredients
* 1 pound cheese ravioli
* 6 ounces thinly sliced pancetta, chopped
* 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning
* 3 cups arugula
* 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves, divided
* 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the ravioli and cook for 7 to 9 minutes until tender. Drain.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, add the pancetta and cook stirring frequently, until crispy, about 8 minutes. Remove to paper towels to drain. Add the tomatoes, olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook for 2 minutes until tender. Add the arugula and 1/4 cup basil and cook until wilted, about 30 seconds. Stir in the butter and melt. Add the ravioli and cooked pancetta and toss until coated. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer the ravioli to a large serving bowl. Garnish with the remaining basil and serve.

PICS (since I did it on the webcam, I totally didn’t take pics of the steps but I got final plating ones.)!

Wow, Blurry.

 

Chili Suizas

I made something called Chili Suizas Bake the other day and it came out really awesome if you like green chili and enchiladas suizas. The recipe is courtesy of Rachael Ray and the Food network. I didn’t really modify it at all.

Chili Suizas Bake
Recipe courtesy Rachel Ray
Prep Time:
15 min
Cook Time:
25 min
Serves:
6 servings

Ingredients
* 3 large poblano peppers
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
* 2 pounds ground chicken
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
* 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 12 large or 16 medium to small tomatillos, peeled, rinsed and halved
* 1/4 cup cilantro, a handful
* 2 cups chicken stock
* 2 teaspoons honey
* Salt and pepper
* 1 lime, juiced
* 1/2 cup creme fraiche (I used sour cream)
* 3 cups lightly crushed tortilla chips –whole-grain tortilla chips, such as flax seed tortillas add
wonderful texture and flavor
* 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese, about 1/3 pound
* 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, about 1/3 pound

Directions
Heat the broiler to high. Place the poblanos under hot broiler and char until blackened an all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Leave the door of the oven cracked to allow the steam to escape. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the peppers to cool enough to handle.

While peppers char, heat extra-virgin olive oil in a high sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and lightly brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in onions, jalapeno and garlic and cook to soften onions about 5 minutes. While onions cook, place tomatillos and cilantro in the food processor and process until smooth. Pour the tomatillos into the chicken mixture and stir to combine. Stir in chicken stock and honey, season with salt and pepper and simmer chili 10 minutes.

When poblano peppers are cool enough to handle, remove seeds and chop, stir into chili. Remove chili pan from heat and stir in lime juice. Add dollops of creme fraiche on top of the chili, placing spoonfuls evenly across the pan. Cover the pan with a layer of crushed chips and top with Swiss and Monterey Jack cheeses. Place under broiler until brown and bubbly. Serve from hot skillet, spooning out chili into shallow dinner bowls. TOUCHDOWN!

Poblanos

Plated:



In the Pan:

Recreation of the Glowtinis from ESPNzone at Disneyland (also the very first time I have had a whole cocktail):



Mushroom sauce for the meatloaf we had last night:

I also made brownies on the day we had the chili suizas – with white/semisweet chocolate chips:

 

Steak and potatoes!

I decided that I wanted a steak and some potatoes for dinner tonight. Carter was cool with it so we headed out to the store for supplies. I got a NY strip steak that I put a bit of olive oil and pepper + garlic on and I used 2lbs of red potatoes cooked with 2 cloves of garlic cut in half. When they were done, I drained them and added some butter + milk and whipped them up. The salad is just baby spinach with some very thinly sliced onion and balsamic dressing. I also made some mushrooms to go with it.. they just had some garlic, pepper, salt, and a tsp or so of balsamic for acidity. I fried them up in some olive oil and butter. The results are as follows:

Spinach salad:

Raw Steak:

Cooking Potatoes:

Completed potatoes:

Mushies:

Cooked Steak:

 

Meatloaf!

Well, I haven’t had a fridge for a few weeks now because our old one died. I ended up with food poisoning from it and haven’t been feeling up to doing much of anything since then. Tonight I decided to make some meatloaf and roasted potatoes with green beans. I made individual meat loaves this time and everything turned out really good. I basically used steakhouse seasoning for everything, plus some extra garlic and red pepper flakes.

I took a packet of mushroom gravy mix and added some fresh sauteed mushrooms to it. It was really delicious and I tend to do that every time I make gravy now.

Hopefully, we will be getting a fridge soon so we don’t have to go out every day. I will be cooking more then too.

 

Home again.

Well, we are home again and I decided that after cleaning the house all day, I didn’t want to cook anything. However, the guys in the IRC convinced me that I should make pasta with sauce for dinner. I took a can of diced tomatoes and a tiny can of sauce and added some oregano, 3 cloves of fresh garlic, 2 yellow tomatoes from our garden, 2 green bell peppers from our garden and let it cook for about 20 minutes. It was at that point that I decided that I should try adding some of our new dried Gourmet Mushroom (porcini, oyster, brazilian, ivory portabellas, and shiitake) mix to the sauce. I rehydrated them according to the directions on the canister and added them to the sauce. They cooked in the sauce for a good 5 minutes. I figured the angel hair was done cooking so the sauce should be pretty well done as well. It all tasted fantastic but the mushrooms definitely needed to be soaked longer. Some were perfect and others were still sorta hard and weird tasting. All in all, topped with mozzarella and parmesan, the pasta dish was awesome enough for me to try making it again.
Here are some pics of this easy pasta dish!

Pasta cooking:

Sauce cooking:

The finished product!

Gourmet Mushroom Blend:

I am going to need some mushroom recipes for this baby!

 

Busy Busy!

Alright! It has been a long long time since I have posted here. I have been a busy bee lately! I have been cooking almost every night with my mother in law at her house so I only have a few pictures of our endeavors. They think I am weird when I say “NO! Don’t eat it yet! I need to get a picture!”

So we made Spicy Shrimp Burgers one of the first nights we were home.
Recipe courtesy: Rachael Ray (30 Minute Meals)

1 pound raw peeled and deveined small shrimp
1 celery stalk with green, leafy tops, coarsely chopped
1/2 small to medium yellow skinned onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic
A handful parsley leaves
1 tablespoon all-purpose seafood seasoning, found near fish department (recommended: Old Bay)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or 1 teaspoon hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)
1 lemon, zested
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
4 English muffins, sandwich size plain or sour dough flavor
1/4 cup mayonnaise or reduced fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup chili sauce or salsa or taco sauce
Butter or Boston lettuce leaves

Divide the shrimp in half. Put half the shrimp into a food processor and grind it up. Transfer the shrimp to a bowl using a rubber spatula. Add the whole shrimp to the bowl. Add celery, onion, bell pepper, garlic and parsley to the processor and pulse-grind it into a fine chop. Add the vegetable mixture to the shrimp. Add half a palm full of crab boil seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, lemon zest, salt and pepper to the bowl, to season. Stir the shrimp mixture to combine.

Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium to medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan in a slow stream. Use a large metal scoop to scoop 4 mounds of shrimp burger mixture into the pan. Gently pat down to form patties. Fry patties 3 to 5 minutes on each side, until they firm up and the shrimp turn whitish-pink.

Split and toast the sandwich size English muffins. Mix mayonnaise and chili sauce, salsa or taco sauce. Place burgers on muffin bottoms and top with lettuce. Slather the top of the muffins with sauce and set in place.

Then on another night we decided that we wanted to make pizza. I don’t have the exact recipe we used but the pizzas ended up being awesome. My mother in law wanted to use up a box of Spicy Garlic Chicken mix. It was really good but we added a bit of fun stuff to it. We used Sriracha sauce (cock sauce) to make it spicy… possibly too much! Carter built that one up. I made a regular italian style pizza using some Boboli tomato sauce and peppers, onions, olives and garlic and mozzarella cheese.
Raw Spicy Chicken!

Raw Italian!

Baked!

Tonight I decided to marinate some portobella mushrooms in balsamic vinegar, EVOO, fresh garlic, and steakhouse seasoning. I grilled them up served them on top of some Salad Macaroni I had in my pantry mixed with some garlic, butter, and parmesan cheese. I also made a zucchini, onion and tomato casserole with cheddar cheese on the top as a side dish.

The recipe for the zucchini casserole thing came from my parents. They grew zucchinis and tomatoes in their yard one year and they ran out of things to do with them. They made a huge batch of this stuff but I cut it down for just my husband and I.

2 zucchinis, cut in half and then sliced
1/2 an onion, cut in half and sliced
2 tomatoes, cut in half and sliced
2 cloves of garlic – diced or pressed
About 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Enough Sharp Cheddar cheese to cover the top of the veggies

I used a cast iron skillet for the first time tonight for this and it worked better than anything I have ever used before. Put the oil in the pan and heat it up. Add the onions and garlic. Cook them both for about 2-3 minutes. Then add the zucchini. Cook for another few minutes until the zucchini starts to get softish. Then add the tomatoes. (At this point, you can put this in the fridge and come back to it later if you want to… make sure your cast iron skillet is cool before you put it into the fridge tho!)
Cover the veggies with the cheese and stick the skillet into the oven at 350degrees F until the cheese is melted. Hot or room temperature, this veggie dish is awesome either way.

I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen baking cookies as well today! The recipes for the cookies I made can be found on the back of the chocolate chips bags. I made white chocolate chip and mini regular chocolate chip cookies.

White Chocolate Chip!

Mini Chocolate Chip!

Cookies!

Chicks!

Plain!

I also made a double batch of the Almost No-Knead Bread dough!

I am sorry this ended up being so long but I saved all the fun stuff for one big post! I am planning to make some shrimp tacos tomorrow so I am going to have another post then! 😀 Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the recipes I have posted!