It's The Little Things, Nes Cafe?

I love summer for lots of reasons, but a big one is because the farm stands open up.  I LOVE them!  This is the place I go to on the Rocky Coast.  It is called Brown's Farm Stand.  This is the first year they have had a little building.  Before this was a lean-to type stand with produce under a tarp that was erected to keep the elements away.  This building is very nice.  The neon sign blows my mind a little bit, but what the heck?

The little red potatoes looked really good, so I decided to make Herb roasted red potatoes.  So simple, and very delicious.

I washed them and let them dry.

Along with some Herbs.  Parsley, rosemary and thyme to be exact.  I still get excited every time I get to use my Herb garden.  It is the little things, nes cafe?

I chop them up roughly.  This will make the potatoes look nice and rustic.  Except for the rosemary.  That has a sort of "branchy" texture, so I always mince it pretty fine.

I cut the potatoes into 1 inch pieces.

Put them in a mixing bowl with salt, pepper and EVOO.  And of course the Herbs.  Mix it all up good.

Spill them out onto a foil lined baking sheet.

Cook them at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  Then pull them out of the oven for a minute, and flip them around with a spatula.  Cook for another 15 minutes.

They will come out golden brown and delicious.

We actually snacked on these while hanging out on the deck for a while. It was so relaxing, and so much better than snacking on potato chips. The leftovers will be wonderful too. Maybe a kicked up potato and egg for breakfast soon.

A bientot!  See you soon.

Nice and Easy

Leftovers really make us happy.  Not only is it an easy assembly and therefore a quick meal, but we feel so good not wasting anything.  And if you enjoyed it the first time, the second time around is bound to be just as good, if not better.

A couple of nights ago we tried hanger steak for the first time.  I have often heard it referred to as butcher's steak, because years ago the butchers kept it for themselves.  They realized the flavor value, and since it didn't look like a hearty and significant piece of meat, people would be less apt to buy it.

Our original meal was very simple.  Just a salad topped with grilled steak.  I marinaded the steak in the following, for about 4 hours.  Two would be fine, but what's a couple of extra hours amongst friends?

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I am in love with the Irish Stout Mustard, of the seemingly ever present potato salad, so I used that instead of Dijon)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (Happily from my Herb garden)
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup dark lager beer (I didn't want to go out, so I used Miller Lite, because it was available)
• 2 pounds trimmed hanger or hanging steaks

It was a delicious marinade and the hanger steak was cooked perfectly, on the grill.

Since then we have had a couple of busy days, so I decided to use the leftovers and make ourselves a couple of wraps.  Nice and easy.

All I had to get was the wrap.  These are nice big whole grain wraps.

I sliced the meat into less than bite size pieces.  It makes me mental, I must say, when you take a bite out of a sandwich and half of it is in your mouth and half needs to stay in the sandwich, but doesn't.  Yuck!  Phooey!

This part is just in case you haven't wrapped a sandwich before.  Your best bet is to place the main ingredient to the upper right part of the wrap. Then you will have a flap on the bottom to hold all the ingredients in.

 Place the accoutrement on top.  In this case, left over salad.

Drizzle the residual juice over everything.

 I had my handy model, UD, demonstrate where to flip the flap!

Roll from right to left, somewhat firmly, and you will have a perfect wrap that holds everything.

Not a great picture, but you get the picture.  You get a little bit of everything, in every bite.

As a flavor boost, we drizzle a little of Newman's Own Light Raspberry & Walnut dressing, every few bites.  What a great combo with the steak and salad.

And how nice that all the profits go to charity!

A bientot!  See you soon.

Kicked Up Corn and Hot Ds

Tonight UD inspired me!  He reminded me that I have been wanting to try grilling corn on the cob.  I have always, always, always boiled it in a pot of water for 5 to 7 minutes.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  So, I decided to start by making a compound butter with all the Herbs in my Herb "garden".

A little reminder of why I am pronouncing it Herb, rather than herb.  Please see "Side Note" after the first paragraph.

From left to right, there is thyme, rosemary, parsley, chives and basil.  Considering how how small they were when I got them, they have done really well.  And I use them all the time.

I decided to use all of them, with the addition of garlic, salt and pepper.  The two strongest are thyme and rosemary, so I am using less of them.

Basil is a very delicate Herb, so you will want to chiffonade it.  Stacking the leaves, rolling tightly and slicing with a very sharp knife.  This will result in beautiful green ribbons of basil.  If you were to finely dice it like the other Herbs, it would become bruised, and look very unappetizing.

You will need to plan ahead, so you can bring about a stick of butter to room temperature.

Put all the Herbs in the dish with the softened butter.  I probably have about a tablespoon of parsley and chives, a half tablespoon of basil, and a teaspoon each of rosemary and thyme.  There is also a clove of garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Mix it well.

Get every last bit of that Herby buttery goodness.  Place it on plastic wrap or parchment paper in a log type shape.

Roll it tightly so it mushes all together.  Once you have it rolled up, twist both ends to mush it even more.  Mush?  What up with that word?

I set some aside for the corn, and the rest I will refrigerate and use later on a grilled steak, grilled shrimp, or on delicious Herb crostini.

Now onto dinner.  One of UDs favorite meals is hot dogs and hamburgers.  Just ask Darling.  Every time we got together and grilled, UD would say, how about hot dogs and hamburgers?  Being the gracious hostess that she is, Darling would accommodate.  But Darling's husband J makes some of the best ribs around.  And Darling grills some mean steak tips.  Why did he always want hot dogs and hamburgers?  Well, now we are on the Rocky Coast, and Darling is 150 miles away.  I miss her.  And the rest of her pack.  So for UD and Darling, and the 4th of July weekend, tonight we are having hot dogs and hamburgers, minus the hamburgers. :)

I have the compound butter for the corn, but I also have plain butter at room temperature.  That's for the rolls.  I brush the hot dogs with a little Canola oil and season them with freshly ground black pepper.  They are already plenty salty for us, so I pass on adding that.

I coated the corn with the Herb-a-licious butter, and wrapped them in tin foil.  There was a discussion between us as to whether we should grill straight on the grill or wrapped in foil.  We decided to do the foil this time, and straight on the grill next time.  I will let you know which one we prefer.

The hot dogs went on the grill, which was manned by UD.

Oh, a tip on the hot dogs. Many, many years ago, Sister N introduced us to Deutschmacher hot dogs. You can usually get them in the deli department of the supermarket, and they are delicious. I was never a big fan of hot dogs, until these. So give them a try. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who is trying to reduce their plastic use though, because they come individually wrapped in plastic. Pardon Sister E! 

Now you might be surprised, but this is exactly how we like our hot dogs.  Crispy and charred on the outside.  Yup, that's a thumbs up for us!

You may have noticed that I made mention of my sandwich abilities in a previous post.  Well one of the things I have come to realize, is that the bread, or roll can make or break a sandwich.  Let me speak to the ordinary hot dog roll.  It is squishy, plain and let's face it, boring.  But not when you add the magic ingredient of butter!

Using room temperature butter, liberally spread it on both sides of the hot dog roll.

Preheat a dry pan over medium high heat.  Add the hot dog rolls, and check periodically for golden goodness.  Flip it, and do the same to the other side.

UD cooked the corn for approximately 10 minutes and then pulled them off the grill.  It was delicious.  The corn had steamed in the Herb butter and was deliciously tender crisp.  As I mentioned, next time we will grill it unwrapped and let it get charred a little.  Then we will slather with the Herb butter. 

I actually don't want to talk about that any more.  I want to concentrate on this corn, at this moment.  Ahhh.  So good.

Dinner was simple, and a success.

A bientot!  See you soon.

No Fabulous Concert, But A Tasty Lunch

When I was 15 years old, I got a job at Jimmy's Pizza in Chelmsford, MA.  I prepared sub sandwiches, turkey clubs, and the occasional fried clam plate.  I did everything but the pizzas.  After a while I got very good at the sandwich part of the job.  In fact, there was a woman who worked across the street at a ticket master type place, and she came in periodically for a steak and cheese sub.  She was probably only 22 or 23, but to me, at 15 or 16, she was a woman.  She always requested that I make her sub, which, I confess, made me feel pretty good.  One day she came in around Christmas time, and handed me an envelope.  She said, "This is a little something for all the care you put into my sandwiches."  I was so pleased and excited!  I thought for sure it was a couple of tickets to some great concert and I could bring a friend along to share in the fun.  It was a little busy at the time, so I thanked her and set the envelope aside.  After my shift I remembered that I hadn't looked in the envelope.  Was I ever surprised!  Inside the envelope was marijuana.  I was a pretty strait-laced kid, and I had never seen it before.  But it didn't take much to realize what it was.  Needless to say I didn't go to any fabulous concert that year.  And FYI, I didn't partake of the gift, even though it was a very nice, if odd, gesture.

So today, UD and decided it would be nice to have a steak and cheese sub for lunch.  But rather than go out to the nearby sub shop, I made them at home.

I started with:

1 lb shaved steak
2 Vidalia onions (sweet and delicious)
4 slices of Provolone cheese
Hot sauce
Fresh sub rolls
EVOO and butter
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

I cut the onion in half, and then cut semi thick slices.  Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and the same amount of EVOO in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Preferably not a non-stick skillet.  You want the steak to caramelize, and a stainless steel pan will work best.  When the pan is nice and hot, add the onion and season with salt and pepper.  At this point, if you wanted to add some peppers also, go right ahead.  That would be a nice addition.  Just slice one or two bell peppers about the same size as the onions and you will be all set.

Once the onions start turning golden brown, you are ready to add the steak.

Push the onions off to the side of the pan and put the shaved steak in.  While you are putting the steak in the pan, try to separate any large clumps that you may have.  That will help the steak cook more evenly.  Put a little hot sauce on the onions, for good measure.  The amount depends on you.  You can always add a little more at the table if you want.

Season the steak with salt and pepper, and move it around the pan occasionally.  You want to give it a chance to brown, but you also want to keep the pieces separated so you have nice tender strips, rather than chewy clumps.

Once the steak is nice and brown, mix the onions in with it and let them hang out together for another couple of minutes.

Fold a couple of pieces of room temperature Provolone cheese in half, and place them on the bottom of your sub roll.  Then lay the steak and onion mixture on top.  The cheese will melt perfectly and you will have a delicious steak and cheese for lunch.

I don't mean to inundate you with JC, but this made me chuckle:

"The only time to eat diet food, is while you're waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child


A bientot!  See you soon.

Two Out Of Three Ain't Great, But C'est La Vie!

I was really looking forward to this dinner.  One of UD's great beef tenderloins on the grill, accompanied by oven roasted sweet potato fries, sauteed spinach and mushrooms, and oven roasted broccoli, sprinkled with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.  Sounds good, nes cafe?  However, on this evening, I was destined to be disappointed.  The disappointment was the sweet potato fries.  As happens in many meal preparations, something can be forgotten for just a short period of time, and bam, disaster!  The SPFs met a very ugly end my friends.  But, as Julia Child once said in a brilliant two part quote,

"One of the secrets, and pleasures of cooking, is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it, if it cannot be fixed."

In this instance, I needed to heed part two of her very wise quote.

The local farm stand in this area of the Rocky Coast, has recently opened.  Yahoo!  So UD and I paid a visit, and came out with three heads of broccoli and a huge bag of fresh baby spinach.  I already had two sweet potatoes and 12 ounces of sliced button mushrooms.  Cremini mushrooms would be terrific here too.

I cut the broccoli in smallish pieces and sliced the sweet potatoes into fry size pieces.  The spinach and broccoli were washed and dried, and I grated some Parm Reg to sprinkle over the broccoli later.

I coated the broccoli and sweet potatoes with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sprinkled them with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  I had already preheated the oven to 425 degrees, and I placed the veggies on a foil lined baking sheet and popped them in.  I turned them after about 20 minutes, and then I will give the broccoli 10 more minutes and put the sweet potatoes back in to crisp up a little more.

The broccoli cooked for a total of 30 minutes and I put it in a dish and sprinkled the cheese on top.  I am letting these sit on the side, because the cheese will melt into the broccoli and it is actually delicious at room temperature.  So we are done with this.

UD has pulled the steak off the grill, and it looks great.  So while that is resting we will move on with the rest of the meal.

The mushrooms have been browning in 1 tablespoon each of butter and EVOO.  Once they are nice and golden brown, we add the spinach.  Don't worry about adding too much at once.  It is amazing how much it shrinks down in size.

Literally 1 minute later the sauteed spinach and mushrooms are done.  I neglected to say that the mushrooms had been seasoned with pepper only, because they brown better without the salt.  The salt tends to draw out the moisture in the mushrooms and keeps them from browning nicely.  Once the spinach is added in, make sure to add the salt.  And don't forget to taste as you go.  That will help you decide if you need more salt and/or pepper.

Get that in the bowl, and darn it, this is the moment I realized I hadn't been checking on the SPFs!

Mon dieu!  Disaster.

Then a little voice in my head said, "...one of the lessons is to grin and bear it, if it cannot be fixed."  So we put them in a serving dish, ate what was edible and ignored the rest.

  Lets recap, shall we?

Bien!

Deplaisant!

Bien!

A bientot!  See you soon.