Ribeye, Potatoes, Cilantro Pesto

I know it's a theme that I've banged repeatedly on this site, but I don't care.  Steak and potatoes are the quintessential pair and I want to cook them as often as possible.  I also think this is the perfect way to jump back into the blog.  I promise I've got more interesting stuff to come over the Labor Day weekend, but for now you'll have to deal with simple.

 Here's everything you need for this dish.  A gorgeous ribeye steak, salt, pepper, cilantro, garlic, potatoes, lime and pine nuts.

The potatoes got a medium dice and then were placed on a sheet pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.  They then went into a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

Pine nuts are an indispensable part of any pesto, and when they are toasted they are even better.  Here, about a tablespoon of pine nuts went into a dry saute pan to toast until golden brown.  

 Here are the completed pine nuts.  The key when cooking with pine nuts is that they are pretty high in fat/oil content so they can burn very easily, so be careful not to burn them.

I love steak, as you well know.  I especially love steak when purchased at Fresh Market.  But if you know me well at all you know I could care less about grass fed, or organic, or antibiotic free.  I'm pretty sure that Fresh Market primarily sells all of that stuff in an effort to be a small town version of Whole Foods.  However, the thing I love best about Fresh Market, is that they pretentious about it at all.  None of this you should shop with us because our stuff is better because it's all that marketing BS.  I'm of the belief that organic has been the farmer's best marketing plan ever.  Hey, we can charge a huge premium for stuff that tastes the same as conventionally grown stuff.  BRILLIANT! 

 Here are the finished potatoes.  They of course were delicious.

 The steak went onto a screaming hot grill.  Unfortunately, my grill is at the end of it's useful life.  I'm down to two working burners and it's about ready to fall apart from being so rusted.  I'll be replacing it in the spring, but for now this will have to do.

The final plate.  I apparently didn't get any pictures of the cilantro pesto being made.  But it's easy, the cilantro, garlic, pine nuts, salt pepper and a bit of olive oil went into the blender and resulted in the sauce you see here.

Blog Silence

My apologies dearest reader.  For whatever reason I just haven't felt like blogging.  I've been cooking, but it doesn't feel like as much as normal.  The cooking I have done has resulted in lots of leftovers in my fridge.  So for now, I'm going to work my way through those.  The plan is to cook some later on in the week and start blogging again when I do.  Until then.

Grilled Cheese version 2.0

This version was actually an improved version.  This one had a blue cheese butter mixture for the cheese and included tomatoes and basil and was served along with a tomato soup.

The stuff for the grilled cheese, butter, basil, italian bread, blue cheese and tomato.

The start of the tomato soup, onions, carrots and celery.

A portion of the tomatoes get added for the tomato soup.

The blue cheese butter mixture.

The sandwiches waiting for the heat.

The last bit of tomatoes go in with some chicken broth in order to finish the soup.

The final plate.  I know some pictures were missing a long the way, I really need to get better at that.  Overall a really solid plate of food, though I will admit that soups really don't do much for me. 

Steak and Tacos

Man, I just realized how far behind I am in posting, so I'm actually going to skip ahead a little bit here.  This dish is a zucchini taco and on a whim I decided to add a skirt steak.  I added the steak, because I made this dish on the day I went to the store and I was seriously craving some beef, especially after all the chicken I had made leading up to this.  Based on that craving, I picked up a skirt steak.

I marinated the steak in a bit of balsamic vinegar, worchestshire sauce and garlic.

The tacos, flour tortillas, monterrey jack and zucchini.

The tacos ready to go into the oven.

The steak got sauteed in a bit of olive oil.

The final plate, note the perfect doneness of the steak.

Steak and Fries

There's few things that go together better than steak and potatoes.  This is another catch up post from my staycation. 

Here's the stuff for the dipping sauce for the fries.  The sauce was a garlic mayo.  Here we have shallots, garlic, mayonnaise, parsley and thyme and lemon juice.

Prior to mixing the garlic in it was roasted off for about 45 minutes in the oven.

For some reason this post is really lacking in pictures.  So I don't have a pic of the completed mayonnaise.  But obviously this picture above is the potatoes for the fries.

The best way to cook fries is the fry them twice.  These are the fries after they came out of the first fry at 325.

The steak hit a smoking hot cast iron pan.

The fries in their second fry at 375.

The final plate.

Grilled Cheese Part 1

The timing of this one worked out well, since I was home and my final meal of the day was usually at about 2 PM.  This is a two part series of two very different grilled cheeses.  This first one was a caribbean flavored sandwich.

Here we've got pretty much everything you need, onion, mango, lime, red pepper, swiss cheese and italian bread.

The veggies went into a mango salsa, which I didn't get a picture of, but was incredibly delicious.

The sandwiches ready to hit the pan.

The completed sandwiches.

Chiles Rellenos version 2.0

Though version 2.0 would suggest that this was an improved version.  I liken this to Windows ME to Windows 2000, supposedly an upgrade but in actuality a huge downgrade. 

Onions, kielbasa, chicken broth, anaheim chiles, paprika, oregano, black beans and goat cheese.

The kielbasa was fried off in a bit of olive oil.

Now the onion and spices.

Next the chicken broth and beans, which boiled down until the liquid was almost gone.

This version called for the chiles to be roasted off in the oven, which in hindsight was a pretty big mistake.  There's no better way to roast peppers than over the open flame of a gas range.

The side dish for this meal was rice and collard greens.

The other big difference was this dish was baked in the oven rather than deep fried.  Again a novel idea, but not even close to the same thing as the deep fried version.

The final plate.  For some reason I don't have any pics, but over the top is a mango salsa.