We had a really nice day yesterday. I won't mention anything about the nice blanket of wet snow that we woke up to. Dave made some delicious pancakes topped with sliced strawberries and bananas and a little dusting of cinnamon. If you have never tried the cinnamon, do it! It just brings out the flavors of the pancake and maple syrup. Yum!
We puttered around the house most of the morning and waiting for the weather to turn around. Around 3pm the sun poked through the clouds and we could finally do what we wanted to do all day, get on our bikes. We had strict plans for the weekend and had to stick to them. The weekend starts on Friday for me. I did a nice long ride with me friends Susan and Steve to Breckenridge. It was fabulous. I am really taking to the cycling thing! Saturday we needed to give equal time to our mountain bikes so we had our first ride around the lake trails and Sunday was back to the road bikes. We were able to fit in a ride around the lake. It almost seemed like we had the road to ourselves. I think the weather deterred all other cyclist so the paths were our own!
Now on to the point of this blog... We had earned ourselves a nice dinner after burning all those calories. We decided on filets with scalloped potatoes a side salad and a great Pinot Nior. It was delicious.
I'll get to the recipes at the end. But first, let's get the title of this post out of the way and answer the question you have been asking yourself since I went on this wild tangent. The GRILL. We have had this tin can for 5 years. Before we were graced with this object that takes up room on our deck it belonged to the Roses. They gave it to us when they were upgrading to a bigger grill built for a family of 4. We were so excited to take this off their hands. We had just moved into our home and Susan just kept giving us stuff to fill up our empty square footage we had just purchased. You would have thought she had just given us a pot of gold. Oh man, we felt like we were large and in charge! The morning after the first night we used it (I wish I could remember what we made, hmm) I was walking down the stairs extremely excited for my cup of coffee when I see this little light outside on our deck. What the heck it that? I open the slider and hear this little blowing sound. You know, that sound the grill makes when the gas is on. The GRILL was still on!!! We had left it on all night long. Oh, our neighbors would have loved us, the "new" people just burned our entire complex down a week after they move in. Thankfully this didn't play out and we not only still have our home but that dang GRILL!! We have replaced every element on it trying to make it limp along. Grills are expensive, we needed to make this one last.
So this brings me to the dinner menu. I like my steak (well done). I know I am blushing as I write this. Filet mignon should not be cooked until it is as dark as a tire but I like it that way! Dave likes his the normal way. He put mine on 8 minutes before he put his on to ensure my happiness. The time goes off and Dave puts his filet on the grill thinking that for medium rare 4 minutes a side. The time goes off again and we take the steaks off to rest for the allotted time. The rest of our dinner is ready and we sit down to a beautiful table and Dave cuts into his steak, RARE. His steak is still mooing! Mine was nice and charred on the outside, just the way I like it and medium inside! Man, was Dave mad. He had to put his steak back on the grill for another 10 minutes. I know what most of you are thinking. 10 more minutes. But yes our grill is not like any other of its kind. It doesn't cook! So finally after I fed Dave the majority of my steak after eating around the middle and Dave had eaten his rarish hunk of meat we laughed and threatened that we would walk that GRILL down to the dumpster hence the name of this post Dead Grill Walking. We didn't end up doing this because we don't have a replacement quite yet but the days are numbered. We ARE getting a new grill!
I like have a sauce with my steak since I am still acquiring a taste for red meat. I decided on a Chimichurri sauce. It actually tasted really fresh with the steak.
Filet Mignon with a Chimichurri Sauce
2 filets coated with fresh pepper and salt
3/4 C of flat leaf parsley
1 t fresh oregano
2 garlic cloves
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 C evoo
1/2 t salt
3 T red wine vinegar
Place all ingredients in food processor and process until combined. Let stand for 1 hour before using.
Dave wanted either gratin potatoes or scalloped potatoes. I always shy away from these recipes because they are loaded with fat. I just can't bring myself to make them. I can eat them if they are served to me but I can't just seem to cook with cream in our house. So I searched on the Internet and combined a couple of recipes and came up with this nice little keeper. My main go to site is Eating Well. I absolutely love this magazine and consistently make their recipes.
Scalloped Potatoes Slimmed-Down
3 cloves of garlic
1 lbs potatoes (we used fingerling)
2 C low fat milk
1/4 C of a large onion chopped
1-2 T fresh rosemary chopped
1-2 T fresh Thyme chopped
1 t salt
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 C low fat sour cream
3 T freshly grated Parmesan
Cut 1 clove of garlic in half and rum over the inside of a gratin dish and coat dish with cooking spray. Mince remaining garlic. Combine garlic, herbs, onion, nutmeg, salt and milk in heavy saucepan. Bring to a simmer, uncovered until potatoes are tender. Transfer potatoes to prepared dish using a slotted spoon. Transfer 1/4 cup of the milk mixture to a small bowl and whisk in sour cream. Pour over potatoes and top with Parmesan. Preheat broiler. Broil until golden brown and serve immediately.
No comments:
Post a Comment