Cooking Show: Spring Fever...or What to Cook When You're Wishing for Summer!

On our recent episode of the cooking show, we tried to come up with a menu that tastes like summer.

Chase those winter blahs away with grilled beef and tropical fruit!

We started with Pineapple Sangria.  

Actually, this picture was taken just as we finished.  Finished the second pitcher, that is.  

 Then it was time for Watermelon Salad with Seared Halloumi.

Have you ever had Halloumi cheese?  It has a very high melting point, so you can sear it until it's golden and crunchy. It makes a great salad topping! That is, if you and your friends (ahem--Kerry, Amy, Kelly and Christine--I'm talking to you!) can keep your hands off of it long enough to have any left to use for said topping.

Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

When you're trying to chase away the winter blahs, the only thing better than grilled steak would be summer itself.

Click here for the printable recipe.

And finally, Cookies n' Cream Cheese Cookies.  

With a little bit of cream cheese, for creaminess and fluffiness.  And Oreos®, because Oreos®.

 Chocolate Strawberry Oreos®, because we were trying to stick to the summer theme.

Grilled Molasses-Marinated Flank Steak

Caitie and Sean went back to school last week.  It was wonderful to have everyone under one roof, if only for a month.

Boy, do I miss them when they aren't here.

 It was nice that they were able to spend significant time with Clyde while he is still a puppy.  I mean, it would be almost cruel for us to have a new puppy if they didn't get a chance to enjoy his puppyhood.  Is that even a word?  Puppyness.  Puppydom.  Hmmm.  I think you know the point I'm trying to make.

His puppy-ish-ness is fading fast.  He's 40 pounds and TODAY he finally decided he can walk down stairs by himself.

Yes, that's right, I've been carrying him.  Downstairs every morning.  I consider myself quite strong and capable, but as I'm approaching the end of my fifth decade I'd be lying if I said my bones aren't a little creaky when I wake up in the morning.  

One of the few good things I can say about the freezing temperatures today is that I am certain that all of my neighbors had their windows closed because of the cold, so they couldn't hear me enthusiastically praising him as he ran down the steps of our deck each time I took him out today.  "Yay!  Look at you! Good boy, going down the stairs all by yourself! Way to go!"  Of course, if they happened to be looking out of their windows, they might have been wondering why I was clapping and raising my arms in triumph.

Anyhow......I got the inspiration for today's recipe as I was making a batch of  Snow-Capped Molasses Cookies last week.  As I was pouring the molasses I was thinking to myself that it would make a nice marinade.  So I decided to give it a try, and it's a keeper!

Broiled Marinated Flank Steak

I've been busy!

All the Christmas decorations have been taken down and packed away 'til next year.

 Gus has ditched his jingle bells for a spiffy new scarf.  Gus is happy.  Seriously.  He loves new clothes.

Here he is when I was ironing the fabric that I used for the lining of his scarf.  I iron all the time.  (Boy, do I iron all the time.)  He never gets excited about it.  

I iron some fabric to make him a scarf, he gets all excited with anticipation.

How does he know the difference between boring ironing and ironing that is for him?  He just knows.

While I was sewing his scarf in the land of a thousand unfinished projects (also known as my sewing room), I decided to finish one more project.

Two pillowcases, sewn.  And trimmed with a nice scalloped crochet edge.

I have so many projects and recipes that I haven't posted.  The photo files are piling up and I'm imagining them all saying, "pick me! pick me!"  And tonight's winner is.........broiled marinated flank steak--prep it in advance, minimal ingredients, let the marinade work its flavorful magic while you do more important things!

Crock Pot Chili

 During these cold winter days, nothing hits the spot like a bowl of chili!  With all the toppings, of course.

I snapped this photo of Gus on Saturday night.  Those little white spots are the remnants of the snow that covered him when he came inside (of course he shook it off as soon as he came in the door. I wish I could crack the canine code that prompts him to wait until he's in the door to shake all moisture off).

At least he has short fur.  It could be worse: 

Here's an archive photo of Gracie, with ice balls tangled in her fur after a romp in the snow.

We're lucky, we only got a few inches of snow this time.  Friends of mine in Connecticut got a foot of the white stuff, and are heading into their third day without electricity as I type this.

We only lost our electricity for 16 hours and 22 minutes (not that I was keeping track or anything), which is an unbearably long time when the temperature inside your house is dropping from lack of heat.  We were lucky that we at least had hot water (thanks to a water heater fueled by natural gas) and a stove to cook on (also fueled by gas).

I am also lucky that I decided to cook this chili before the storm hit.  Simmering a pot of chili in the slow cooker while the snow swirls outside makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, but lack of electricity would have quickly put an end to that scenario.

Marinated Steak Kebabs

How is it possible that it is almost September?  I'm not ready for summer to end.

Caitie has already gone back to school.  Yesterday was move-in day.  It's unsettling to think that she is over 400 miles away.  

There have been lots of preparations for the move during the past few weeks; lots of purchases and checking lists and more purchases and last-minute runs to buy more things that we forgot to buy during all the shopping excursions.  And there are still items we forgot to buy.

Like this colander, which I bought for her today, after speaking to her last night and hearing her describe how she had to drain her pasta by spooning it out of the pot because we forgot to buy her a colander.

The colander went into the care package I put together for her today, the first of many care packages that I'll send to her throughout the year. 

There are some really cool things in the care package, but since she reads this blog I can't share anything else with you because it will ruin the surprise. 

And maybe, just maybe, she will cook a recipe or two from this blog, and not just mac 'n cheese.  Oh, that's right, I forgot to mention that the pasta she was cooking was from a package of Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner.  And I should also mention that I'm not dissing her because she cooked Kraft dinner because I certainly cooked lots of it during my college days.  I'm just saying this:  Caitie-pie-honey-bunch, if you're reading this, you should consider cooking some of the recipes in this blog because a lot of your favorites are on here and all the how-to's and how-much's are all written out for you, dear.  Love, Mom.

And Caitie, while we're communicating here, I may as well tell you that the fabric you picked out for the pillowcase I am going to make you is at this stage in the process:

In other words, not a pillowcase yet.  But you may not be able to tell by the picture that I have already washed the fabric to pre-shrink it and I have ironed it.  So there's been progress.  Now I just have to cut it, and sew it, and decoratively trim it.

When the fabric grows up it will resemble the pillowcases I have made you in the past, I promise.  Probably more like the one on the right, as I am planning on crocheting white trim.  Unless you prefer white pom poms.  Love, Mom.

Okay, I digress no more.  On to today's recipe.  Marinated Steak Kebabs.

You can use whatever type of steak looks best at your market.  If I had my choice, it would be top sirloin, about 1 1/2" thick, cut into cubes.  Second choice, New York Sirloin, ditto.  Of course, tenderloin is also good, but it's a shame to cut such a fine piece of beef into cubes.  Sirloin tip steak and flank steak also work.

As luck would have it, when I went to purchase the steak for this recipe, the only types of the above-mentioned steaks in the meat case were tenderloin, sirloin tips and flank steak.  I nixed the tenderloin (see above) and the sirloin tips (I've cooked sirloin tips twice in the last two weeks) and went with the flank steak.

All of the other types of steak can be cut into cubes, but flank steak is special because of the grain of the beef.  It needs to be sliced diagonally, about a half inch thick, and then threaded onto the skewers.  The good news is that because you slice it thinner, it cooks faster than the larger cubes of other types of steaks. 

Gosh, have I totally confused you?  I hope not.  See the accompanying pictures and hopefully the visuals will explain better than my words. 

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.......

Conjures up thoughts of Simon and Garfunkel, doesn't it?

What if the next line were "........ when you use these herbs to season your steaks,

don't forget the garlic and lime."

Well, if they had thought of those lyrics instead, then you would already have the grilled steak recipe that I'm about to give you!

Ahhhh, forgive my terrible songwriting skills/poor attempt at humor/silliness.  I can't help it.

This is just the very quick, easy way I seasoned the last batch of steaks that I grilled.

I used fresh herbs, and the measurements for the herbs are the amounts I used before they were chopped.

Because there's quite a difference between "1/4 cup parsley leaves, chopped" (which means measure first, then chop)  and  "1/4 cup chopped parsley" (which means chop first, then measure). 

So for this recipe, measure first.

Then, chop-chop!

Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

A slab of beef cooking on the grill......is there any better smell at dinnertime?  Especially after the snowy, cold, snowy, long, snowy and snowy (did I say snowy?) winter that we just had.

I prep this steak in advance.  It needs at least 2 hours to marinate, but it's very forgiving, so work around your schedule and prep it at your convenience.

Pasta Salad & BBQ Sirloin Tips!

I love fresh basil.  Lots and lots of fresh basil.

What did I do with my basil this week?  I made pasta salad, to go with barbecued sirloin tips and fresh asparagus.

Very easy recipes, all.  They just need a little bit of prep work in advance.

The pasta salad recipe will fill a very large party-size bowl.  It's a family favorite and the leftovers are very welcome by my family of five.  You could halve the amounts of ingredients, or omit any ingredients that you don't like.