Black and Blue

 

One of my favorite easy meals to make is a steak salad.  It combines two things I love - marinated steak and a big, colorful salad.  Throw on some blue cheese crumbles and you have a Black and Blue Salad!  All you have to do is whip up the marinade, add the steak, and toss in the fridge overnight.  The next day, chop up a salad, grill the steak, and you're done.  So easy and so yummy!

Steak Salad
 - From Orange County Fare by the Junior League of Orange County

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 Tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
1 Tablespoon dry mustard, or 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, whisking to mix well.  Pour into a large ziploc bag along with the steak.  Marinate in the refrigerator for 6 hours or up to 2 days.

When ready, take the steak out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.  Preheat your grill or broiler.  I use our broiler and cook about 5-6 minutes on each side for medium rare.

When the steak is done put it on a cutting board and cover with foil.  Let rest for 10-15 minutes.  This allows the steak to reabsorb its juices.  Slicing into it right away will allow those juices to escape and you will lose a lot of the flavor.

All covered up!

When ready slice the steak into thin slices across the grain.  Serve on top of a large salad with crumbled feta or blue cheese.  You can also serve with a side of warm crusty bread.  Dee-lish-ous!

Maybe too rare for some, but perfect for me!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recently someone mentioned to me that during the holidays they prefer to give friends frozen cookie dough rolled into balls so they can make them whenever they want.  I had never thought of doing this before and it sounded like such a great idea to me.   With frozen cookie dough balls, you could make as many cookies as you want, whenever you want.  Got a hankering for just one cookie after dinner?  Just pop one in the oven, or better yet, the toaster oven, and 10-12 minutes later - Wah Lah!  Warm cookie!

Want to know how to do it?  It's super easy and only requires a few more steps than making regular cookies.

First, make your cookie dough.  Then use heaping teaspoons of dough to roll into a ball.  Fill a cookie pan or 13"x9" pan with the dough balls, making sure that they don't touch each other or the sides of the pan.

Stick the pan in the freezer until the balls are frozen.  Make sure there's enough room for the pan to lie flat so the balls don't roll around.  Meanwhile, label a large ziploc freezer bag with the name of the cookie, date, and baking instructions.  When the dough is frozen, put the balls into the ziploc bag and seal tight.  Try to get as much air out of the bag as possible.

When you want to make the cookies, just add a couple minutes to the baking time.  Then enjoy your nice, warm, gooey cookies!

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies
  - from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook, 1996

2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3 cups quick cooking or old fashioned oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup raisins, nuts, or chocolate chips

1.  Heat oven to 375
2.  Mix all ingredients except the last 3 in a large bowl.  Stir in oats, flour, and raisins (or nuts or chocolate)
3.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
4.  Bake 9-11 minutes until light brown.  Remove immediately to cool on wire rack.

Enjoy!

Weekend Recap

Friday

We did this...

And rode this...

And this...

Saturday

I made these for breakfast...

And this for dinner...

Sunday

I made these...

For this (Karen's baby shower!)...

How was your weekend?

Five Things....

Five new recipes I want to try...

1. Cinnamon Leaves Bread  at Shop.Cook.Make
   
   
2. Individual Chicken Pot Pies at The Kitchn
   
   
3. Pie in a Jar at Our Best Bites
   
   
4. No Knead Peasant Style Bread at A Chow Life
   
   
5. Croque Madame at Everyday Occasions
   

Fill In The Blank Friday

I'm a little late getting in on this action today, but better late than never.  It was the 2nd beautiful day here in LA and the hubs got out of work early.  So we took advantage of the sun and rode our bikes up to the Santa Monica pier, rode a few rides, ate some ice cream, and rode back home.  A great way to spend a Friday afternoon!

Starting off with margs at Baja Cantina

Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier

The view from our gondola

 
1.   The best prank I ever pulled was  never.  I'm not much of a prankster - I think I'm just not creative enough.

2.  The best prank ever pulled on me was  when I was little my sister gave me a glass of "lemonade" but it was really pickle juice.  Yuck.

3.  A day without  good food   is a day wasted.

4.  The most important things in life are  giving and receiving love - from friends, family, pets, random strangers, whoever  - being happy with who you are, finding something you love doing whether it's your job or a hobby, a comfortable bed, and ice cream!

5.  I dream of   owning a nice home, having a family, taking charge of my career and making it into something I'm happy with.

6.  I dread  getting up for work every morning, getting my cavities filled, having to buy a new car.

7.  A discovery I made this week was  this new recipe for Breakfast Buttercups I'm gonna try making tomorrow morning.


My weekend will consist of baking cupcakes, going to a baby shower, and possibly test driving some cars.  What are you up to this weekend?  Hope it's a great one!