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From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
A big work project came up this week, as a result I have barely been in my kitchen. So for the featured recipe, I pulled up one of my prettier projects, Flank Steak Pinwheels. Not as much effort as it looks. Although I save them for special occasions.
If you’d like something with a bit less work, how about a Spicy Grilled Flank Steak? (Recipe here)
JeffreyW whips up some Cheesesteak Sandwiches (instructions and photos here)
This week’s dinner menu is Grilled Steak with Coffee Rub and Blueberry Coffeecake (menu, recipes and shopping lists here).
No real Bixby update this week, but I did finally receive and assemble my new motorized standing desk. It fascinates him, so of course there is video here.
What’s on your plate for this last weekend (how did that happen) of August? Are you sad summer waning or is fall more your season? Most importantly, whatcha cookin’?
This steak can be prepped the day before, just wrap each one tightly in plastic wrap. Makes it great for a date night, anniversary or small dinner party. I pan-seared and finished in the oven because with the cheese, I thought grilling them wouldn’t work as well. The reward was great pan drippings when I was finished, which I drizzled over the potatoes before serving. If I was going to grill, I’d probably use a grilling pan to avoid flareups.Flank Steak Pinwheels
1 large flank steak, butterflied
salt and pepper
crushed garlic (at least 2 cloves)
8 oz sliced provolone cheese
1 bunch washed and dried spinach leaves
8 wooden skewers
olive oil
Cast iron or oven proof skilletYou can ask the butcher to butterfly your flank steak, which is what I did. But it’s fairly easy to butterfly. You want the grain running up and down in front of you and then you’ll slice it in half, NOT slicing all the way through. When you’re done you’ll lay it open, flat, basically making a larger, thinner steak.
Once you have it laid out flat in front of you with the grain running left to right, you’ll want to tenderize it, pounding it flat. I use my pronged tenderizer, so I add the spices first and use the tenderizer to help infuse the meat.
If you haven’t already, once it’s pounded, add salt, pepper and garlic evenly over the meat. Layer the spinach over the meat. You want it to be several leaves thick, because it will reduce as it cooks.
Next layer the provolone cheese slices, two to three slices thick, over the meat.
Now it’s time to roll. Roll tightly in the direction of the grain. Add a skewer every 2 inches and then slice between the skewers, so you have 2-inch thick pinwheels.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Heat 1/2 to 1 tbsp of oil in large skillet, reduce heat to med-high and add pinwheels, flat-side down. After a minute, using the skewer (you may also need a metal spatula to get all the cheesy goodness) flip over, sear additional minute. The usual method of waiting until the meat moves easily to flip will not work with this because the cheese is sticky. So just do one minute each side, it will be fine.
Place the skillet in the oven, turn the oven off and let the steak finish for 10-15 minutes for medium rare. These are thin and don’t need a lot of cooking time and you don’t want the cheese to burn.
Remove to a plate, cover with foil and let rest 10 minutes. You can then use the great juices in the skillet to make a gravy if desired. I just drizzled them over the steak and potatoes right before serving.
My steak made 4 pinwheels. If you have more, you may need to finish cooking on a baking sheet after searing them in groups.
That’s it for this week. Have a good weekend, I’m sad to see August go, but fall in Colorado is stunning. – TaMara
Svensker
Not to go off topic, but did Cole’s post on Red State and the good old days of the GOP disappear or have I been at the magic mushrooms without realizing it?
Steak looks yummy. Me want.
schrodinger's cat
@Svensker: Yes it is gone, I saw it too.
WereBear
Steak! And Bixby!
Two of my favorite things.
No cooking. I boil cocoa beans and grill chuck steak. More when I’m better. Craving lasagna.
Omnes Omnibus
No Emmett Till thread?
Yatsuno
I can’t believe this is a year old! But Chicken Provence fit the bill tonight. And it’s going down wonderfully!
BHF: Keep an eye out. I’m working on a chicken soup alternative for vegetarians. There will be mushrooms!
JPL
@Svensker: It’s gone. Maybe he rethought the post because Reagan created a new party and John is delusional if he doesn’t realize that. Nixon dog whistled but it was the Reagan policies that changed the game.
Viva BrisVegas
I hate winter.
Summer for some is winter for others.
Bring on summer, can hardly wait for a good 40 degree day. I’ll lie outside and soak it up like a lizard on valium.
PurpleGirl
No special cooking plans. Lion Brand Yarn is hosting a yarn bombing in Union Square Park this Sunday. It was previous planned but postponed due to bad weather. It’s been rescheduled for this Sunday; 11 am to 4 pm. I plan on being there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Katrina Thread? Weird.
JPL
I dried and ground my habanero’s into powder today. The son’s SO is excited cause she can just use it as is.
She does know when she uses it for cooking, to start with a small amount.
Benw
I’m having friends over tomorrow and grilling up veggie burgers and veggie kabobs, and serving with fruit salad and veggie baked beans. Plus lots of beverages.
Omnes Omnibus
@Viva BrisVegas: I love fall and winter. It takes all kinds.
BD of MN
Last night I made stuffed chicken breasts. Started out with 4 slices of thick cut bacon (because that’s what mrs. bd brought home from the butcher) cut into 1/3″ pieces and dumped into a large saute pan, after some fat came out, added a small onion and a sweet red pepper (chopped), sauteed a bit, then added a big pile of roughly chopped kale and sliced about 4 cloves of garlic. After that cooked down for 5 minutes or so, dumped all that into a bowl. Sliced four skinless/boneless chicken breasts most of the way through, salted and peppered, and put into the pan to brown them up a bit. (added a bit more oil to my already seasoned saute pan). After they got just slightly browned on both sides, moved them to a 9×13 glass baking dish, added some cheese into the area to be stuffed, divided the bacon/onion/pepper/kale mix on top of the cheese, and put into a 375 deg f oven. cooked until the chicken was cooked through, about 35 min… (last night I used the last bit of some Costco aged Gouda I had laying around, I’ve also used farmer cheese, mozzarella and swiss and had no complaints…)
Served it with corn on the cob from our CSA and asparagus from the grocery store… And one too many glasses of wine for a Thursday….
WereBear
In other news, Tristan (our five year old cat) is very upset. Our downstairs neighbors are on the opposite coast this week, but they lent their apartment to another couple.
Well, Tristan saw the new couple moving into his friend’s apartment, and it took hours for me to soothe his upset little heart.
“See, I got an email from them. They said they’d be back soon.”
NotMax
Using up edibles before the trip back east next week.
Fridge interior is looking so barren that it’s almost depressing.
Mid-90s today, but cannot put off mowing the property even one day longer.
Gin & Tonic
@JPL: I saw ghost peppers at my local supermarket the other day. Came with a pretty large warning label.
Calouste
@Viva BrisVegas: Winter in Brisbane (that’s where you are right?) is hotter than summer in some parts of the world. Helsinki comes to mind.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Still have a jar of very nice ghost pepper salsa.
Mixing in a little dollop to spaghetti sauce really wakes up the flavors.
PurpleGirl
@JPL: True story: I was on a blind date. We went to a Mexican restaurant. They brought us chips and dipping sauce — a clear green pepper sauce that looked harmless but which had a time-delayed bite. (I’d eaten there many times before.) The date orders exactly what I do. He picks up a chip and plunges it into the sauce and brings up a large dollop. I say “try just a little first, it’s hot, see how much hot you can take.” He says “I’m Italian, I know hot.” (I’m thinking, “oh no you don’t, Mexicans invented hot!”) He plunges it into his mouth and I see smoke rising from his ears. He reaches for water — I say, “no, the margarita, the margarita.” He doesn’t listen and, of course, the water does nothing to help his throat
I like hot but in smallish amounts. I always do a trial tasting.
PurpleGirl
@WereBear: Poor kitten. Hope he feels better soon.
Viva BrisVegas
@Calouste:
Yep, Brisbane.
I moved north from Sydney to get away from winter. I may need to move further north, although Helsinki is not in the cards.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: No, no, no. Tristan cannot be 5 years old. He is your new baby. How did this happen?????
rikyrah
I am defrosting roast to cook in the crockpot. Will buy the vegetables tomorrow.
Cooked a chipotle pulled pork in the crockpot yesterday. Will get the fixings for pulled pork nachos tomorrow.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: What time will the nachos be ready? I need to calculate my drive time.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
Coincidentally, I marinated a flank steak in beer and grilled it in the grill pan tonight.
mtiffany
I got creative in the kitchen Thrusday night and made — something — it was going to be a blueberry cobbler but wound up as something else. Not quite a cake, not quite a bread, more like a cross between a muffin and a brownie.
Preheat oven to 350, spray a 7×11 pyrex baking dish with cooking spray.
2 cups blueberries, divided evenly.
in the dry bowl: 1 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 2/3 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder. Whisk dry ingredients together to mix thoroughly.
For the wet ingredients: 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 egg yolks. Mix wet ingredients together.
Foam: 2 egg whites whipped to stiff peaks.
As soon as your egg whites are whipped to stiff peaks set them aside.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a batter.
Fold the egg whites into the batter.
Spread 1 cup of blueberries in the bottom of the pyrex dish.
Spread the batter over the blueberries, then spread the remaining blueberries over the top of the batter.
Bake about 45 minutes. It’s done when a knife comes out ‘dry’ — no wet batter but there may be some lovely purple blueberry goo.
NotMax
@mtiffany
Meringue scone loaf?
Ron Beasley
After a long hot dry summer with lots of fires here in the Pacific Northwest I’m looking forward to Fall and Winter. Woke up to the sound of rain this morning for the first time since March. It was wonderful!