Steak Out

One of the few times a year when we splurge on steak is today. Opening day of Sunday afternoon, regular season, FOOTBALL.  It makes me cringe to spend $10 or more on one piece of meat for one person. It just does. I'm cheap like that.  But, once or twice a year, I'll grin and bear it because it's a special occasion for us. I also will not lie when I tell you that I shop based on price over cut....and if those pre-cut puppies  are on clearance and haven't turned some funked up shade of gray-green, then buy those, I will.

On the menu for today:

All on clearance or on sale:

One largish T-Bone steak
One also largish NY Strip
Asparagus

Other sides:

Cucumber-tomato salad
Garlic bread (grill it...it's killer stuff!!!)

I was trying to figure out what to do with my steak....as I wasn't quite sure what cut it was...the label said 'Top Loin', which beef experts would know is also called a New York strip.  Me, not being said expert, did not know this. It looked like a strip to me, but who am I to guess?  Meanwhile, back at Google, I found this:

How to Grill the Perfect Steak

I had everything required: the steak, butter, oil, kosher salt and pepper.  Go. The Beloved does not wish for anyone to mess with his meat, so of course, he wouldn't be preparing his T-Bone in the same manner. All you really have to do is melt the butter, add the oil, stir, dip the steak in the melted butter, then coat with a delightful layer of kosher salt and pepper. That's it. 

We've had issues in the past with grilling asparagus. We've tried it all, free form, falling through the grate onto the charcoal, crispy...blackened, in one of those lovely flippy grill-vegetable holders, and usually no luck.  So today, I decided to skewer them.  

Another fairly simple endeavor: 

• Cut the woody ends off, below the lowest rubber band
• Soak your skewers for a good 30 minutes to an hour to prevent them from bursting into flame
• Skewer  each spear (see above).  Stick with 5-7 spears per skewer for easier flippage. 
• Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over both sides of each skewered set of spears (say that 50 times fast!) and then sprinkle on some kosher salt and cracked black pepper, also on both sides.  
• Grill for a good 2-3 minutes per side in an area of the grill that's a touch cooler than where you'll be searing the steaks.  

As for the salad, equally simple: 

• 1/2 a medium-large cucumber, sliced 
• 8-9 miniature plum tomatoes or a healthy 1/2 container of grape tomatoes
• 2 tbs red onion sliced very thin
• 2 pinches dill weed
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tbs olive oil
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1 packet stevia (or 1/2 tsp stevia loose)

Stir it all together to distribute all the flavor, wrap or cover the bowl tightly and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour or longer.  The longer it sits, the better the flavor. 

So when you get it all cooked, it kinda might look like this: 

or this....

Not too shabby for the Annual Starting of the Feetballs Celebration Lunch.  What are YOU eating today?  

Relating To Food

Eating is the ultimate routine activity. You do it, day in, day out, at designated times throughout the day and night.  Whether you're feeding a family of 25 or just the two of you, managing that routine without blowing a wad of cash is going to take just a little bit of planning.  Trust me, I've done it the other way, no list, no plan, no nothing. It sucks. It also gets very pricey, very quickly.

Which leads me to think about the habits we develop over the course of our lifetimes, what we learn from watching our parents, what we get sucked in to, marketing wise, and what kinds of food we choose. I know I'm not alone in this, growing up in a house where the fridge and the cupboards were packed to the gills....with alot of it going to waste eventually, due to an "if the cupboards are full and I can feed my family then I've done my job" mindset....a mindset that often leads to having TOO much as opposed to not enough.

I know it all too well, because I've also sat at the other end of that spectrum where you could clearly see the back of the fridge and cupboards were echoing. Which, I think, created this urge in me to have more than enough but then to also conserve it. Conserving to the point where stuff has been in the cupboard for years. YEARS. Long past the point of being edible probably....but yet I cannot bear the thought of getting rid of it, because:

• ....what if we lose our jobs?
• ....what if there is a blizzard?
• ....what if there's a war? 

Granted, we don't have our fully functioning bomb shelter/warehouse built just yet, but I'm devising the blueprint in my head as I write.  

Herbs, spices, baking stuff and cereal. I'm not going to tell you how old some of those herbs and spices really are.....but I once made a pair of good, semi-expensive Nike cross trainers last for 11 years, so you can guess.  

Dried goods, cooking stuffs, coffee, tea and snacky stuff.  Pasta will last forever, right? So will dried beans and peas.  It will! I will make it last.

Canned stuff, bottled stuff. Surprising, I think some of today's canned soups will last forever as well. My brave, lab-rat-type beloved opened a can of Progresso, with an outdate of 2011 and ate it. Not only did he say it tasted just fine, he's still alive!  Scary shit. You really have to wonder why they put in that stuff!  

In addition to the fear of running out/not having enough, I have this underlying inability to admit failure. So saith the 2/3 full bag of Soba noodles, the bag of wheat berries and the jar of Hoisin sauce (in the fridge) that have been taking up space for over 2 years now. You know how it goes, you see a trend, a recipe, a way of eating, a lifestyle change....you go for it...and then.......you stop.  So, for now, I'm just on break.  Yeah, break.  

I have, however, learned a very important lesson about eggs. They do NOT last forever, nor should you ever think they would.  I found out the hard way and now I don't know that I will ever even want to look at, let alone touch another egg in this lifetime.  

What are your quirks when it comes to food?  Share!   

Quickies: Lowfat Dressing Beefs Up Veggies

So, watching the Today Show this morning, this aired:

2 Women Shed 300 lbs. in 2 Different Ways

Sharing assorted tips from people who lost a tremendous amount of weight on their own, without fads or big-box diet programs.

No, I'm not turning this into a diet blog.....I love food, ALL OF IT, way too much.  But I think this is worth sharing.  The recipe is not mine, you'll see it if you watch the video, about midway thru the segment.  But it looks good, and those kale chips and the roasted cauliflower....do remind me to put those on my list for this week's excursion to the store!!!

Here's the recipe, written out, for the low-fat veggie dip/sauce/dressing:

6 oz Non-fat greek yogurt
Zest from 1/2 a lemon
2 tsp Extra Virgin olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
A splash of red wine vinegar
1/2 a med/large shallot, minced fine
1 TBS parmesan (I would imagine they used the grated version as it would go further (farther, oy?) than using shreds
Coarse ground black pepper (to taste, I think, they didn't give an amount)

I do believe she (Joy Bauer) said that 2 TBS of this dressing was a whopping 30 calories.

I am all for things that make it easier to eat better. I think this is one of them.  Share, visit the Today Show website, watch their video and get your own dose of inspiration.

You Say Tomato, I Say Hell Yeah!

I am all about tomatoes. Probably more than should be legal...however, when it comes to store-bought, warehouse-gassed varietals, I have issues and so I usually avoid them.  Same with restaurant tomatoes, same crap. Same avoidance tactic.  

Enter farm-grown, fresh, not trucked anywhere, TOMATOES.  

For some seven plus years now, I have driven by this farm on the way to the big city and for seven plus years, I have never stopped. Oh, some day. Here we are. Until today. I stopped.  They have a WEALTH of fresh stuff that they grow all around the property. This was my haul. Not bad for $6. I feel a salad coming on, not to mention some roasted zucchini. 

My advice to you?  Never, ever, ever, ever buy grocery tomatoes when you have access to a farm, a farmer's market or anywhere alongside the road selling FRESH tomatoes.  Get them. Always. You don't know from tomatoes until you have... (A touch snarky, maybe. Honest, always!)