Summer Steak House

In case you were wondering what to do with the leftovers from your latest grill & chill (aside from eating the leftovers standing in the dull glow of your fridge - just me? figures!), make a big salad! Make a STEAK HOUSE salad! Puh-leeze. With a combo of grilled rib eye (or strip or flank, whatevs) and The Wedge, how can you go wrong? You can't! Except for not having bacon...that was totally my bad. How totes obvs for this salad to necessitate bacon. Doh!



The Ultimate Steakhouse Salad

Leftover grilled steak, sliced thinly against the grain
Fresh lettuce, such as romaine or butter lettuce, torn
Heirloom tomatoes, sliced or halved if miniature
Leftover roasted mushrooms, (or grilled) as desired
Several slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
Blue Cheese Dressing
Freshly ground black pepper

Assemble ingredients as desired. Serve.

Weekend Update

I suppose that most of you are counting down the minutes until you can leave the office today. (157!) Unless you left last night? Lucky! I had the opportunity to spend the weekend at the beach, but I've squandered it to be locked up in my apartment reading and memorizing everything there is to know about sparkling wine. It would be better if I was also sampling everything I needed to know about sparkling wine, but I'm not sure about the quality of my information retention if I did. Maybe I could give it a try...

Anyway...since I won't be doing anything exciting this holiday weekend, all I have are memories of the past weekend spent tromping through the woods with Carmeliza and friends. (The mosquitos are already out BT dubs!) Since we spent ample time hiking and working up an appetite, we hit up a local butcher for provisions so that we could hang out at the house to grill and chill.

We started by sampling four sparkling wines. (There were four of us and I had to study!) Luckily the rain held off, so we grilled up a ton o' meat products starting with some hunks of pork belly cooked up with fresh figs. Can't go wrong with some pig & fig! We followed up the pig with some cow and grilled up some super tasty rib eyes that were drizzled with the rendered pork fat from the cooked pork belly. Oh yes we did! What will you be grilling this weekend??

Steak-Umm!

Perhaps you spent the long weekend grillin' and chillin'. Perhaps you cooked up a bunch of meat. Perhaps you have (had) some leftovers. Perhaps I had some leftover strip steak... What's a girl to do?

I think cold, leftover meat is gross, but reheating it tends to overcook it. I thought about cutting up my strip steak to put on (yet another) salad (lame!), or throwing it into a quesadilla (closer...) but then realized that a panino (panini) was the only way to go. Fortunately I spied a languishing onion and my brilliant plan was hatched. I would make a caramelized onion and steak panino!

Although a sandwich is always a super easy meal to prepare, I, of course, had to mess things up by caramelizing the onion. It's a really easy step, but it just takes an extra 45 minutes of waiting for your sandwich. So start making it before you're actually hungry! (Or just cook a couple of onions ahead of time.)

Caramelized Onion and Steak Panino

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 slices rustic bread

Dijon mustard

Blue cheese (semi-soft such as a Gorgonzola), at room temperature

Sliced steak

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is a deep golden color (see the photo below), about 45 minutes. Set aside.

2. Place the bread slices on a work surface and spread the mustard (to taste) completely over the bread slices. Follow by topping with the blue cheese (to taste). Finish by layering the onions and the sliced steak on one slice of the bread. Top with the remaining slice of prepared bread.

3. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining oil and allow it to coat the skillet. Add the sandwich and then top with a heavy pot to weight it down. Cook for 5 minutes and then, using a spatula, carefully flip the sandwich over. Again top with the heavy pot and press down (to compress the ingredients). Cook for 5 minutes more.

4. Remove the sandwich to a cutting board and slice in half. Serve immediately. Makes one sandwich.

Beef! It's what's for dinner.

Have you seen those crazy print ads? I've often wondered what was going on during the meeting when that ad campaign was approved. Long inhale. "Dude. We'll photograph the beef to look like cliffs, see. And then we can use aluminum foil to look like water and we can use rock salt to be, like, rocks. Get it? Rocks. Salt. Rocks! And...and...the trees can be parsley! We can do a whole series. It'll be awesome!"

If only I had styled my plate of beef to look like the Grand Canyon or something. I could have had a tiny peppercorn rappelling down the side of it. In any event, bloody beef seemed appropriate for another night of True Blood. Love that show! And now I have to wait two weeks for the next episode. (Annoying!) But if you have missed the beginning of this second season, HBO will be re-running the first three episodes back-to-back next Sunday. Get caught up so that I don't have to worry about writing any spoiler alerts!



Seared Strip Steaks with Balsamic Glaze

1 (10-12 ounce) 1-inch thick, strip steak
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small shallot, thinly sliced (optional)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon cold, unsalted butter


1. Let the steak stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2. Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Season the steak generously on both sides with the salt and pepper. Add the oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering, about 2 minutes. Then, when the skillet is hot, add the steak and cook for about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare.

3. Transfer the steak to a plate while you prepare the sauce. Return the skillet to medium-high heat. Add the shallot, if using, and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the vinegar and scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits. Cook until reduced to a glaze, about 2 minutes.

4. Turn off the heat and add the butter, stirring to combine. Spoon the sauce over the steak and serve immediately. Serves 1. Well.

*(Note: I usually use a shallot in this recipe but I forgot to buy one. Ooops! That's why you don't see it in the photo.)