Christmas!

Christmas dinner was delicious. My mom cooked a ton of food. I made some roasted carrots and brussel sprouts. We also had salad, beef, and cheese grits. Everyone came over, we all had some wine and a nice evening. Santa would have been proud.

I Made Steak

Most typical Americans have probably made and eaten countless steaks in their life and it does not warrant a blog entry or a pat on the back. But I am a novice, to say the least, at both making and consuming steak. But John wanted steak, is anyone else noticing a theme here, and I said okay. Off we went to Trader Joe's to pick up a week's worth of groceries. After waiting in the incessant line on Masonic Ave. we finally got into the parking lot. Now I love Trader Joe's as much as the next person, but they really need to widen their aisles a bit. It is no longer the little local market, it is always packed and I get so annoyed dodging people and carts and small children as I try to grab the last box of whole wheat couscous and load up on Two Buck Chuck.
We also grabbed some steaks for that night. I was a little nervous, but I found a package that had 2 medium size steaks and a baby steak for me, so I thought that I could handle that. We got home and I went to work. I cooked the steaks on my cast iron grill pan on the stove after covering them with salt and pepper. While they were cooking I started on my wine sauce. Simmer one cup of wine, I used a nice Zinfandel, for about 6-8 minutes, then remove it from the heat and slowly stir in 2 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, in small pieces. I then actually placed the sauce back over the heat in hopes to thicken it up a little more.I made some couscous and sauteed some veggies on the side too. I always keep frozen stir veggies in the freezer and I am trying to actually use the food that I have stored in my pantry and freezer. So out came the TJ's stir fry veggies, a combo of carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, red bell pepper, and onions. I like these and they are simple, healthy and easy. Plus I really love cooked carrots and water chestnuts. I like the softness of the carrots and the crunch of the chestnuts. Yum!While this meal was quite tasty, I must admit it was not the beautiful thing I have ever created. The wine sauce bled all over the plate and into the couscous, which made everything taste good but look like a murder scene. Oh well. Maybe I will try it another time but plate the steak over mashed potatoes so the sauce goes all over that, it might look a little like a volcano! Nice. Dinner was great though. John was impressed with my steak making skills (wow!) and it was actually pretty healthy. If you look at my plate you see that my steak is actually quite small and the majority of the plate is the veggies and couscous. I guess I am in tune with what all the nutritionists and dieticians tell everyone about how to plate their plates (half veggies and one quarter protein, the other quarter carbs, I think). Anyway, dinner was tasty, that's the most important part!

Peanut Butter and Jelly- Retro Lunch and a Dinner Recap

I was running a few minutes late this morning so John made lunch for both of us! I was actually sort of craving a salad, but he made me a pb&j! So sweet. I found it in my gym bag along with a peach. Unfortunately my hunger has gotten the best of me and I ate half of it before 10am! Guess it is breakfast/lunch. Not to be confused with brunch. See brunch is one single meal, I am attempting to make my sandwich last for two meals. Hmmm. It shouldn't be too hard considering I made steak fillet with a blue cheese sauce last night for dinner. It was QUITE good, so good that there was no time for photographic evidence. It had to be eaten.
That said, I was quite impressed with what I made up on the fly. I sauteed red onions, then added cream, a little butter, white wine, and some blue cheese. This was drizzled all over the steaks and it was delish. I am officially off the vegetarian bandwagon. Not sure what happened. Maybe a change in my body chemistry or something. John likes to take credit for the change. Hmmm...