Warning! Some of the photos below are not suitable for young children, my vegan sister Lisa or those of you who have a weak stomach. There is blood, raw meat, fat and deliciously seasoned "meat worms" according to a 5 year old. Enter at your own risk.
Sunday Night dinner menu:
Prime 14 oz. New York Steaks
Mini Slider Burgers (freshly ground from the NY's with my new toy)
Mashed potatoes
Steamed Broccoli
First of all, I should tell you my menu was planned around my newly acquired toy off Craigslist for $20, yes $20! a vintage Oster 5 in one stand mixer with a plethora of attachments including but not limited to: stand mixer, bowl beaters, dough hooks, blender, meat grinder, and food processor! This machine is one of those things your parents talk about how "they just don't make things like that anymore". Built like a brick shit house, built to last, uphill both ways.........blah, blah, blah.
First, I grabbed one of the steaks, cut it into long strips and proceeded in making meat worms for my kids to eat. YUM! They couldn't wait! (Next time if I can actually remember, I will take photos as I go. Bad blogger, now go to your room.)
Now it was time to grate the cheese. I assembled the food processor and put on the grating blade. Oh Snap, faster than the blink of an eye, its done! I will never, ever hand grate cheese again. I still have all my fingernails and skin on my knuckles!
Now to make the mini slider burgers. Not that freshly ground prime New York steaks need anything to make them delicious, I have a couple of things I always add to my burgers: Salt & Pepper, Garlic Powder, Prepared Horseradish, and Grated Cheddar Cheese. Mix it all together with your hands is best if you can handle it! Now for mini burgers, I take about 2 tablespoons of meat, form it into a ball and flatten slightly larger than the buns. You must allow for shrinkage of the meat - I hate shrinkage, but I especially hate meat that is too small for the buns!
Here is what they will look like: Beautiful little meat nuggets waiting to be seared on a hot grill.
Stick those beauties in the fridge to marry the flavors together.
Now take your New York Steaks and season them. Now I know everyone has their own special seasoning: McCormick Grill Mates, Steak Seasoning, or whatever but if you have good quality steaks with marbling, you won't need much season, you want to taste the flavor of the steak and the fat is what gives it the flavor, it is also what gives me grief when I want to put on my favorite pair of jeans! Hello hips! Anyway, I just like a little s&p, Lawry's Season Salt and Lemon Pepper Seasoning, go easy, you don't want to oversalt, you will regret it, and too much salt is bad for you.
Hello my pretties, come to mamma! I slap them around a little bit to push the season in to the meat, because I like sound raw meat makes when I slap it, please don't judge me. But I digress.....
Let these babies bathe in seasoning while you peel your potatoes. Peel cut, repeat. Let potatoes boil for 20 minutes or until fork tender. Add a clove of fresh garlic to the water, trust me, I would not lead you astray.
Oh crap! Go light your grill! Get it good and hot, like Jessica Alba in 'Into The Blue' hot, smoking hot, so it will sear the flesh hot. Ok I'm done now. Sorry.
Chop your broccoli into florets, place in steaming rack over pot of water. Turn on high to boil water - steam the broccoli. Not that anyone needs instruction on how to do this, ok well maybe one person.
Potatoes are boiling over making a mess out of stove, turn down to rolling boil. Stir to check doneness (is that a word?).
Go check grill, bring steaks and slap (note to self, stop using that word) them on the hot grates. Searing steaks on the grill is music to my ears. My steaks only required about 4 min per side, they were about 2 inches thick and we like our meat medium rare. After 2 minutes, rotate steak 45 degrees to establish the beautiful, wonderful steakhouse quality trademark "diamonds". My mouth is watering! After two additional minutes, flip steaks over revealing their grill "tattoos". Lean in and take a big whiff! It's a thing of beauty!
Go inside and check potatoes and broccoli. Drain potatoes, put back in pot to "steam out" excess water. My dear sister Brenda has bad luck when it comes to cooking potatoes. She likes to cook all the water out of the pot AND she also likes to cook the bottom right off the pot! See what happens when you drink and cook? Just a friendly reminder from your local fire department.
Turn off broccoli and allow to steam for a few more minutes.. Bring out burger platter to grilling area.
Rotate steaks 45 degrees again, put burgers on grill. These small burgers will only take about 1 1/2 minutes each side, longer and you will have hockey puck burgers that will break teeth. Move steaks over to warming section of grill while burgers finish cooking. Place cheese slices on mini burgers to melt as they finish up cooking.
Allow meat to rest while you whip up potatoes.
Important! Here is a trick I learned that really makes your potatoes better, I don't know why, just do as I say! Warm your butter and milk in the microwave before adding your drained potatoes, this makes a huge difference in the creaminess of the potatoes. Add potatoes to the butter/milk mixture and begin whipping with mixer. I like using a mixer instead of a hand masher because I am lazy, that's all amen. And I HATE lumpy mashed potatoes. After potatoes are mostly mashed and combined, add about 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese and continue mixing/mashing. Add S & P to taste and start serving!
We also had rolls with honey butter. Very easy to make: 1/2 cup butter softened mix with 1/4 cup honey. Chill and spread on fresh rolls.
I would have taken more photos, but after the action, flame licking meat shots I left my camera out on the deck railing, ooops! I will try to be a better person next time and take my blogging photo job more seriously. BWAAHAHAHAH, yea right!
Go forth and eat meat!
Earlier today, I knew it was going to be hot so I started prepping bone in chicken breasts with seasonings, and made a quick marinade that would later be the dipping sauce. I started with 1/2 c OJ, 1 tsp lime juice, 2 T teryaki, 1 T soy, and about 1 c chicken broth. I brought this to a boil, then thickened it with about 3 t milk combined with 1/2 tsp cornstarch. I poured this over the chicken breasts and put them in the fridge for about 4 hours.
1 cup tempura batter mix
After the zucchini's are sliced, drench them in the egg whites.
Then coat them in the dried tempura batter. It's ok to use bread crumbs too.
Next, I sprayed my aluminum foil with PAM cooking spray, then place the zucchini. I sprayed the tops a bit too! Since the temps were so high today, I was NOT about to fire up the ovens Muffin Man! (name that movie)
So I grabbed an extension cord and my favorite kitchen appliance of ALL time, my Pizza Pizzaz and put it on my bar on my back patio...........and VOILA! instant outdoor kitchen! I can cook a gourmet 7 course meal on this baby! (not really, but almost) I turned the timer on for 18 minutes, and since it cooks from the top and the bottom, I didn't have to turn them. In an oven, it would take about 12 minutes and you should turn them once.
Here is the finished product, crispy and delicious! A thing of beauty! Just was the doctor ordered! And only 1.5 grams of fat per serving! I made a dipping sauce with 1/2 c soy, 1/4 c rice vinegar and 3 T sugar. Heat and dip!
Chicken was grilled to perfection, moist and delicious! While the chicken was on the grill, I reheated the marinade and cooked it down. It made a tangy dipping sauce. It was a fantastic and healthy dinner!
