Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

So I don't have the greatest photo of the finished product. We were making this while rushing around the house getting ready for a night out. And to be honest, I ate my portion right off the cutting board! It was really delicious. I rarely eat red meat and this cut was so flavorful and juicy, it felt like I was treating myself. We ended up pan searing our steak as well since our grill has apparently kicked the bucket. Guess what's on my Christmas list?

We ate this with a green salad, but I know that I'll be pulling this recipe out again once it warms up and I can make some grilled corn-on-the-cobb and a fruit salad. Is it too early to be wishing for summer again? :)

GRILLED MARINATED FLANK STEAK

Marinade Ingredients

1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Other ingredients
2 pounds flank steak
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

1 Score the surface of the steak with 1/4 inch deep knife cuts, about an inch apart, across the grain of the meat. Combine the marinade ingredients. Place steak and marinade ingredients in a large freezer bag. Coat the steak well with the marinade. Seal the bag and place in a bowl. Chill and marinate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

2 Using olive oil soaked onto a paper towel, coat the grill rack of your grill with olive oil. Preheat the grill with high, direct heat. The grill is hot enough when you hold your hand about an inch over it and you can only hold it there for about a second.

3 Take the steak out of the marinade bag and sprinkle generously on all sides with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. The salt and pepper will help form a savory crust on the steak. Place steak on the hot grill. If you are using a gas grill, cover the grill. Grill for 4-6 minutes on each side. Half way through grilling on each side, turn the steak 90° so that you get more grill marks.

4 Flank steak is best eaten medium rare; well done will make it too tough. When the steak has cooked to your preferred level of doneness, remove from the grill and place on a cutting board. Cover with aluminum foil to hold in the heat and to keep the steak from drying out, and let rest for 10 minutes.

5 Make very thin slices, against the grain, and at a slight diagonal so that the slices are wide.

If you want, you can take the excess marinade and bring it to a boil, simmer for several minutes, and serve with the flank steak.

Serves 6.

Recipe by Simply Recipes

Easy Sugar Cookies

I love sugar cookies but I absolutely hate rolling them out, cutting them into shapes, frosting and decorating. If I am going to invest a lot of time into a baked good, I want it to be a lemon meringue pie or some decadent cake. Plus I'm married to someone that doesn't really like frosting - so I needed to find a cookie that could stand alone! These are perfect. Crispy, not-to-sweet, easy sugar cookies. They are also great with frosting. I usually make a vanilla butter-cream frosting and make little cookie sandwiches for half of them and leave the other half plain, decorated simply with the colored sugar. This recipe easily makes 4 dozen cookies. I lost count after that... :)

EASY SUGAR COOKIES

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white or colored sugar for decorating

Preheat oven to 375. Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil, and sugars until well blended. Stir in the ggs, vanilla and lemon extracts. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until well blended.

Roll the dough into walnut sized balls. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheet. Flatten cookies to 1/8 inch thickness using the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake for 9 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Frost or serve plain. Store in airtight container.

*Dough can be frozen for future use - just wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

Pork with Lemon-Caper Sauce

My friend, Annie, called this Pork Piccata, which I suppose is fitting since it has all the essential ingredients of Chicken Piccata except with pork. I like to use Cooking Light recipes to even out some of the calorie-laden meals I prepare. This was a terrific weeknight dinner - easy to make with a ton of flavor. I wasn't able to find any boneless pork chops where I shop, but I figured it was an easy substitute. And I haven't quite mastered making a good pork chop yet. There seems to be a fine line between undercooked, overcooked and perfect. I've now down both under and overcooking...no perfectly cooked chops yet! Don't worry, I haven't given up.

PORK w. LEMON-CAPER SAUCE

1/3 c all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
3 TB Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
3 TB preshredded fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
4 (4-oz) boneless center-cut pork chops (about 1/2 inch thick)
Cooking spray
2 tsp olive oil
1 TB dry white wine
1/4 tsp grated lemon rind
1 TB fresh lemon juice
2 tsp capers, rinsed and drained

Combine flour and salt in a shallow dish. Place breadcrumbs, cheese and pepper in a shallow dish; place egg white in another shallow dish. Dredge pork in flour mixture, dip in egg white, and dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Coat pork with cooking spray.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan; keep warm. Add broth and remaining ingredients to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook 2 minutes or until reduced to 1/4 cup (about 2 minutes). Serve with pork.
Serves 4.

SAUVIGNON BLANC BEEF w. BEETS and THYME

A lovely slow-cooker recipe for a cool winter's dinner. The last time I ate beets was decades ago...I honestly cannot remember eating them after becoming a teenager. When I was a kid, I ate them with my sister and we would rub the beets on our lips to turn them pink. I didn't do that tonight, though I thought about it. This was a delicious and easy meal. Mild flavors and tender juicy beef. Eat it with a thick slice of buttered bread and enjoy!

SAUVIGNON BLANC BEEF w. BEETS and THYME

1 pound red or yellow beets, scrubbed and quartered
2 TB extra-virgin olive oil
1 beef chuck roast (about 3 pounds)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 whole bay leaf
2 whole cloves
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup Sauvignon Blanc or other white wine
2 TB tomato paste
Salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Layer beets, evenly in Crock-Pot.
2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat until hot. Sear roast on all sides 4 to 5 minutes, turning as it browns. Add onion and garlic during the last few minutes of searing. Transfer to the crock-pot.
3. Add thyme, bay leaf and coves. Combine broth, wine and tomato paste in medium bowl. Add salt and pepper. Mix well to combine. Pour over roast and beets. Cover; cook on LOW 8 to 10 hours, or until roast is fork-tender and beets are tender.
Serves 6.

Fantasy Fudge

my disaster of a kitchen...

contents of the treat boxes

all lined up in a pretty little row

I was in such a rush yesterday. In less than 4 hours, I made fudge, a batch of 48 rolo cookies and a batch of 48 sugar cookies (recipe to come). I was heading to a friend's annual Christmas party and I wanted to have my Christmas treat boxes prepped since most of the friends receiving them this year were expected to also be going. I had originally planned to have sugar cookies, rolo cookies, gingersnaps, fudge and sugared pecans...but the boxes I ordered were a bit smaller than anticipated and I could only fit 4 squares of fudge, 2 sugar cookies and 2 rolo cookies. I printed off some personalized gift tags, wrapped my goodies in plastic wrap and viola! instant Christmas cheer!

This fudge is the recipe my mom always made growing up. It's fairly simple to make and I'm sure you could toss in some other ingredients to make a bit more exotic. For my first try though, I wanted to stick to the basics - chocolate and nuts!

I took the leftover squares to put out at the party and they seemed well received...I didn't come home with any leftovers!

FANTASY FUDGE

3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 lb semi-sweet chocolate, chips or block chocolate chopped up
7 oz. jar marshmallow cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

Prepare everything in advance and have ready to go - chopped chocolate, chopped nuts, best to have marshmallow cream already out of the jar and in a bowl that you can easily scrape out with a rubber spatula. Line a 13"x9"x2" baking pan with foil, butter the inside or simply line the pan with waxed paper.

In a 3-quart, thick-bottomed saucepan, bring sugar, butter, and milk to a rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly once the mixture begins to bubble. Once the mixture reaches a boil, set your timer to 4 minutes. Stir frequently.

Remove from heat. Quickly stir in chocolate and marshmallow cream. Once those have melted and are well mixed, stir in the vanilla and then the walnuts.

Pour into prepared pan. Cool to room temperature before slicing (about 4 hours). You can chill in the refrigerator to get it more firm.

Makes about 3 pounds of fudge. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap to keep.

Peanut Butter Cookies

We were craving something sweet to eat tonight while we decorated the tree. My original plan was chocolate chip cookies, but somehow nearly the entire bag of chocolate chips was reduced down to a few morsels in a mostly empty bag. Serves me right for not hiding an emergency bag!
Peanut Butter cookies were a runner up - and one of Jon's favorites. Let the December baking begin!

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add the sugars, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour. If necessary, cover and chill dough until easy to handle.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional granulated sugar to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten by making crisscross marks with the tines of a fork.
Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Makes about 36 cookies.

Sausage & Queso Dip

So maybe this doesn't look like much, but trust me when I say that you will literally eat this until you're nearly sick. It's addicting. A friend of mine brought this to a casual Christmas potluck last year and I have been wanting to make it ever since. I thought that Thanksgiving with family would be the perfect opportunity...especially because then I could leave it with them and escape it's cheesy grasp! If you're heading to a holiday party this year and want to bring a crowd-pleasing and tasty appetizer, look no further! This recipe makes quite a bit, so take it for a big crowd or be prepared for leftovers.

Sausage & Queso Dip
1 (2-lb) box Velveeta
2 cans Rotel (I use one regular, one hot)
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 roll of Jimmy Dean's breakfast sausage (I use Sage Sausage)

Brown the sausage like you would ground beef. Combine cheese, rotel and mushroom soup in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan until everything is melted. Add sausage and stir to combine well. Serve with tortilla chips and/or corn chips - best to get the kind that scoop. Enjoy!