Bleu Cheese Mushroom Flank Steak

Johnnycakes has gone "all Raichlen", as in grill master Steve Raichlen, on me. He received the book "How to Grill" by Steve Raichlen for his birthday and has been his own grill master ever since. He's always been a fan of Steve's public television show Barbecue University, but the cookbook has really ignited his passion for grilling. While I don't think the steak came right out of the cookbook, it was certainly the inspiration. On a side note, I think Steve Raichlen is from Baltimore. Can anyone confirm this factoid?

The preparation for the Bleu Cheese Mushroom Flank Steak really began last night when he decided to show me up, as usual, in the kitchen. I was busy carving a pumpkin for homemade pumpkin pie filling, which is no small feat (a future post), while he decided to begin preparing tonight's dinner.

He began by slicing the flank steak in half so the meat was very thin and flat and placed the beef on top of a sheet of aluminum foil. He then seasoned the beef with salt and pepper and crumbled blue cheese. As you can see in the photo, he smeared the bleu cheese into the meat for an even flavor. He followed that by thinly slicing white mushrooms using an egg slicer and spreading them on top of the meat. He then rolled the meat together in the foil, sort of like a jelly roll.

The meat sat in the refrigerator soaking in all the flavors all day before we put it on the grill after work. He grilled the meat in the foil for twenty minutes on each side until cooked.

In an attempt to be helpful, I steamed some frozen broccoli spears and sliced sweet potato fries using a crinkle cutter. After slicing the sweet potatoes, I tossed them in extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and baked them for 40 minutes at 350 degrees and 5 minutes at 500 degrees. Unfortunately, they got a little toasty since we were preoccupied with slicing the steak. I've been burning stuff lately!

I made a tasty dipping sauce for the sweet potatoes. I prefer to dip sweet potato fries in a mayonnaise based condiment as opposed to ketchup.

Garlic Lemon Mayo

1/4 cup of Kraft Light Mayonnaise

1/4 fresh lemon, squeezed

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the above ingredients. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

As you might suspect, the dinner was delicious. You could smell the blee cheese as soon as we brought the meat inside from the grill. Unfortunately, the roll fell apart a bit when we sliced it but it was tasty, all the same.

I know Johnnycake's is always outdoing me when it comes to kitchen creativity, but can I really complain? He can be my grill master any day!

Oktoberfest At Last!

Oktoberfest at last! Brews and brats! Freundes, as the Germans would say, and fun! With all the zeal that Johnnycakes and I pursued Oktoberfest festivities this year, one would think that we were of German ancestry. It all started in August really when we started talking about schnitzel, beer and the like with some friends. In the midst of the summer heat, we longed for cooler days filled with beer, friends and funny sounding food. As October approached, we resumed our talks and took some efforts to find or plan the appropriate activities. Several Internet searches, a drunken phone call to a friend, and the scanning of tons of neighborhood flyers and newsletters later, we had all but given up. As Halloween approached and threatened to overshadow any Oktoberfest events, we resigned ourselves to celebrate another year.

And then, out of the blue, we received an invitation to a cookout in endearing Ridgely's Delight. We weren't sure at first if it would be one last homage to summer cookouts, like we've been thinking about having, or something more seasonal. This party had all the makings of an Oktoberfest celebration.

What was on the menu? Brats, a curious veggie topping, grilled chicken, saurerkraut, potato salad and grilled corn on the cob. There was even a mixed cheese, cured meat and cracker platter that was all class, along with a crudite plate. As for beverages, there was plenty of "bier" to go around, as well as Dark and Stormy's, a rum and ginger beer cocktail worthy of a future post unto itself (perhaps the photos are a bit blurred because of the effects of all the alcoholic brews or maybe it was just the camera phone). I have to say that the feast lended itself a certain level of authenticity. I'm not sure to what extent our host intended it that way or not, but it certainly satisfied any demands I might have for an Oktoberfest party.

As for the preparation, I observed the brats, the exact kind I'm not sure but I will tell you that they were not the Johnsonville garden variety, being preboiled in an aromatic beer and onion mixture before being placed on the charcoal grill along side some chicken drumsticks. There was also a veggie topping, I would call it a relish, for the brats. It was a brew of beer, canned tomatoes, chopped green pepper and onions and a few seasonings. I don't think the sauerkraut was run-of the-mill either, as I observed some onions sauteing in butter for the additon to the kraut. Unfortunately, we had to leave as that fun was getting started. We would like to have stayed longer to enjoy all the offerings but, as I said before, Halloween loomed and threatened to overshadow our Oktoberfest efforts this year...

From a grilling standpoint, I even learned what a chimney starter was. I've never seen one of these devices before but apparently you stack the coals in the column to start the fire without the use of lighter fluid. A more natural approach, I am told:)

So after all that, I'm happy to report that we can put Oktoberfest to rest this year, and set our sights on Halloween related culinary pursuits. A round of thanks to our host for extending the invitation. Great party! Danke!

Autumnal Grilling

What's the worst thing about grilling this time of year? It get's dark too early! I had to grill Johnnycakes and I's ribeye steaks in the dark. I know this picture looks kind of spooky. Now that it's October, my mind automatically goes to ghouls and goblins. Of course, it's kind of our own fault that I couldn't see what I was doing because we have not gotten around to replacing the faulty light that used to hang outside the back door to the kitchen.

I didn't get outside to start grilling until around 7:30 p.m. because I had errands to run and Johnnycakes was in school. I think it's getting dark around 7:20 p.m. right now. I did my best to turn on the grill in the dark and watch the steaks.

The hardest part was determining if they were fully cooked or not. I tried to cut into one of the steaks to see if it was cooked in the center. The beef still looked kind of pink but I thought it was done.

When I got inside into the light, it was obvious the steak was rare or medium rare at best. I was comfortable eating it but Johnnycakes was not and put his back on the grill for a few more minutes.

Despite all these efforts, we had a tasty steak dinner which was actually inspired by one of favorite cheeseburgers at Chili's. I'm not sure if they still have it, but Chili's used to feature a burger topped with black pepper, blue cheese and fried onions. Yum...

Summertime Rolls

One of the best things about summertime is undoubtedly the cookouts and barbecues. We certainly enjoyed ourselves yesterday at our neighbors house where the hospitality was unmatched. I wish I had taken more photos to demonstrate the spoils of our labor in the form of glorious food plates and leftovers but I didn't.

Here is a sampling of the many palate pleasers offered to us:

Margaritas (blended to perfection by Johnnycakes!)

Pork tenderloin - seasoned in honey, soy sauce and garlic chili paste.

Italian sausage

Chicken kebabs

Cheesy potatoes

Corn bread

Corn on the Cob - grilled with the husk on

Guacamole (a la butters)

Fresh salsa

Fruit salad ( a beautiful one, I might add, with a ton of variety)

French apple pie

Homemade Black and White cookies

Peanut Butter brownies

A local restaurant even donated delicious watermelon salsa, broccoli , bacon and cheese salad, pasta salad and potato salad. Our neighbors really have the connections!

I hope we can squeeze a few more of these events in before summertime rolls to an end. What about you? Has anyone been to some great barbecues and cookouts this summer?

The Johnnycakes Special

Johnnycakes made me dinner tonight. I didn't even lift a finger. In fact, I don't really know that much about the preparation. All I know is that it was tasty! Johnnycake's dishes are always full of flavor because he is more creative in the kitchen than I am.

Johnnycakes took a much needed vacation day today so he had time to prepare dinner. In fact, he was almost ready to eat by the time I got home. I always exercise when I get home from work before I start dinner, so I'm usually feeling rushed. Not tonight! All I did was show up at the dinner table.

The menu? Grilled lemon (yes, we still have lemons) chicken with a hint of barbecue seasoning, green beans prepared with black pepper and rice vinegar, and delicious roasted olive oil potato wedges. Tonight's dinner was a grand slam! It wasn't fancy but it was full of taste and flavor. I don't know how he does it. I dipped the potatoes in ketchup and the chicken in some honey mustard dressing for a little extra punch.

We have plenty of leftovers too. I am looking forward to having those flavors again for lunch!

On a side note, I did help with the dishes since Johnnycakes worked so hard to fix dinner!

A Special Treat

Johnnycakes and I were treated to a special dinner tonight. Our neighbor Dave, who enjoys cooking as much as we do, made us delicious beef shish kabobs on our new grill. We're always swopping recipes and cooking together. Last night when we were christening the new Weber grill, Dave started to formulate a plan for tonight's dinner.

I didn't even make it in the house this evening with work before Dave and Johnnycakes greeted me out front with a bag of marinating beef cubes and chopped peppers and onions.

Dave explained that he soaked the skewers in water overnight to prevent them from burning. He marinated the beef cubes in an A-1 sauce. I'm not really sure what the flavor was but it was super peppery. He assembled the beef and vegetable cubes and he and Johnnycakes grilled them up in the backyard. I also made some brown rice in the rice cooker.

Since we don't have any lawn furniture yet, we made a makeshift table and chair set in true South Baltimore fashion. It didn't match but we were in paradise. The skewers were tender and delicious. Soy sauce was the perfect complement to the brown rice. It added a salty flavor to the plain rice.

It was simple but we were in pure paradise. Cheers Dave!

A New Era

It's difficult to express to you how excited Johnnycakes and I are about our brand new Weber grill. This is our fifth summer in our house and tonight was our first cookout! We jealously watched and listened as our friends and family enjoyed many a grilled dinner in the past but now it's our turn. Our reasons for not buying a grill sooner boils down to 1.) not being able to afford a gas grill and 2.) security reasons in our backyard. Once we were able to tackle those obstacles, we were full steam ahead!

So what did we make for our first dinner a la barbacoa (Spanish, I think and I can't stop saying it!)? Cheeseburgers, of course! Yummy. Johnnycakes made hamburger patties using cumin, ketchup and diced onions. I picked up some fresh wheat rolls, lettuce and a tomato at lunch time. I also bought some sweetpotatoes to make fries on the grill. We diced the sweetpotatoes using our Pampered Chef Crinkle Cutter so they looked like real "bowling alley" fries. That's what I like to call them anyway. We tossed the fries in olive oil, salt and pepper and wrapped in foil and baked for about 30 minutes. I even made a lemon garlic mayonaise (Miracle Whip) for dipping. Once the burgers were cooked thoroughly and the wheat buns were toasted on the grill. we topped them with reduced fat Cracker Barrel Cheddar cheese. We tried to make our burgers "whopper-style" which means using mayo (we used the lemon garlic mayo), ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles for "fixins".

This was a great traditional meal to make for our first cookout. I heard Johnnycakes and our neighbor scheming up some lofty dinner plans for tomorrow night. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted!