Good Ole Steak 'n' Potatoes

Yes, that is what this dish basically is...but Italian! I will admit, I'm not really a steak-and-potatoes kind of girl. I would rather have a nice, fresh salad, or perhaps a hearty pasta dish with some lean meat than that traditional combination. However, after tonight, I could be convinced otherwise.

I tackled TWO recipes tonight with Steak Florentine and Roasted Baby Potatoes with Herbs and Garlic. Steak and potatoes. I started with the potatoes. Being the slightly more experienced chef that I am now, I read through both recipes yesterday so I knew how to manage my time today (...or maybe I was just really excited to cook and wanted to read up on it). I started the potatoes at about quarter to four. First, I minced a small clove of garlic and put it in a bowl with some Italian seasoning and parsley. I whisked this all together with some olive oil (yes, I used ACTUAL olive oil) then tossed some fingerling potatoes in it with salt and pepper. I then baked them in the toaster oven for about an hour at 400 degrees.

Next, on to the steak. The recipe called for T-bone steaks, but before coming back to school my mom let me have an extra strip steak that she happened to have to take back to school. Just as good, right? I trimmed the steak as best I could, but I don't really know much about trimming steaks, so I probably did it wrong.

Giada's recipe doesn't really explain the "Florentine" aspect of this dish's name, so I turned to one of my new obsessions; The New Food Lover's Companion. It's a huge dictionary of pretty much any food or food term you could think of. This is what it said about "Florentine:"

"French for 'in the style of Florence (Italy),' and referring to dishes (usually of eggs or fish) that are presented on a bed of spinach and topped with Mornay Sauce. A 'Florentine' dish is sometimes sprinkled with cheese and browned lightly in the oven. The Italian term is alla Florentina."

This dish does not fit that description at all. First of all, this is steak, not eggs or fish. There is no spinach involved or Mornay Sauce (which is a bechamel with cheese and other creamy things). And the oven is not used to cook the steak at all.

Instead, Giada's recipe grills the steak (I used the George Foreman as usual which is quite convenient, but nothing really replaces that "cooked-on-an-actual-grill-smokey taste"). First though, I halved a clove of garlic and rubbed it on both sides of the steak, then seasoned each side with salt and pepper. I then placed the steak on the grill.

Now, the recipe calls for T-bone steak that are 1 1/4-1 1/2 inches thick. My strip steak fit that description, so I knew I could follow the cook times given in the recipes. According to Giada, you should cook the steak for five minutes per side if you want it rare, and seven minutes per side for medium-rare. I like my steak dead. Completely well-done. There was no time listed for that degree of "done-ness," so I went with about 10 minutes per side. Also unfortunate is the fact that George Foreman grills are not uniformly hot throughout the surface. One tip of the steak refused to cook at all.

Though the recipe says to flip the steak only once, I ended up flipping it about three to four times. The tips still weren't brown. I then decided to close the grill on the steak. This did speed up the cooking process a bit, but needless to say, my steak was not done cooking till about 15 minutes after I took the potatoes out of the oven and tossed them in the remaining herbs and oil.

After I gave up on getting the tips of the steak well-done, I removed it from the grill and put it on my plate. I then had to drizzle it with some fresh lemon juice and olive oil. I happened to have some fresh lemons on hand and, yes, got to use my new juicer!!!! Thank you Caitlin!

I let the steak rest five minutes before eating it so that the juices wouldn't spill out once I cut into it. As you can see in the picture, the only knives that I have (other than my big, scary ones that I use to chop stuff) are butter knives. Butter knives are not ideal for cutting steak. It was a battle to say the least.

The potatoes were DELICIOUS and soft and may have been better if they were warmer, but I didn't anticipate the steak taking so long (if this were a challenge on Cook or Be Cooked, I would have lost some points for not serving them hot). Also, the fingerling potatoes I bought were a mix of white, red and purple ones. There's something really fun about eating purple food :) The steak was also really good! Like I said, I'm not a huge steak fan, but the lemon was something I had never had on a steak before. My plate ended up looking like it always does after eating steak and that's with all the fat pushed to one side (I kind of freak out when I bite into a piece of meat and hit some grizzle, so I just don't take any chances).

And there you have it, TWO recipes, one night. Aren't you proud? I plan to finish this cycle of the book tomorrow night with a dessert recipe. Gotta love the beginning of the semester when you have a deceivingly large amount of free time!

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off..

Ah, yes. I have recovered at last from the tuna debacle from Sunday. I'm positive it was a mind over matter thing, but my stomach was quite upset after trying that dish. I had to lay down and watch Meet the Robinsons to recover. Cute movie, by the way.

I was soo excited to make tonight's recipe out of the "Everyday Contorni" chapter. It is my first from the "Roasted and Baked" section (and if you know me, you know I LOVE my roasted veggies!). The recipe is called Tomato Vegetable Casserole and after reading all the ingredients, I was pretty sure I couldn't go wrong.

I started by peeling and chopping a small potato, small sweet potato, and a carrot. I was supposed to add a bell pepper into this mix, but I didn't see that I needed one and forgot to pick one up this weekend. Oops! I tossed all of these in my glass baking dish with some EVOO spray, salt, and pepper. Next, I added a layer of thinly sliced red onion and topped that with a layer of zucchini. I then seasoned this layer with more EVOO spray, salt, and pepper. On top of THIS, I put some slices of tomato, then sprinkled some bread crumbs and shredded mozzarella on top. The recipe called for Parmesan cheese, but I ran out and will be going home at the end of the week, so there was really no reason to buy more.

I had the toaster oven preheated to 450 as the recipe tells you to do, then put the dish in to cook. Now, when I put this glass dish into the toaster oven, it remains open just a crack. This wasn't an issue when I made brownies in there this past weekend, but then again having half-done brownies is one of my favorites and just plain delicious. This is not the case when it comes to potatoes. When I first took the casserole out (the bread crumbs and cheese were beyond "browned" on the top), the top half was nice and tender, but the potatoes were still pretty raw. I don't know if you've ever eaten a raw potato. They don't taste bad, but they certainly don't taste like much.

I stuck the casserole back in for a bit more, but then took it out again for fear of the top completely burning. What's pictured at the top is my first serving of the casserole. Like I said, raw vegetables aren't bad, they just don't taste like much (with the exception of the tomatoes and such on top. THOSE were exceptional). I decided to mix up the entire casserole and spread it out in the dish to make a thinner layer and hopefully cook the rest of it. Well, some of it cooked, but not all. That's what I get for being lazy and not just marching up to the kitchen and cooking it properly.

That being said, I could imagine the casserole being delicious if cooked in a proper oven with the door completely closed. I will have to try it again when this is possible.

This is my last update for the week as I gear up to get ready to go home for Thanksgiving!! My next two updates will be from my own house (hooray for space, proper supplies, and all resources in one place!) and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am!! I'm also excited to get this computer to the Apple store to figure out why my keyboard hates me. Until then, bon apetit!