What’s on the dinner table (part 2)?

Tonight I had a cold (actually room temperature) "Mediterranean salad" made with rotini pasta, tomatoes, bell peppers (capsicums), onion, feta cheese, black olives, olive oil, vinegar, and fresh basil and oregano from the garden. Oh, and iced tea of course.

 

Orange chicken with rice and broccoli

 

It's my birthday today

So I started the day off with toast with a fried egg, orange juice, a mango cupcake and tea.

Tonight we will have pancakes at a pancake diner because it's all my stepsons will eat out the door (they have sensory issues), and on sunday I will have a birthday party where I will cook a little feast for my guests.

 

Happy birthday, Sidhuriel! Sounds like a nice day so far. I hope you have a lovely day and an even better year ahead! All the best to you on your birthday!

 

Thank you! I did have a very nice day, but the real party is on sunday

Tonight I'm keeping it simple with a creamy spicy pasta with chicken livers and onion. Maybe not for everyone, but me and my husband love it. And I've eaten more cupcakes of course, the same as yesterday and also some strawberry ones.

 

Kouign aman: very rich cake!
1 lbs of butter
1 lbs of sugar
1 lbs of flower
0.35 lbs of yeast
a little salt
and 0.1 l of water

 

Chicken kebab with salad and chilli sauce and fries from the local kebab shop. Mmmmmmm yummy.

 

We're going out to a vegetarian junkfood diner today, with a friend of ours who is vegetarian.

I've decided on seitan satay with peanut sauce and salad, and fries with their homemade delicious garlic sauce. Might have a vegan magnum after.

 

Tonight I have a birthday party, so I made lemon drizzle cake with whipped cream for dessert.

For a main we'll have vegetarian lasagna with roasted veggies as my guests are vegetarian. They don't eat much, so that will be it.

 

Another family meal out and it's an Indian restaurant. Feel a bit self conscious as it's my partner's family and when they first met me 2 years ago I was much slimmer. Athletic even. But today I really feel fat and gluttonous. So probably something with a creamy sauce.

 

Not cooking today after a busy weekend, turning on the fryer for some fish & chips instead. Good as any meal

 

Lasagne and salad then tiramisu.

 

Chicken with mushrooms in white wine cream sauce, with white rice and green beans.

 

Probably something easy like chicken nuggets and fries, but I'm thinking loaded fries with cheese and bacon

 

Baked gnocchi with extra mascarpone and tomato sauce on top, cheese in top, with sausages and buttered kale.

 

Omg baked gnocchi . It was so delicious. I'm so stuffed.

 

Two nights ago I made a deep dish pizza.

 

If you like steak, make sure to read this! I rarely eat beef, but last night I made one of the best steaks I have ever tasted! I should have taken pictures!

This all started because I wanted to I try a tenderizing technique I've been hearing about lately. But what I used to tenderize the meat might surprise you: puréed fresh pineapple! But this technique seems to be all the rage lately, so I wanted to give it a shot. The reason why pineapple tenderizes is because it has natural enzymes in it that help break down proteins and it tenderizes meat. All you have to do is cut up a pineapple and purée it in a blender with a bit of water to create a thick pulp to marinate the meat in.

It's important to note that the pineapple doesn't flavour the meat in any way, but it is extremely effective at tenderizing. However, you have to be careful with how long you marinate the meat in the pineapple pureé. It generally it only takes 1-3 hours to fully tenderize the meat, but it depends on what cut of meat it is (i.e. how tough it is) and how thick it is. Just check it every half an hour or every hour. You don't want to marinade it too long, because the meat WILL become too tender and the fibers in the meat will actually begin to separate! After tenderizing, the meat will also turn more pale in colour, but again, this doesn't affect the flavour whatsoever.

I intentionally used eye of round, which is a tough cut of meat to see how effective tenderizing it with pineapple would be. I cut them into 1 1/2 inch (38mm) steaks and I marinated them in the pineapple purée for a little over two hours. After the meat is tenderized, all you have to do is wash off the excess pineapple, and to stop the tenderizing process. Just make sure to pat the meat dry with a paper towel afterward.

I then seasoned them with course sea salt, fresh ground pepper and garlic powder. I also made a small batch of garlic butter to baste the steaks as they cooked on the grill. I just minced some fresh garlic and lightly sautéed them in oil, and then added butter right when the garlic was fully cooked. I then set aside the garlic butter in a small bowl to be used during grilling.

I grill with charcoal and you'll want plenty of heat to cook your steaks properly. The idea is to get a good deep golden brown crust on the outside of the steak and have the inside done however you like it. I also added a foil pouch of cherrywood chips to smoke the steaks a bit and to give them an added dimension of flavour. What I did was I put a thick bed of coals on one sided of the grill and put less on the other side. The idea was to sear the outside of the steaks over high heat on one side of the grill, and then finish cooking them on the other side. I seared them for about 2 minutes per side over high heat to give them a good crust, and then I moved them to the other side of the grill to finish cooking them internally. Just make sure to brush the cooked sides with the garlic butter, and brush it again every time you flip it.

Despite being eye of round, which again, is a tougher cut of meat, the steaks came out very tender and juicy. There was no pineapple flavour at all and the purée did an amazing job at tenderizing the steaks, and essentially making a tougher cut of meat into something that was more like beef tenderloin! With the way I cooked them, along with basting the steaks with garlic butter, it produced one of the tastiest steaks I have ever eaten. The pineapple purée allows you to use a much cheaper cut of meat that will come out very tender, juicy and flavourful. This was a really good experiment and I'd suggest you try it yourself!

 

Tonight I'm cooking madras curry, white rice and fried plantains because that was the meal my husband and I ate when I turned over the keys to my appartment last year. We've lived together for a year and a week now

 

grilled tomato basil seasoned chicken breast, pasta with tomato and bell pepper sauce, green beans with garlic and olive oil, and Alpine milk chocolate bar for dessert.