Artichokes and Steaks
The bigger-than-a-softball-artichokes are back. Oh yum.
They're big enough to feed a small army or emerging nation. They're big. And oh, so good!
I brought them home with no real plan. Victor took one look and said "leave them to me". I did. I'm glad I did!
He trimmed them up and made a stuffing of fresh bread crumbs, black olives, garlic, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. After stuffing them, he liberally drizzled olive oil on them and then steamed them for an hour.
Mashed sweet potatoes with a drizzle of maple syrup, and steaks on the grill.
The perfect meal.
Needless to say, there was actually more food on those plates than we could eat. We both ate half of the steaks, half of the sweet potatoes, and all of the artichokes.
Leftovers are my friend.....
Vaguely Chinese
The once cuisine I don't often cook from scratch is Chinese. It's not as if I don't have the necessary ingredients - I'm just not that good at it. It doesn't lend itself to my usual devil-may-care style of cooking.
And that's okay. A doctored up bag of orange chicken will work in a pinch. And tonight, I didn't even have to do that!
I was up to my ankles trying to find a problem with a website and next thing I know, Victor's calling me to dinner! I love it!
He took the orange chicken and added red peppers, carrots, zucchini, and spiced up the sauce with sambal oelek. Yum.
So the website still isn't 100%, but it's better.
And my stomach is smiling!
BBQ Brisket
Ah... leftovers...
We had a couple of friends over for a little BBQ yesterday, which meant that 4 people = food for an army. What can I say - it's a gift!
So, with deviled eggs, pasta salad, potato salad, and brioche rolls in the kitchen, I really only needed to find something to put on the rolls.
Enter the brisket.
About 11 o'clock this morning, I placed a nice hunk of brisket in an 8x8 pan with about a cup and a half of the Strawberry BBQ Sauce from a while back. I covered it with a square of parchment, and then foil. Into a 250° oven for 5 1/2 hours.
I took it out, shredded the meat with two forks, poured the sauce into a saucepan, and then added the beef back into it.
I simmered it on the stove a bit, and that was that. Total time in the kitchen was under 10 minutes.