Steaks

The End of Week Forty-Five

The end is drawing near and our Trainer is ramping it up. Today, he had us doing every kind of exercise in rapid succession - a literal non-stop 15 minutes of physical movement that had the sweat pouring off me. 15 minutes. A quarter of an hour. It doesn't seem that long until you're doing it. Think of it in terms of how long that minute is when you're waiting for the microwave - and then multiply it out. He took pity on these old men because just about the time I was planning my funeral, it was off to the weights. Bicep curls with free weights is so much easier than high/low planks off a flippin' ball! I'd love to know where he comes up with these things - I think he channels the Marquis de Sade.

After last week's spin fiasco, I decided I needed to go back in and try it on my own. It was a bit more doable when I was pacing myself, but it's never going to be my preferred way to exercise. I'll keep giving it a go, but you will never - ever - see me in a spin class! The eardrum-shattering music and screaming would keep me out even if I was good at it. I am not motivated by noise - and I already have tinnitus. No, thank you.

I really don't get the screaming as motivation concept but I do have a newfound respect for the people in there. That is some difficult stuff.

On to dinner...

It was the perfect day, weather-wise, so grilling a steak seemed to be the perfect dinner choice.

The steak, itself, was pretty basic - a NY strip liberally doused with Penzey's Mitchell Street Steak Seasoning and an extra boost of Berbere.

It sat atop a hash of sorts of brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, onions, and bacon.

First thing I did was peel and cut up a sweet potato and boil it until tender. I drained it and det it aside.

Next, I chopped the bacon and fried it off in a large skillet until it was crispy. I took it out and added thinly-sliced onion and thinly-sliced brussels sprouts to the pan, along with some salt and pepper.

When it all started wilting, I added the sweet potatoes and broke them up a bit, mixing everything together.

The pan was getting a bit dry, so I added a hefty splash of Gentleman Jack and a drizzle of maple syrup and cooked it all until nicely browned. The bacon was stirred back in and dinner was ready.

Onto the plate it went with the steak sliced on top.

What was nice about this is brussels sprouts are my most favorite vegetable - really - but they're on Victor's list of least-favorite. Victor absolutely loved them and cleaned his plate!

Another week down and we're maintaining the weight and maintaining a good attitude. That's a good thing. I seriously am not going through this, again!

Steaks


Pork and beet Greens

The End of Week Thirty-Nine

Another week, another pound. Life is good.

My repeating message seems to be that it's getting easier as it gets more difficult - and if I had better flexibility, perhaps some things wouldn't be as painful.

I still can't touch my toes and although I spend a good 10 minutes in the sauna doing stretches before each workout, there are certain positions I just cannot bend myself into. On the other hand, I'm definitely more limber than I have been in 30 years, so I suppose I'm progressing... Patience is not always one of my virtues.

We picked up some fresh beets at the produce store the other day and they had some pretty spectacular greens attached. I must admit that most of the time when I buy beets at the local grocery store, the greens look pretty sad and I just cut them off and toss them when I get home.

These, I saved.

Tonight, I chopped them and then blanched them in boiling salted water and then plunged them into ice water. From there, I sauteed leeks and garlic in a bit of olive oil, and added the greens along with some blackberry balsamic vinegar. A bit of salt and pepper, and onto the plate they went.

They were topped with a grilled pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes on the side.

Lots of flavors and textures.

It's now on to week forty. Three more months to go.

Will I be touching my toes by then?!?

Stay tuned to find out...


Steaks and Baked Potatoes

Steaks and Baked Potatoes

Gastronomically speaking, it doesn't take a lot to put a smile on my face. And sometimes, the more simple, the bigger the smile.

A steak and a baked potato are as basic as basic can be - but with the tiniest little tweaks, they can become awesome.

The tiny tweaks tonight started with a spice sample I got from Penzey's - Chicago Steak Seasoning. I have often said that I don't buy or use a lot of spice blends - except for the dozen or so that I always use - so when this one arrived with my last order, I was a bit skeptical. I used it, tonight, and I must admit that it's pretty good. It's a blend of: salt, Tellicherry black pepper, sugar, garlic, onion, lemon zest, citric acid and natural hickory smoke flavor. And it works.

I cooked the steaks on a cast iron skillet and then finished them off in the oven. Since I was baking a potato, I heated the skillet in the oven. It was nice and hot when I put the steaks on...

I baked a potato, split it in half and added a bit of butter. On top went steamed broccoli in a quick cheese sauce - butter, flour, milk, jack cheese and a bit of garlic powder. Simple as simple can be.

Added to the plate were a couple of slices of fresh-baked bread. I held off on the butter, but there were some nice steak juices to sop up.

A single steak cut in half. A single potato cut in half. Really simple and a really big smile.

 


Maple Syrup and Whiskey

Maple Syrup and Whiskey

At the grocery store, today, there were bone-in spiral-cut hams on sale for $1.19/lb. I probably wouldn't have even noticed them, but I was looking for ham hocks for Victor to make lentil soup. There weren't any around, so I thought I'd get a small ham and cook it, save the bone... I picked up the smallest one I could find - 10 pounds - and added it to the ever-growing cart. A few minutes later, I spied an employee, so I asked him about ham hocks. It took him a while, but he had them. I went to put the ham back, and then decided, screw it. It's cheap. I'm buying a ham, too.

I'm not a huge fan of spiral-cut hams, but at that price, I figured I'd get over it. A 10-pound ham is going to do a lot of meals around here - and cheaply. I'll definitely get half a dozen meals at the minimum. It's a commitment - but I do have my FoodSaver. We don't have to eat them all this week.

I put it in a pan with about a quarter-cup of Jameson's, covered it well, and warmed it in a 275°F oven for about an hour and a half. I mixed more Jameson's with some maple syrup and made a glaze - brushed it all over and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I cut up and boiled a sweet potato. When it was done, I drained it and added a pat of butter, maple syrup, and a capful of Jameson's. I figured what the hell.

Steamed asparagus on the side.

I have to admit it was a pretty good meal. More than I could eat, so Blanche got lots of leftovers.

Speaking of leftovers... I just portioned and vacuum-packed. We have nine more meals from this - including the bone for soup.

HamNot bad for 11 bucks.


Cod and Fennel

Alaskan Cod and Fennel

I have often said that recipes are mere guidelines. They're ideas to help the creative juices flow - and tonight's dinner definitely fills that bill.

The latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine came out a few days ago and it did not disappoint. It's their 25th Anniversary issue with lots of fun recipes. One recipe that caught my eye right away was a whole fish stuffed with leeks and fennel.

You may have noticed that I cook a lot of leeks and fennel. They are two things I really do love - and besides tasting great, they're reasonably good for you, as well. The recipe came from their TV program Movable Feast - an interesting show that travels around the world and deals with some fun and innovative foods and cooks.

I'm not sure what country the original recipe hails from, but it has a delicious mojo de ajo on top, so it's most likely Mexico or Central America - on the other side of where that fool wants to build his wall.

What I knew I didn't want to do was stuff a whole fish for two people, but the fennel sounded too good not to make - so I thought of just layering things on the plate. Layering things on a plate really worked.

First thing I did was make the Mojo de Ajo to let it meld while making everything else.

Mojo de Ajo

  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 6 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced, preferably on a mandoline
  • 1 cup mixed citrus segments - I used oranges and blood oranges
  • 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
  • 6 tbsp key lime juice
  • 1 small hot pepper, minced

Put the oil and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat, and cook, stirring, until the garlic just begins to turn golden on the edges, about a minute or two. Cool completely.

Stir in the citrus segments, juices, and minced pepper. Add salt to taste.

Next came the fennel and fish.

Cod with Leeks and Fennel

  • 12 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 small fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
  • 1 small leek, white and light-green parts only, cut in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup cream cheese
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
  • pinch dill
  • pinch tarragon
  • salt & pepper
  • cod

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Drizzle sliced tomatoes with olive oil, a pinch of oregano, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and salt & pepper. Arrange on an oven-proof pan and bake about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the fennel.

In a bit of butter and oil, sauté the onion until just translucent. Add the fennel and leeks and cook over medium heat until everything is wilted and cooked - but not browned.

Increase the heat and add the wine. Cook until most of the wine has evaporated.

Lower the heat and add the cream cheese. If necessary, add a few tablespoons of milk to thin. Keep warm.

Place the cod fillets on top of the cherry tomatoes and return to the oven for about 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked. It won't take long.

To serve:

Place the fennel on the plate, top with the tomatoes and then fish. Finish with the mojo de ajo.

This was one of those dishes where everything worked. The fennel had the most luscious creamy-lemony flavor and the mojo de ajo had sweetness and spice. The fish and the tomatoes paired perfectly with all of it. Lots of flavors and textures.

The fennel on its own was outstanding. I could see it with any number of dishes - definitely any seafood, but even like a cole slaw on a pulled pork sandwich.

It's only limited by your imagination...

 

 

 


Pork and Polenta

Pork and Polenta

The weather has been pretty unseasonably warm around here, so I thought I'd take advantage of it and grill a pork chop, tonight. As most of you know, weather usually doesn't stop me from grilling if I'm of a mind to - the grill is in a covered area away from the elements. It rained all night and most of the day, but my grilling area was just fine. It may get cold out there, but it's always dry.

The chop was done really simply - I liberally doused it with Penzey's Mural of Flavor spice blend. It's odd... I always considered myself a non-spice blend person, hence the 9 million different herbs and spices in the cupboard. Of course, I didn't count poultry seasoning, Italian seasoning, French herbs, herbes d'provence, Za'atar, Berbere, Chinese five spice, jerk seasoning... you get the picture... I'm not a spice blend person except for the dozen or so spice blends I use. Penzey's has made me rethink some of that with their samples and freebies and discounted prices - and liberal politics.

Chop on the grill. Basic as it gets.

The polenta was a bit different. I roasted a sweet potato, riced it, and mixed it in with the simmering polenta! I used to pretty much always make polenta with milk and add a bunch of cheese. I'm back to making it with water, and the sweet potato added the creaminess I like without all of that dairy. A bit of garlic powder, salt, and pepper were the only seasonings.

In the middle of it all was arugula and leeks. I thinly sliced a leek and sautéed it in a pat of butter. I added some white wine, and when it completely reduced, I added the arugula, salt, pepper, and a pinch of garlic powder, as well. I cooked it until it was completely wilted, and then made a ring of the polenta, placed the arugula in the center, and the sliced pork chop on top.

Layers of goodness!

Neither of us cleaned our plates. We're almost starting to get the hang of this!

Almost.


Lentils-and-chicken

Lentils

We do love our lentils around here. From soups to sides, there's always a reason to pull the bag out of the cupboard.

While there are many different varieties of lentils available, we seem to concentrate on three - black beluga lentils, French lentiles du puy, and pardina lentils -  a Spanish lentil we get from Palouse Brands in Washington. I buy the pardina lentils in 5-pound bags, so there's never a shortage of them around here.

I have a go-to lentil recipe that I got from Bon Appetit 10 or so years ago that I play with all the time. It's pretty simple - fennel, carrots, and onions - and then your imagination.

Tonight, I added celery, hot peppers, and salsa verde to the mix, along with some cumin - and then, after tasting it and realizing it was really hot - I added a cup of the cooked dried fruit I made up the other day. The sweetness balanced the heat perfectly!

Oh - and while the original recipe calls for cooking the lentils separately and then stirring them in, I cook the veggies off a bit, add the lentils, and 2 cups of broth. One pot - no muss.

Lentils and Fennel

  • 1 cup dried lentils
  • 1 fennel bulb
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 3 carrots, cut into small dice
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • Chopped fresh Italian parsley
  • 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or other good-quality vinegar)
  • S&P

Cook lentils in broth, uncovered, until lentils are just tender.

While lentils simmer, cut fennel bulb into 1/4-inch dice and chop about 2 tbsp fennel fronds for the finish.

Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and add onion, carrot, fennel, and fennel seeds. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

When vegetables and lentils are cooked, stir lentils into vegetables and cook until heated through. Stir in parsley, vinegar, and fennel fronds. Add S&P, as desired.

Since I had a bit of Mexican flair going on with the lentils, I liberally doused a chicken breast with Penzey's Arizona Dreaming spice blend and grilled it and then sliced and layered on top of the lentil dish.

Muy buena cena!

 


Roast Beef and Hasselback Potatoes

Roast Beast and Hasselback Potatoes

Tonight's dinner is the roast beef I planned for Christmas. The potato is a recipe Victor found from Jamie Oliver. I love Jamie Oliver. I love his passion for food. He's a great role model for kids and adults.

The roast has a funny back story... Back when I worked at the Hyatt House in Burlingame - early to mid '79 - the fancy restaurant, Hugos, did a mean prime rib. They went into a 500°F oven for an hour and then the oven was turned off and they sat in the closed oven for 90 minutes. They were seriously known for their prime rib - and they always came out excellent. The only reason I remember that is because yesterday, I saw two different articles on cooking a roast for 5 minutes per pound at 500°F and then turning off the oven and letting it set for 2 hours. I had this niggling thought that I had seen this somewhere before or someplace I worked had done it... Every hotel I worked in cooked prime ribs - and every one did them differently. We slow-roasted them at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe. One did them completely encrusted in salt - also excellent. Alas, I worked in too many of them to actually remember details at this point in my life, but Tahoe and Burlingame are the last two hotels where I actually cooked.

But I did decide to cook my little-more-than-2-pound roast using the 500°F method, today, just because. I preheated the oven, placed it in, set the timer for 11 minutes, left the kitchen, and never heard the timer go off.

I was answering an email when I had an oh shit moment and went running into the kitchen. The timer had reached almost 10 minutes and was still counting up. It had been in there for 21 minutes.

I resisted opening the oven and decided I would pull it out at 90 minutes instead of 120. I did, and it was a bit more cooked than I generally like, but it was tender and flavorful - and the gravy made it perfect.

Lesson Number One: If you're going to set a timer, make sure it is placed where you can hear it.

The beef was a bit over-cooked and the potatoes a bit under-cooked. One of those days... the recipe for the potatoes calls for Maris Piper potatoes - quite the popular potato in England. It looks like a thin-skinned white potato but I don't recall seeing the name around here. I had a nice russet that I cut in half and used, but it would probably have been better had I used a smaller spud. It tasted absolutely wonderful - the combination of thyme, bread crumbs, hazelnuts, and cheese was remarkable. It just could have been a tad softer.

I definitely will make these potatoes again.

Jamie calls for blue cheese. I didn't have any but used manchego. I think you could use whatever you had on hand and get excellent results. I also used dried thyme - I just got a sample from Penzey's... It was great.

From Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

  • 2.5 kg Maris Piper potatoes , choose the smallest ones
  • ½ a bunch of fresh thyme (15g)
  • 4 tablespoons higher-welfare turkey dripping , or olive oil
  • 50 g stale bread
  • 40 g hazelnuts
  • 100 g blue cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.

The fun and unique part of this side dish is that you need to slice multiple times through the potatoes, but – importantly – without going all the way through, giving you a kind of concertina-style potato. This looks beautiful but also makes them wonderfully absorbent of flavour and amplifies their crispiness. Try to choose small potatoes, give them a wash, and if you have any larger ones, cut them in half and use the flat side as a base.

To make this process as simple as possible, place a potato on a board between the handles of two wooden spoons, so that when you slice down into the potato the spoons stop the blade from going all the way through.

Carefully slice at just under ½cm intervals all the way along. Repeat with all the potatoes, placing them in a large roasting tray as you go.
Pick half the thyme leaves into a pestle and mortar and pound with the turkey dripping or oil. Spoon over the potatoes, making sure the fat gets down into the cuts you’ve made, then season with sea salt and black pepper.

Roast for 1 hour, or until the potatoes are golden and tender.

Meanwhile, tear the bread into a baking dish, add the hazelnuts and toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool, then tip into a food processor, strip in most of the remaining thyme leaves, add a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and half the cheese, and pulse into coarse crumbs.

When the hour is up, sprinkle the crumbs over the potatoes, then finely crumble a little bit of the remaining blue cheese on to each one.
Dress the rest of the thyme sprigs with a tiny bit of oil and sprinkle randomly on top.

Return to the oven for a final 10 minutes, or until the cheese starts to melt, then serve.

 

 


Beets and Pears

There is a new batch of produce in the house! It was starting to look a bit bleak...

I do pretty much weekly shopping and then figure out what I'm going to cook based upon what's in the house. I have never been able to plan menus for the week because I'm never sure on Monday what I'm going to feel like eating on Thursday, and I don't know what's new or fresh or coming into our out of season until I'm at the store. I know that some folks really do need to be more organized and actually plan things, but this is a system that works for me...

One thing that looked really good was a bin of fresh golden beets - individuals, not the normal bunches with greens. I picked up one - the size of a softball - and figured it would be more than enough for the two of us. Another thing I constantly work on is remembering that there are only two of us eating this stuff and there are only so many meals in a week. Walking through a produce store is like being a kid in a candy factory. There are just too many things to make - and only so many meals in a week...

Restraint has never been one of my more dominant attributes - but I'm working on it.

Armed with my golden beet - and a cart-full of other goodies - I headed home.

I knew that steaks were on the menu tonight, so I thought roasted beets would be the perfect accompaniment. And after peeling and cubing the beet, I drizzled it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and put it into the oven - covered. While it was cooking, I glanced over at the pears I had bought and thought that pears and beets sounded like a good combination. I pulled the beets out, sliced and cubed a pear, mixed them with the half-cooked beets, drizzled everything with Calvados - because, why not?!? - recovered the dish and back into the oven they went.

Ya know what?!? Red pears and golden beets go really well together - especially doused in Calvados!

I liberally doused the steaks with Penzey's Mitchell Street Steak Seasoning and started them in a cast iron skillet on the stove and then finished them in the oven, since it was already on cooking the beets and pears.

The end result was an excellent - and really simple - meal.


Mashed Potato Pancakes

Potato Broccoli Pancakes

Growing up, I always had mashed potato pancakes. I really don't remember ever having shredded potato pancakes - latkes - as a kid. Mom does have a recipe for them in her cookbooks - she switched it out to use frozen shredded potatoes - so I'm thinking she probably made them in the '70s after I was gone and there were less people in the house.

Mashed potato pancakes... yum. They could be fairly plain or mixed with different things - sometimes breaded, usually not. They're one of those foods that evoke a simpler place and time. Granted, it was a simpler place in time for me because I was a kid with minimal responsibilities. It most assuredly wasn't a simpler place in time for the adults.

But I digress...

Tonight's pancakes came about because I had a broccoli crown I wanted to use up and potatoes that have just been sitting around. My buying habits haven't quite caught up with our eating habits so there's always something on the brink - and we know how much I love tossing food. Fresh produce is especially rough when I do my Gentile's run - I need to remember that there are only so many meals in a week, and shop accordingly.

It could happen.

Mashed potato pancakes are another of those throw-together items. Mashed potatoes, a veggie, if desired, some onion, flour, egg, cheese, garlic powder, baking powder, salt & pepper. Form into patties and fry.

Potato Broccoli Pancakes

makes 6-8

  • 1 medium russet potato, cooked and riced/mashed
  • 1 small crown broccoli - cooked and chopped
  • 4 green onions, chopped
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together and form into patties. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet and fry until nicely browned on each side.

Keep in a warm oven until all are complete and you're ready to serve.

A potato ricer makes quick work and adding the eggs after mixing everything else together makes for an evenly-distributed mixture.

They work great as a side, but also work really well as the base for chili, stew, or a simple fried egg.

Have fun with them!

 

 


Eggplant and Shallots

Eggplant and Shallots

The eggplants are still coming in and I've been looking for more and different ways to cook them. Every time I turn around, there's another one or two ready to eat - and the neighbors are starting to avoid me. We have breaded cutlets in the freezer, we have caponata in jars downstairs. I hit the NY Times a few weeks ago and did an eggplant search. Lots of recipes - and far too many of them are mere variations of the same thing. I did see one that looked somewhat promising - a dish with eggplant and shallots with a chicken breast on top - so, armed with an eggplant and lots of shallots, I went to work.

The evolution of a recipe...

The recipe was fairly straightforward - saute large hunks of shallots, add cubed eggplant, ginger, and cilantro. Chicken breast rubbed with ginger and grilled...

The first change was the cilantro. Victor is of the taste like soap contingent, so we tend to avoid it, when possible. I picked fresh herbs from the garden - parsley, basil, oregano, and mint. Those flavors sound more Italian-ish, so I marinated the chicken in red wine, garlic, and olive oil.

At the point in the recipe where I was to add the ginger, I reached for a bottle of pistachio liqueur and added a handful of roasted pistachios. And when it was all done, Victor mentioned getting some balsamic - the good stuff - and drizzling it on top.

The end result was pretty darn good - and reasonably different from where I started.

That, of course, is half the fun of cooking.

Grilled Chicken with Eggplant and Shallots

  • 1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed
  • 6 large shallots, peeled
  • 8 oz chicken breast
  • 1/4 cup pistachio liqueur
  • 1/3 cup roasted pistachios
  • 1/4 cup minced mixed herbs - parsley, oregano, mint, basil...
  • S&P, to taste

1 hour before cooking, marinate chicken in 1/2 cup red wine, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 tbsp olive oil, and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Set aside. Prepare a hot grill and cook when eggplant mixture is halfway done.

Peel shallots and leave whole of small, cut in half lengthwise, if large. Saute in olive oil for about 10 minutes - until nicely softened. Add cubed eggplant and mix well. Lower heat to medium, cover pan, and cook until eggplant is softened and cooked through - about 15 minutes - stirring occasionally.

When eggplant is almost fully cooked, remove cover and stir in pistachio liqueur and pistachios. Add fresh herbs and S&P, to taste.

Continue cooking until liqueur has evaporated and eggplant and shallots are tender.

Drizzle with good-quality balsamic vinegar.

This really did come out good and the eggplant and shallots are a perfect side dish on their own - without the chicken breast. As we ate, we thought of other additions, such as raisins or chopped apricots, maybe dried figs. It's definitely something that can be played with time and time, again!

I have a new favorite eggplant dish!

 


Leeks, Fennel, and Rice

Leeks, Fennel, and Rice

I really can't count the number of times I cooked steaks for us and midway through dinner said we could have gotten by with one. Knowing I was cooking too much food never seemed to stop me from cooking two, however. Cybil and Blanche loved it.

That was then, this is now. One NY Strip Steak is definitely enough for the two of us - and Blanche still gets a bit, too. I'm a slow learner, sometimes. What can I say?!?

Portion control has been my biggest challenge - but it's paying off. Slow or not, at least I'm learning.

I was perusing the NY Times Cooking section when I saw a recipe for a Fennel, Kale, and Rice Gratin. The concept sounded good, but there is no way in hell I'm buying kale. I don't like it and I don't have to eat it. There are any number of vegetables out there that are just as nutritious - and actually taste good. I see no reason to ruin a good dish with something foul.

But I digress...

A baked rice dish with fennel sounded good, so I decided to play. First off, the recipe fed 4 to 6, so I pretty much abandoned it and went with what would work for two. My kale was a partial head of romaine that needed using up. Onions became leeks. Gruyère became colby jack. Dill was omitted, completely. Recipes are great for getting ideas. You don't have to follow them. Really.

Leeks, Fennel, and Rice

  • 1 small leek, chopped
  • 1 small fennel bulb, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 4 cups chopped greens
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 3/4 cup colby jack cheese, shredded
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
  • olive oil
  • S&P to taste

Cook rice, cool, and set aside.

Saute leeks and fennel is a medium skillet until they are limp and begin to color. Add garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Add greens and cook until they wilt. Cool and set aside.

To assemble:

In a medium bowl, mix eggs and milk. Stir in leek and fennel mixture. Stir in Cheese, and then stir in cooked rice. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Place in a small casserole and top with breadcrumbs mixed with a bit of olive oil.

Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes.

Leeks, Fennel, and Rice

I sliced the steak and laid it out on top of the rice - layering food is always fun - and we both went to town.

It came out really good - and enough for 4 people, easily.

Lunch, tomorrow!