Waste not, want not, right? I will say that I am very much a fan of leftovers. It is just Beck and me here, but I usually cook enough for 4 or more servings. If it’s a weeknight, after we eat, we’ll pack up the leftovers for lunch the next day. Or sometimes I’ll try and get a little creative and cook an excess of a component specifically to use in another dish that I planned to make later; like with white rice if I am going to make fried rice later in the week.

This dish was compiled from leftover grilled lamb sliced very thin, two day old bread made into garlic and olive oil croutons, and the smoked tomato vinaigrette from my black bean mozzarella salad. I gently nuked the slices of lamb at 30% power until warm. I cannot stand reheated/recooked meat. I would just as soon give that to my cobbler to resole my Bruno Maglis!

Toss the croutons with some baby spinach, arugula, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and a drizzle of good olive oil, top with the lamb, some grinds of black pepper, the smoked vinaigrette, and feta cheese. Call it dinner.

Okay… I’ve figured out how to win the current Presidential election. Create a 3 day work week. That’s right. I have been on vacation all week this week; maybe call it a “staycation” as we decided to go nowhere. But, if I promised to make the work week 3 days and the rest of the week, were to be off days, how could I lose? I imagine that the huge corporate machine would probably assassinate me before I even reached the convention, I think that giving people more of their money and their time would be a huge mission that would invite votes, don’t you? I just love being off!

We’ve managed to get stuff done around the house, watch DVDs, got to the theater to check out “The Dark Knight", and cook up some really nice dishes. I even got an opportunity to sous chef for Bren from FlanBoyantEats during her television taping for a local morning show. Stay tuned to Bren’s blog for more about that experience. It is a shame that we have to return to the grind next week. I am so not looking forward to that.

Back to the grill again…

I think the first time I even thought about grilling a leg of lamb I got so intimidated I simply ended up roasting it in the oven for fear of failing a very expensive piece of meat. Now-a-days, not so much. I have done quite a few of these babies and they always come out really well. It really isn’t that difficult at all. I simply seared the leg over high heat and then moved the leg off of the heat and let it roast until medium rare temperature of 130 degrees-f. I used my remote wireless meat thermometer to monitor the temperature.

I served the lamb with tzatziki sauce, grilled white asparagus, and my new friend, tzatziki potato salad. This turned out to be a really nice summery meal.

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There is nothing like a grilled rib-eye. I think it is the most orgasmic of dining experiences. Juicy, tender, beefy. All this may need is a bacon wrapping; you know, to make it more healthy and delicious! Well, pair a good rib-eye with a baked potato and a great salad and I am in heaven.

I am somewhat spoiled when it comes to my steak. After tasting the best that Lobels has to offer, and a few Wagyu beef adventures, I cannot eat a normal supermarket bought steak and be happy. But, one cannot be a Lobels steak eater with the frequency that I like and still be financially solvent. That is, unless you roll like that. Me, I ain’t blingin’ like that. I have to think about retirement and the light bill.

Fortunately we can indulge in a really tasty steak from time to time. I’m talking dry-aged, well marbled, and no shipping costs. From where you ask? Why from Whole Paychecks of course! That’s right kids, WF has really good dry-aged, grass fed, no hormone, beef. And you know what? They will sell it to you. For a premium. This is not cheap, but to me it is equidistance between a $52 Kobe steak in a restaurant and buying online from Lobels or Niman Ranch. For about $21/lb, I can get a really beefy rib-eye. Believe me, if you have not had a dry-aged steak, you are missing out on the most buttery, beefy, steak evar!

Why the rib-eye? For me it’s all about the marbling. The rib-eye has the most, in my opinion. That marbling, well okay, fat, renders when cooked and creates a juicy specimen that is just perfect at 140-145 degrees-f, or medium rare.

I’ll tell you how I like to make this. I always buy my steaks the day I am going to cook them. That is when I am buying local. I salt and pepper them on both sides and let them sit for about an hour to come to room temperature. Do not worry about the salt and loosing juice. After about 20 minutes the steak will absorb any liquids that it expelled pulling the seasoning in with it. Meanwhile I prep my grill to about 550 degrees-f or higher if it’ll get there. That is a lot of hardwood, but mesquite hardwood charcoal is the best for steak. I just purchased a gas grill, my first one, this past weekend, but that is another story coming soon.

Put the steaks on the grill and let them hiss at you for about 60 seconds then give them a quarter turn to create some aesthetically pleasing grill marks. Let them cook for about 4 minutes, depending on thickness, then turn. Do the quarter turn thing again. Let them go another 3 minutes. Then move the steaks off of the fire to a part of the grill where they can receive indirect heat but no direct flame. Close the lid and let them cook until your desired temperature but never well done! Let the steaks rest under foil for 5 minutes.



The garlic butter is really easy. Take some butter, about 1/2 stick, at room temperature, add to it, one tablespoon chopped parsley, and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Top the steak and enjoy.

“Quin-who? Quin-what?” That’s pretty much the reaction I got from my wife when I told here what I was making. “I don’t like radishes!” she proclaims. Yeah, well, all that skepticism ceased when she took a fork full.

Up until this day, when this dish was made, I had never eaten quinoa pronounced KEEN-wah or KEE-no-uh for those of you who don’t know. Most commonly considered a grain, quinoa is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard. It is a recently rediscovered ancient “grain” once considered “the gold of the Incas.” They recognized its value in increasing the stamina of their warriors. Not only is quinoa high in protein, but the protein it supplies is complete protein, meaning that it includes all 8 (or is it 9, or 10?) essential amino acids. Another nutritional find for me because, even though quinoa is a nutritional powerhouse, packed with cardiovascular benefits, it provides migraine relief, fiber, and antioxidants, it doesn’t taste like I’m eating sand.

So I’m on the Rancho Gordo website buying beans and I see that they have quinoa that they get from some small Bolivian farmers and I had remembered seeing this recipe in Food and Wine magazine, so I pulled the trigger and bought a bag.

I have since bought several more bags of quinoa as I will be incorporating it into my diet in a ginormous way. All kinds of ways to experiment with this seed. It cooks up just like rice; give it a cold water rinse, drain, add to boiling water (2:1 ratio), and 15 minutes later, plate.

This dish was nutty from the quinoa, tangy from the picked radishes and feta, and the texture and freshness from the cucumber and green beans just rounded the whole thing out. Try putting the quinoa seeds into a 400 degree-f oven for 5 minutes for an extra punch of nuttiness.

You may want to sit down for this one. Oh, you probably are… Well this is a long piece, but worth the read, I promise…

As I have read about foodie connections happening all across the blogosphere, I personally got to experience one. When I began blogging last year, I never thought that foodies were such beautiful people. The experience that I have had cooking and blogging has been damn near life changing. Whoda thunk that my love for food and cooking could be so well received. I really wish that all of you could taste some of what I make and I wish that I could taste all of your delicious creations. Well, last Saturday night, one fav foodie and I got together to share.

A lot of you may recognize the woman in the picture with me. No it’s not my wife Beck, she is camera shy, that is Bren from Bren’s FlaNboyant Eats. She is one of my favorite bloggers. I found out by chance that she was local. We had been visiting each other’s blog for some time now and one day Bren writes to me, “we should just get together and talk food all day.” I said, okay, let’s do lunch.

Well, lunch never happened; a couple of missed opportunities, scheduling conflicts, Bren thinking here is another married perverted Internet psycho food loving killer come to butcher and broil me then blog it as brisket. You know, the normal hit and miss.

As it turned out, we managed to pull it off. I must say, I had a great time. Bren suggested sangria and I had already been thinking the same thing. So I asked her, she’s the professional, and since I had only ever opened a bottle, what to get for it. Well as the picture below tells, I went overboard and made the sangria like a frat house hunch punch. Nevertheless, it was good. And I drank a lot of it. I am sure that Bren will tell you more about my indulgence than I am willing to share.

Allow me tell you about Miss Brenda. I have always been a fan of her blog, but there is sooooooooo much more to her than her cooking. I am telling you people, she is a Latin force!!! She made me tired just watching her sit on the sofa! She has, not nervous energy, but pure energy! Wow, thoughts of spinning Information Society in the club in the eighties just flashed in my head! I used to spin that song an awful lot back in the day. No, I am not drinking the sangria, yet, I just like that song

As I was saying, Bren is a serious dynamo! Emeril even called her that. She is a serious go getter. She writes for travel magazines, she brought me one, she runs a boutique, she is a jazz singer, she is a professional chef, a personal chef, teaches cooking classes, and who knows what else. Breathe with me! Again, I’m tired thinking about all of that!

Watch out people! This young beautiful lady will be coming to a TV channel near you very soon. I am sure of it.

Oh, while there is more to come with two newly founded foodie friends, there was some food involved. I made fish tacos. Now I had always had some sort of aversion to fish tacos, but after watching Tyler Florence make them, I wanted to try them. I also prepared three spicy sauces too, along with my black bean salad.

Let me tell you folks, being a run-of-the-mill home cook and having your food called excellent by a professional chef is a humbling experience. And I thank Bren for her visit. You really must check her out.

Fish tacos, sauces, recipes, and more about my night with Bren follow after the jump.

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