Steak Teriyaki

Again...it would be lame to apologize again but I am sorry that I have been gone so long....
But here I am. And here is some tasty steak teriyaki!
I used a recipe from Simply Recipes for steak teriyaki. I mixed up the marinade recipe: 1/3C mirin rice wine, 1/3C sake, 1/3C soy sauce, 1T sugar, and 1T grated ginger. I actually probably used more ginger than the recipe calls for. I used an unfiltered sake from Oregon: Momokawa Pearl. I chose this one because it is one we like to drink and so only using 1/3C wasn't an issue because the rest of the bottle was happily consumed!
I let the flank steak soak in the marinade for a few hours and toward the end I also tossed in some locally grown shiitake mushrooms from our farm share. We skewered the mushrooms and grilled those and the flank steak on the grill.
While those were grilling, I cooked down the marinade to make the teriyaki sauce to serve over the meat.
We also had rice and sauteed spinach along with the steak and mushroom. Delicious!!

Stuffed Roasted Jalapenos

Do you have a hankering for jalapeno poppers? Do you have the urge to light up your grill now that it's getting warmer outside? (At least in some parts of the country, it's been in the 40s and 50s around here.)
Minus the deep fried part, these stuffed and grill roasted peppers should take care of that jalapeno popper desire!
Unnecessary Kitchen Implement Warning!!! I bought a pepper roaster and it came with a corer. Generally, I hate buying kitchen items that only have one (and obscure) purpose but I fell for this one and we actually use it all the time.
When the grocery store has large enough and nice enough looking jalapenos these stuffed and roasted peppers are on our menu. You'll learn to eye ball the right size pepper for the rack after a few tries. And if they are too small, I have figured out that you can use the stem and the top that you cut off to wedge in the hole with the pepper to keep it from falling through the rack.
I mix cream cheese and shredded cheddar cheese for the stuffing but any number of combinations would be delicious. That mix works for us and I haven't branched out, yet. I'd love to hear what other combinations you try.
After I mix the cheeses together, I slice off the top of the peppers and core them. If you can't get all the seeds out with the corer you can rinse them with water. I roll the cheese mixture into tubes to better stuff the peppers. I place the peppers in the rack and then straight on the grill they go. It is best to keep them off the direct heat and on the edge of the grill. The longer they can stay on the grill with out the tips burning and the cheese boiling out the top, the more tender the peppers will become.
Enjoy!

Sloppy Joes!

I can't even begin to make enough excuses for not having posted for three weeks. I mean I am trying to finish a dissertation, sell a house, plan to move and start a new job, etc.....
But that is no excuse! I apologize.
So the house is flickering black and white here tonight. I bleached, washed, and dried a load of my husband's white socks today. And dinner could be taken straight out of a 50's household: Sloppy Joes, Macaroni Salad, and Baked Beans.
In fact, this is basically the recipe for Sloppy Joes in the Joy of Cooking. I sauteed about 1/2C each chopped onions, green peppers, and mushrooms in butter.
I sauteed about 1 1/4 lb. ground beef in 3 batches. I lightly salted, peppered, and chili powdered the beef as it sauteed. These spices are not in the Joy of Cooking recipe.
After all the beef was cooked I mixed the beef and veggies with about 6 ounces of Heinz 57 chili sauce. The Joy of Cooking only calls for 2-4T.
Eat this on a hamburger bun and watch the black and white flickering in your house too!

Fresh Fish, Grilled

I couldn't find my camera until the end of this meal preparation process, so I apologize for the fact that you only get 1 picture!
A friend of ours caught two beautiful fish the other day. We already had the grill going for other purposes but we happily shifted gears. 1 Rainbow trout and 1 Brown trout, each about 20 inches long, arrived at our house. My husband and his friend cleaned them by removing the head and the guts, but left them whole and with the skin.

In the cavity, my husband put generous amounts of olive oil, kosher salt, thick slices of lemon, and sprigs of parsley. He wrapped each fish individually in foil and placed them on the grill. He rotated them often to get each side and each end exposed to the heat. We didn't time it but they were only the grill at least 25 minutes.
When they were unwrapped the skin pulled easily away from the meat and the meat off the bones. They were delicious! I prefer the Rainbow trout as the flavor and texture are more delicate than the Brown. But I didn't turn away a serving of each!

Tuna Salad

I had a craving for tuna salad this afternoon. A late lunch, a little afternoon snack, something to munch on while I contemplate what's for dinner!
I used a can of Trader Joe's tuna in olive oil. Delish! Much higher in fat than tuna packed in water, but tasty! Per Cooks Illustrated, I always drain my tuna in a sieve and press it and fluff it with a fork to get it a dry as I can. This is especially important with water packed but also serves to remove some of the oil in the oil packed.
I then squeezed on about 1/2t of lemon juice and let it sit as I prepared the other ingredients.
I chopped about 1T of parsley and stirred it in. I added 4 slices of pickled jalapenos, chopped and 4 green olives, chopped. I chopped and added 1 stalk of celery.
And then I added about 1T of mayo and mixed it up. I ate it on a few slices of fresh bread with sprouts.
Yum!