To make Tuesday special

I think that a lot of the posts on this blog might turn out to be ones about food. It's been a pre-occupying thought these days as I am learning to cook, trying to plan meals and grocery shop responsibly. Being a grown-up isn't easy. 

Some months ago while perusing Smitten Kitchen's recipes I stumbled upon a recipe for Skirt Steak Salad with Blue Cheese . Quickly bookmarked. I'd never heard of skirt steak before, but it sure did sound good. 

But cooking beef that isn't ground up (let alone as expensive as skirt steak) is scary. The first time I cooked non-ground-up beef was this winter when I tried to follow Elizabeth's recipe for Hungarian goulash and ended up with chunks of meat so tough that I had to grind them up in the food processor and make paprika flavored burgers instead. I think we might have eaten a frozen pizza that night.

So it was with some trepidation that I tried again at beef. 

This was good, because my man likes beef.

(and thankfully salads too)

In short, the meal was a great success. I tried to follow the instructions on the Smitten Kitchen recipe exactly, but I think I let my cast iron pan get to hot because the steak certainly wasn't still medium rare after 5 minutes on one side and three on the other. I forgot to pat it dry before I put it in the hot pan; I dunno how much difference that would make. Oh, and I forgot finely chopped scallions, but they were not sorely missed. And my favorite grocery store ever, Village Marketplace, didn't have just arugula, so I bought a spring salad mix on sale.

We also had left-over cold pieces of boiled potatoes, but they aren't as pretty so they got added to the plate only after the picture.

(Also, I took care to read up on how to slice steak across the grain. Doing otherwise would have been a sorry mistake, indeed.)

How does your garden grow?

I have tried very hard to be diligent in watering my tomato plant (actually "plants" because I have a cherry tomato plant now too!), and I think yesterday my tomato plant surpassed me in height. It's probably about 5'2'' now.

I'm particularly excited about these guys that have formed from the plant's pretty little yellow flowers. The cherry tomato also has several tiny rows of green globes. It's very cheery. 

In May, I spent a Saturday mid-day planting cilantro and squash at Wheaton's first community garden that cousin Joel organized. The one Wheaton student in town over the summer has got an enormous job taking care of this thing. There's a good deal of weeds, but there's also some healthy looking plants. I think I'll need to head over there next week and harvest some of the basil for pesto. I dunno who else is gonna eat it.

I brought my swiss army knife so I could steal a flower to decorate my table.

Bird gangs

This evening, while Tim and I were walking in the neighborhood in the cool of the evening, I spotted a large bird hanging out on the lawn across the street. We crossed the street for a closer look, and the bird spread its wings and flew up to a clearly visible branch on a close tree. Then we noticed the angry twitter of birds in the trees around and watched them mob the large bird, taking turns to swoop around and generally pester him into leaving again. Tim has told me about watching smaller bird gang up against a hawk that flies outside his office window at work, but I'd never seen this behavior before.

When we got home, with the aid of a field guide and the Internet, I identified the bird as the American Kestrel, also known as a "Sparrow Hawk" because it eats House Sparrows. Unlike other falcons, it captures its prey on the ground, which perhaps explains why it was hanging out on the grass. But we didn't notice the birds swooping at it until it went into a tree, so perhaps it was just down there for a little peace.

Simply in Season

My favorite cookbook so far in this new life of regular food prep has been Simply in Season, a cookbook from the Mennonite community. The book is organized into five color-coded sections; each section contains recipes using fruits and veggies that are harvested during that season. (The fifth section is with foods available in all seasons.)  Each of the five sections has recipes for breads & breakfasts, soups, salads, sides, main dishes, desserts and some extras. One of my favorite parts of the book is the separate indexes for vegetables, fruits, herbs, proteins and grains, and also recipe titles.

When Elizabeth saw that I'd been given this book as a wedding present, she wrote down some of the Polak family favorites so I've already been off to a good start. A good number of those recipes are becoming Avery family favorites too.

Today after work Tim and I took this frisbee to Hoffman Park to run around since it's a gorgeous day here with the temps in the low 70s (is this really July?). Unfortunately when I suggested running around I'd forgotten that he had to leave a bit after 6:30 for a missions meeting.

The good news for us was that "Lemon Asparagus Pasta" from Simply in Season doesn't take too long to prepare. The bad news was that I didn't have any green onions. But since last time I tried this recipe, the lemons didn't have any flavor, I figured we could go ahead with it.  (Have you ever heard of lemons without flavor? I bought them from the cheap, on-the-edge-of-going-bad produce section of my favorite grocery store, but I don't think I'll do that with lemons again – it was pretty pointless.)

So here is "Lemon Asparagus Pasta" lifted straight from Simply in Season.
(another great thing about this book is how the ingredients and instructions are integrated)

8 oz / 250 g angel hair pasta
2 1/2 cups / 625 ml asparagus (cut into 1-inch / 2.5 cm pieces – I cut them on the bias)
Cook pasta in boiling water 4 minutes. Add asparagus and cook 2 minutes longer or until tender. Drain.

1 Tb. butter
1/2 cup / 125 ml green onions (chopped)
1 1/2 tsp. lemon peel (grated)
3 Tbs. lemon juice 
While pasta cooks, melt butter in large frypan over medium heat. Add green onions and lemon peel and saute 1 minute. Add lemon juice and cook until liquid is almost evaporated.

3/4 cup / 175 ml milk
2 eggs
Beat together. Add with pasta and asparagus to pan with green onions. Cook over low heat until milk mixture is slightly thick, about 4 minutes. Do not boil.

1 Tb. fresh dill (chopped; or 1 tsp. dried)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
Stir in. Serve immediately.