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.)