Today’s Post Brought to you by the Letter S

School Busses

School is back in session! This means I’m back to avoiding school busses. I wish I could express just how stressed those yellow busses make me when they stop. In high school, one of my friends got a ticket for not stopping for the bus. She was in the far oncoming lane and didn’t know she was required to stop way over there, the cop watching the situation was familiar with the law though and she almost lost her license. Since then I’ve had a terrible anxiety surrounding school busses. It’s silly, really, since I know what to do when I see a stopped school bus, but still, I avoid them at all costs.

Squisher

LT Fromage bought me a “Curries of the World” cookbook a few weeks ago, and to go with it, a beautiful mortar and pestle. Sometimes, when I’m reeaallly excited I lose the ability to recall the appropriate words for things, and this gift made me very, very excited! “Mortar and pestle” just wouldn’t come out, but “Squisher” did. I’ve been using my Squisher every few days, experimenting with different recipes for green curry. It’s not quite where I want it just yet, but I’m getting closer with every batch! Yum!

Steak

While I could drown myself in green curry, LT Fromage prefers a little variety in his diet, Top Sirloin has been on sale and he swares that mine is the best steak he’s ever had! When I’m not making curry, I’m cooking LT’s favorite meal:

Steak

LT Fromage prefers Top Sirloin, but I’m sure a similar cut can be substituted.

Pat the steak dry with a paper towel and bring to almost room temperature. While your steak is sitting out, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F and place an oven-safe skillet on a burner over medium-high heat (Cast iron is great, I use my grilling pan)

Take your dry, room temperature steak and rub with olive oil, liberally apply salt and pepper to both sides. Add a small amount of olive oil to your hot skillet and in goes the steak! Sear on both sides, the time it takes will depend on the steak you chose and how hot your skillet got, just remember, you only need to sear it, not cook it!

Once seared, place a few pats of butter on your steak and place the skillet in your preheated oven. Again, cooking times will vary depending on your chosen cut and preferred finished temperature.

This next step is oh so important!

A few minutes prior to being “done” take your steak out of the oven and cover it for about 5 minutes, this step is key to a juicy steak. Don’t worry, your steak will finish cooking while it’s covered.

This steak is so tender and juicy that LT Fromage usually eats it as-is, but if he’s in the mood for a little something extra, I’ll whip up a Gorgonzola sauce.

Gorgonzola Sauce

Dice a shallots, or about 1/8 of a white onion, add to a sauce pan with a tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Once the shallots or onions become tender, add 1 cup of heavy cream, simmer until reduced by half then add ¼ lb of Gorgonzola cheese (yuuummmm), stir until melted and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

This sauce is yummy over steak (or so I’m told), grilled portabella mushrooms (My steak alternative) and mashed potatoes. I may or may not eat this up with a spoon…. it’s that yummy!
Lastly, we eat a lot of asparagus in the Fromage household (Thus, we often have skinky pee…), my favorite way to prepare it is so easy!

Roasted Asparagus

Wash asparagus and remove lower portion (If you’ve never done this before, it’s really simple – bend them 1-2 inches from the bottom, the yucky part will snap right off). Add the asparagus, in a single layer, to a backing pan, drizzle with olive oil and add salt and freshly ground pepper. Pop in the oven at 425 degress F for about 15 minutes. I usually shake the pan up once or twice during roasting, to make sure everyone is getting coated and cooked equally :-)

Enjoy! If I ever get the green curry down, I’ll share the recipe for that, too!