Thursday, September 24, 2009

Skirt Steak Marinade

This is one of our favorite marinades. It was on Alton's Brown's Good Eats show for Fajitas. It is also fabulous if you use a pork tenderloin and cut it into medallions.

Skirt Steak Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 green onions, washed and cut in 1/2
2 large cloves of garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2-1 tsp red pepper flakes (to your taste)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 Tbsp dark brown sugar (or reg brown sugar is okay too)
2 lbs skirt steak (or whatever meat you want)

Combine all ingredients except for the skirt steak in a blender and blend until smooth. Put meat in a zip lock bag and pour marinade over meat. Squish around a little to make sure everything is coated. Put in fridge until you are ready to BBQ it.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Creamy Garlic Chicken




Creamy Garlic Chicken
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1/2 cup butter, divided (the butter helps make the sauce)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, cut into strips
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 to 1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 to 2 lbs Penne Pasta
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Cut up chicken to bite sized pieces, saute in a large skillet in 1/4 cup butter and 3 Tbsp olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Cook until done, and set aside. In the same pan add 1/4 cup butter and add the onion, red and yellow bell pepper. Cook until soft. Add the 3 garlic cloves that have been minced. When you can smell the garlic, add the unwhipped whipping cream and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the sauce is thickened.
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Add chicken to the cream mixture. Cook pasta and toss with the cream mixture. Top with freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.
This recipe serves about 8-10 people. This recipe is adapted slightly from a recipe given to me by Kelli M.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Navajo Fry Bread


Navajo Fry Bread

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp salt
about 3 cups of white bread flour ( you may need just a little bit more flour)

In a mixer, combine water, sugar, and yeast. Allow it to rest for a few minutes to make sure the yeast is activated. Add oil and salt. Add the flour and mix with a dough hook to combine. The dough should be a little tacky still. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for about 30-45 minutes. Put dough on a floured surface, and cut into equal pieces (usually 8-10 balls of dough).

Begin with a ball of dough and with a rolling pin, flatten out the dough until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle (my kids like rectangles personally).

In a large fry pan on the stove, heat a little canola oil. When the dough starts to bubble it is about time to flip. It should be golden brown.

After it is cooked on both sides, drain on a paper towel and enjoy!


This fry bread is a great substitute for tortillas. You could do Tacos as well as Chicken, Beef or Pork Fajitas.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus


Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

1 -1 1/2 lbs fresh Asparagus
1 package Center cut Bacon
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Asparagus has woody or fibrous ends. If you snap the bottoms off, they will break where the fibrous part ends.
Snap off the bottoms of the asparagus. Lay the asparagus out flat on a cookie sheet. Drizzle them with oil and sprinkle with salt (just a little since the bacon will be salty) and pepper and toss to coat evenly.
Take a strip of bacon and wrap it around 4 spears of the seasoned asparagus. On a grill preheat to medium, put the asparagus bundles horizontally (so they don't fall through the grates) on the grill. Rotate the bundles after 5 minutes. Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the asparagus is tender and the bacon is cooked through and a little crispy.
My oldest son loves asparagus, but my other 2 kids don't really like it. So imagine my surprise when that was the first thing gone off of their plates. :-)
** You can also substitute Prosciutto for the bacon if you want to.

Lime Butter

For the picture, you are just going to have to close your eyes and imagine this since the corn was devoured so fast! On the Food Network, I have seen a variety of different chefs flavor the butter for the corn. Well, we decided to try it with our Labor Day Weekend Steak Grill Off. It added an extra layer of flavor to the sweetness of the corn. So yummy!!!

Lime Butter

1 stick of salted butter, that is at room temperature (you can soften it in the microwave until it is almost melted)
the juice of 1 lime, or if it is really juicy, just half a lime
3-4 shakes of Cayenne Pepper (or more to taste if you like it spicy)
1/2 tsp garlic salt

Using a hand mixer, stir on low speed to mix. Let it rest while you cook the corn.

Years ago, Wendy taught us how to cook corn without having to boil it.
Take a piece of wax paper, put the corn on, roll up, then twist the end like a piece of candy to keep it closed up. Doing 3-4 ears of corn, microwave on high for 4 minutes, then rotate the corn (if you have some in the middle, move them to the outside) and microwave again on high for 5 minutes.
To serve, put the Lime Butter on the corn with a pastry brush.
We had to move the bowl with the Lime Butter away from my 5 year old daughter because she kept trying to dip her corn with every bite. Like I said...so yummy!