A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Beef Braciole (Stuffed Flank Steak)

 

 Flank steak can be a challenging piece of beef to work up well.  It's cheap and flavorful so it's worth the effort but it's best in low and slow cooking methods, except when flash grilling to a medium rare for fajitas.  My mother made Swiss steak often with it when I was growing up, simmering it for hours in an onion, celery, bell pepper tomato sauce and serving over rice or mashed potatoes. Talking about it now makes me crave it so that's definitely on the menu for next week!

Another favorite preparation is Beef Braciole, or stuffed, rolled flank steak. The traditional Italian stuffing is bread crumbs flavored with garlic, onion, and parsley, although stuffed with strips of sweet pepper, onions, and garlic, is another personal favorite.

The key to flank steak is in preparing the cut itself.  The extra time spent removing the prevalent silverskin and pounding that sucker out thin can make the difference between a really "Wow!" dish and a mediocre one.  Everything else is embellishment. Don't let the number of steps being intimidating if you've never made this dish before. Once you've done it once, the second and many times after will feel easy.

 

Banana Bread Brownies

 

I kept seeing a Banana Bread Brownies recipe on Pinterest and even pinned it myself. What a clever idea, I thought, especially for those of us who don't care for chocolate all that much or often.  Banana bread brownies...something about it just sounds right.

And it is.  So right.

Baked in a large jelly roll pan, the brownies make 35 pieces and come out to be little squares of OMG delciousness. 

I looked at the recipe I had pinned, one that had been adapted from another recipe, and looked at the original as well. Then I changed a bunch of stuff, not because anything was "wrong" with the original recipes, but because I've been trying to eat a little cleaner by add more whole grains to our diet, change out sour cream for Greek yogurt, use honey instead of refined sugar, etc., and I know from experience with banana bread that it's a great vehicle for whole grained flour.  Banana bread made with half whole wheat is actually tastier, in my opinion, than banana bread made with all all-purpose flour (and Gene can't tell the difference). 

These are truly not to be missed!

Don't Order Out: Tradtional Pasta Carbonara in 20 Minutes or Less

 

 This Mary Ann Esposito recipe changed my life. Okay, I know that sounds melodramatic but I really do mean it.  With only Gene and I to cook for, no matter how many times we vow to not order out and to not succumb to the convenience of processed foods, the fact is there are nights when cooking seems too big of a chore for either of us.  This recipe is our salvation.  FIVE ingredients and they are all things we keep in our pantry/fridge:  pasta, parmesan cheese, eggs, olive oil, and pancetta (or bacon, which I keep cooked up, crumbled, and in the freezer for uses such as this).

The entire meal takes five minutes longer than the time it takes to cook the pasta, and voila, it's eatin' time!

And to make this deal even sweeter? Because the sauce is made by the eggs and cheese, it's not even the caloric downfall that fast food Italian restaurants' versions are when they use Alfredo sauce. This is the real deal Carbonara and it's delicious without being stomach-achingly heavy.