Spiced Steak Wrap

One day I went on a hunt for steak recipes. We don’t eat steaks very often and when we do, we grill them. I decided that I needed a steak recipe or two in my repertoire – one that I wouldn’t have to rely on the grill for. I found this one and I tried it. I tried to buy the 5-spice seasoning, but failed (I only looked at Wal-mart though) so instead I just used a steak grill seasoning.

  The end result was a delicious steak wrap!  A good find indeed!

 Here's the recipe:
Serves 4
Ingredients
12 oz beef round steak
2 c packaged shredded cabbage with carrot (coleslaw mix)
1/4 c red/green pepper cut into thin bite-size strips
1/4 c julienned carrot
1/4 c fresh chives
2 T red wine vinegar
1/2 t toasted sesame seeds
1/2 t EVOO (or use sesame oil in place of EVOO and seeds)
1/2 t five spice powder (I actually used grill seasoning since I couldn't find this)
1/4 t salt
1/4 c sour cream
4 8-in flour tortillas

Method
In a medium bowl combine  oil, seeds and vinegar.  Add coleslaw mix, peppers, carrot and chives.  Toss to combine.  Set aside.

Trim fat from steak.  Thinly slice steak across the grain into 1/4-inch thick strips.  Sprinkle steak with seasoning and salt.  Preheat skillet over medium-high heat.  Add steak strips.  Stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes or until brown.

To assemble, spread 1 T of sour cream down the center of each tortilla.  Top with steak strips.  Spoon coleslaw mixture over steak.  Fold in sides of tortillas to make a wrap.

Fondue

Happy Anniversary! Brian and I have been married exactly two years as of today. Two whole years! In those two years, we have adopted exactly 1 dog, captured numerous rogue lizards in our house, and bought a boat. Seems like a very successful (and productive) two years to me.

Brand new Stella - May 2009 - she had
so much energy that the only time
we got a decent picture was when she slept.

We semi-celebrated last night. Last night we had a special dinner. We will continue the party tonight with gift exchanges and a brief lighting of the unity candle. You’re only concerned with dinner, I know. I like food too.

April 2009 - Ready to kneal to the cheese in defeat

Last night I made fondue. Fondue reminded us of our honeymoon where we spent some time in Amsterdam. While there, we happened upon cheese heaven. We had a fondue dinner and it was ridiculously rich and filling. I like to say that we were defeated by the cheese. I mean, look at that!




This is the second time I made fondue. It’s easy. You should try it. The fondue pot is totally optional. Here’s the road map to cheese heaven:

Brian not ready to admit defeat,
but he would give in not much later


Cheddar and Beer Fondue
Serves 4 (Or serves one Brian and one Krista with a little left over).
Ingredients
1 sack shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4-1/3 pound Gruyère cheese, shredded (4-6 ounces)
1 rounded tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup German lager beer (I actually used Stella)
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
A few drops of hot sauce
A few drops of Worcestershire sauce
For serving:
broccoli
bread (like a baguette or Italian loaf of whatever looks good that day), cubed

Road Map:
Combine cheeses in a bowl with flour. Add beer to a small pot and bring up to a bubble over medium heat. Reduce the heat to simmer and add cheese in handfuls. Stir constantly, melting the cheese in batches. Stir in a figure-eight pattern with wooden spoon. When the cheese has been incorporated fully, stir in the mustard, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Transfer fondue to warm small crockpot (or a fondue pot if you are fancy enough to have one).

In a pot, bring 2 water to a boil and blanch the broccoli for 2-3 minutes, then drain.

Smoother the bread and broccoli in the cheese and enjoy. Do not let the cheese defeat you!

Turn Around Hiatus

Before you start yelling at me for taking 2 weeks to post something new, you have to let me plead my case.

I am currently working turn around. This started right after my delicious mint chocolate cupcake post. It’s not my fault, it’s a job. They send me a check regularly and as such I am obliged to show up when told to do so. Because of that I have been working lots of extra hours these last two weeks. This is bad for the blog for exactly 2 reasons.
1. During times like these, I have little interest in eating healthy or taking time to cook. So I haven’t made anything new. Come on, we’re lucky that I’m still kinda cooking at all during this time.
2. When I do finally get home, I crash on the couch, and I can’t even find enough energy to get up and sit at the computer even if I did have something new to blog about.

Now, for those of you that don’t know what it means to work a turn around (TA from here on out). Let me break it down for you.

TA – is when a plant/operating unit shuts down all its equipment, takes it apart, cleans it, improves it, modifies it, then puts it back together. Thankfully these happen infrequently (like every 5 years). The idea is that when the plant starts up again everything will be perfect since everything’s clean and peachy and fantastic. But in reality this isn’t the case. But that’s another story for another time.

What a TA means for me as an engineer – I get to run around (literally) and take care of a billion little issues that come up. I also get to do a lot of my normal type work, but I have to work it at an accelerated pace because my work can’t slow down the progress of the TA. (You do that and you make enemies for life). So in TA mode I have to do something in like an hour when in normal mode it could take me a week. The good thing about all this is that it makes the days go fast which means a TA seems to fly by. Sometimes though, sometimes I wonder about people. This is an example of an issue I took care of once:

I walk up to a group of guys who are working on a project
Me: What’s going on?
Lead guy: The new bolts won’t fit because they’re too long, so can we use these other bolts.
Me: Do these other bolts fit?
Lead guy: Yes.
Me: Then yes, use the bolts that fit.

Seriously – true story. I’m a problem solver I am!

All this running around and solving problems takes its toll. This is what happens to me during a TA. My knees and feet start hurting (please keep in mind that normally-not during TA-I spend a majority of my time at my desk). I become so physically drained that once I sit down it takes an enormous amount of effort to get back up – even when it means going home. On top of this, I actually become mentally exhausted as well. Not because of issues like the bolts above, but a lot of times I do have to think critically to help with something. On top of this I work extra days which means I have no weekend to recover and rejuvenate. Tough stuff.

All of this exhaustion results in no new recipes, barely making dinner (we had frozen pizza and breakfast for dinner this week) and just being gosh darn tired.  I also forget a lot of stuff and talk to myself in an almost insane manner.

But the end is in sight! I’m scheduled to be back to normal by Monday and I even get tomorrow off! Yay. This week I do plan on making goodness. So there should be one or two treats in store. Thanks for bearing with me!