MIXING UP HOLIDAYS

This year Sham El Nessim came with the Cinqo de Mayo festivities. This is our first Spring  or Sham El Nessim without mom. I really wanted to keep the tradition alive, but a combination of absent friends, a mother of one of them recovering from surgery, and the weather not being really "springy" dissuaded me. I was not in the mood to make a big hoopla out of it this year as we usually do. So I called some friends, just to make sure, and we all decided that we'll do it later on, perhaps when real Spring would come to New York.

Still we have to eat. I asked my husband if he was up to having the usual dishes, eggs, herrings and all the trimmings. As expected, he was not very enthusiastic about it and gave me the dreaded answer: "anything will do". But you know me, this answer is not acceptable. So I decided to combine the two occasions in one meal: Cinqo de Mayo for appetizers and Sham El Nessim for the main course. Here's the result.

TEX MEX SHRIMP COCKTAIL

                                                        

I thought of this dish, simply because I had some leftover shrimp and I needed to do something with it. The occasion provided the inspiration. I will make something "Mexican", but not quite Mexican: a dish tweaked to our taste, but within the same general idea. I guess the original Tex Mex requires that you use hot peppers or hot sauce, but we don't eat hot food, so if you like the idea of this dish, you can go ahead and make it as hot as you like. Just add some hot sauce to the dish, according to your taste. All the other ingredients should be at hand in your kitchen. You can follow the recipe, or improvise depending on what you like and what you have around.

For the shrimp, I usually cook it beforehand, in a big pot, no water, but with some slices of carrot, celery, onion and garlic, plus cumin, celery salt, coriander, salt and pepper and lots of lime juice. Just cover the pot, and stir it once or twice until all shrimp turns pink, for about  10 minutes max. When the shrimp is cooled enough to handle, peel it. If you are going to serve it as a shrimp dish, just transfer to a serving dish, leaving the other ingredients in the pot. You may use them for stock later. You'll need:

About 1 lb shrimp, cooked and peeled

1 tomato

1 avocado

2 scallions, finely chopped, white and green parts

1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup lemon juice

In a glass bowl mix the ketchup with the lemon juice. Chop and seed the tomato. Add it to the bowl. Add the shrimp, scallions and cilantro. Mix to coat. Refrigerate for about one hour. When ready to serve, peel, seed and chop the avocado and add it to the bowl. Gently stir to incorporate. Arrange a red lettuce leaf on the side of a serving cup, add the shrimp mixture.

Note: you may use pre-cooked shrimp, but make sure that you dry it thoroughly with paper towels, so it doesn't become too soggy.

DECONSTRUCTED NICOISE SALAD

                                                  

Since salty dishes are out of the question, I decided to go for a Nicoise salad. But since my husband is becoming a very picky eater these days, I decided to make it in a way that will allow him to chose whatever he likes from the dish. I also know he doesn't like green beans, so I'll use asparagus, and no anchovies today, he has developed some kind of sensitivity to salt. You, on the other hand can add them to your dish. I made the potato salad the French way, no mayo, and used canned tuna. I had a couple of fresh tuna fillets, but again it was my husband's choice.

Be creative with the arrangement of the ingredients, you can mix everything together, or follow my example and serve the salad on a big platter allowing everyone to chose the things that he likes best. You'll need:

2 can tuna, packed in water, drained

5 to 6 medium boiled potatoes, chopped

1 tomato

3 cucumbers

4 hard boiled eggs

1 heart of lettuce, plus some mixed greens

1 lb asparagus, hard tips removed

2 to 3 scallions, finely chopped, white parts and little green

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp red wine vinegar

1 cup Kalamata olives

1 pinch cumin

3 to 4 tbsp lemon juice, more to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, lightly mix the tuna with a drop of oil and lemon juice. Set aside. In another bowl mix the potatoes with a tbsp oil, a tbsp of scallions, the cumin, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Chop the tomato, peel and slice the cucumber, chop the lettuce and add them to a bowl. In a non stick skillet, cook some of the scallions, about a tbsp, in a drop of oil until tender. Add the asparagus, sprinkle salt and pepper, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add a tbsp of boiling water, to keep the vibrant green color. When the liquid is all absorbed remove from the fire. Just before serving, make the salad dressing with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, add it to the vegetable bowl and mix. In a large platter arrange some mixed greens on one side, add the tuna over them, then arrange the olives, followed by the potato salad, then the mixed salad. Slice the eggs in half and arrange over the salad. Arrange the asparagus on the sides of the dish. If you are using anchovies you can arrange them over the potato salad, for contrast.
You may also sprinkle some dried oregano over the tuna, it gives a nice flavor.

MEALS ON WHEELS

Spring has sprung, at least in some parts of the country.. it's still a bit cold in NY, but for me it's just my kind of weather. With spring I love to have colorful meals. This means that I go looking for something new, something fun and full of color. I see many around me eating wraps, all kind of wraps with vegetables in them, some with meats; so I decided to make this my inspiration: I need to come up with some kind of wrap, without the bread, full of color and flavor. Actually it was not that difficult: if you deconstruct the vegetarian wraps for example, you can reconstruct a completely satisfying wrap using only vegetables or a combination of veggies and meats. Add to that the fact that I am getting a bit adventurous at the store, looking for new cuts of meat, and thinking about new ways to cook them. The other day I got a new cut of beef that I never cooked before: a beef flank. I got the inspiration from a dish mammina used to make with veal scaloppini, and I thought, why not? Can we make that? Just as my husband always asks.

BEEF WRAP

                                            

The idea of this dish is very simple, a lean sheet of beef, an herbs  spread, roll, tie, cook. Well, actually it's a bit more complicated than that. But never fear, you know I don't like to complicate things, so we'll make it easy. The beef flank I got was thicker on one side, so I tried to butterfly it a bit on that side, but ended up cutting the whole slice from it. I ended up with two pieces, one large and a smaller one. This made me change my original plans. Instead of making one whole roll, I'll make two, and change the filling. I wanted to make it with boiled eggs inside, but this new plan will help me get over my apprehensions about the technique of tying up the meat roll. The bigger one will have only the pesto filling, and the smaller will have the egg. It will be easier to tie up. It was a real experiment, but we ended up with excellent results. You'll need:

1 beef flank, fat trimmed
1/2 bunch each: parsley and dill
1/2 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup each: carrots and celery, pulverized in the food processor
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, more if needed
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
2 tbsp oil, canola for example
1 hard boiled egg
1 or 2 small handfuls of bread crumbs

Spread the beef flank on a cutting board and check if it has a part thicker than the rest. With a sharp knife, make a transversal cut to even it up. You'll get another slice of beef, thinner, but large enough to serve our purpose (about 7 X 6 inches). With the flat side of a mallet beat both pieces, hitting the center and going out. If you feel that you need to tenderize the bigger piece, beat it with the other side of the mallet first. In the food processor, work the parsley, dill, onion and garlic into a paste, add the carrots, celery, cheese and some bread crumbs to hold the pesto together. Spread the pesto on the meat, and add some more grated cheese if you want. 

                                                 

Make sure that the pesto doesn't reach all the edges of the meat, so it doesn't spill out when you roll it.  Roll the meat and tie it with kitchen twine. To tell you the truth that was the first time for me to tie a roll of beef, so I did my best. It was OK. It held the meat tight, did not spill the filling, and stood there until I removed it. 
                                           

Spread the remaining pesto on the small piece of meat, peel the egg, cut the tips and place it in the center of the meat. Close it to cover the egg and tie it. In a rectangular pan, preferably non stick, heat the oil and sear the meat roll on all sides until well browned. Add the tomato sauce plus half a can of water. Stir to combine, you may add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Bring to a boiling on medium high heat, then cover with foil and continue cooking undisturbed for about one hour in a 375 degree oven. 
                                             

Remove the meat and reduce the sauce on medium high heat, if needed. Remove the twine, slice the beef and serve with the sauce on the side. You'll have beautiful, colorful and delicious wheels of beef, stuffed with herbs and egg.
                                          

STUFFED MEATBALLS

Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I decided to make a kind of meatballs I wanted to make for a long time. I used to make it in a loaf pan, and I asked my husband to look for it in the cupboard over the fridge, but he insisted it was not there. So I had to improvise: instead of a meatloaf, I'll make one with each egg. I had already five hard boiled eggs, so I'll make them into meat balls, they'll be huge, but no problem. I used almost the same ingredients I had for the pesto, and a mix of ground beef and turkey. You'll need:

1 lb each: lean ground beef and ground turkey
1/2 bunch each: parsley and dill
1/2 medium onion
3 to 4 garlic cloves
2 celery stalks
5 baby carrots
1 cup each grated Parmigiano and bread crumbs
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Hard boiled eggs

In a food processor beat the parsley, dill, onion and garlic until they almost form a paste. Transfer to a big bowl. Pulverize the carrots and celery, add them to the bowl. Work the meats also in the food processor, to have a smoother consistency. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl with the grated cheese and the Worcestershire sauce. Add bread crumbs until you feel that the mixture is homogeneous enough to form the meat balls. At this point, I was really tired so I decided to make only a sample of the meatball stuffed with egg, and just form the remaining mixture into fingers that I'll cook in the oven with the meat. Take a big chunk of meat mixture in the palm of your hand, work it by applying light pressure to have a compact mixture, spread it on the palm of your left hand, put the egg in the middle, bring the edges up to cover it. You may add some more meat mixture to be sure that the egg is completely covered with a good layer of meat.
                                                     

 Place on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, turn once when it is browned on one side. remove from the oven when it is browned all around. Let stand, then slice. You'll have a meat loaf with a nice surprise in the center. 

                                           

TWEAKING THE CLASSICS

Growing up our traditional meal consisted of one kind of vegetables, some protein, mainly chicken or beef, and some carbohydrates, rice or pasta depending on the vegetables. Most of the time, we used to have rice, and pasta was the side dish for moussaka. The rule was that vegetables were cooked in tomato sauce with beef cubes. This way the "poor" would stretch a low cut of beef to serve a big family and to cook it for a long time to become tender. For the "rich" having meat in the vegetable dish, meant that they have a higher status, since they would also serve some kind of meat or chicken separately. In our house, it was a mix, sometimes we had separate meat, other times we had it in the vegetables. From day one I was somewhat uncomfortable with this arrangement. Yes, I ate what I was served, like all of us, but I had a strange feeling about it. When I was old enough to sort out my preferences, I discovered what it was: I did not like the taste of the meat in the vegetables, nor the  vegetables with the meat flavor. It took me a while to convince my mom of my opinion, but at the end she did it. We started serving the vegetables without any beef in them, and kept the protein separate. It was a huge step for our family, apparently serving veggies without any meat in them was something bordering the scandal. But mom was not someone who would accept any social convention sitting down: if it was not good for us, she would never do it. So now that I am in control, I never put any meat in my vegetables, when I cook them the traditional way, i.e.: in tomato sauce. It took my husband a while to accept that, only from the "social" point of view, since veggies for him are not a priority, and he likes to get his protein whole and separate from everything else.

As we are going now through an adjustment period, I am aiming at preparing simple menus, mainly classics, so that my husband would not go back to cheese and waffles. One day it's grilled beef with okra and rice, another day is veal Milanese with penne al forno, and today it's chicken and a salad. 

                                                      

Remember the new cut of beef that I discovered last month at the store? Well, this time I simply sprinkled some salt and pepper on it and grilled it on the stove. In 5 minutes I had dinner ready.

                 

For the veal Milanese, it took a little longer: my husband loves it, so I made a big batch. Just marinate the veal slices in a tbsp of onion/garlic mixture with some salt and pepper, add a beaten egg to the bowl, mix flour and bread crumbs (a 1/3 to 2/3), drench, and fry. I also prepared 2 dishes of baked ziti, cooked one and kept the other in the freezer for later. Simply cook the pasta, prepare a tomato sauce with a drop of oil, a tbsp of onion/garlic mixture, mix it with ricotta and grated pecorino Romano cheese, and sprinkle with grated mozzarella. Bake.

                                           

Today it was much simpler: we had chicken rotisserie, home made and a salad. I had a Cornish game hen that seemed a bit large for two, so I decided to use the rotisserie. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper, in and out, and drizzle some lemon juice. Let it stand for 10 minutes then put it in the rotisserie. For the salad, I tried to make something different in the presentation and the flavors. It's basically using what you have, and dress it according to your taste. I used to put some chopped red onion or scallions because mom loved it, today I didn't. You'll need:

1 (15 oz) can of corn
2 large tomatoes
3 small cucumbers
2 avocados
1 small lettuce
1 red frisee
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp each oil and lemon juice
Salt to taste

Chop the tomatoes in small dice, peel and slice the cucumbers and drain the corn. Mix them with the cumin, the oil and 1 tbsp lemon juice. Chop the lettuce, rinse and dry it, transfer it to the serving platter. Transfer the vegetables over the lettuce in a circle, leaving the center. Chop the avocado, arrange the red frisee around the center, and transfer the avocado pieces to the center of the platter. Drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with dried mint.
You can use fresh cilantro instead of the mint, but I didn't have any today, so I improvised.
                                                

And for dessert a simple fruit salad: just chop the fruits you have at hand and be creative with the arrangement. I used kiwis, strawberries, papaya, pineapple and grapes.

                                          

A HEALTHY EASY DINNER

Another day, another dinner. And it's a healthy dinner. Encouraged by my husband's willingness to eat what I serve with no objections, I decided today to go all the way, and serve him a really healthy dinner. First I wanted to grill the remaining beef strips, but we couldn't find them in the kitchen freezer. It seems that my husband had put them in the big freezer downstairs in the basement. So I thought of using whatever I had at hand in the kitchen: two chicken breasts.

First I thought of having chicken Marsala, but I had no mushrooms and was lazy enough to think that opening a bottle of wine was too much work. Chicken with bell peppers was too much, we just had beef with bell peppers the other day.. it was wise not to push it. But since I was going the way of chicken Marsala, let's see what I can do with what I have. Dinner came out just fine and healthy and my husband liked it a lot, even the vegetables.

                                         

CHICKEN IN BROWN SAUCE

Inspired by the original chicken Marsala, I made this dish with what I had in the kitchen. It's easy and quick. Of course I tried to make it with the least fat possible, I used half butter half oil. I thought it would be a nice change to have some butter in the food, once in a while. I thought of thickening the sauce with some sour cream, but then decided not, a piece of butter was enough. I also decided against having any carbohydrates, opting for some mixed veggies. I used what I had at hand: Lima beans, carrots and corn. The beans were frozen, the carrots fresh, and the corn canned. It will work still. You'll need:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp butter

1 and 1/2 tbsp flour

1 tsp dried oregano

1 box frozen Lima beans

1 can corn

A handful of baby carrots cut in small rings, the size of the beans

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the chicken breasts in the thickest part to obtain a medallion and a larger piece. With a mallet pound the chicken pieces, then cut the larger piece to get 2 other pieces the same size as the medallion. You'll have a total of 6 pieces. Sprinkle some salt, pepper and the oregano on the chicken cutlets, then lightly dust them with flour on both sides. In a large non stick skillet that would hold the chicken pieces in one layer, melt the butter with 1 tbsp oil, and add 1 tbsp of onion/garlic mixture. Cook for a minute, then add the chicken cutlets. Let them cook undisturbed for a couple of minutes until browned on one side, then turn them to the other side. Cook until browned on that side too, then add 1/2 a cup of water. Scrape the skillet to release all the browned bits, and let cook to reduce. If you see that the sauce is not creamy enough, you can add a tbsp of sour cream, or cheat as I did and add 1 tsp of powdered gravy mix. Quickly stir to dissolve, then when the chicken is done, 2 or 3 minutes, remove from the heat and transfer to a serving dish with all the sauce.

                                                          

MIXED SAUTEED VEGETABLES

While the chicken is cooking, cook the carrots in some salted water, just enough to tenderize them. Frozen Lima beans are tender and don't need much time to cook. In a non stick skillet cook the remaining onion/garlic mixture in 1/2 tbsp oil. Add the beans, stir. Drain the carrots then add them to the beans. Sprinkle salt and pepper and stir. You may add some boiling water    (1 or 2 tbsp) to the pan to make sure that the vegetables are cooked until tender. Transfer to a serving dish. In the same skillet, add the remaining oil, drain the corn and cook it in the oil until thoroughly heated. Transfer to the serving dish beside the beans and carrots.

                                           

A CUT ABOVE ALL

A month or so ago, I discovered a new cut of beef I had never seen before. "Beef loin flap meat steak" it's called. It looked good, so I bought it. It came in a package of several strips, the meat was red very slightly marbled, it had very fine white lines which I didn't mind at all. When I opened the package, I was happily surprised to find out that this cut came in several 2 X 8 or 9 inch strips. This, I thought, will give me a wide range of possibilities. 

I first tried it in a minestrone type soup: I cut the strips in cubes, browned them in a drop of oil with some onion/garlic mixture, added water, vegetables I had on hand, a can of chick peas, drained of course, some tomato sauce and small pasta. Mom liked it a lot, ate it all even the meat cubes with no problem whatsoever. It melted in your mouth.

Two days later I grilled the remaining strips on a griddle with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper. The little white lines in the meat melted on the grill, and the steaks came out lean, tender and delicious. 

So when I found the same cut yesterday at the store I did not hesitate to bring it home. This time we're going to have something different.

NOT QUITE CHINESE STIR-FRY

                                                    

We don't eat Chinese food. No, let me rephrase that: we rarely eat Chinese food and we have  very limited options to chose from. Why? Oh, where should I begin? My husband likes to have his food whole, not chopped, he likes his meat separate from the veggies, I, on the other hand, think it has a lot of oil, we also don't like spicy food. So the choices are mainly limited to shrimp with broccoli, chicken with eggplant, or maybe orange flavored beef, but very mild. How much of that can you eat in a month? Not much. But today, maybe because the new cut of meat already comes in strips, I thought "can we have something like Chinese, but not exactly Chinese food?", maybe something tweaked to satisfy our taste. I looked around me and found everything I needed: bell peppers, dried mushrooms, different sauces, some Chinese, some not, and a half box of linguini. We'll pretend it's lo main, after all the whole dish is Chinese pretend. You'll need:

                                            

1 and 1/2 lb of beef strips cut in 1/2 x 3 inch smaller strips 

1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow

2 cups dried mushrooms
3 garlic cloves

1/2 box of linguini

1 tsp each: soy sauce, red wine vinegar, cold water

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 and 1/2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 and 1/2 tbsp oil (I used canola)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the bell pepper in strips and finely chop the garlic. Fill a big pot with water to cook the pasta. Today I had to cut the linguini in two for the first time in my life, so that all the strips I am cooking will be the same size. In a glass bowl, place the meat strips, sprinkle with the corn starch, drizzle the soy sauce, the red wine vinegar and the tsp of water. Add half the chopped garlic and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, not too much, we have soy sauce in there. Mix, then add a drop of oil and mix again to evenly coat the meat strips. Heat a large non stick skillet over high heat, add the oil and swirl it around to coat the skillet. Add the beef strips in one layer and let them cook undisturbed until browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Clean the bowl where you marinated the beef strips, and put the dried mushrooms in it and cover them with boiling water. Let stand. Stir-fry the beef strips until well browned on all sides. Remove to a platter. In the same skillet cook the remaining chopped garlic with the ginger for a few seconds, then add the bell pepper strips. Stir. Drain the mushrooms and add them to the skillet. Keep the water in case we need to add some to the skillet. Return the beef to the skillet, add the Worcestershire sauce and continue stir-frying. You may add some of the mushroom water to the skillet to make sure that the beef is well cooked and the mushrooms too. If you are using fresh mushrooms, you don't need to soak them of course, and if you need, just add some water or broth to the skillet until everything is done.

Drain the pasta, and place it in the serving dish. Top with the meat and vegetables.

                                                  

TIP: this recipe can be adjusted to your taste, change the meat/veggies/pasta ratio and the spices according to your taste. We like more beef than veggies, actually my husband does, and we can't eat hot or spicy foods, so I made it accordingly. He ate all his veggies though.

TWO CAN STILL EAT THE SAME DISH

Now that mom is no longer with us, I feel I have lost my strong ally in the kitchen battles. She was open to suggestions and to any innovation I would come up with, and ready to try anything new. It's been only two weeks, and not only I missed her from day one, I already feel that I have to go through an uphill battle with my husband to make him more flexible when it comes to food. His taste is so traditional that even if he was open minded years ago and willing sometimes to cautiously try new dishes every now and then, lately he is entrenching himself in a very rigid position and reverted back to his old eating habits. His diet consisted mainly of meat, cheese and bread, now he almost eliminated all of the meat, and added waffles and corn flakes. I'm trying my best to convince him not to go to the dark side and follow me to a healthier lifestyle. So it's not so much new recipes, but special menus that I'm using to entice him and convince him to eat what I am serving. The main idea is to build the menu around an item he loves, then add side dishes that he may be willing to try, one or two, not more. I think the same principle can be applied to a difficult child too. I've seen many of my friends children refusing food at home, but eating up anything I serve them.

                                                     

So the menu today is built around chicken Milanese. The fried tender chicken breast cutlets are everybody's favorite. I'll add to that some sauteed asparagus (both on previous blogs), and for the something new to try: a creamy asparagus soup. This way I'll catch two birds with one stone: I'll give my husband asparagus that he loves, and finish up the 2.25 lb bag of asparagus I have in the refrigerator.

CREAMY ASPARAGUS SOUP

The main reason I thought of this soup is the huge quantity of asparagus I bought. Two pounds is a lot of asparagus if you are only two people, and you are not inviting some friends. The bonus?  It is snowing today in New York. What better than a creamy soup to keep you warm in such a weather? I thought I can make a creamy soup without adding any fat or cream. How? you may ask. Just as I make the creamy lentil soup, but with different ingredients. It was easy, and it came out perfect. You'll need:

1 lb asparagus, hard tip removed and cut into 1 inch pieces

3 to 4 small potatoes peeled and cubed

2 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture

1/2 bunch dill (about 1/2 inch in diameter, it's winter, bunches are smaller)

1 tsp oil

Vegetable or chicken stock, about 4 cups (enough to cover the potatoes), or water

Salt and pepper

Reserve a few of the asparagus tips for decoration.

In a large pot cook the onion/garlic mixture in oil until translucent. Add the potatoes, stir, then add the stock. Sprinkle some salt and pepper if you are using water. Let cook until the potatoes are tender, then add the asparagus and dill. Cook until all the vegetables are done, then remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes, just so that you can puree the veggies. With an immersion blender  beat the soup until smooth. You can also do that in a regular blender. Return the soup to the pot, adjust seasoning if need be. If you sauteed the other pound of asparagus to serve with the chicken cutlets, you can cook the asparagus tips in the same skillet in two tbsp of water. If you are only making the soup, you can cook the tips in a tbsp of water in a glass bowl in the microwave. Serve the soup topped with a couple of asparagus tips on top. 

                                                   

COOKING FOR TWO

I've been away for a while. My mother passed away. It took me a while to be able to go back to the kitchen and cook something. But I had to. My husband started a very bad trend, he doesn't want to eat real food, only waffles and honey for breakfast and corn flakes for dinner. This is not a way to keep a healthy lifestyle, or a life for that matters. I asked him if he had something special in mind, but he insisted that he couldn't swallow anything but his waffles and flakes. Yesterday I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands and feed him something good, force feed him if it came to that. He just came out of a 5 days stay in the hospital and he should be nursed back to health. I know he used to love steak, so steak it is.

GRILLED STEAK WITH GORGONZOLA SAUCE

                                              

This is one of my husband's favorite meals. We use to go to this famous restaurant in Manhattan just for him to have it. So I thought, maybe this will do the trick. I asked if it was OK with him, and he agreed with no confidence at all that I will be able to replicate his dish. I'll try, I told him. It worked. It's the easiest elaborate dinner you can prepare. You just have to get a good cut of meat, the rest is nothing. For the sauce I used the half and half, and some leftover 2%milk I had in the refrigerator instead  of heavy cream. It worked fine. You'll need:

1 steak, fat trimmed if you prefer. This time I left it on as encouragement.

Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

2 cups half and half, plus 1/3 cup 2% milk

2/3 cup grated Parmigiano

1 cup Gorgonzola cheese crumbled, plus an extra 1/3 cup

Heat an over the stove griddle, sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper on both sides and grill it, undisturbed on one side for 4 to 5 minutes before turning it to the other side. If you want it well done, just cover the steak when you turn it for a couple of minutes, before you remove it from the fire. In the mean time, prepare the sauce: in a non stick skillet let the milk simmer on medium high heat until it thickens. It will take about 30 minutes, but it will thicken without adding any fat or flour. Just stir it with a spatula every now and then to make sure that it wouldn't form a crust in one part of the skillet. Add the Parmigiano and stir to melt, then add the first cup of Gorgonzola and stir until it's almost all melted. Remove the sauce from heat. Transfer about 3 ladles to a sauce boat and add the remaining Gorgonzola while still hot to help it melt a little. We need to   keep some visible chunks of cheese. Plate the steak and drizzle some sauce over it. 

ROTINI WITH SPINACH AND GORGONZOLA SAUCE

                                              

I also thought of a nice side dish that I always have at the same restaurant: creamed spinach. I know for a fact that my husband would never go for it, so I thought of sweetening the deal, and at the same time finish up some rotini I have left in the pantry. I offered him pasta with creamed spinach. He was not convinced, but the pasta was delicious. You'll need:

1 box of frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained

2 garlic cloves finely chopped, or 1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp oil

Salt and pepper

About 3 cups pasta, rotini, shells, or bow ties

While the pasta is cooking in salted water, start cooking the spinach: in a non stick skillet cook the garlic in oil for a few seconds, add the spinach, sprinkle some salt and pepper and stir to heat it through. Don't add too much salt, remember the sauce has cheese. When the spinach is cooked, about 4 to 5 minutes, add it to the skillet with the remaining Gorgonzola sauce from the previous dish. Stir to combine and heat through. Add the cooked pasta and toss. Serve. How easy was that?

If you have some extra sauce leftover from the steak, drizzle some over the pasta.