jane's joint: June 2016

SUMMER!!!!!

Man it feels good. The weather has been amazing. We already put away a fantastic family vacation and an epic family bike ride. And it's only mid June. Days are so long and the lake is so blue - life is GOOD.

Cooking is way way down on the priority list these days. I'm going to have the kids cook a meal each week for the rest of the summer - future post! In the meantime, we fired up a couple grill favorites these past couple weeks. Vegetarians might want to avert their eyes or skip this post - it's a meat fest.

The World's Greatest Flank Steak Marinade - c/o Sue Vasko

equal parts soy sauce and fresh lime juice

tons of garlic

1/4 to 1/2 part tabasco.

Marinade as long as possible. For 1 lg flank steak I did 1/4 cup each lime/soy

grill over medium heat, 7 minutes each side for medium-rare. Let rest, covered, for a few minutes then cut against grain in thin strips.

Bake up some

sweet potato fries

peel and wedge a few sweet potatoes. Toss with olive oil and kosher salt & pepper

Spread out on cookie sheet and cook at 425 for about 30 minutes, turning at least once.

Summer Steak Salad

Grill some asparagus and zucchini if you have it

Arrange regular yummy salad fixins on a platter

Steam up some corn and shear off the kernels

Marinade some flank steak or skirt steak - I used olive oil , balsamic, worcestershire & garlic

Arrange it all and get pumped. I served it with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Last night was good old fashioned

burgers and black bean/corn salad

For the burger, I use ground beef and doctor it up a bit, a la Ina, with

2lbs ground beef

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dijon

some kosher salt & pepper.
Mix gently and form into 6 patties. 4 min @ med, flip, 3min more for med-rare

Black bean salad:

there are many iterations of this and they're all awesome.

rinse two cans black beans

steam and shear two ears corn (can do one can rinsed in a pinch)

chop 1 red bell pepper

chop 1 avocado
chop 1/2 red onion

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

make a dressing of 4 tbsp fresh lime juice, 2 tbsp olive oil, tsp salt & tons pepper

Lastly, this was how my friend Mary Ann served a lovely crudite the other night. Isn't that the bomb?

And my boss had a picnic and served these pickled, spicy brussell sprouts, which were unbelievable. I ate like a hundred. You can get them at Cost Plus.

AND - for those of you who love vinho verde in the summer (and if you don't, I'm not sure I understand you at all), THIS is a fantastic option: VinhoVerde Rose

Cheers!

It's been such a fun and exciting few weeks! After the Noah love fest that was May, we headed off to Boston to celebrate Uncle Brian and all things Flatley. Incredible weekend of love and faith and reconnecting to my amazing family roots. Here, read about it in Ellie and Jacquie's blogs, won't you?

Then, last week, the Holt family headed west and spent a spectacular week in Moab, Utah. Wow. I'm so sad not be immersed in staggering beauty anymore. I/we kept saying, I can't believe this is what people here get to look at every day. Moab, and what we saw of Utah, is achingly, astonishingly, breathtakingly beautiful.

Let me backtrack.

Inspired by our friends the Kings, about a dozen years ago we decided we were going to be a family that took adventurous vacations and visited our national parks. We started small: took a road trip to Mammoth Caves when the kids were wee.

look at these cute little nuggets!

But when Dylan turned 7 we decided we were ready to roll and took our first big trip, to Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park - geyser basin

Two years later we drove out to Colorado and enjoyed the beauty of Breckenridge in the summer season. During that trip we hit Rocky Mountain, Mt Rushmore and Badlands National Parks.

Badlands National Park

Mt Rushmore National Park

The next big trip was Maine, where we spent the better part of a week in Bar Harbour, visiting that amazing gem called Acadia National Park.

Acadia National Park - after a rainy hike

Next was Glacier with the whole Holt crew, with its geologic majesty.

Two years ago we went to Puerto Rico, which has its own national forest: El Yunque!

And last fall, while visiting NAU, Doug, Noah, Dylan and I visited the Grand Canyon.

Each park we've visited has been so unique and so striking. Yellowstone has so many 'wows' - bubbling, sulphuric cauldrons, erupting geysers, salt flats and rolling valleys with grizzlies and buffalo. Acadia is small and manageable but full of dramatic contrasts: oceans and mountains and harbor seals and whales. Glacier has to be seen to be believed - the geology of the place is fascinating and you really get a sense of Earth time vs human time. Plus, it's just so majestic and beautiful. Mt Rushmore was surprisingly moving and the Badlands were like Yellowstone in their utter other-worldliness. El Yunque is a rain forest nestled in a the Carribean tropics - you literally hike into another climate. The Grand Canyon we expected to be underwhelmed and were stunned at its depth and majesty and grandeur. I've loved them all, I really have. Each park is so different and so well maintained and they truly are a national treasure. And, without a doubt, they have been our most treasured family times.

This week we had the pleasure of hitting two more parks, in Utah: Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. We've had a long and pretty difficult year so were all pumped to get away and go somewhere beautiful. Moab did not disappoint. I was moved to tears more than once - just overcome by the beauty of the place. It is SO. DAMN. BEAUTIFUL.

We arrived late - Moab is far far away and after a three hour plane ride we had a four hour drive and arrived at night, so didn't know what we'd wake up to. The answer - the roaring colorado river in front of us and on either side, 1,000 foot cliffs made of striated, iron-rich, oxidized and therefore red rocks and soil. Ahhhhhh.

The view from our cabin's deck

Red Cliffs Lodge

The next five days were spent hiking, biking, swimming, climbing, reading, drinking and eating in the splendor of Utah's scenery.

Arches National Park

Arches National Park - Balanced Rock

Delicate Arch - Arches National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Dead Horse State Park - Moab

Dead Horse State Park

Arches National Park - Windows

Rock Climbing at the "ice cream parlor" canyon


Arches at sunset - Windows section

Now I realize this is a food blog so here's an outtake from our first night back. We got into our house at 5pm on Sunday and I could not deal with going to the grocery store. I poured an icy cold glass of sauvignon blanc and set to work, trying to make a meal from what I found in the fridge. Corey described the finished product as "good but weird" and I think that's fair. And about as much as I could muster up upon reentry.