Summertime, and the grilling is easy

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!