BEEF - IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER!

After a long afternoon in the garden I was getting really hungry. I planted carrots and lettuce, and fixed up the planters for the front porch with red salvia, and another pot with some pansies. I had a lot to finish up but even the sweet smell of composted manure I was using in the back flower bed didn't deter me from wanting to eat something.

We don't eat beef that often. But once in a while I find a nice cut on sale for a ridiculous price - $2.41!!! . So I bought it and made Roast Beef Paninis. Wow! These would have been $7.00 + each at Panera or some such place. And I got the bread on the day old rack for $1.50 (regular $2.50). I also found some other cuts of meat for about 1/2 price so I bought them and put them in the freezer for the family reunion picnic in August. I'm going to make some pulled pork.

Tonight it was London Broil marinated in:

1/4 balsamic vinegar
1 t. dried basil or 1 T fresh chopped finely
1 t. dried oregano or 1 T. fresh chopped finely
1 large clove of garlic pressed in a garlic press or very finely minced
1/4 t. red pepper flakes
1 t dried onion flakes or 1 T. dried onion flakes


Put all of these ingredients with the London broil into a large self seal bag and let it marinate for at least 1 hour. Massage the bag a little to press the flavors into the meat. Over night is great. In the meantime...

Make some dressing to coat some arugula or some shredded romaine:

1 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. balsamic vinegar
2 T. Olive Oil
1 t dried basil
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. ground pepper
1/8 t. salt

Whisk until well mixed and slightly thickened.

Coat about 1 cup full of greens for two sandwiches with enough dressing to coat the greens without being too runny.

Now make a little herbed mayonnaise: add just a teaspoon of dried tarragon to about 4 T. of mayonnaise and mix well. Set aside.

Now, slice open two whole or multi grain sub rolls and lightly coat the outside of the rolls with a little olive oil. Now either put them in a panini grill or into a skillet and brown them lightly.

Open the warmed rolls and add a slice of Swiss or provolone cheese. Turn off the heat source and place the rolls back on the grill or back in the skillet and just let them sit there in the warm pan melting the cheese.

OK - now everything is ready. Turn on the broiler and broil the beef for about 6 minutes on each side for medium rare. About 10 minutes on each side for well done. It will be a little dry if you do it too well done.

Let the roast sit for about 10 minutes before you slice it. Slice it into very thin slices.

Now assemble the sandwiches. Add the sliced beef to the the rolls and slather with the tarragon mayonnaise. Top with the dressed arugula or shredded romaine. Cut in half and serve with a yummy dill pickle and a handful of chips. Yummy! What treat to have a roast beef panini after a week of minestrone, linguine with clam sauce, and a meatloaf made with ground turkey!

This sandwich was very satisfying and filling. I could only eat half which means that I have a half left for breakfast tomorrow. Yes, I love eating sandwiches for breakfast. About 30 seconds in the nuke at work and I have a breakfast that keeps me going all the way up to lunchtime.

I made myself a lovely cocktail too. I was again going through one of my pantry spaces and saw 6 cans of peaches in lite syrup. What to do with these???? I took two cans of them and put them into my blender and pureed them. They were now an ingredient for my peach martini.

Vanilla Peach Martini

8 shots of vanilla vodka
4 shots of peach schnapps
8 shots of peach puree

Now pour about 2 shots of this mixture into a martini glass. Fill the glass with club soda or ginger ale, or even a club soda flavored with lemon.

I don't have a name for it, but it is definitely a delicious peach martini.

There were a thousand things on my to do list this weekend, and I finished maybe 950 of them. The rest will have to wait until next weekend. But I made sure I took the time to make something that we would enjoy eating. It was the only real meal of the day, so it was worth waiting for.