Garlicy Herb Steak & Pasta & Chicken (Recipe)

I was inspired by a PBS cooking show the other week to make an olive oil-based marinade. And as luck would have it, this marinade ended up working for a variety of foods. I started out using it for steak. I whisked together 1 1/2 cups of olive oil, 1 tbsp. minced garlic, 1 tbsp. dried basil, 1 tbsp. dried chives, 1 tbsp. dried parsley, 1 large fresh tomato (seeded and diced), plenty of pepper and about 1 tsp. salt. I put the marinade in a plastic baggie, added 2 steaks and let it sit for about 1 hour on the counter.

Then the grill was fired up, the steaks cooked on each side for 3 minutes and dinner was served. I made sure to wipe off most of the marinade from the steaks before grilling though; so as to not burn little chunks of tomatoes. Didn't get a picture of the steaks; gobbled them up too quickly. It was delish! After this meal I was thinking some chopped up sun-dried tomatoes would have worked in the marinade as well. Next time.

The next night I needed a quick dinner. I had put the baggie of leftover marinade in the fridge the night before and thought, hm, pasta might work with it as well. So I boiled some linguine until al dente, then set this aside, poured 1/4 cup of the marinade into a large saute pan over medium heat (making sure I got all the chunks of tomatoes) and let the oil heat up and cook the garlic and tomatoes for a minute or two. I then sliced up the leftover steaks, threw that into the pan, added the pasta, tossed to coat and heat through and dished it up with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Another yummy dinner was served!

Then finally, with the last bit of marinade left in the bag, the following night I coated some chicken drumsticks, grilled them up and served that for dinner. Three successful dinners with one marinade. I was quite proud of myself for not letting any of it go to waste and all three dishes were tasty, quick and easy.



Sheperd's Pie (Recipe)

What can one do with some ground beef and a few extra potatoes? Sheperd's pie seems like the obvious conclusion, although I've never made one before. I did eat one during my visit to Australia back in 2004 and I wasn't too thrilled. Perhaps the frozen variety wasn't the best choice. But I must say, Australia has some of the BEST dairy products (cheese, butter) and meat I've ever tasted. It must be all that sunshine and clean water. Hm, go figure.

Back to my pie. So I think what I did was pretty conventional, but I thought I'd share anyway since I added a few extra things to the conventional recipe. I started out peeling, roughly chopping and boiling 4 large red potatoes until fork tender. I then mashed them with 1/2 stick of butter, 1/4 cup of low-fat milk and salt/pepper to taste. I then set this aside.

In a medium sized pot over medium heat I added 2 tbsp. olive oil, 1/2 tsp. minced garlic, 1/2 white onion; diced, and 2 carrots; also diced. I sauteed this until the onions were translucent. Then I added 1 lb. of ground beef and cooked this until most of the pink was gone, smashing with a wooden spoon the whole while. I then added 1 tsp. celery salt, 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, 2 tbsp. dark molasses, 2 tbsp. dark brown sugar, 2 tbsp. bourbon whiskey, plenty of fresh pepper and salt to taste.

After another minute of cooking, I then added 1/2 cup of frozen peas and mixed them in as well as 1 tbsp of flour to thicken up the juices. Then I transferred the meat mixture to a 9 x 9-in. casserole dish and topped the meat with the mashed potatoes; spreading it with the back of a wooden spoon. Then I put the pie in the oven for 25 minutes on 375 degrees. After the 25 minutes I turned the broiler on for 2 minutes just to get more crust on the potatoes. Pretty simple and much better than a frozen pie.