Simply Delicious Steak and Onions

The time finally came for us to go pick up our first weeks worth of produce at Madison Creek Farm in Goodlettsville, TN.  We were so excited! We've been doing the Whole Foods/Trader Joe's organic thing for awhile but we were ready for REALLY fresh, organic food that was in season (and that we weren't paying an arm and a leg for).  

The beginning of the spring crop starts off slow but picks up and adds as the season continues.  In this batch we had:

2 heads of Buttercrisp Lettuce

A large bag of spinach

a pint of strawberries

green onions

beet greens

asparagus

Rosemary, cilantro and parsley

Homemade pasta salad

And the dirt and bugs were still on them...mmm mmm fresh! :) We had to be sure to wash everything very well!  Bobby scarfed the pasta as soon as we got home and in case you didn't know, I've started Paleo. I don't like to think of it as a diet, more of a conscious effort to eat things that are natural that people would have eaten 1000 years ago.  It's not for everyone, I get that.  Call me crazy if you want but I'm really enjoying it. 

Buttercrisp Lettuce

Spinach

Fresh Strawberries

Asparagus

Homemade Pasta Salad

On Paleo, they recommend using Ghee, which is just clarified butter.  I use it mostly but also use butter.  For the steaks I pulled out the Ghee got it really hot in my cast iron skillet.

I had 4 pieces of grass fed London Broil.  Let them come to room temperature before cooking.

I generously salt and pepper them.

And throw them in the HOT cast iron skillet to sear each side, about 45 seconds per side.

Then I throw the whole skillet in the oven for 8-10 minutes, at 400 degrees.  We like ours medium rare but just leave it in a little longer to get it more done.

Then grab yourself some garlic!! I love Trader Joe's peeled garlic! They come in small packages with about 8 cloves airtight in each one! It makes life easier :)

Cut up 1-2 onions and throw them in some hot butter and garlic. 

I don't add any salt or pepper but you could if you think it needs it.  I don't like my onions too cooked down, still a little firm.  Make sure you stir them around and keep an eye on them. They don't take long to cook down.

There's a lot of butter in this recipe...I know! You can leave the onions or the compound butter out if you like.  On Paleo, butter is on the good list.  I know everything we read these days says to stay away from it but there's a lot of research that disagrees.... Good or bad, it makes this dish delish! I sliced off a small slice to top the steaks.

You can arrange it any way you like but I did the onions on the bottom with the steak and butter on top! It was a lovely dinner.  Bobby said it beat a steakhouse any day! That's probably because their wasn't a check to pay at the end of dinner. 

Enjoy!

Greek Chicken and Gyros

In 2008 I was able to spend a semester abroad in a small town on the outskirts of Athens, Greece. It was there that I ate my first real gyro. We were living in what use to be a hotel and there was a small gryo shop just across the street. For a few Euro you could get an authentic gyro and drink from the sweetest little Greek lady. Our means of communication were limited but she began to learn our "usuals" as the summer went on. We would take the gyros back to the hotel and sit under an umbrella out by the pool....THAT was the life! Isn't it the Mediterranean BEAUTIFUL!?

This was my first gyro! It was special enough for a picture. They put fries in the gyros, which was super tasty but I'm leaving the fries out of mine today.

Let's start with the Greek Chicken!

You will need -
4 Chicken Breasts
2 Tbsp Greek Yogurt
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
4-6 Cloves of minced Garlic
1 Tbsp Oregano
1 Tbsp Dill
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Red Onion
Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Mix all of the ingredients up and pour over the chicken.


Let the chicken marinate for 4-6 hours.

and grill!

Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes then slice up along with cucumbers, tomatoes and red onions.

I also made a Greek Yogurt Sauce, that's for another post! You could also throw on some Feta Cheese if you like!
Pile all of it onto your fresh pita and enjoy!

"Peeta" Bread - Whole Wheat Pita Bread

In honor of The Hunger Games, my current all time fave book EVER, I'm making "Peeta" Bread....Peeta Mellark...get it...his dad made bread!

"and while I was talking, the idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don’t want him to die. And it’s not about the sponsors. And it’s not about what will happen when we get home. And it’s not just that I don’t want to be alone. It’s him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread."

Okay! Moving on! I was actually really missing my summer in Greece and wanted to make a dish to take me back so I decided to make Chicken Souvlaki on this lovely Saturday. Before I can tell you all about the Souvlaki we have to make pitas. They are super easy! All you need is...

1 .5 cups warm water

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast

1 cp. Bread Flour

2 .5 cps. Whole Wheat Flour

1 .5 tsp salt

Put them (in that order) in a bread machine and set it on the dough setting and let it work its magic! As it's finishing set your oven to 500 F. Put a hot stone (I used a pizza stone) in there to also preheat to 500 F.

Then divide the dough into 12 balls.

Roll each dough ball out and place 2 at a time on the pizza stone. Mine took exactly 3 minutes and 30 seconds to cook.

They will bubble up really big but that's what they are suppose to do.

They will eventually deflate quite a bit and that's what allows you to cut them in half and have a little pocket.

Tomorrow I'll show you all about some Souvlaki!