Garlic Steak Done My Way

             Last month I received a grill pan from Macy's as a present, and after some testing with chicken skewers, sausages, and even the old favorite liver, I was ready to put this thing on the front line to battle a couple of steaks. I didn't want to make this just some ordinary steak, I wanted to give it an unusual flavor that's not far out of the realm, but at the same time advertised seldom. After reviewing a number of candidates in my head, garlic struck me as the way to go. Other than garlic fries, rarely is garlic ever mentioned in anything, yet its a key ingredient to an infinite amount of dishes, so garlic steak it was.

              Looking for something that would cook rather quickly, I went with a pair of thin shoulder steaks which came out to a little over four dollars only. Giving olive oil the night off, I went with Mazola Corn Oil to grease up the pan before starting. After gently swaying the pan left and right, its easy to coat the pan's surface with the oil, then pour any excess amount into the sink. Other parts to the machine include an onion, a garlic clove, black pepper, herbs, salt, and garlic powder. Placing the steaks onto a dish, I seasoned the meat on both sides with salt, black pepper, herbs, and most importantly, several dashes of garlic powder. While those flavors seep into the cold meat, I then take the time to slice up an onion and a few bulbs of garlic  into little diced pieces. With a small portion of the cut up onion and garlic (remember to only take a small portion of it!), place some of it in the grill and start the fire. This will help add flavors to the pan, plus after getting hot, the onion and garlic will sweat water to assist the oil to not letting the meat stick to the pan's surface. The benefit of the thinly cut meat is that it will cook fast and after three minutes the bottom half will start turning brown. Once that happens, turn the steaks over, and then pour the remaining pieces of onion and garlic onto it. Now the steaks will have garlic and onion pieces under and over it, soaking in their juices while it cooks on the pan.

             Keeping an eye on the meat so it doesn't burn, it will require a few more flips over, but it no more than in twelve minutes it should be ready to eat. Not wanting to just have meat by itself, while the steak was about halfway done, I heated up a pot of water and dumped in a few handfuls of dry linguini pasta. Typically I would use fresh pasta, especially with an important event such as this, but for some reason Fairway didn't have any in the usual spot I find it in, so I had no choice but to go with the dry version. One of the best aspects of the grill pan is that it removes a large dose of the grease from the steaks and automatically shuffles it off to the side so you can appreciate what's not going inside your stomach. Once everything was cooked and ready, I placed it on a large plate and even gave myself a squirt of ketchup (this cook wouldn't be insulted). It wouldn't take a psychic to predict that with the garlic powder and the fresh garlic dices used, that garlic jumps out as the predominate flavor, so far the mission was accomplished in that regard, but was it too much? That's where the black pepper and onion play pivotal roles in jumping in with enough of their respective flavors to balance out the heavyweight garlic. That with a dip of ketchup, and the grill pan had conquered it first major opponent in the steak world.

               Nothing else inside of Macy's would've fought so gallantly......

Cheese Ravioli in Prosciutto di Parma Sauce My Way

            With a fresh batch of cheese ravioli to cook, I wanted to find a new variation of meat to go along with it instead of the usual meatballs or sausage. Taking a peek in my refrigerator, my answer was laying on the second shelf, prosciutto di parma. I purchased a quarter-pound of it sliced a few days earlier and felt this was a great opportunity to experiment. About seven or eight months ago I tried a slice of it and since then it's moved up to the top of my chart in terms of cold cuts meat. I never tried it cooked or heated before, so this was certainly traveling into uncharted waters.

             The sauce always has the most steps, so its the best place to start. Use three cans of tomato sauce with a can of paste to even out the texture. Next, pour in a few teaspoons of olive oil as well as balsamic vinegar to bring out a little sweetness. To add flavor to the sauce you can sprinkle in some garlic powder, black pepper, and crumble up a chicken bouillon cube with your fingertips. Don't put the prosciutto in just yet, the key is to keep the meat soft and tender, at this point its just about cooking up the sauce first. As that heats up for a good ten minutes, its time to move onto the pasta. The star of the show are the ravioli, so after boiling up a hot pot of water, sprinkle in a little salt, pour in a little olive oil, and dump in a couple of dozen ravioli so those can begin cooking as well.

            Remember to keep going back to the sauce every few minutes to give it a stir, otherwise it will burn at the bottom of the pot and have a clumpy surface up on top. Ravioli has a unique shape versus other pasta, this serves as a mjaor benefit because once you see them start floating up on the water's surface, you'll know they're just about done. This is the moment when you add the prosciutto. It's best to shred up the slices into tiny pieces and add it to the sauce. Stir it up for a few minutes, but only a few minutes, its important the prosciutto doesn't cook or get burned. By this time the ravioli should have been floating up top for a few minutes now, so its time to take those out of the pot by dumping them on a strainer to get all the water out. After a few minutes, everything should cool down a little, so then empty the ravioli from the strainer onto a plate, pour on a layer of the sauce with the prosciutto di parma shreds mixed in, and dig in!

            The best dishes are the ones you don't expect....

Spaghetti to Satisfy Meat and Veggie Lovers

            This afternoon I was conflicted on what to do for lunch, either go out and get something or stay in and cook something. I was close to choosing going, but then the last second a box of spaghetti caught my eye and got the wheels in my head turning. I knew I had some groundmeat in the freezer, but I also had an assortment of vegetables such as peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Not sure how to go about it, I decided to try throwing them all together and see what happens.

            The groundmeat was frozen solid, so the first step was placing it in a short pot with a little water and covering it up. While the meat de-frosted and cooked in the pot, I chopped up a green pepper, a few mushrooms, a small onion, and a little piece of garlic. I opened the pot again and noticed the meat was cooking quite well, so I took a folk to break it up until it was small pieces of chopped meat. I added flavor to the meat by adding some black pepper, salt, oregano, and finally some chicken bouillon, then let it cook more. The next step was getting the spaghetti cooked, so I filled a taller pot with water, sprinkled in some salt, and let the water boil for about ten minutes before adding the pasta. The meat was done and ready before the spaghetti was, so I just let the meat sit in the short pot. When the spaghetti was ready, I strained out the water and dumped it into the short pot. I also placed the chopped vegetables in the short pot and poured some tomato sauce on top, now everything was together in the one pot. I took the folk and mixed everything up a little before placing the cover back on the pot and letting it all cook for another ten minutes. When it was done, I had a balanced mix of spaghetti with meat and vegetables.

             Where would have I found this if I had decided to go out instead...

The Cleanse My Way

            Before leaving my job last month, in the months building up to that alot of my collegues were frequently discussing methods of cleansing the body. By cleanse, that is removing the toxins and bacteria that lie within the body. Some people had a plan of different juices throughout the day, some of which gave off a foul smell, others mentioned sticking to a magical potion of some sorts made up of all different ingrediants, plus having to flush the body in the morning by drinking a cup of salt water. I too was interested in cleansing myself after many years of food abuse, but none of these options sounded too appeasing, so with more time to think it over I've developed by own plan of attack.

            In the first few weeks after leaving the job I always felt extremely tired and was sleeping half the day. I'm not sure if that was my body needing to recuperate after years of damage or just my mind reacting to the fact I was out of the routine I had been following for the past 7 years. Either way, I first needed something to fight the constant fatigue, so I went to a generic health food store and picked up a bottle of Kyolic, which is a garlic supplement that prevents stress & fatigue as well as promotes a healthy immune system. Its two pills after breakfast and two pills after dinner. Now getting to the cleanse, at Fairway I picked up a bottle of Super Cleanse from Nature's Secret which is supposed to detoxify, nourish, and boost the wellness of the colon. That one is three pills after breakfast and three pills after dinner, so basically I'm taking 10 pills a day in total. Just for safe keeping, also at Fairway I purchased a drink called Good Belly, which I have tried in the past, and it's specialty is removing bacteria from the other parts of the digestive tract beyond the colon. Good Belly comes in mango, strawberry-banana, blue berry, and black berry flavors. I take a small glass of it at night before bed.

         This is roughly my 12th day into this cleanse method I've designed and so far there has been positive results. I'm not as nearly as sleepy and fatigued as I was several weeks ago, plus with the help of adhrering to a more consistant gym schedule without the interference of late nights of work, I also feel I lost a few pounds. I didn't weigh myself before and after so this could be total speculation, but most of my pants are now looser around the waistline than I remember from weeks and months ago. Same feeling with a number of my shirts as well. The Super Cleanse bottle directs use for 30 days and then to stop for a while, so I'll keep this going for a few more weeks and see if there's any further positive news. What I like about this method is I can keep eating and living as I normally would, most cleanses require a suspension of eating and focusing on a set of juices or potions for a number of days/weeks. The things we do for ridding bacteria...