Sigh. It's over. I imagine that living in a swing state meant that I saw and heard more political ads and got more junk mail and phone calls than other states. I hope it's true so that people in "normal" states didn't get harassed as much, but I'm thinking that's the way it was everywhere. So it's over and whether your preferred candidate won or not, at least the campaign is over. Sigh.

So, this pasta. Awhile ago, I checked out Emeril's Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders cookbook from the library. It had several recipes in it that I wanted to try, including this one. It was a great meal, but boy was it a lot of food. It certainly didn't help that my husband didn't eat any of it. Since he hates pasta, I gave him have a ribeye steak with a baked potato instead of having the steak mixed in this pasta. Turns out, we were both pretty happy with that decision. I got to try something new, and he wasn't "forced" to eat pasta. I halved the recipe, but I think I could have quartered it to make it a more manageable dinner plus lunch leftovers for the week. As it was, I ended up throwing some of it away because I couldn't eat all of it in time. The combination of mushrooms, gorgonzola, steak, and pasta was pretty comforting. I ended up adding a few dashes of Worcestershire to it to add a little more savory-ness and offset the gorgonzola. I'll be making this again, but I think I'll wait until we have company to help me eat it! 

Mushroom Gorgonzola Steak Pasta Recipe
Serves 6-8
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3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 lb ribeye or sirloin steak, cut about 1 1/4 inch thick
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup minced shallot
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
5 ounces crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 pound rigatoni, cooked al dente and drained
Fresh parsley for garnish

Season the steak with the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper on both sides. In a large skillet, combine the butter and 1 tablespoon of the veg oil over medium high heat until melted and hot. Add the steak and sear on one side without moving it until brown, about 4 minutes. Flip the steak and cook for another 4 minutes or until it's your desired temperature. If your steak is thinner, you won't have to cook it as long on each side. Remove the steak to a plate and tent it with foil.

Add the remaining oil, mushrooms, and pepper to the skillet and cook until the mushrooms have softened and their liquid has evaporated. Add the shallot, garlic, rosemary, and thyme and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently. Once the shallot has softened, sprinkle with the flour and stir to combine. Add in the beef broth and cook while stirring, especially scraping the bottom to release any brown bits. Let cook until the liquid has reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Mix in the cheese and cream and cook about 2-3 minutes until the cheese has melted.
 
Mix the rigatoni into the skillet. If the sauce is too thick, add in more beef broth. Thinly slice the beef, stir into the pasta and serve, topping with the parsley.

Source: Emeril's Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders 

Every time we eat this meal for dinner, I say, "We should have this more often." I would be happy to eat it weekly or bi-weekly. It's that good. And, the funny thing is that I've served this to people who aren't mushroom lovers, and they love it. A lot of people who don't like mushrooms like stroganoff (or maybe they just don'e want to hurt my feelings!). This is a meal that will wow all kinds of people, especially now that the weather is getting cooler.

If you get home early enough or eat a little later, this can be a weeknight meal. I always buy tenderized stew meat, and if I don't see it, I've been known to ask the guys manning the counter if they can tenderize it for me. I think it really helps with the tenderness of the meat. Duh. Especially because you aren't going to be cooking it all day. I also love love love red wine in this dish, but if you don't like or don't have any, no pressure. I think it really brings something special. This serves my husband and me with leftovers, so I think it would feed a family of 4...unless you have a lot of hungry teenagers.
 
One more thing...don't get turned off by the yellow mustard. You definitely should try it using the good ol' yellow mustard. It just perfectly develops the stroganoff flavor.

Mushroom Beef Stroganoff Recipe
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2 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound tenderized beef stew meat
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup red wine
2 cups beef broth
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
1/4 cup sour cream
1 ounce cream cheese

In a large skillet, melt one tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Cook the onion about 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Remove the onion mixture to a plate or bowl.

If needed, cut the meat into smaller bite-sized pieces. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper together, and dredge the meat in it. Using the same pan, melt the remaining butter over high heat and brown the meat in it. Let it sit for about 1-2 minutes per side until it's browned. Pour the red wine into the pan and deglaze, scraping up the bits on the bottom. If you're not using the red wine, deglaze the pan with some of the beef broth instead. Add the beef broth and mushrooms and bring to a boil. Add the mustard, Worcestershire, and onion mixture and reduce heat to medium low. Cover and simmer for about one hour until the meat is tender and cooked.

While the stroganoff is simmering, cook your egg noodles or rice to serve with the stroganoff. I usually make about 3/4 of a bag of egg noodles.

Remove the stroganoff from heat and add sour cream and cream cheese. Stir until it's mixed in. Serve over the egg noodles or rice. 

Source: Adapted from AllRecipes 

Prepare yourself because this is probably one of the few (or only) Asian recipes I will post on this here blog. I am not a fan of Asian food. I haven't tried everything, but I just don't like the flavors. Sorry but it's the way it is. Maybe my taste buds will change and evolve one day, but I'm not counting on it.

However, I do like this flank steak. A lot. This comes from my best friend and her family. Not wanting to be rude, I ate it (apprehensively), and I actually liked it! Yay! It has a great teriyaki flavor, and I love the green onions and sesame seeds. I'm sure it would be great over rice, but since the hubs and I don't like rice, we usually have it with baked potatoes. We're so American. Ha! I've adapted their recipe to cut down on the sugar, and I bet you could cut down on the sugar even more, and it would still taste just fine. After you marinate it overnight, it's easy to cook on the grill or a grill pan on the stove. I think they've even taken it camping with them to cook over the fire. This is a good reason to join them on their next camping trip!
 
Korean Flank Steak Recipe
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Serves 2-4

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 bunch of green onions
2 teaspoons ginger
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup orange juice

The night before you want to eat the steak, trim any fat off of the flank steak and slice it into strips. 

Combine all the other ingredients into a gallon size ziploc bag and shake until mixed together. Add the steak to the bag, seal, and shake the bag until the steak is covered in the marinade. Refrigerate overnight, shaking the bag once or twice to get everything stirred together.

When you're ready to eat, place the steak on a preheated and oiled grill or grill pan on a stove. Grill on medium-high heat until desired doneness, turning the steak often. You'll want to grill it for about 8-10 minutes for medium temperature but check the progress often so you cook it how you like it!

Recipe from my best friend and her family, the Bakers.    

I've never been a person who orders fajitas at restaurants. They intrigue me with all that sizzlin', but I usually choose pasta or queso...lots and lots of queso (depending on the type of restaurant of course). We tried to make fajitas at home once, and it was a fail. Big huge fail. They were saucy, and fajitas shouldn't be saucy. At least in my opinion. They should have great flavor though.

After that experience, we put fajitas on the back burner so to speak until I came across this fajita recipe in my Cook's Illustrated cookbook. I love Cook's Illustrated because they test everything multiple times until they come up with the perfect recipe. I have had a few not so great recipes from them, but this was a definite winner. It's easy, you make it on the stove, and they are very tasty. Also, there's no marinating involved, so you don't have to plan ahead. You can get this dinner on the table from start to finish in about 30 minutes. I cut this recipe in half since there's only two of us and the hubs doesn't care for leftover steak. One note, make sure you have the fan over your stove on when you start cooking the meat because it gets very smoky! Or at least it does in my house.

Steak Fajitas
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1 1/2 pounds flank steak, trimmed
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 red bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and sliced thin
1 red onion, halved and sliced thin
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon cumin
12 flour tortillas (6 inches)

Pat the steak dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown the steak on the first side, about 5 minutes. Flip the steak and continue cooking (about 3 minutes for medium rare up to 6 minutes). Move the meat to a plate, drizzle with the lime juice, and tent with foil. Let it rest for 10 minutes.  

While the meat is resting, add the other tablespoon of oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. Add the bell peppers, onion, water, chili powder, Tabasco, and cumin. Cook, scraping the bottom of the pan, for about 5 minutes or until the onion is softened. Remove from heat.

Slice the steak very thin against the grain and serve with the peppers/onions, tortillas, and any other toppings (cheese, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, etc.).

From Cook's Illustrated