I'm a "meat" kinda guy...

Yes indeedy, I am!  I may be married to a vegetarian who hasn't tasted any meat in more than 40 years, but I like meat.  I love steak, chicken, pork, bacon, sausage--I like it all!  So today we're going to do flank steak with peppers and onions.

Flank steak from Bolton's Farm Market

This steak was HUGE!  I bought it on Tuesday when I stopped into Bolton's to get some chicken.  They had been so busy that they were out of chickens and weren't able to "harvest" any because they weren't big enough yet--so I went to the freezer and found this!  It was $5.99/lb.  I seasoned it with salt and pepper and little Worcestershire sauce.  Then I used a grill pan on the stovetop to cook it, about 8 minutes on each side.  It was pretty thick so it took a little longer than your typical flank steak! 

For the peppers and onions, I actually used the leftover red, yellow, and green peppers left over from the "Garbanzo Bean Salad" I made for my first post.

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I threw these into the grill pan after the steak was done.  I cooked

them until they were soft and a little carmelized.

That's it!  Not a lot of work to it--the whole "marinating" process is really no work for the human involved.  Marination is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.

So someone has to explain to me how marinating is a lot of work!

I have to say, flank steak is not a premium cut of meat, but what this proves to me is that buying locally produced beef gets you better quality at an extremely reasonable price!

I'm pathetic!

So, I have 2 posts waiting to go up...they both need photos...what is wrong with me?

Thank you for your patience--I'll get something posted this week, I promise!  This is more difficult than I thought it would be.  Somebody has to eat the stuff I make!  And usually it's just me!  So hang in there--something will be posted soon!

Not much cooking, but lots of flavor!

Couscous is one of my favorite things.  I don't know if its because of how it tastes, the texture, or because it's a little bit exotic...no matter, I like it.  I also like garbanzo beans. Whenever I find them on a salad bar, I put them on my plate.  They are high in fiber and pure protein which are both really good things!

So I stole a salad idea from BJ's wholesale club.  Theirs is a garbanzo bean salad, it yields about as much as my recipe, but costs about $6 whereas my version costs about $3.  Here are the ingredients

-(1) 15 ounce can of garbanzo beans
-(1/2) can of pitted green olives
-(1) small can of corn
-1/2 cup each of red, yellow and green bell pepper
-1 cup couscous

-1 cup water
-1 Tbs. olive oil
-1/4 tsp granulated garlic (substitute garlic powder)
-1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
-1/3 cup Italian salad dressing (or to taste)

I only used the tops of the bell peppers, minus the stems of course!

Don't worry, this will yield just enough bell pepper!  You're going for color mostly.

Cook the couscous according the package directions.  I add a Tbs. of olive oil and a Tbs. of Italian seasoning to the water before it boils.  It really is as easy to cook as it seems--boil water, dump in couscous, cover, let sit for 5 minutes or so, uncover, fluff with fork.  That's it!  It's done!

Now you have your ingredients all ready for final assembly.  I just dump everything into a big bowl, add the dressing and mix it together!  All done!  Put it in the fridge for a few hours to chill.  If you try this, let me know what you think.  I think it's delicious!

My First Post...god help me!

Hello!  I've heard that there are a few people eagerly awaiting my first blog post...oh wait, the timer on the stove is going off...be right back...


...ok, back...had to take the stew off the stove.  I tend to make things the way my mother made them, so this stew is some cubed beef from Bolton's Farm Market in Silverdale, PA, turnips, carrots, parsnips and red potatoes.  I added
a bit of red wine when I was done browning the meat and before I added the water.


So, that should give you a little bit of a hint about what I want to blog about--food and cooking.  I'm no gourmet cook, I have no training, but I grew up in a family of 12 children and as one of the oldest, learned how to cook some basic things at an early age. 


Today, I enjoy cooking for my DP, Darling Petunia.  For Susan, I will get back into baking the 'no knead' bread that she loves and that I abandoned when it got hot this summer. I'll eventually get into some different kinds of breads. 
I find baking challenging because of the need to measure the ingredients accurately, which is NOT something I do when I cook. 

 One thing I have found over the years is that I find cooking fun, not a chore at all! 

So, watch this space--I'll start soon!

Gerry...