NY Sirloins

The local grocery store had a good price on NY sirloins so I picked up a package for tonight’s supper. I also indulged and got a package of fresh mushrooms to go with them. Yum

A package of mushrooms to top the steaks.

Idaho and Russet potatoes are the best varieties for baking. I bought Russet the last time I got some. These were some nice large potatoes evenly sized. Wash 2 of them as Sarah doesn’t want a potato. She’s going to eat some of the leftover citrus rice. This menu was decided early enough in the day that we’re having real baked potatoes. Place them in the oven at 450 and they’re on their own for about  75 minutes.
Remove the steaks from the refrigerator & opened the package. I season them well on both sides with seasoning salt & coarse black pepper. Leave them on the counter at room temperature and covered for the seasonings to soak into the meat. There are 4 steaks in the package and I will cook all 4 of them. The leftover steak will be available to slice into a salad, add slices to a quesadilla or eat as is after heating up. Learn to make leftovers your friend & you’ll start planning to have leftovers.

About 15 minutes before I plan on us eating, I pull out the trusty George Foreman grill. I like my steaks medium rare to rare. The rest of my family like theirs medium well so I will monitor the steaks carefully so everybody will be happy. If I had heated the grill up before placing the steaks on them, I wouldn’t have started cooking the steaks as early.

Washed mushrooms sitting on towel waiting to be gently patted dry.

I want to have time to work with the mushrooms though so have made a little more time available. Experts tell you to gently pat mushrooms with a damp towel to clean them. I can’t do it. Knowing how they’re grown, I carefully wash under cool running water about ¾ of the mushrooms. The rest of the mushrooms will go into salads raw. I then carefully & gently dry the mushrooms with a towel. Place them on a cutting board and slice them into ¼ slices.
While slicing the mushrooms, I have heated up a small skillet on medium high heat. I add 3-4 tablespoons of butter to melt. If I have olive oil, I use half as much butter & make up the difference with olive oil. At the moment, I have no olive oil so it’s butter only. The butter has to be carefully watched so it does not burn. I look in the spice cabinet trying to decide what I fell like using for seasoning. Oregano looks good tonight so I sprinkle oregano & coarse black pepper on the mushrooms as they saute. Garlic salt goes nicely on mushrooms also, but I’m not in the mood for garlic. By the time the mushrooms are barely sauteed, my steak is done so I remove it from the grill so the others can cook longer. Gently spoon the mushrooms over the steak. It looks delicious.

Steak with sauteed mushrooms and baked potato.

Broccoli Rice Casserole before it goes in the freezer.

Today I’m going to take my leftovers from last night’s supper & make broccoli rice casserole. I pull out approximately 2 cups of the citrus rice & add it to a 8 X 8 corningware dish. Pull out around 1/2 cup of the broccoli & return that to the refrigerator for my salad later. The rest of the broccoli I add to the corningware. We keep a ziploc bag of shredded cheddar cheese in the refrigerator at all times & I get it out. Add cheese until it looks like enough & mix thoroughly. Throw the casserole dish in a gallon size ziploc bag & into the freezer. When the mood strikes, I’ll pull it out of the freezer & bake it in the oven at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes. The time difference will depend on whether or not I thaw the broccoli rice casserole before cooking it. It’ll come in very handy some time & took less than 10 minutes because I used planned leftovers.

Don’t know about you, but salmon & rice go together naturally. I have had a baked potato with salmon, but unless I also had broccoli rice casserole I wasn’t happy. Sometimes I like to flavor the rice & this doesn’t seem like a plain rice night. Funny how that is.

My George Foreman Grill

Simple things can make a big difference taste wise. Not going to do anything fancy. Measure 4 cups of water into a large pot, add a teaspoonful of butter & a smidgeon of salt. I don’t use much salt & seldom use as much called for in a recipe unless I’m baking. Pull the orange juice out of the refrigerator & pour about 1/2 cup in the pan. Turn the heating element to high heat, put a lid on the pot & wait for the water to boil. As soon as the water comes to a boil, I add 2 cups of long-grained rice. This will make a lot of rice, but leftover rice is a good thing as far as my family is concerned. Turn the heat down to medium-low and continue cooking for about twenty minutes. That’s it. Nothing fancy, but the rice will have a delicate citrus taste.

If you don’t have a George Foreman grill or a knock off, I don’t know how you live. It’s one of my favorite kitchen tools & perfect for fixing salmon. Occasionally, I do something fancy, but it’s going to be straight simple salmon tonight. Sprinkle some seasoning salt and pepper on one side of the salmon. Smear a little butter on it & slap it on the grill. Repeat the above steps on the side facing up. Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on it & let it cook. Depending on how thick the pieces of salmon are, I grill them for 6-10 minutes.  I like my salmon pretty well done.

Salmon cooking on the grill.

In the meantime, I have another pot with about 1/2 cup of water in it coming to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, I add the entire pound bag of frozen broccoli to it. This will finish about the same time as the salmon. Again, I’m wanting leftovers so I’m not concerned with the fact that that’s more broccoli than I need for supper.

Supper ready for a fork.

That’s it. In less than 30 minutes, supper is ready.