Chimichurri Sauce

Grilling season is back! That means less cooking for me and more for my hubz! I like grilling season :)

Instead of doing the standard grilled tri-tip that we do so often, we decided to make things a little more interesting by adding a nice chimichurri sauce.

We went to Argentina last year, and as much steak as we ate, we had surprisingly little chimichurri. But what we did have was fantastic! And now we don't need to fly all the way down there to get some.

Chimichurri is so easy to make and definitely worth the effort. If you've never tried it, I highly suggest you do.

Ingredients:
- Grilled tri-tip or other steak
- Parsley
- Garlic
- Oregano
- Olive oil
- Vinegar (red wine or something similar would be nice) or lemon juice
- Salt
- Pepper
- Red pepper flakes

Directions:
- Start with a nice piece of meat like this
- In a food processor, blend the parsley, garlic, oregano, oil, vinegar/lemon juice, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.
- Drizzle the sauce on the meat of your choice. Beef works best in my opinion, but I'm sure it tastes great with other meats too. Heck, just smearing it on some bread tastes great too!

Grilled Tri-tip

Even though it's technically fall, the weather here has been hot and that means more grilling! My husband loves to grill up tri-tip. Every time it's on sale, he buys it, slaps on a tasty homemade rub and grills it up to perfection.

I've never posted his tri-tip before because he's never shared with me the secrets of how to make this beautifully cooked hunk o' meat, so I have nothing to share with you today. The only thing I can say is that there's a suspicious amount of brown sugar, paprika, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper missing from my spice rack, and that the meat thermometer is dirty. But other than that, I'm at a loss ;)

I'm hoping that if I butter him up a bit by posting this tasty picture and singing his praises, he might just cave and teach me, or make more. I'll be happy with either outcome. But on second thought, since he does it so well, there's really no need for me to learn. I should really just sit back, kick up my feet, and enjoy it while I can!

Argentina

We went to Argentina for a week and a half and I thought I'd share a few pictures. But first, an apology. I scheduled a bunch of posts while we were away so that it wouldn't look like this blog was being neglected, but then I came back and never got around to posting anything until now. Oops. At least I had good intentions :)

Ok, onto the pictures. The main reason we went to Argentina was to visit Iguazu Falls. Even though it we didn't go during the rainy season where the falls are even more impressive, the falls were still gorgeous.


Purty, huh?

We had some good food while in Argentina too. One of our favorite meals while there was at La Cabrera. The line was long, but they offered beer and appetizers while we waited. They also have a sister restaurant across the street, and the line there was just as long. When we finally sat down, we ordered the ribeye and it was HUGE! It also came with about a million little side dishes, all of which were super tasty.

Argentina is famous for their beef and parillas or bbq/grill restaurants are all over the place, with the grill usually in plain sight.


And a typical dish at a parilla is to get the mixed plate, with various meats like beef, sausage, blood sausage, kidneys, intestines, etc.

Anyway, we're back now and will be returning to normal posting!

Steak Sandwich

Remember those gorgeous homemade baguettes that are a constant staple in our house these days? Do you also remember the french onion soup that I made? Well, I had leftovers of both, so I asked my hubz to grill up some steak for steak sandwiches. He always does such a great job of cooking steak to perfection, I guess it's a guy thing because I sure can't do it. And it was so tasty that I requested it again and am thinking about making more soup just so that I can have more steak sandwiches!

And since the secret ingredient for Weekend Wokking this month is beef and steak is about as "beefy" as you can get, I'm submitting this entry. Wandering Chopsticks created this awesome event and Marija of Palachinka is hosting this month. Check out the roundup on April 1 for some beefy goodness!



Ingredients:
- 1 baguette
- 1 steak (we used New York, but anything will do)
- Leftover french onion soup
- Horseradish sauce (I like the creamy variety for this)
- Lettuce (optional)
- Salt and pepper

Directions:
- Ask your husband to salt and pepper the steak and cook it to perfection. Let it rest, then slice it into thin strips.
- Cut the baguette in half and toast it until nice and crispy.
- Spread a generous amount of horseradish across the bread.
- Lay the pieces of steak across the sandwich.
- Spoon the onion soup over the steak.
- Add the lettuce if desired (I found I liked it better without).
- Close the sandwich and dip it in additional onion soup and horseradish as desired and eat.

Simple Grillin'

Having an indoor grill is great, especially when we're cooking just for the two of us. There's no need to fire up the entire grill for just a steak or two. Plus we can grill all year long this way.

The hubz is the grill master in this house, so I don't have much to say in this post except that he makes great steaks! He's a strong believer in tasting the meat, so nothing more is added than salt and pepper. Our favorite cut is bone-in ribeye. It's flavorful, juicy, and tender.

Grilled zucchini makes a great accompaniment too. Cut them length-wise. I like to cut them into fourths so that they're thick enough to be meaty but still cook pretty quickly. Brush them with oil and just sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. What could be easier?