Guinness Steak

Matt and I decided that this week we will cook all new recipes (with the exception of Pioneer Woman's Cajun Chicken Pasta, which is on the menu for tonight).  We have all of these cookbooks, see, and it is just too easy to make the same things over and over again (Even if they are delicious.  I'm talking about you, Red Pepper Chicken).

So while Matt did [one of] his fantasy football draft[s] this weekend, I sat in the Lagoon with him and thumbed through the pages of some of our cookbooks.  We put together a little menu for ourselves, and headed to Publix (with every single slow and in-the-way person in Savannah--I thought I was going to start running people over with my cart).*

First up was last night's Guinness Steak.

You should know that Matt has a love/hate relationship with Guinness.  Love, because, well, it's beer.  Hate, because right after we left JMU, he and his family took a trip to Ireland.  They were in Dublin visiting the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate.  The brewery was on the way to the hotel, so instead of first going to the hotel to drop off their things, they went straight to the brewery.  The neighborhood didn't seem so shifty, so they parked on the street.  A fine young chap offered to watch their car, but they declined, opting instead to trust the good-natured Irishmen.  That was a decision that they quickly came to regret, when they left the brewery armed only with their gift shop t-shirts and the clothes on their backs, and found their car--broken into, empty.  Everything, gone.  The police tried to help out by giving them even more Guinness apparel.  Obviously, that ill-fated side trip ended up putting a damper on the family trip to Ireland.  Now, though, Matt's family can dress a small country with the amount of Guinness clothing they own.  **

Back to the steak.  This is actually one I saw on another blog, The Way the Cookie Crumbles, and emailed to Matt just a few days ago.  It was easy to make, used common, easy-to-find ingredients, and was really, really good.  We had it with Matt's famous grilled onions and parmesan polenta (also a first. . .mmmmmmm).  We both agreed that Guinness Steak goes in the "make again" column.

(We didn't eat the dog; I just can't resist it when he, as Opal put it, "sits on the couch like a person.")

Guinness Steak (The Way the Cookie Crumbles)


Ingredients
2 1⅓-pound flank steaks
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Coarse kosher salt
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1¼ cups thinly sliced green onions (about 6)
1 12-ounce bottle Guinness (You'll only need six of those ounces.  Drink the other six.)
½ cup Worcestershire sauce***


Directions
1. Using sharp knife, lightly score flank steak about ⅛ inch deep on both sides in a crisscross pattern at ½-inch intervals. Place steak in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Sprinkle steak on both sides with oregano and cumin and generous amount of coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Drizzle olive oil over both sides of steaks, rubbing oil and spices into meat. Add green onions, beer, and Worcestershire sauce, turning steak several times to coat both sides. Cover and chill at least 3 hours, turning occasionally. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.)

2. Prepare grill (medium-high heat). Brush grill rack lightly with oil. Grill steaks to desired doneness, 4-5 minutes total per side for medium-rare, turning steaks ¼ turn after 1½ minutes to form crisscross grill marks, if desired. Transfer steaks to cutting board; let rest 5 minutes. Thinly slice steaks across grain. Transfer to platter and serve.


*Also, F you, Georgia for not selling beer or wine on Sundays.  Your silly rule  forced me to make a trip to Kroger this afternoon just for ingredients for meals.  While at Kroger, I somehow jammed my pinky toe against the wheel of the cart.  Now I have a big blood blister on my toe (and probably rabies), and shoe-wearing is going to be a bitch come morning.  I blame you, Georgia, and your asinine laws.

**When Matt returned from Ireland, he and I were talking on the phone.  Like a moron, I asked, "Ooh, did everyone there have Irish accents?"  Matt explained to me that they really didn't have Irish accents, since they watch so much American TV.  He was lying (obviously now), and I bought it. . .completely. 

***We used the last of our Worcestershire for this steak.  I told Matt we needed Morcestershire.  He shook his head, wondering perhaps why he married someone who believed that Irish people don't actually have Irish accents, and who makes such terrible jokes.

Pineapple Coconut Sorbet

 When I get into my car and see this. (Also, I'm in a contest to see just how many miles the Volvo will go, and the car was covered in dog hair.  Judge away.)

I know that it's high time for some of this.

Why haven't I made this before?  Pineapple and coconut and sorbet?  July in Savannah, when the heat index today is supposed to be something like 118?  Yes, I think I will.

This doesn't earn the title of "Mandy's Famous Pineapple Coconut Sorbet" because all I did was modify a recipe.  Honestly, I wasn't sure where to start with the coconut.  So I found this recipe, but decided to ditch the ginger and go for more of a pina colada feel.

And I'm pretty sure that fresh pineapple is one of my favorite foods on earth.

And coconut's not too shabby, either.  (Granted, I did not use fresh coconut because I was afraid of it.  In college, when we would drink frozen drinks out of coconuts, the only way I could get the coconuts open was by throwing them off the balcony onto the concrete.  I don't have a balcony here.)

And then, after I'd pureed and made syrups and squeezed limes and gnawed on the part of the pineapple that you're not supposed to eat, therefore making the corners of my mouth sting, I realized that I'd left a crucial part of the ice cream maker at the lake house.  Shooooooooooot!

So this didn't churn like it was supposed to.  Instead, it sat in a spinning frozen bowl.  But, you know, it worked fine.  I'm curious about how the texture of the sorbet would be different if it had actually churned, but it's really good as is.  (Which means that you can make this one even without an ice cream maker!)

Pineapple Coconut Sorbet

Ingredients
1 pineapple
1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup lite coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
juice from one lime

Instructions

1.  Bring one cup lite coconut milk to a boil.  Add 1/2 cup of sugar, stir to dissolve, and then remove from heat.

2.  Puree pineapple and shredded coconut in a food processor.

3.  In a large bowl, combine coconut milk syrup and pureed pineapple and coconut.  Stir in lime juice.

4.  Chill mixture for one hour, and then freeze in ice cream maker (or just in an airtight bowl) according to manufacturer's instructions.

Happy Friday to all!

Banana Puddin' Ice Cream

There's plenty to hate about the South: the proud ignorance, the humidity, Mark Sanford, palmetto bugs, people who insist on flying the Confederate flag, the idea that it's sinful to sell alcohol on Sundays.  I could go on and on.

But there's lots to love, too: the accents (to an extent), gardenias, mild winters, Bill Clinton, the fact that we wear flip-flops all year long, the slow pace of life, the hospitality.

I'd say that the greatest contribution from the South, though, is banana puddin'. 

Why is it so good? 

Banana puddin' is one of those things that I forbid myself from making because I know that if I do, then I will sit in front of the TV, watch Steel Magnolias, and inhale the entire batch.

You can imagine my simultaneous delight and fear, then, when I came across this recipe for Banana Pudding Ice Cream.  As soon as I read the recipe, I was completely fixated.  I knew, though, that I'd have to share it with others, lest I devour the entire half gallon in one sitting.  So last night, knowing that today would be my last day at school before summer, I set to the task of making this recipe so that I could share it with my coworkers.

And what a task it was!  There's was lots of multitasking and chemistry-lab type measuring and timing.  Had Matt not been there reading me the directions and telling me what to do when, it would have been a complete disaster.  Fortunately, he's Mr. Anal when it comes to directions and rules, and he kept me on task, making sure that I followed each instruction to a tee.

I'm so happy that he did, because the finished product was one of the best desserts that I've ever made.  Ever.  In my entire life.  I just kept tasting it, yelling, "I MADE THIS!"  Mitch was also a fan.  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of it (too busy yelling and patting myself on the back), but here's the one from the page where I found it:

[source]

It might not look like much, but believe me on this one.  It's out of control delicious.  It's like how people describe desserts as being sinful.  Now, I don't think that this ice cream is itself sinful, but I know that I would commit any number of sins to get my hands on a bowl of it (i.e., beating a hobo with a hammer**).  Maybe that's what people mean?

Anyway, here's the recipe.  If you find yourself with some extra time, and if you share my affection for banana puddin', you should try it out.

Banana Puddin' Ice Cream
Makes about 2 quarts
Adapted from Mac & Cheese, who got it from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt and Ted Lee

Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 ripe bananas, sliced in half crosswise and lengthwise
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 large egg yolks
⅓ cup sugar
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
14 2-inch vanilla wafers, coarsely chopped

Instructions

• Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until frothy. Add brown sugar and sauté the sugar until it bubbles, abut 1 ½ minutes. Add bananas, stir and turn in sugar for about 1 ½ minutes until softened.
• Pour vanilla over bananas in skillet, and let cook for a couple of minutes. Place contents of the skillet in a blender or processor.
• Beat the egg yolks with a whisk, then add the sugar and beat until the mixture is a light yellow color, about 1 ½ minutes.
• Warm the milk over medium heat in a saucepan, stirring occasionally, until a thermometer reads 150° (6-8 minutes). Pour ½ cup of the hot milk in the blender with the banana mixture, and puree for 1 minute.
• Add the remaining hot milk slowly to the egg mixture while whisking constantly. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the thermometer reads 170° (8-10 minutes or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spoon). Turn off the heat.
• Add the banana mixture to the custard and whisk for 1 ½ minutes. Let the custard cool to room temperature, then whisk in the cream.
• Refrigerate for 4 hours or until the custard is cold. (I skipped this part with no resulting problems.)
• Pour mixture into the ice cream maker and churn. A few minutes before the ice cream is done, add the cookie bits and churn for a few more minutes.
• Eat right away for instant, soft ice cream gratification. Freeze ice cream in the freezer to harden.

Happy Friday to you!

**I wouldn't really beat a hobo with a hammer.  Forgive the hyperbole.  Also, I learned today that hobos were real people who ate beans from cans.  It's neat to talk to people who are older and have more life experience.  They'll tell you all about hobos.

Fireworks!

I love them, but I will admit that every time they start I initially believe they're a drive-by shooting.

Mitch hates them.  He never gets past the drive-by shooting part.  He usually barks and howls throughout the show.

Now, here's what they look like from the Carport Bistro.

Man, is it hard for me to get good pictures of fireworks!

My favorite fireworks are the cracklin' sizzlin' ones.  I love that sound.  What are your favorites?

I was going to tell you some fun story about fireworks, but I'm grumpy because I woke up feeling like shit for the fifth day in a row, and it's not even because of wine.  Plus, I'm off to serve Savannah's finest for the next few hours, which means that I'm missing some of Savannah's fun Saturday events, like Sidewalk Arts Festival.  Oh well. 

This day's probably going to get worse before it gets better.  Maybe if I start it off with some Chick-Fil-A it'll change direction?

Snowing in Savannah!

Apologies for lack of posting recently. I've been sick and busy and exhausted. Plus, there hasn't really been too much to share. At this point in the year life is pretty uneventful, and unless you want to hear about adventures in doing laundry or how to nurse a pesky hangover (Sour Patch Kids probably aren't the best way), I've got nothing. The juicier things that are going on aren't things I'm allowed to post on the blog because they involve lots of shittalking, so if you want to know about those, you'll have to call me.

But Friday night did bring some excitement when it SNOWED IN SAVANNAH! The weather forecast had called for snow, but I refused to believe it because it's let me down in the past. Since the Snowtorious B.I.G. has been dumping feet of snow on almost every single person I know, it seems that I couldn't log on to Facebook or read friends' blogs without seeing the winter wonderland albums of pictures, and I was getting really bitter about it. I hadn't seen it snow since we moved to Savannah seven years ago, and I started to feel really sorry for myself about it. And even though I know that being snowed in for a week is not pure bliss, it was hard not to be jealous when I'd been having busy and stressful weeks at school, knowing that so many others were having work and school cancelled. And I hear it's snowing there again? Jeez oh Pete!

And then it snowed, and I was ecstatic.

It only snowed here for a few hours, and the snow didn't really stick or accumulate. But they were big fat beautiful flakes. I got to catch snowflakes in my mouth, feel the crunch of the snow under my feet. We got to hear all of the little kids in Savannah screaming and playing in what was probably the first snow of many of their lives. It made me cry like three different times. (Also, I am a big crybaby.)

And now I'm satisfied. (Plus, we didn't have to shovel, which was nice.)

Apparently the snow had possessed Mitchell, who then did "butt's on fire" and chased the neighbors. Matt gets really mad when I let Mitch out without a leash, and that's partly why.

He really didn't know what to make of it.

Mitch loved the snow almost as much as I did, and decided to lie in the snow--until a man walked by, at which point Mitch freaked out and tried to attack him. Mitch is ferocious, remember?

Obviously the snow we had in Savannah pales in comparison to that up in Virginia and Maryland, but it was really exciting, and it shut me up. And maybe a month from now it'll be beach weather?

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

It's been a while since I've made cupcakes, and I'd been wanting to make these for a long time now. I'd resisted because I suspected that I would like them so much that I'd eat them all. We were having a Super Bowl party, and planning for a bunch of people, and I decided that tonight was as good a time as any. Then our party fell apart, and only four people came. Hmmmmm. More cupcakes for Mandy? Unfortunately/fortunately, yes.

I found this recipe on the 52 Cupcakes blog. Very much in the style of Julie & Julia, this woman has taken it upon herself to make all 175 cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Hopefully, she's cooler than Amy Adams's Julia. I think there's a good chance she is, though, because she has a cute dog, Layla. Mitch would be friends with Layla, and he would dance with her. (PS--"dance " is my latest euphemism for "hump." He just dances like he's at the prom.)

Back to the cupcakes. They're not traditional cupcakes; instead they're a cupcake/cheesecake hybrid. Throw in some Oreos and you've got yourself something truly special. These are actually super easy to make, too, which is nice.

Pretty basic ingredients: two pounds of cream cheese, a cup of sour cream, vanilla, salt, eggs, sugar--and Oreos. Lots and lots of Oreos.

And I got to use my silicone baking cups again. (And yes, Caitie, I did wash them very well after the pupcakes featuring cat food.)

And would you look at that? We've entered the new millennium, people. Paperless recipes!


You place an Oreo in the bottom of each cup.

And then chop up the rest of the Oreos.


Whip the cream cheese.
Add sugar, vanilla, salt, and then egg. Mix in an electric mixer.


And fold in the crushed Oreos by hand.



Bake for 22-26 minutes, switching racks halfway through.
Allow to cool completely. Refrigerate for a minimum of four hours.

HOW FUN IS THAT?
And delicious, too. I had one last night and two today. And I think I might have one more before bed. Or maybe two. . .
Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes, stolen from 52 Cupcakes who stole it from Martha

Ingredients:
42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt


1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Happy baking, and happy snow day to our friends in the mid-Atlantic. I'm so jealous of you that it hurts. Next month I'll be posting pictures of us at the beach, and perhaps then Savannah and its stupid climate will redeem itself.

(Maybe this is our punishment for choosing a place to live based almost entirely on fact that there's no open container law?)