My Week in Food

With all of the year end tasks behind me including taxes, my schedule is finally getting normal again. And by normal, I mean I can cook more and hit the Y a few times a week. Here's how I spent my week, foodwise.



For dinner on Sunday, I decided to make the Grilled Balsamic and Garlic Flank Steak recipe from the April issue of Food and Wine magazine. I did this recipe for the last wine tasting and liked it ... it was really easy. This time, after marinating it overnight, I cooked it on the stovetop (instead of grilling) in my non-stick saute pan. I liked the results better ... I got a better sear on both sides of the meat and the sugar in the balsamic caramelized a little.


If you're wondering what the difference is between skirt steak and flank steak it's basically what part of the cow it comes from ... skirt steak comes from the plate cut and flank is from the area in red (see diagram). Both cuts are flavorful, requires marinating and should be cooked quickly (like grilling).

My cooking was interrupted by a trip to St. Louis for work but I was back at it on Thursday night. I made the New York Style Crumb Cake from the April 2010 issue of Bon Appetit. When I initially saw the picture of the cake in the magazine I was worried that the cake would be too moist (meaning greasy) but the end product was dry ... and that was after I reduced the baking time by 10 minutes.

I know what you're thinking ... I deviated from the recipe. Well I did, but only for the crumb topping. I cut their recipe in half and added walnuts and loved the result. The cake itself was dense and a little dry. It tasted good ... I just had some with my coffee and the combination was yummy. I'm definitely going to try this recipe again ... maybe it needs to eggs and/or more sour cream to lighten the batter.

And I only made it to the Y once this week ... cycle class at 5:30am on Friday ... shouldn't that count for at least 2?