Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry

There are few things that are as easy and delicious and healthy as a quick beef & broccoli stir fry dinner, which is just one of the many dishes I've prepared recently.

First thing I did earlier in the day (and this could be done even 24 hours before), I marinated the beef. Mostly the marinade is soy sauce, but there's also a good helping of molasses, some sesame oil, garlic, green onion, and a dash of seasoned rice vinegar.

And the secret with the beef is slicing it while it is still mostly frozen. Slicing it against the grain will yield nice tender bites, but it's hard to get really thin when it is thawed.

Ok. So when it was time to cook, I chopped up the broccoli and red pepper. I love sweet peppers. I am apparently the only person in my household who likes them. Ah, well, more for me!

Some minced garlic in the pan with oil until it gets fragrant. I also threw in some ginger powder. Fresh is better, but you make what you got.

Add the beef & juices and cook on high heat until the beef is nearly done. Too bad I don't have a wok so I could do this the right way.

Add the veggies and cook until they're just crisp. By then the meat will be done. Again, too bad I don't have a wok.

Ta Da! Dinner in 10 minutes or less. What you don't see is me asking my guest, Charlotte, to cook the rice. Charlotte is from France, learning English and experiencing American culture at my house. She did a great job with the rice. I always burn it or make it crunchy in the middle. She said she hadn't ever had anything like this... but she liked it. Yay! Simple and delicious!

Watermelon Sorbet with lemon & mint

It's hot. Like I've been happy when I can get the house to cool off to a mere 80F at night!
IN THE HOUSE.
Yucky.
At least it is this fabulous dry Colorado heat.
Anyway, I had some watermelon. I thought it would be good from the fridge but better frozen. So I made a sorbet.
MMMM. Watermelon sorbet.
Why had I never made this before?
First, I chopped up the watermelon.

Then I blended it to a puree in my handy dandy magical blender.

Mmmm. So foamy and pink. Whirr!

I put that in a measuring thingy, I think I made about 2 cups of watermelon. I had a LOT of watermelon left over. It all went in the freezer for next time.... oh yes, there will be a next time.
OK. Next I added a cup of simple syrup (basically dissolved sugar water).
And the juice of 2 lemons. Next time I would use only one lemon, but everyone said it was great how it was. So if you love lemons, go with 2.

Then I said, "Hey Charlotte," (Charlotte is visiting from France this summer) "do you think that mint would be good with watermelon?" and she said, "Yes." So I picked a bunch of mint leaves.

 Chopped 'em up and threw 'em in there with the rest of it.

Pretty! This made about 3 cups of liquid. I guessed that was about the capacity of my little ice cream machine, which is where I poured the whole shebang.

20 minutes later- kapow! Perfect way to beat the heat.

Audry couldn't get enough. Seriously. Why had I never made this before?

Ten Days flies by!

I can't believe I haven't updated this blog in 10 days. That is pure craziness.
Of course, I have been living life and cooking this whole time.
Not to mention the slew of monsoon rainstorms that struck last week and flooded everything.
Including my back yard.

Oh, and my front yard too.

It only flooded for a few minutes, and the house is on high ground.
Still, it was pretty exciting.
In the last 10 days, Audry has eaten watermelon...

And shared it with Omar.

And the chickens.

And had a complete meltdown because her blanket didn't want to play nice with her (I think).

And helped daddy sharpen mommy's knives (yay daddy!)

And I did some cooking...
Marinated & grilled beef with caprese spirals.

Shrimp Pad Thai.

Chicken Enchiladas (some to take to a friend and some for me for the fridge to cook the next day)

Pork & Peaches (a variation on a latest summer favorite)

Shrimp Tacos.

And a bunch of stuff I didn't photograph.
And I also painted a room that will (hopefully soon be Willy's office) twice. Twice! Because I didn't like it the first time. (No pictures- sorry. When it is done...)
And we picked up Charlotte who is visiting from Paris for a month.
Whew!

I will try to be better about this!

July 4th week

This has been a little bit of a crazy week, what with the 4th being a holiday on Monday and Wednesday being my birthday. So I haven't been really cooking exactly. Mainly we've been eating leftover cobbled bits from the BBQ we had on Monday. Here are some highlights of the week:

Here are Audry and her friend Jack playing on 4th of July

And here's some good friends getting ready for our driveway fireworks show: 

I didn't really take too many other pictures that day, in spite of all the food and fun. Mainly it was too hot, and the fireworks were too exciting to photograph. Too bad I didn't take pictures of the mojitos!

But here's a picture of Will playing with Audry before bed. Aww. Mommy's favorite. 

Here is Omar The Dog listening to a story too. 

Oscar the Cat is settling in nicely. He's been here for a couple weeks now. Sleeping on my bedding, the last place I want him. Just like a cat. 

On my birthday it rained so Will and I had a romantic dinner out on the porch he covered last summer. A dinner of leftovers. 

Here is a close up of the tri tip that Willy marinated. Wow. Delicious. I think it is equal parts soy sauce and olive oil probably with some pepper and garlic in there too. Anyway, cut into little steaks and grilled in the toaster oven since the grill is out of gas... superb. 

This is the wine we were drinking. After breathing a little, fabulous. We drank the whole thing. This winery produces amazing wines. Worth every penny of the membership. 

And for dessert.... leftover brownies with ice cream. 

And a gun. That is how you can tell that we finished off a bottle of wine. Don't worry, we weren't firing it. Then I got all chatty and sentimental in the rain and started taking pictures like this:

Anyway, but we recovered and it is back to normal life! Here's Audry checking on our chicks. 

The little chicks have taken over the roost and the big hens are not sure of what to do about it. Mostly they wait for me to let them out so they can roam around under the bushes. 

The little chicks seem to be coming along OK and so far we have had no hen wars, which I expect any day. 

This summer I am not making any major attempts at gardening. I have decided that gardening in Colorado is not for the inexperienced or faint of heart. Firstly, here's the hollyhocks that I planted in the spring a YEAR ago, finally producing gorgeous blooms. 

I am afraid to cut them and bring them in the house. Will that be the end of them? Will they neglect to make more for next year? And here's Audry telling me Pretty!

At our wedding anniversary this spring (also Mother's Day) Will put in this little planter box for me. It has worked out GREAT!

There are perennials at either end and peas & a tomato in the middle.

With a few pots of happy herbs on one side. Audry likes to help me garden my "babies."

And for the finale, here is Omar doing what he does best. Run FAST.

I think I will probably be back to doing regular cooking tonight. It really has been a great week.

7/3/11- Pasta Salad & playing naked outside

One thing that is really nice about being a baby is that you can go play naked outside and no one cares.
Audry loves being naked. And she loves playing outside (Ah-tide!). She also loves playing in the water.
What better use for her old baby bathtub and some tupperware?

Then she told me that my plants were thirsty and she wanted to help me water them. (You can barely see one of the chickens behind her)

What a little cutie pie.

The weather has been too hot to think about heavy dinner kinds of foods. I made pasta salad for lunch and let dinner work itself out later. Honestly, I haven't been posting much lately because we've been having things like hamburgers, sausages & beans, grilled mini filet mignon with tater tots... that kind of quick thing that doesn't require me to think about it in advance or turn on my oven.

But the pasta salad. I chopped up some green onions, a tomato & like 5 oz of salami. I defrosted some peas and opened a can of sliced olives. I found some parmesean cheese (shaved!) and there was a little mozzerella left from some other recipe. Isn't salami delicious? I haven't had any in a while.

I boiled some noodles. These are a fun multi-color mixed variety kind that are fun. I bought them because I thought Audry would eat them, but she will eat like 3 noodles and then she is done.

The dressing. It is lots of fresh basil & oregano, salt, pepper, & garlic awash in about a quarter cup of olive and walnut oils and a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar.

Tossed together and stuck in the fridge to chill.

A yummy lunch worth coming in from the yardwork for.

And I was impressed, I really didn't get hungry for an afternoon snack or anything with this lunch. Was it the heat or the pasta & protein?