A good time was had by all...

Sherrie, I wish you lived closer!  Jennifer, Bill, Michelle and I had dinner at my house the other night and had a great time.  Here is a "threefer" highlighting all the evening's dishes.

As promised in my last flank-straveganza post, here is my mom's famous flank steak recipe.  She didn't make it up (she used to say all her recipes were stolen), but this is closely associated with her because she made it for so many lucky people over 40 years.  If I had to guess, I think the original could have come from Sunset magazine.

First, savor the picture, then I'll tell you how to make it:

Sue's Stolen Marinated Flank Steak

• 1 flank steak
• 4 Tb soy sauce
• 4 Tb fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp celery seed (not celery salt!)
• 1/2 c green onions, sliced green and white parts
• 1/4 c salad oil (not olive, it'll burn)

Mix all ingredients in a Ziploc bag, press the air out when sealing, and marinate in the refrigerator overnight flipping the bag a few times. Barbecue on medium heat 8-10 minutes a side. Slice thinly on the diagonal.  You can easily double the marinade for two steaks.

This stuff tastes like family to me. Hope you enjoy it too!

For the side, we had Ina Garten's Provencal Potato Salad.  I make a couple of modifications to the original (for example, I don't use the chicken stock, because quite honestly, what are you going to do with opened chicken stock after you've only used 2 TBS?  So I upped the vinegar and wine to get the same amount of dressing.  And I think it calls for too much salt and olive oil, so I cut that slightly.)  So here goes:

Ina Garten's Provencal Potato Salad with a few minor changes because when have I ever left well enough alone?:

• • 1 pound small white boiling potatoes
  • 1 pound small red boiling potatoes
  • 3 tablespoons dry white wine
  • 4 tablespoons champagne (or white wine) vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 7 tablespoons good olive oil
  • 1 bunch sliced green onions (white and green parts)
  • 3 tablespoons minced fresh dill
  • 3 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
  • 3 tablespoons chiffonade of fresh basil leaves
  • 1/2 pound haricots verts (French green beans), stems removed
  • 1/2 cup capers, drained
  • 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup small-diced red onion
  • 1/2 cup good black olives (like kalamata), pitted

1. Drop the white and red potatoes into a large pot of boiling salted water and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until they are just cooked through.
2. In a large bowl, mix wine, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and whisk in the olive oil. Drain potatoes in a colander.  As soon as you can handle them, but while they are still quite warm, cut in half (quarters if the potatoes are larger) and toss in the bowl with the vinaigrette. Allow the liquids to soak into the warm potatoes for 20-30 minutes before proceeding. Stir it a few times.
3. In a pot of boiling salted water, blanch the haricots verts for 3 to 5 minutes, until barely tender.  I've started using the potato water when it's still hot for this.  Less time waiting for water to boil and I'm lazy. Drain and immerse into ice water for 5 minutes. Drain again. Cut in half.
4. To the potatoes, add the green onions, dill, parsley, basil, haricots verts, capers, tomatoes, red onion, olives and mix together. Serve at room temperature. It doesn’t taste as great the next day, so make day of.
5. Her recipe calls for adding Italian canned tuna (6 oz), halved hard boiled eggs, and anchovy filets. I think that would be good with all that for a lunch main dish, but I thought it was too much for a side dish.

For dessert, I went with Giada De Laurentiis's Lemon Pavlovas with Berries.  I did change the filling a bit, why I'm not sure, but I did.  I followed her recipe to the letter for the meringues and berries.  Meringues were surprisingly easy!  I did keep them in a slightly still warm oven until they were ready to serve so they didn't get soft.  They had already been in there for 4 hours, so I figured what is another hour?  For the filling, I whipped about 1/4 cup of whipping cream with 4 oz of mascarpone cheese and a few TBS of powdered sugar.

If I make these again, I may serve the berries and cream with smaller meringue cookies or make the meringue bowls thinner or make a giant meringue and crumble it over the berries and cream. It was a lot to crack and chew through while people were watching you. But tasty and we were amongst friends! They turned out like this:

So, a good time was (hopefully) had by all!  Drink a toast to my mom, Sue, if you make her flank steak.  She'd love that!