Many moons ago, I attempted to make this steak for my now-husband (back then new-ish boyfriend). I was just out of college, in my first “real job”, and while I had cooked quite a bit in my days, I hadn’t made up recipes on the fly much. Maybe I should back peddle a bit and explain why I was attempting to cook a palomilla steak…

Cuban food was not something that was easy to come by growing up in northeast Tennessee. Black beans and plantains weren’t in the grocery. I had never even heard of a Cuban sandwich. This all changed on a trip to Tampa. My mom and I ate at Columbia restaurant. I had my first taste of black beans and rice and plantains, served on the side of this magical, flavorful thin steak which I’ve for years referred to as Cuban steak, but I’ve learned after many Google searches is actually called a palomilla steak. Initially I always slid the onions to the side, preferring the light flavoring left behind. But as I grew up, I learned to love onions, and the green stuff they mixed in with them, and this became my go-to dish at any Cuban restaurant.

Back to the attempt to recreate this dish in the early 2000s. (more…)

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Caribbean, Dairy free, Dinner, Gluten free, Lunch, Quick and Easy, Side Dish, Sunday Suppers, Wine pairings, World traveller by Courtney

Cold, gray, snow-filled days call for warm fires and belly-warming soup. While French onion soup always takes a while to make, what else are you going to do when you’re snowed in? So make quick work of the onions in this recipe in a food processor, and get to caramelizing! Soon enough you’ll have warm, sweet-but-mostly-savory soup topped with stringy, gooey Gruyere that is certain to warm your family up from head to toe. (more…)

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French, Gluten free, Soups, Vegetarian by Courtney

The good thing about having 6 pounds of zucchini is you can make a lot of different things. So this weekend, I decided to make one of my favorite quick meals, stir-fried zucchini and onions.

This meal was inspired by Japanese steakhouses of my youth. No matter what you ordered, you were sure to get a huge helping of zucchini and onions at any steakhouse. I take a little help from Kikkoman stir-fry sauce which you can usually find in the Asian foods aisle at the grocery store. So in the time it takes you to make the steamed rice, you’ll have a meal ready to go, from chopping to sliding it into the serving bowl! Want the recipe? (more…)

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Asian, Dinner, Quick and Easy, Side Dish, Vegetarian by Courtney