Citrus & Basil Flank Steak
Plus, 5 Dinners in Real Life (and a simple summer dessert)
Hi!
It’s almost Labor Day, can you believe it? My youngest was a Labor Day weekend baby, so for our family this holiday is always about celebrating the feisty force of nature that is Josie. This year she moves into the double digits (10!) which she is thrilled about and I am both thrilled and nostalgic. Ten! How quickly a decade can fly by.
At her request, we’ll be celebrating with a Duncan Hines white cake decorated with homemade whipped frosting. She’s also requested a visit to the Science Center museum, Italian hoagies for dinner and a family karaoke party at our house (using our Covid lockdown era karaoke machine).
Josie’s never had a birthday party with friends over and I’m not sure if I should feel guilty about that or not? Every kid is different, and she’s always been perfectly happy with a day spent with her mom and dad and sister that revolves entirely around her. We make her favorite breakfast, then go and do something fun, then come back home for cake and presents and our own little party. I’m guessing this might finally change next year, when she’ll start maturing into a more friend-centric world.
There’s a lot of social pressure to have big (expensive) birthday parties for kids. We got caught up in that world for a short time with our oldest daughter. After a few years of those parties, you start realizing that almost no one enjoys them. Not the kids who are being pummeled in the bouncy house and not the adults who are awkwardly trying to make conversation. One of my favorite birthday parties we threw for Ophelia was the one when we “invited” all of her best stuffed animal friends.
Every family does parties differently, and we’ve found that small low-key birthday parties have worked well for our family. Hopefully it’s a tradition that our kids will look back on with fond memories.
Recipe of the Week: Citrus & Basil Flank Steak
Labor Day seems to be a grilling holiday, as if it’s our last chance to grill before the dark, gloomy weather sets in. Where I live (and where most of you live) September is still a glorious month to grill, so this really isn’t our last chance. It is, however, a good excuse to grill something special.
We don’t eat steak very often, for our budget and our health, but I don’t like to let summer go by without at least one steak dinner. This recipe marinates flank steak in basil, lime, orange and garlic with a pinch of cumin or coriander. The aroma of the marinade is incredible - I always inhale deeply over the blender after I’ve combined the ingredients.
The marinade is really fragrant but the flavor is more subtle and imparts a light, citrusy flavor onto the meat. It’s not overpowering, so you can still serve this steak with almost any type of side dish.
The original recipe on my blog has instructions for searing the steak in a cast iron skillet, but you can also grill the steak after it’s marinated for at least a few hours (or overnight). Find the recipe HERE.
Tips for Cooking Flank Steak
Take the flank steak out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. If the steak is too cold it will take too long to cook and is more likely to be tough and cook unevenly.
Cook on a very hot grill or in a very hot cast iron skillet.
Sear the steak for about 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare or 5 minutes on each side for medium. (The temp of the meat should register between 125F-130F for medium-rare).
After taking the flank steak out of the skillet or off the grill, let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
Slice the steak thinly, perpendicular to the grain (see photo above). The "grain" is the natural muscle fibers that look like lines in the meat. Slicing “against the grain” will help make the steak more tender and less chewy to eat. You can also slice the meat on the bias, which means slicing the meat with your knife at a 45-degree angle.
You can substitute skirt steak for flank steak, but they are slightly different. Skirt steak is usually thinner and fattier. It often absorbs the flavor of a marinade better than flank steak but can be a little chewier. Skirt steak should reach medium-rare in 3 to 4 minutes a side, as opposed to a thicker flank steak which might take 4 to 5 minutes a side.
5 Dinners in Real Life
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? I hope that my week of real life dinners will provide helpful recipes & cooking ideas for your family. Here’s what my crew ate last week:
Monday: I made pesto using parsley, instead of basil, because I had two bunches of wilting parsley in the fridge. I served the parsley pesto with pan-fried cod and a toasted baguette. We also had leftover roasted vegetables from dinner the night before.
To pan-fry the cod, I seasoned it with with Lawry’s seasoned salt and browned each side of the thin fillets in butter and olive oil until the texture was flaky and fell apart easily, about 4 minutes a side.
To make the pesto, I used a food processor to blend about 10 almonds with a garlic clove, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup olive oil until fairly smooth. I added the bunches of parsley then ran the food processor, adding olive oil as needed, until the pesto had a loose and fairly smooth consistency. A pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon, done!
Tuesday: I’ve been leaning on pasta with jarred marinara quite a bit this summer as my go-to easy meal on nights when everyone is hungry and it’s already 6pm. Tonight I served the pasta with roasted zucchini on the side.
Wednesday: I made the recipe that was sent to paid subscribers this week, grilled soy sauce BBQ chicken and broccoli with rice. We ate outside on our back patio, which is always worth the trouble of carrying everything down a flight of stairs to access the backyard.
Thursday: It was a really busy day and I didn’t have time to prep anything for dinner. Ophelia and I rushed in the door from her swim practice at 7:30pm and sat down just as Kamala Harris started giving her acceptance speech. It was a “fend for yourself” dinner night and honestly, I’m not even sure what my kids ate. I had a glass of wine with cheese and crackers!
Friday: I pulled frozen homemade veggie burgers out of the freezer (thank you Jenny from two weeks ago for making and freezing them!) We also grilled a few “real” burgers for those in the family who have declared that veggie burgers “always just taste like beans” (they’re not totally wrong).
A Simple Summer Dessert
I don’t have a cookbook to share this week, but I do have a very simple and delicious summer dessert idea - no recipe required!
All summer my girls and I talked about making a Pavlova, which is a giant meringue that is chewy on the outside with a soft marshmallowy middle. It’s often served with whipped cream and fresh berries on top. It’s a gorgeous dessert.
The Pavlova never happened and I was feeling a little bit guilty about it, until I remembered that Trader Joe’s sells small vanilla meringues. Soooooo, we made whipped cream (you can also use Cool Whip) and spooned it into dessert cups with crumbled meringues and fresh strawberries on top. It was slightly less gorgeous than a Pavlova but still very pretty and delicious!
That’s it for this week! Hope you have a fun and relaxing Labor Day weekend. See you in September!
xo
Jenny