falling behind

Now that I have my daughter and her family here temporarily, I have a small window of opportunity to blog about new recipes. Right now, my granddaughter is getting ready for bed and all is quiet, a good time to gather my thoughts.
 
Last week, I prepared from Peppery Flank Steak Tagliata in the Oven a recipe I found on The New York Times Cooking app. The recipe was developed by David Tanis. For the recipe you’ll need flank steak, black peppercorns, fresh rosemary, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, arugula, Pecorino Papago, Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese of shaving and a lemon wedge.
 
Fortunately this time around, I read the recipe earlier in the day and didn’t have to shortchange the marinating time, which is several hours in the refrigerator. If you don’t have the luxury of time, the recipe says you can leave the meat on the counter for hour prior to cooking. The marinade consists of crushed pepper, rosemary leaves and garlic slices. 

The recipe calls for preheating a cast iron skillet for at least 30 minutes at 450° before placing the meat in the pan. You could also broil the steak, but I love a grilled piece of meat; so chose to cook the steak on a gas grill. The steak came out perfectly. My husband thinly sliced it against the grain yielding tender and juicy slices, which everyone enjoyed.
 
The next evening I prepared yet another NY Times recipe, this one by developed by Charlotte Druckman called Marsala-Marinated Chicken with Roasted Vegetables. The beauty of this recipe is everything is cooked on a sheet pan. For the recipe you’ll need shallots, Dijon mustard, honey, Marsala wine, extra virgin olive oil, chicken thighs, fresh oregano, carrots, mixed mushrooms, apple cider vinegar and 10 ounces of salad greens.
 
Luckily I had some extra uncooked boneless chicken thighs left from taco night that fit this recipe perfectly. I also add several skinless, boneless chicken breasts to make sure I had enough food. Fortunately there was nearly enough Marsala wine left in the bottle for the marinade. I Iike to keep inexpensive wines on hand such as Marsala, sherry and port just in case I need some for a recipe. Instead of a fresh mix of mushrooms (creamini or shiitake) I used dehydrated mix mushrooms that I purchased on sale at Williams-Sonoma. I merely had to rehydrate them in boiling water before using. My fresh oregano came from my garden.
 
The marinade is of made shallots, honey, mustard, salt, pepper, Marsala and olive oil. Part of the marinade is set aside for delicious vinaigrette for the side salad. The chicken marinates for 3 hours, or if you don’t have that much time, 30 minutes at room temperature.
 
The chicken and vegetables are roasted at 425° for approximately 35-40 minutes. Once the chicken is cooked, it’s set aside and the vegetables are cooked an additional 10 minutes to crisp, golden and caramelized. 
 
For the side salad I used the fresh green leaf lettuce that my husband had in the garden. To the remaining marinade, apple cider vinegar, more olive oil and salt and pepper were added to make vinaigrette. The vinaigrette had a lively flavor that was a nice contrast to the neutral green leaf lettuce.
 
Overall a delicious and tasty dinner. The Marsala infused chicken had a nice subtle flavor that wasn’t overpowering. It went well with the roasted carrots, shallots and mushrooms.