flank steak for a wednesday night

Although in my previous post I mentioned that my husband and I rarely eat beef, it seems this week, we've had it two nights in a row. However, Foodtown had flank steak on sale for $8.99/lb. I can't believe how expensive this cut of meat has gotten over the years. I felt like having some grilled beef, so I got out my recipe for spice-rubbed grilled flank steak, which is a recipe by Ruth Cousineau from Gourmet Magazine, August 2001. 

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This is another go to recipe for me. I've made for family suppers and dinner parties. Although the meat is to marinate for at least eight hours, I did it only for four hours, poor planning on my part. Despite the short period of marinating, the spicy mixture permeated the meat and was very aromatic. I had the meat come to room temperature a bit before grilling. I grilled it eight minutes per side and it was perfect, a little rare in the center.

As I had some lentils left over from the weekend, I scoured the epicurious.com website for a recipe I could use for my cooked lentils. I came across lentil salad with tomato and dill. The recipe appeared in Gourmet Magazine August 2005. I tweaked the recipe since my lentils were already cooked. I added chopped garlic and dried dill instead of fresh. I had to amp up the salt a bit as I cooked my lentils in plain water. I must say, the lentil salad was terrific. I used both the basil and heirloom tomatoes from our garden. It was a great alternative to potatoes. I rounded out our sides with sweet, white corn from Matt's Farm Market (65¢ an ear, when purchasing less than a dozen).