12 days of Eating....

and eating.. and gorging... and drinking...

For the past 2 weeks, I've attended numerous social gatherings with friends that included lots of cheese, creamy dips, and many bottles of wine.  I've gone out to multi-course luncheons with customers and indulged in our awesome office holiday party and even participated in a  work cookie swap (which I won, "Most Creative Cookie!" for my "Mrs. Claus Whoop Ass Whoopie")

Cook Swap Samplings

From succulent lamb lollipops and baked stuffed two pounds lobster at the Beacon Grille, the absolute best gnocchi at Strega Waterfront to    PF Chang's "Great Wall of Chocolate " cake, my dress pants are definitely getting a bit tighter. Tis' the season to gain a few holiday pounds... after all I still have a few more days until New Years to get on those resolutions.

Beacon Grille's Sirloin

Beacon Grille's Lamp Lollipop

Salvatore's Arancini Fiorentina 

Salvatore's Margarita Pizza

Fried Calamari

Salvatore's Mussels Napolitano

 Having the next 4 days off work gives me the time to go grocery shopping at a variety of stores (not just Market Basket) and prepare some labor intensive or time consuming meals.  Most importantly, it also gives me time to BLOG!

For the next few days, I will post food pictures of the many meals I plan to make or indulge in over our short time off.

Cambodian Noodle Soup "Ka Thiew"
Courtesy of Mo's Aunt

We began our long weekend of great eating with the Mo's aunt noodle soup.  This is a staple in most Southeast Asian countries where noodles and beef or chicken or pork broth makes a hearty meal and satisfies almost every tummy.  Having a mother that is also a great cook, it's sometimes difficult for me to eat other people's cooking and enjoy it or not be biased.

This is NOT the case with Mo's aunt noodle soup broth. She simmers the beef bones for hours to maximize the beef broth flavor just as my mom does.  It's absolutely delicious and I know we will be back at least one more time for a 2nd round of noodle soup.

When I went food shopping at Market Basket, Delmonico steak was on sale.  I got 2 decent size portions for under $ 10.00, which is quite a steal!  The Mo loves steak so I wanted to surprise him and serve it for dinner.  Although steak doesn't necessarily need to be marinated, I went ahead and used this recipe found on allrecipes.com.

Onions, Rosemary, Steak Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Garlic, Salt, Pepper
and olive oil in a mini food processor

Delmonico Steak

Adding the marinade to the steaks

With already chapped skin and a super dry face, it was probably not the best interest for me to be outside grilling in 30 degrees weather so I decided to cook the steak indoors using a combination of pan searing and baking in the oven.  For sides, I made oven roasted Yukon potatoes and a zucchini and summer squash casserole.

Potatoes tossed with garlic, Italian herbs, salt, pepper, crushed red peppers and olive oil

Zucchini and summer squashed pan fried with butter, Italian herbs and fried garlic

Crush croutons for a crispy topping for the vegetable casserole

Layer casserole with shredded cheese, crushed croutons and fried crispy onions

Bake at 400 for 10 mins

To cook the rib-eye steak (aka Delmonico), I used Alton Brown's Pan-Seared Rib-Eye recipe. Since my meat was already marinated, I did not add the extra salt or pepper. Also, I left the steaks in the oven for 5 minutes on each side for a perfect medium well" done-ness." It was great paired with Merlot.

It was my perfect steak yet, I'm not sure if it was the marinade or the cooking method, but I will sure make this recipe again!  Not only did the Mo finish his steak but he ate half of mine! :)

Happy Holiday and cheers to good eating!