Honey Roasted Garlic Sirloins

On April 09, 2006 in Different Dinner Project, Recipes

4 eight ounce sirloin steaks
1/2 cup honey
1 bulb (12 cloves) roasted garlic
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon thyme
black pepper

  1. Preheat grill or oven broiler to high.
  2. Rub steaks liberally with black pepper and allow to sit at room temperature while making sauce.
  3. Combine honey, roasted garlic, vegetable oil, water and thyme in a food processor until very smooth.
  4. Put steaks on the grill and allow to sear grill marks, then rotate 90 degrees to make a crosshatch.
  5. Flip steaks and baste seared side with honey roasted garlic sauce. Rotate 90 degrees to form a crosshatch on the other side.
  6. Reduce heat to medium low, turn once again and baste with remaining sauce.
  7. Cook steaks until desired doneness.

Makes 4 servings

Tangerine and Candied Cranberry Salad

On April 09, 2006 in Different Dinner Project, Recipes

1/2 cup cranberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups spinach
2 medium tangerines, sectioned
1/4 small cucumber, sliced
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

  1. Combine orange juice, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper and refrigerate.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  3. Arrange cranberries on a tinfoil lined baking sheet and cover with sugar. Bake until sugar begins to lightly caramelize, about 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
  4. Prepare salad by arranging a bed of spinach leaves, then topping with cucumber, tangerine pieces, candied cranberries and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Drizzle with dressing to serve.

Makes 2 servings

The Meat of the Matter

On April 09, 2006 in Different Dinner Project

We ate at Moxie's for lunch today with my grandma and made another Moxie's inspired dinner. Shannon has some definite favorites from that chain. I'm not very familiar it outside of their basil mayonnaise, so I pretty much have to make it up as I go. The Madras Curry Penne turned out fairly well, so I figured I'd give it another go. I'm happy again with the results, this time making Honey Roasted Garlic Sirloins. Surprisingly the sauce didn't completely char and it wasn't incredibly sweet, being comprised mostly of honey. I added a lot of pepper which really worked well with the smoky flavor (of course, since pepper is in pretty much any meat rub known to (wo)man) but also with the honey flavor.

We were having trouble coming up with side dishes, despite a still seemingly endless supply of standard salads and grilled vegetables. Instead we went in a completely opposite direction and made a Tangerine and Candied Cranberry Salad. The tangerines on the shelves right now are amazing. I'm quite partial to the taste of citrus in general, but since tangerines aren't available as often I tend to like them that much more. That part of the salad was good. The candied cranberries were still quite bitter. The whole desired candied effect didn't really seem to work out too well and instead just left some run off syrup stuck to my baking sheet. The salad dressing could've used something to thicken it a bit as well, but other than that it's a good combination of fruit and vegetables for a sort of spring side salad. I was going to prepare broccoli as well but basically forgot as things went on. This was quite filling on its own so it would've been completely unnecessary anyway.