Easy Cheesy Grilled Skirt Steak Pinwheels

If you like steak, cheese and spinach, (three of the main food groups) you will love these cheesy pinwheels! They are quick and easy to make and will impress your guests with their attractive display.

If you can’t find skirt steak, no worries! You can use flank steak. I prefer the skirt steak because it has a beefier taste to me.

Cook / Prep Time: about an hour

Servings : Two (about 4 pinwheels)

Special equipment needed: a meat mallet or tenderizer and some kitchen twine.

• 1 lb skirt steak
• 3 ounce baby spinach leaves, chopped
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 lg shallot, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 oz shaved or shredded parmesan
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 1 sprig fresh basil leaves
• 1 tsp ground thyme
• Salt
• Pepper

Pound the skirt steak into a rectangle about 1/4” thick.

Season both sides with salt and pepper. Turn the skirt steak vertically on a counter. Mix the lemon juice and olive oil together and brush onto the beef. Sprinkle the thyme leaves on it. Spread the chopped shallots and garlic evenly onto the meat. Pinch the basil leaves and dot them over the shallots and garlic. Evenly spread the Parmesan cheese over it. Spread the chopped spinach over the parmesan cheese. Add the provolone slices evenly on top.

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Roll the meat up jelly roll style and it should look like this…

Cut 4 pieces of kitchen twine about 12” in length.

Tie them around the skirt roll and cut off the excess twine. Season with more salt and pepper if necessary. At this point, you can pop it in a 350 degree oven if you want and cook for about 30 minutes until desired doneness, or you can slice them and fry them or grill them. In my case, I grilled them.

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Place them on a hot grill and grill them for about 4 minutes on each side and them place them in a 350 degree oven for about another 6-7 minutes for medium rare. They will tend to be tough if well done or overcooked. Let them rest with tented aluminum foil over them for about 5 minutes and serve.

Enjoy!

Meatless Monday: Pan Fried Mozzarella Marinara

Just another meatless Monday… Who doesn’t love fried cheese? I sure do – especially with homemade marinara sauce – and it’s easy to prepare!

You can make it even easier if you use store bought marinara sauce! Just skip the steps to prepare the sauce.

Or if you want to use fresh tomatoes for the sauce, you can find my recipe for that here…

https://kerrysfoodthymes.blog/2019/09/05/homemade-marinara-sauce-using-fresh-tomatoes/

Cook/Prep Time – about an hour

Servings – 2

Ingredients:

For the Marinara sauce…

• 1 – 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 small carrot
• 1 small celery rib
• 1 shallot
• 1 small bell pepper
• 2 large cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh basil
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• Salt
• Black pepper

For the Mozzarella….

• 3 – 1/4 inch slices of loaf mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp fresh basil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup panko
• 1 tbsp dried Italian seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/4 cup canola oil (for frying the cheese)

For the sauce, finely chop the carrot, shallot, celery, pepper and garlic. Place the olive oil in a saucepan or Dutch oven on medium heat and add the chopped vegetables. Sauté while stirring for about 10 minutes. Add the red wine and cook another 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and turn heat down to low. Chop the basil coarsely and stir it in. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low heat, stirring frequently for 30 minutes.

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While the marinara is simmering, prepare a cheese marinade by adding the olive oil, red wine, basil and crushed garlic and a dash of salt and pepper to a dish and add the sliced mozzarella and marinate for 15 minutes.

For the breading, whisk the egg and add the milk and stir together. Set up a breading station with a plate or dish of flour, and another with the panko mixed with the Italian seasoning.

Keeping one hand wet and one hand dry, grab a slice of cheese with your wet hand and place it in the flour and press the flour onto both sides with your dry hand. Place the floured slice into the egg wash and wet both sides with your wet hand. Remove the slice with your wet hand and place it in the panko mixture, pressing it onto both sides with your dry hand. Repeat the process with the rest of the slices.

Heat the canola oil in a skillet on medium heat. When the oil gets hot, fry the cheese slices until browned and flip and brown the other side. Remove from skillet and top with the hot marinara sauce. Serve with your choice of pasta. (I used pappardelle)

Enjoy!

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Suggested songs to listen to while preparing the goodness…..

How about Luciano Pavarotti‘s “Pavarotti: The Duets” released in 2008 featuring duets with Elton John, Eric Clapton, Mariah Carey, Sting, Frank Sinatra and others?

“Manic Monday” – written by Prince and made famous by the Bangles from their 1986 album Different Light. Just substitute the word “meatless” in place of “manic” while preparing this dish!

Easy Smoked Sausage and Roasted Vegetable Sheet Pan Dinner

Did someone say Sausage Party? Let’s do this! This is a very easy rainy day meal to put together and is ready to eat in about an hour. Any precooked sausage will work. You could use Italian Sausage, Andouille, Kielbasa, Bratwurst or most any precooked sausage. I used a Vidalia onion and uncured bacon smoked sausage that I picked up at our local Kroger..

• You could probably use raw sausage, but I would eliminate the olive oil and would turn more often while in the oven because of the fat being released from the raw sausage.

Servings – 3-4

Cook/Prep Time – about an hour

Ingredients…

• 3 precooked 5-6 ox sausage links
• 8 small gold or red potatoes
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 medium sweet onion
• 1 large shallot
• 1 rib celery
• 2 small sweet peppers
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 small fresh tomatoes
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 packet Good Seasons Italian dressing mix
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• salt should not be necessary

Preheat oven to 450. Peel the onions, carrots, shallot and garlic. Clean and wash all the vegetables. Cut the sausage diagonally. Halve the potatoes. Cut the other vegetables into about 1 1/2 inch chunks. Place in bowl. Add the Italian seasoning mix, pepper, paprika and olive oil and mix together.

Place in oven and cook 15 minutes. Turn the mixture with a spatula and cook another 10-15 minutes. Thats it!

Enjoy!

Songs for your listening pleasure while preparing this dish….

“We Built This City (on sausage rolls)” by Ladbaby (single only) released in the fall of 2018. This is a reworked version of Starship’s “We built This City” Ladbaby’s single went to number one in the U.K. in December 2018, knocking Ariane Grande off the top spot.

“(Ain’t Nothin’ But a) House Party” From the album “Bloodshot” by the J. Geils Band released in April 1973 while I was a Senior in high school. I had the album and it was a really cool red vinyl. The other standout track on this album is “Give it to Me”

“Smokey Robinson 18 Greatest Hits” released in 1983 featuring “The Tracks of My Tears” , “I Second That Emotion” and “Cruisin’ “

“Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again” by The Fortunes from their album “Here Comes That Ring Day Feeling Again” released in May 1971

*UPDATE – I had to add my favorite Monkee’s song since Peter Tork passed today… “Daydream Believer” from their album “The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees” released in October 1967 when I was 12 years old. I remember watching their show every Monday evening preceding our Boy Scout meetings at our Scoutmaster’s house. R.I.P. Peter!