Grilled skirt steak and arugula salad with Rocquefort and Catalina dressing, and Salvadoran grilled corn

Recipes 3 and 4 of the June Gourmet Challenge.

Grilled skirt steak salad recipe here
Salvadoran grilled corn recipe here

This was a surprisingly easy and tasty dinner. I prepared the salad dressing and the corn dip in advance, while Melina was distracted, and the actual grilling of the corn & steak took about 10 minutes. Jeff and I both thought the dressing for the corn tasted like Burger King's special sauce; but I didn't mind. I love grilled corn - it is so much easier to prepare than boiled or steamed corn on the cob, and it's so good with a squeeze of lime and some salt and pepper. The steak salad was great, too. I don't usually go for steak, but this was good. Skirt steak is very thin and it grills up fast. It went very well with the Catalina dressing (which I would make again) and the blue cheese.

Melina liked this meal a lot. She is a "single ingredient" girl - she doesn't like when things are mixed together too much, so she basically got corn, steak, and bread. I think that's pretty typical for a 4-year-old. The chickens enjoyed the leftovers too - they go crazy for corn on the cob. So all in all, we were very satisfied. There was a minor drama when Melina spilled juice in her lap, but it was over quickly.

Another lead test

I got the results back from another lead test today. This one had me test the floor of the play room and the window sill in Melina's room. Interestingly, the test results said "No lead dust hazards identified in samples." Granted, the surfaces were pretty clean, but still I was surprised. Good to know, though. I guess I can let Melina eat off the floor after all.

Spaghetti with Smoky Tomatoes and Onions

Recipe #2 in my effort to make everything in the June 2009 issue of Gourmet.
Link to the recipe

This is a seemingly simple recipe that took about 30% longer than expected. Granted, I'm in a bad mood today, but I found it stressful to have to run back and forth between the grill and the pasta pot. Plus, oily onions are hard to grill because they fall apart and slip though the grill. However, Jeff liked this a lot. Melina only ate the plain spaghetti, along with a hot dog that I microwaved for her. (I was too busy with this recipe to make her anything remotely healthy).

All in all I thought this was too much work for the somewhat bland result (though if I were in a better mood I would just say it was subtle). I like the idea, and I think with double the garlic, double the basil, and double the cheese - and a healthy dose of salt and pepper - it would be better. But given the work and oiliness of it all, it was unsatisfying to feed to Jeff, who was distracted by an annoying computer problem, and Melina, who spent dinner time experimenting with how much she could burp (and say "excuse me") and get away with it.

Romaine, Grilled Avocado, and Smoky Corn Salad with Chipotle-Caesar Dressing

Link to the recipe

Although this ended up being a good salad, I started my experiment off on the wrong foot by completely forgetting to add the chipotle peppers. I put them in the microwave to thaw (because I keep leftover chipotles in the freezer) and I never got them out. I also forgot to add one of the avocados, but for two people, one avocado was fine. (This absentmindedness can be attributed to the fact that Melina was running around outside unattended, and Jeff was loudly sorting through the recyling in the kitchen while I was cooking.) The recipe said this would take 40 minutes, but it only took 20. It was a fine summer salad, but I think with the addition of chipotle it would be much better. I will make it again later in the summer with all of the ingredients.

A Culinary Challenge

Just for fun, I've decided I'm going to make every recipe in the June 2009 issue of Gourmet. I've thought for a while that this would be fun to do, and the June issue had so many good-looking recipes that I decided to go for it. It focuses on Mexican street food, grilled foods, tofu, and steaks, and it doesn't have many recipes that neither Jeff or I will want to eat. I will post links to the recipes (if available) and reviews as I progress through this issue. Rules: There is no time limit (though since a lot of these are grilled, I should do them in the summer) and I can occasionally substitute minor ingredients if needed.

Melina's boyfriend(s)

For the last three out of four weeks, we've been hiking with our friends Sibelia & Simon and their three boys. Melina LOVES these boys (she has said several times that she wants to move in with them). On our first outing we went to Lower McLeay Park and Melina had fun running down the trail at top speed with the boys. It made me a little nervous not to have her anywhere in sight, but Sibelia (who has retained her sanity up to this point) to me to just relax and know that Melina has the presence of mind not to jump off any cliffs. (Not that there were a lot of big cliffs around, but the trail did wind along a streambank). Pretty soon we came up on them all playing at the Old Stone House (a castle-like ruin) down the trail.

Our second outing was to Silver Falls State Park, where there really are cliffs, so the kids had to stay closer. On the safe parts, Melina and her friend S.T. (short for Siddhartha) raced each other up the trail. Apparently they had some sort of contest going whereby if Melina won, she got a pet (like a bunny or a kitten). Apparently she won three pets, which luckily have not materialized yet.

After our hike, we went to a restaurant in Silverton. Melina and S.T. sat across from each other, apart from the rest of us, entertaining each other by blowing bubbles in their milk and stuffing French fries into holes in the floor. (We discovered this part later).

Yesterday we went for a "snow hike" around Lost Lake on Mt. Hood. This was a 3.5-mile hike, which was pretty ambitious to begin with, but it turned out that half of it was still covered in deep snow. We managed to do it anyway. Melina and S.T. raced each other where possible, and the boys had fun whacking bushes with sticks. Only one person fell into a hole and nobody slid down the steep snow field we had to cross above the lake. By the end everyone's feet were soaking wet, and we richly deserved the ice cream bars we got at the little country store there.

The only drawback to all of this running through the woods like a wild animal is that now Melina expects that level of freedom whenever we go hiking with friends. It's a matter of teaching her that some people have different rules than other people do. I have a few friends who are very easygoing, relatively underprotective types (well, not necessarily *under* protective, but not overprotective) - and others who like to have more control. Finding a balance between these different parenting styles is a constant challenge.