Grilled Steak, Berry Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Blue Cheese Salad

With the arrival of summer has come A LOT of outdoor grilling in our house.  Many of our meals consist of some sort of grilled meat or seafood and a bunch of grilled veggies (recipes to come).   Since Mr. S buys his lunch at his work cafeteria, the leftover grilled meat usually becomes my tasty lunch!

Last night, Mr. S grilled EXTREMELY tasty t-bone steaks for dinner.  We also whipped up a tasty berry balsamic vinaigrette, that I knew would find it's way to my plate for a repeat today.  The salad is easy, tasty, and a perfect way to use up leftover grilled steak (or chicken)...and use some of the deliciousness harvested from your garden.

I'm also sharing a secret for perfectly cooked sweet corn.  Mr. S truly thought I was crazy the first time I let him in on this little trick.  But now that he knows he can have a perfectly cooked, juicy, piece of corn in under 5 minutes, he's come around.

Salad Ingredients  (makes 2 dinner salads)
1 head of romaine lettuce (red lettuce, or favorite variety), chopped into bite sized pieces
1-2 (depending on preference) ears of sweet corn, cook, and cut from cobb (see instructions below)
10 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 cucumber chopped into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/8 cup blue cheese crumbles (or more if you love cheese like us!)
8-10 oz. of grilled steak, sliced thinly against the grain

Put lettuce, tomatoes, corn, cucumber in a bowl and toss.  Top with corn, blue cheese, and steak.  Drizzle with berry balsamic dressing.

Power Berry Balsamic Vinaigrette
3 Tablespoons Trader Joe's Organic Super Fruit Jam (or any fruity jam) (more if you want it sweeter)
4 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon onion power
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
sprinkles of mexican chilli powder (if you want it to have a kick)

Place all ingredients in a a mini food processor and pulse for one to two minutes.  Taste, and add more seasonings to taste.  If you want it sweeter, you might need to add more jam (depending on what kind you are using).  Additional salt might also be necessary.

Quick, Easy, Perfectly Cooked Sweet Corn
Place corn IN HUSK in the microwave.  Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Flip the ear and microwave another two minutes.  If cooking 2 or 3 ears, microwave 3 minutes, flip and microwave another 2 minutes.  Let corn cool in the husk for about a minutes.  Peel off the husk an serve immediately.  **Be careful when peeling off husk and corn is likely to be quite hot still**

Something old, something new, something MAPLE!

Tonight for dinner we had one of our tried and true favorite salads and a new chicken recipe....which is now a favorite: Maple Balsamic Grilled Chicken and a salad with greens, pears, gorgonzola, and maple balsamic dressing.

I knew I wanted to make the salad, but had trouble finding a recipe for a maple balsamic chicken that didn't require me to have marinated the night before or for 5 or 6 hours!  Since I couldn't find anything that worked, I decided to create my own.  One of the best parts of Mr. S. working for a spice company is that our cabinets are always full of a plethora of spices and dry seasoning mixes.

Chicken breast can be rubbery and dry if not cooked or prepared well.  In order to combat this, we always pound chicken breasts with a meat tenderizer before marinating or cooking them.  Take each chicken breast and put it in a plastic bag.  Pound it with the meat tenderizer until it's about a half of three quarters of an inch in thickness.

Maple Balsamic Chicken:
1 packet McCormick garlic wine herb marinade
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp real maple syrup
3-4 chicken breasts, pounded as described above.

Mix the spice packet, vinegar, water, and maple syrup together to create the marinade.  Add chicken breasts and marinate for at least 30 minutes (we left it for about 90 minutes).  Heat grill pan to medium high.  Grill chicken about 4-5 minutes on either side.  Because of the maple, the chicken might start to get back.  This happened with ours after about 8 minutes, so I finished it off in the toaster over, on bake for 7 minutes.

Let chicken rest for 2-3 minutes.  Cut chicken breasts on a bias, arrange on plat and serve.


Pear and Gorgonzola Salad

Salad
5 cups torn lettuce-romaine, red leaf, or green leaf
4 ounces crumbled gorgonzola cheese
1 pear, sliced
1/2 c. walnuts (we didn't have any this time)
1/2 c. dried cranberries (optional)

Balsamic-Maple Vinaigrette
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 teaspoons maple syrup
1 ½ teaspoons cold water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1 clove garlic minced




We love this salad and the dressing so much that we asked our wedding venue chefs to create a similar salad for our wedding reception.  It will definitely be part of our dinners for many years to come!