Scaring Up a Winner

Tonight was Halloween, and it was also the time to pick a winner.  I thought long and hard about how to do this, and settled on just declaring the winner later in this post.  Start skimming!

The Bride and I went down to Findlay this morning to pick up the ingredients for two recipes.  Our main course would be the Greek Pita Pockets on page 116 and the side/appetizer was the  Tapenade on page 49.

 The first thing to do (before football started) was to marinate the flank steak.  This can be a rather tough cut of meat, and the long marinade time would help tenderize it.  I put everything in the Ziploc bag and in it went to the fridge!

Later in the evening, as trick-or-treating was winding down,  I started up the coals and then started the tapenade. 

I used the immersion blender from this point to create the paste-like consistency that tapenade requires.  I then cut up the bread for a quick toasting session.

The slices toasted up quickly, and that recipe was done and ready for serving.

Here we have the flank steak after about 7 hours of marinating, before heading to The Forge.

While the flank steak was grilling I assembled the "salad" portion of the "gyro."

Overall, I liked the salad by itself.  Meanwhile, the flank steak was ready!

After the proper resting time, I began slicing up the meat for the gyros.

I notified The Bride that the meal was ready, and it was just in time for Sunday Night Football.

 

The winner of the haiku was Bru.  Not only was her haiku the first, but her request was granted and she was kind enough to stop me in the hallway and inform me that her one-year-old son approved of my Mac and Cheese.  

I liked this recipe for its simple and honest flavors.  The gyros were tasty, although I was nervous as I was plating them.  I happened to sneak a taste of the steak, and it was aggressively peppery.  I was concerned when the marinade called for the amount of pepper that it did, and those fears were confirmed when I tasted the steak for the first time.  However, when paired with the salad and bread, that strong pepper flavor was absorbed by the other ingredients.  The tapenade was a big hit with me.  I'm still learning to appreciate olives, but this spread is amazing on bread.  Great depth of flavor, and terrific bright saltiness make it rather appealing.  The toasted bread is a nice touch as well.   Because of the long marinade time, along with the fact that I have so many other long-marinade recipes to cover, it will be a while before I make this again.  Still, I recommend it for others to try!