Flowers, Berries and Sandwiches

sliced steak sandwich2

mountain laurel 2

Strawberries and Cream Desserts

Spring Awakening

I don’t have that many Winners this week.  I’ve been so busy with sick kids and re-adjusting to life after Mom 2.0 ;-) and researching to learn more about my camera and lighting and white balance and drooling over speedlights and lenses….

Go visit the Talented and Lovely Lotus to see more.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Share It If You Like It:
  • StumbleUpon
  • Kirtsy
  • Digg
  • TwitThis
  • del.icio.us
  • Print
  • email
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
Print

Marinated Steak Sandwiches with Basil and Red Pepper Mayonnaise

sliced steak sandwich2

I know, it’s a mouthful (heh)  That is marinated sliced top sirloin topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions and served ona  toasted ciabatta roll with a roasted red pepper and basil mayonnaise.

You want this sandwich, trust me.  You will want to have this sandwich more than once, I have in fact had them twice in two days… it’s really a hard life being a food blogger ;-)

This is probably in my Top 5 of my all time favorite sandwiches, ever.  So, when The Motherhood contacted me about working with them on an “I Heart Beef” on behalf of The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; I did two things.. I immediately said YES, because hello I’m a Texas Girl and I love beef and then I went to the store and bought all the ingredients for this sandwich

This post was sponsored but the recipe is all mine, the opinions, sentiment and enthusiasm are all mine and believe me when I tell you that want to hang around for this one, you want this recipe and you want to enter to win the awesome prize that I’ll tell you about at the end of the recipe.

Let’s Do This:

sliced steak sandwich ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lbs trimmed top sirloin steak
  • 4 ciabatta rolls (This made 3 sandwiches for us.  But, these were LOADED sandwiches *ahem*)
  • 1 yellow onion, medium, sliced
  • 10 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 7 cloves of garlic, divided 4 and 3, sliced
  • 3/4 C worcestershire
  • 1/4 C Soy sauce
  • 1 to 3 Tbsp Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce (I use 3 for the marinade and more later)
  • 3 Tbsp Rachel’s Simple Seasoning*  will share recipe below

ingredients for basil/red pepper mayo

  • 1/4 C Mayonnaise
  • 1 whole roasted red bell pepper, rough chopped (I use Fire Roasted in a Jar)
  • 3 to 4 Fresh Basil Leaves, chopped
  1. Trim the steak and put in a large ziploc baggie, add in 4 chopped garlic cloves
  2. In a bowl or glass measuring cup mix the soy sauce, worcestershire, Seasoning and Hot Saucemarinade
  3. Pour over steak and garlic in bag, seal and refrigerate for at LEAST 3 hours.

For The Mayonnaise:

  1. Mix chopped red pepper, basil and mayonnaise together along with another dash of hot sauce (y’all know how I am) and then cover and refrigerate.

After The Steak Has Marinated

  1. Slice the onions and mushrooms
  2. Place 1/2 stick of butter on a skillet and allow it to melt while the griddle/skillet heats up melting butter
  3. Place the sliced onions, 3 cloves of garlic and mushrooms in the butter on the griddle/skillet and sautee until caramelized and the smell of them makes you want to dive headfirst into them (resist this urge, it’s painful)onions and mushrooms
  4. While the onions are cooking, slice your steak into 1/4″ (width) strips
  5. Remove cooked onions and mushrooms and set aside in a covered dish
  6. Put your steak on the griddle/skillet and drizzle with a bit more hot sauce (optional) and some crushed red pepper flakessliced steak
  7. Cook the steak strips for 3 to 5 minutes
  8. Remove from heat and add to the covered dish with mushrooms, onions and garlic.
  9. Scrape the griddle a bit and then put your ciabatta roll halves onto the griddle to toast the inside and outside.
  10. Remove the toasted halves and slather with the insanely delicious Herb Mayonnaise that you made earlierciabatta bread with mayo

Do not be afraid of this mayonnaise, it is your friend.  It adds a cool, creamy, fresh zing to this piping hot sandwich.

Now, load your sandwich with the meat, mushroom, onion, garlic mixture

Marinated Steak Sandwich

Devour.

You’re Welcome. ;-)

Now, for even more deliciousness.

Check out the Beef It’s What’s For Dinner website, seriously amazing recipes and inspiration as well as tips and information can be found on there, I have it bookmarked y’all, it is that good.

The Motherhood and The I Heart Beef people have offered one of my readers a $100 Gift Certificate to Omaha Steaks (I am supremely envious of whomever wins this)

Wanna win this delicious gift card? Here’s how:

  1. (Mandatory) Leave a comment here telling me your favorite way to serve Beef (Steak, hamburger…) Your favorite recipe
  2. (BONUS) Visit the I Heart Beef website and tell me which recipe there makes your mouth water
  3. (BONUS) Follow Beef For Dinner on Twitter and tell me in a comment
  4. (BONUS) Tweet this and leave the Twitter URL in a separate comment

This contest will end at 10:00 PM CST on February 28th.  I will choose the winner and they will have the $100 GC sent to them electronically by the FABULOUS ladies of The Motherhood (if you aren’t a member, you should go join, seriously)

There are several other bloggers who are joining me in this deliciously beefy campaign; you may enter to win on their blogs, too.  But, you can only win once and each individual sets their own contest rules:

Rachel’s Simple Seasoning (RSS) or My Favorite Seasoning Blend for Meat

  • 1/4 C salt
  • 1/4 C Garlic Powder
  • 1 Tbsp Onion Powder
  • 1 Tbsp Paprika
  • 1/4 C Coarsely Ground Pepper
  • 1 tsp Ground Mustard
  • 1 tsp Comino (Cumin)
  • 1 tsp cayenne
  • dash cinnamon

these are all full measurements

Congratulations to our winner!!  Tammy Munson commenter #25


Popularity: 49% [?]

Share It If You Like It:
  • StumbleUpon
  • Kirtsy
  • Digg
  • TwitThis
  • del.icio.us
  • Print
  • email
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
Print

The Beauty of Hands

The amazing ladies of I Heart Faces hold a weekly photography link up and contest; I have never entered but I always follow along because they inspire me and I am in awe.
This week it was hands, I have found myself drawn to hands, to taking pictures of them, staring at them. I think that hands tell a story about who you are and how you’ve lived, what your passions are.

So, I thought that I’d share a few of my Hand pictures with y’all. I hope that y’all are as inspired as I am.

My Granny’s Hands: Timeless Grace, Long Lived Beauty, Strength, Comfort and Love

granny's hand

My Dad’s Hands: Strong, Kind, Musical, Loving

Daddy's Hands w watermark

Nathan’s Hands: Providing, Loving, Gentle, Caressing, Strong, Beautiful, Powerful

nate's hand on the wood lathe

10 Day Old Newborn Hands:  Trusting, Soft, New, Tiny, Endless Possibility

baby lily's hand 2

Popularity: 25% [?]

Share It If You Like It:
  • StumbleUpon
  • Kirtsy
  • Digg
  • TwitThis
  • del.icio.us
  • Print
  • email
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
Print

Create Your Day with Quaker

oatmeal

To participate in the Quaker Oatmeal Create Your Day program, I was compensated for writing this post regarding my Quaker experience.  Quaker did not tell me what type of creations I should make nor did they require me to use any specific ingredients.

I love Oatmeal, heck.. I love food. If you were in the Niche Panel at Blissdom, you heard me say that.. multiple times

When I’m presented the opportunity to combine my love of food, my love of writing and my love for charity.. It’s like the trifecta of awesome. Quaker has once again thrown down the gauntlet and challenged us with the opportunity to have some fun and donate to amazing charity, Share Our Strength, by using our love of applications, social networking and food (hello.. another trifecta).

Quaker has created an application that allows you to Create Your Day.   Go to their website and create the perfect breakfast for you, for a friend, your child’s teacher, your husband.. whomever you’d like.   Using their application, answer a few questions and it creates a fun card with the ideal oatmeal to get them revved and ready for whatever lies ahead of them that day.  It then allows you to share it via email or facebook.  For every dish that you create (4 per day) through March 31, 2010… they will donate $1 up to $25,000 whoops… $25,o0o has already been donated!!! So they’ve upped the ante to $50,000.

Let’s make Quaker eat that $50,000 and up it to $75,000.

Please help me in this.  No child, no family, no person in this country should go hungry.

Please accept this challenge. Take 5 minutes out of your day, once, twice, four times a day and have some fun and help Quaker help others.

Create Your Day Experience_1266893131737

What’s your favorite way to eat Oatmeal?   The picture at the top of the post?  That’s my oatmeal:  Brown Sugar, Greek Yogurt and Walnuts with a hint of skim milk and butter.

Quaker has offered delicious and fun Create Your Day Starter Kits (Quaker Instant Oatmeal and a Place Setting) to two of my readers.  To be entered:

  1. Tell Me How You Start Your Day
  2. (Bonus) Tweet this giveaway (4 times a day) Leave in a separate comment with the tweet URL
  3. (Bonus) Use The Create Your Day app and tell me how many Days were created when you did yours. (see the hanging counter in the pic above) ****

I will pick two winners on Thursday, February 25th at 10:00 PM CST.

****When I Created my husband’s day:  28,000 days had been created.. that is $28,000 dollars for Share Our Strength.

congratulations to our winners!  Lori and Brigid


Popularity: 34% [?]

Share It If You Like It:
  • StumbleUpon
  • Kirtsy
  • Digg
  • TwitThis
  • del.icio.us
  • Print
  • email
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
Print

What You Do Matters

I know that I always post my recipes on Monday but, I have just gotten home from the Mom 2.0 Summit and I was so inspired there by all of the women that were there.
Powerful, Strong, Intelligent, Amazing, Talented, Beautiful, Soulful, Passionate Women.

This Monday, I am postponing my recipe and linky and sharing this instead.

This video by the sublimely talented Katherine Center is powerful and moving.
I am asking each of you to take 3 minutes out of your day and watch this video, listen to it, truly hear what she says and let the images sink in and touch your heart the very way that they did to all of us at Foto-Fest. This video inspired us and moved many to tears.

Friday night we had the distinct honor and pleasure of attending the VERY special and AMAZING Mom 2.0 Foto-Fest Gallery. It was powerful beyond words. At the gallery, Katherine asked us: “What do you do that Matters?” and then she painted that answer on the attendees, the line for that honor; lasted the whole time and was out the door.

mom 2.0 foto fest

Jyl

mom 2.0 passion

I don’t know who this is.  I wish that I did, it’s so beautiful.

mom 2.0 no fear

Me

mom 2.0 me

I’m asking you, what Katherine asked us: What Do You Do That Matters?

Popularity: 35% [?]

Share It If You Like It:
  • StumbleUpon
  • Kirtsy
  • Digg
  • TwitThis
  • del.icio.us
  • Print
  • email
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
Print

Markers and Merlot Fund

The Past

Proud Kitchenista!!

kitchenistas

Land O’ Moms

Photobucket

Project 365

www.flickr.com

2K10 Tastemaker of The Year

tastemakers

#TeamAnissa

Daily Subscriptions

I Spoke!

Blissdom Conference ~ Nashville ~ February 4-6 2010

Vacation Fund


Visit savvy source groups & quiz

A Few Suggestions

Photo Calendars are a perfect gift for any occasion!

Grocery Money

MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected

They Get Me

Blog Widget by LinkWithin