Grogonzola and Herb Tenderloin Steaks

More Rachael for you to love. :) This is definitely an adaptation though, because Rachael suggests serving with pasta and roasted garlic/grape tomatoes. So very labor intensive, especially because it involved using the oven. Girlfriend does not have that kind of time on her hands. So I just made the steak.

INGREDIENTS:

-About 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped.

-4 beef tendersloin steaks, about 1 1/4 inch thick

-8-10 fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced

-A handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

-1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

DIRECTIONS:

-Season the steaks with salt and pepper, and the chopped garlic. Drizzle lightly on both sides with EVOO. Combine the sage, parsley and Gorgonzola.

-Heat a skillet over high heat. Add the steaks and sear the meat on both sides; 90 seconds per side should do it.

-Top the meat with the Gorgonzola mixture and keep covered on medium heat for another minute or so, until the cheese has started to melt.

COMMENTS:

-We served this with our old friend asparagus. If you're interested in the roasted garlic/grape tomatoes stuff that Rachael served it with, just ask and I can send the info along.

-As with last night's meal, I don't know where Rachael gets her cooking times from. 90 seconds? We were cooking for easily 10-15 minutes for a medium steak. Be prepared for this.

-The sage...is a little strong, to say the least. This was the first time I cooked with fresh sage and Craig told me too late that a little goes a long way. I think Rachael overdid it on this one. Craig had to pick out any sage leaves he could find. But minus the strong sage taste, this was a pretty good recipe. I'll do 3-4 sage leaves next time!!

Balsamic Chicken with Pesto Gravy

I'M BACK! I know, random unexplained absence. Suffice it to say that Thanksgiving and the events thereafter made it quite difficult to focus on my cooking adventures.

That said, I'm back with some good ol' Rachael Ray recipes again this week. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp EVOO

4 small boneless chicken breasts

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup store-bought pesto

DIRECTIONS:

-In a bowl, combine the vinegar, 2 tbsp of the EVOO, and salt/pepper to taste. Add the chicken and turn to coat.

-Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with 1 tbsp of the EVOO. Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes on each side.

-Remove the chicken to a cutting board. Add the butter to the skillet, and when it has melted, add the flour and cook for a minute or so. Whisk in the chicken stock and cream and bring up to a simmer to thicken. Remove from the heat and stir in the pesto.

-Pour the pesto gravy over the chicken and serve.

COMMENTs:

-First, I don't know what planet Rachael was on, cooking that chicken for only 10 minutes. We had ours cooking 20 minutes easily. One thing to watch for: the balsamic vinegar burns when its left to cook that long. We had to turn the chicken a lot in order to prevent this.

-Before the pesto is added, the gravy tastes a lot like regular old gravy. (I've never made "regular old gravy" before so I was excited to find this out.) I ended up adding a little more than the 1/4 cup of pesto Rachael suggested. The pesto gravy was really tasty, made it more interesting than normal gravy.

-Rachael suggests serving with an arugula salad; we went low maintenace with some canned corn. Yum!