Growing up, Saturday nights in the summer meant one thing: Dad searing a chuck steak on the grill.   And not just any marinade would do.  It had to be the one below.  The smell of this marinade causes serious olfactory deja-vu for me.   And the best part is, if you reheat the marinade it makes a great steak sauce.

The cut of steak is also important for my deja-vu’ing.   It must be what is known as a “7 bone steak” to trigger the memories. Mom bought it back then because it was cheap.  We buy it now because we like it.  The 7 bone steak is not named this because it has 7 bones but, because one of the bones in it resmbles a “7″.  Mmm-kay.  If you say so.  But the great thing about this steak is that it gives you a bit of many different cuts and great flavor to boot.  It may be a bit chewier than other cuts but the flavor is worth it. 

The marinade/sauce will work on other cuts of steak.  If you must.

Saturday Night Chuck Steak Marinade 

2/3 cup catsup

½ cup water

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. celery seed

1 TBS. Worcestershire sauce

1 bay leaf

½ tsp. black pepper

½ tsp. Tabasco sauce

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. onion powder 

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Marinate a bone-in center cut chuck steak for at least 2 and up to 8 hours.  Remove steak and reserve marinade.  Grill!

Simmer reserved sauce for 5 minutes and either serve warm with steak or allow to cool.

So we signed up for meatballs.  We made about 60.  Those puppies lasted about 30 seconds around all those 7th and 8th grade linemen.

On the other hand, this year may be our most bounteous harvest yet for the holiday table.  In the past we’ve had little more than a few herbs to use for the big feast but this year we’ll be able to serve our own Brussels sprouts as well as lettuce if we went nuts and decided we needed to ruin our holiday meal with a salad.  There are also a few shallots poking their fronds up from the soil.

Alas, it doesn’t look like the beets I planted in late August are going to amount to anything.  Maybe enough for a garnish at best.  I’ll wait until Thursday to pull a couple and roast ‘em up real fast if there are enough to make a side.

In preparation for the arrival of friends and family we gussied up the yard this weekend.  Mowed, fertilized, raked the remaining leaves.  This year we only threw out one bag of leaves, the rest went to the composting bin to be used over the course of the year.

Also, on Friday I stopped by our guys at NJ Grinding to get our knives sharpened for all the food prep we’ll be doing.

Saturday night was more fish and potatoes….stunningly fresh bluefish from the fish guys at the Montclair Farmer’s Mkt. This time is was a Marcella recipe done in a very similar manner to the cod, but involving a parsley and garlic sauce.  Then it was off to Primo’s football game in the wilds of Bergen County.  They romped 27-7.

Sunday was horseradish crusted pork loin along with Mom’s Red Cabbage.  As usual the pork loin, while perfectly cooked, was very lean and tended towards dry.  But a tasty crust made up for a lot.  With the Principessa’s apple crisp for dessert it was our first real “fall” kind of meal.

Actually that’s the problem. There are no smells coming from our new stove. The nitwits who delivered it said they “weren’t really trained” to hook up a gas stove. So why would I be charged for “installation”?

Hmmmmm.

Hopefully it will be up and running for the weekend.  We’ll keep you posted.

Saturday we tried rib-eye bison steaks from the bison lady at the Montclair Farmer’s Market.  Just simply grilled.  They were OK but we’ve like the filets we’ve had in the past better.  Not really rich enough to be considered a rib-eye.

Sunday we crammed the cavity of a chicken full of herbs and a lemon and roasted it.  The Principessa made a wonderful ratatouille  AND a risotto with one of the butternuts from the garden.   Not our usual chicken and mashed which was nice for a change.

But then I figured what the hell, I’m not doing anything else.  And besides, since the tomato season has ended a bit early (thank you cool and rainy summer) there’s not much else to write about so here goes with our initial “WWALW”

Firs off, I should point out that due to the crazy schedule I work, I rarely get the chance to do much cooking during the week.  Between driving to football practice, picking up at aftercare and whatever activities the Principessa has going on it’s usually a miracle if anything home cooked gets put on the table that’s not leftovers.  So the weekend is when we let hair down. So to speak.

This past weekend we kicked off with (‘natch) a Bittman recipefor mussels and pasta.  Whenever  Bittman posts something involving seafood be it in Bitten or The Minimalist (or both) there’s a good chance we’re going to cook it on Friday night.  Not that we’re religious fanatics or anything, it just works out that way.  Anyway, killer recipe, will do again.

Saturday was an Indian feast,  Jerzeetomato style.  Steve Raichlen’s “Tandoori Style Beer Can Chicken” but instead of beer we used some wine from the packing crate in the fridge.  The Principessa made raita, some wonderful cauliflower and a pilaf from Julie Sahni’s “Classic Indian Cooking” and we also did some chapatis on the grill from (you guessed it) Bittman.  Lots of work for this meal and lots of clean up, which prompted the Principessa to refer to it as “Fricking Indian Thanksgiving”

Sunday, keeping it simple since it was the kickoff for the NFL season and we wanted to spend quality time with the flat screen, we grilled bison steaks we got at the Montclair farmer’s market and made a version of  “Ass the Potatoes” from Mom’s first book. (someday we’ll share the  story of how that dish was named, but for now, buy the book)  Potatoes were fingerlings from the “organic guy” at the farmer’s market.

And one more Bittman on Monday.  We managed to crank out the Pork Skewers with Peanut Basil Sauce and had them with some leftover pilaf.  Good stuff and we realized that the peanut basil marinade/sauce would be good on just about any kind of skewer.  Or just eaten from the bowl with a spoon for that matter.