Meat. Beautiful Meat.

I am a steak girl. Always have been. Always will be.

If it's grilled, even better.

This week's recipe features flank steak.

Start with a marinade and end with a rub.

Delicious.

Marinade

1 1/2 - 2 lb flank steak

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 Tbsp lime zest

1/4 cup red wine

4 garlic cloves coarsely chopped

1 tsp Vindaloo spice mix (Penzeys Spices)

1 tsp Adobo spice (Penzeys Spices)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp dried chopped onion or 1/4 cup fresh chopped onion

Start by scoring the flank steak. Then place in a 1 gallon zip loc bag.

Place all remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour the marinade mixture into the bag covering the flank steak. Refrigerate and marinate 6 - 24 hours. Turn the meat every few hours to keep the marinade evenly distributed.

Remove the flank steak from the marinade and give it a good rub down. Here's how...

Sprinkle each side of the steak with kosher salt and your favorite seasoning. We like Montreal Steak Seasoning around here. Then generously sprinkle more of the Vindaloo and Adobo spices over that. Now rub the spices into the meat getting it into all those lines you perfectly scored.

Your perfectly marinated and rubbed steak is now ready for the grill. We have a gas grill, but whatever your method make sure you pre-heat if for a few minutes before placing the steak on the grill.

We also love grilled veggies with our steak. Peppers and onions are the perfect accompaniment. Here's what you will need...

1 large onion coarseley chopped

2 red, orange, or yellow peppers (whatever you prefer) coarsely chopped

Throw them in a grill pan and onto your grill about 5 or 10 minutes before you put the steak on.

 Now place your flank steak on the grill and cook it to your liking. We are medium rare people. So it's about 5-7 minutes on each side. Watch it carefully and use a meat thermometer if you need to. An over cooked steak is a very sad thing.

To add even more beautiful flavor you can serve with chopped avocado, cilantro and feta cheese.

This is a fantastic dinner on a warm evening. My wine recommendation for this meal (and my new obsession) is New Age Wine. Serve over ice with a few slices of lime and you will be in heaven!

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Enjoy!

Laurie

Aqua ~ Just a smidge please...

The perfect color this time of year. So light and airy. Aqua evokes that breezy summer feeling.

Love it!

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What color are you seeing these days?

Enjoy the day!

Laurie

Happenings

So much going on around here. Where do I start? 

How about backwards...

Last week I faced a milestone birthday. Yes, I will tell you just this once.

fitty

50

the big five-O

Next year I will be 49 and continue counting backwards until I reach 40.

Then bounce back up to 49.

And so on and so forth.

My husband gave me the best birthday present ever. He took me to a resort in Puerto Vallarta. Nothing to do for six days!

Turning 50 was painless.

Wonderful in fact.

He is a very good man. I will keep him thank you very much!

Backing up from there which is really hard to do because I just want to stay there...

About 12 weeks ago my husband and I joined a crazy gym with two core values.

Fitness and nutrition.

I mean hard core.

At least for us.

The workouts are CrossFit and the nutrition is Paleo.

It started because of the approaching birthday. Aging strong seems like a really good idea.

We get up at 5:15am M,W,F and hit the gym at 6:00 sharp. Never show up late for a workout or you will have to do burpees.  The workouts are always in a group and we all do the same thing. Ages range from young adult to mid 60's. Everyone goes at their own pace, level and strength. The support is amazing and our instructor doesn't let us get away with anything!

It's a love/hate relationship.

The nutrition is Paleo. Also known as the Cave man diet or Primitive. You can google search any of these terms and find tons of information.

In a nutshell... Paleo is eating grain free and sugar free.

Meats, veggies and fruits are the staples of a Paleo diet.

Just look at this gorgeous food...

We are enjoying this chosen lifestyle.
Except at 5:15am!

The food is beautiful and tasty.
We are getting stronger.

Aging strong...

It's a good thing!

For the foodies out there and the curious, I will be sharing a Paleo recipe each week. As always, if you have anything to add or a great recipe to share..
Speak up. Feel free. Add your comment. Let your voice be heard.

If you live in the Pacific NW, enjoy the sunshine!
Finally!!!

~Laurie

Pull it Together!

How many times have you walked through your home wishing you could give it a fresh look? Do you have a room that frustrates you? No money in the budget for new stuff?

Don't worry you can pull it together and end up with a space you really love! Here are three steps to get you started.

1.  Look around. Really look.  It is easy to walk past a room or area and not even see it anymore. Is the space functioning the way you want it to? Define it's purpose.

2. Clean it up! Are there cobwebs, dust bunnies and piles of stuff? By giving your space a good cleaning you will instantly feel better about it.

3. Remove distracting items. It's weird but we keep items we can't stand! Take away the things you don't love. Okay, I understand if it's your sofa or main piece of furniture and has to stay.

Now that you have defined the purpose, cleaned it up and taken away those ugly, distracting items... You are ready to move on.

We are going to use my sofa table as an example. This is a "before" photo. The beautiful planter with the antlers used to have pears in it. The pears are long gone, a picture was turned sideways and it was dusty and boring. This is a perfect example of walking by something and just not seeing it anymore.

 Step one: Look around

Step two: Clean it up

Step three: Remove distractions

  Now you're ready for phase two. This is the fun part!

1. Shop and gather. Shop your own home. Walk through your house and pull a few items you love from other areas.

These are the items I found.

 2. Try it out. Now that you've gathered your items give it a test run. You could start with the largest item in the center and go from there.

3. Edit. Stand back and take a look. Do you love it? Is something not right? Try editing. Take something away and see how you like it.

 

4. Stop. Sometimes you have to know when enough is enough! There has to be a stopping point or this could go on all day. At least for me!

I ended up with the photo on the right. I took away the throw and the candles in front of the hurricane filled with corks. Can you see it? (I wonder who drinks all that wine...) Then added back the striped vase. It's just behind the huge dictionary. Added some antlers and a few smaller candles.

That's it. My finished space. Now that you're feeling outrageously inspired... go. Pull it together!

Do you have any great decorating tips or tricks? Share. The rest of us would love to hear them!