How can anyone be a vegetarian?

Actually the whole quote was "A meal like this makes me wonder how anyone can be a vegetarian", spoken by my son.  The dish was very enjoyable and I have included it before, Beef Salad with Asian Dressing.

Of course there needs to be a twist! Two of the ingredients this recipe calls for are sesame oil and a chili.  Does anyone else make shopping lists them leave the list at home?  I do it too often!  Did pretty well today, the only thing I forgot from the list was a chili.  Once I stared cooking I discovered I was out of sesame oil which I thought I had.  Thanks to Jane Z I have O & Co's chili oil  - that seemed like the perfect substitute for the 2 missing ingredients. Recipe calls for skirt steak but I always use flank steak, I prefer it.
A little different tonight, of course, but still excellent. Another thing I love about this dish is that it reminds me of my nephew, Sean, who I made this for on one of his visits.  He is an excellent 'braaier', so he cooked the meat and really enjoyed the dish.  Cheers Sean!

NOT THE SUNDAY ROAST!

Julia's brother and niece are visiting from London, wanted to try to give them some 'taste' of our lives.  We have had some freakily warm weather recently which probably affected my decision to do Beef Salad with Asian dressing.  This is a very short recipe I cut out of the NY Times some years ago, have made it maybe 6 times, and it is always good.  Makes me think of my nephew, Sean, because I did it for him and his Dad & brother a couple of years ago and he really enjoyed it. Anyway, back to the present - it was a chilly, rainy day BUT this only takes about 10 minutes on the grill,  Alan was stoic and it was wonderful!  Good dish for a dinner party, all the prep can be done in advance, all you need to do is grill the meat and toss the salad.  I change up the lettuce, today it was a mix of cos and baby arugula. Very important not to overcook the meat, it turns into leather!  Alan cooked it perfectly and ours was sumptuous!

RAINY WEEKEND IN MAY

Had a somewhat impromptu small gathering on Saturday evening as the Derby Day party we were going to had been canceled. Started with some mozzarella and tomatoes which were pretty good. They were drizzled with virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, added some basil too, of course. Then had flank steak which had been marinated and Alan cooked to perfection on the BBQ. We have a charcoal Weber which we love, will never switch over to gas! Had a green salad with that and a delicious corn salad that Julia brought. Loaf of Wilton's own Wave Hill bread completed the meal. Made Whoopie pies for the kids (see earlier post) and we had a cheesecake that Alan had bought which was pretty good.