Golden Gate Bridge Sunset

Sometimes you forget to do the touristy stuff.  But it sure is easier with longer daylight hours!  Awesome, made my worries go away instantly.

Transforming Leftovers- Taco Salad

I get a lot of flack these days after I embraced Pumpkin's exclamation that I liked eating "garbage."  But sometimes I even get lazy and you never know what leftovers will become.  Even in the realm of food, one man's garbage is another's treasure.

Such as what I had for lunch today:

I call it taco salad (and chocolate milk).  It was as tasty as it looks even though the bulk of it came from leftover nachos.  I know, a truly heinous piece of garbage.  After all, the chips get limp only moments after putting them into Tupperware and the whole thing in general is mangled mess.  But I took the nachos home from dinner out (a necessity of skiing) on Saturday, despite dubious looks from R+J.

Fast forward to just hours ago.  After throwing a mini-impromptu dinner party last night, I didn't feel like making an affair out of dining.  So I opened the fridge but found nothing from the same cuisine, very few things already cooked, and eggs.  Well, not entirely helpful.  But the leftover nachos saved me, because with the chips come cheese, olives, and jalapenos.  I put down a base of salad (one of our only convenience foods), topped on some more chips (these are now 4 months old and somehow have retained their crispiness- processed food kind of scares me), put on the nachos, put on some leftover refried beans (with the nacho cheese melted onto it), and topped it with freshly carmalized onions.  You can call it garbage, but I call it delicious!

I HAD STEAK!!!!!! An Elaboration.

While nobody I know quite shares my unbridled enthusiasm for meat, I feel like I have to disclaim the previous post.  That steak was exciting for many reasons.  (1) I haven't had steak in so long, I can't remember anymore and (2) IT'S STEAK!!!  But this steak was particularly delicious because (1) I haven't had steak in so long, I can't remember anymore, (2) it was grass fed Marin Sun Farms top sirloin, and (3) I BROWNED IT IN BACON FAT!!!!  To be fair, I think the caramelized onions and mushrooms contributed as well, but oh my goodness, so delicious!

As L cleverly asked me, how does one who only gets roast/braise end up with a steak?  Well, when one is an amateur butcher, one sees steak everywhere.  

First, 15 lbs of meat comes in an unassuming box.

Bike the meat box home!  The C in CSA stands for community so the box is delivered, amongst many others, to a neighbor.

That box is not as small as it looks ;).

Meat should never defrost in a bag of it's own juices, lest you want to taste iron.  Putting it over a rack and covering it with paper will allow it to breath and dry age a little.  See award winning River Cottage Meat Book.

Cut it up!  Just make sure it's against the grain.

One 4 lb roast becomes 3 steaks and 1.5 lbs of strips.  All separated into reused containers (SF doesn't recycle styrofoam) and labeled with dates and sizes.  The easier you make it for your future self, the easier it is!

Some slices are destined for grinding.

My perfectly marbled, oh so delicious, and sustainable steak.

I HAD STEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!