Tuesday's Dinner

Last night, I slaved away in the kitchen while P played one of his games of soccer. How delightful, right? I was tired of making my five easy dishes that I also make so I started thumbing through some of my cookbooks. I just couldn't seem to find one particular dish I wanted to make for my main course after I had searched through about 3 different books.
  I picked up one of my Real Simple magazines and thought, hmm, maybe I'll try to make pork chops, a feat I've never attempted, but I didn't really want pork. I picked up the August issue and skimmed through to find "Cajun skirt steak with creamed corn". Cha-ching! The beef lover is excited! Now my Kroger didn't have any skirt steak, but they did have the best looking top round steak I've seen in a while so I grabbed that up (after consulting with my mom, of course). I picked up 5 ears of corn which were on sale, fabulous!
  I already had everything I needed to make Pioneer Woman's blueberry cobbler recipe from her fantastic cookbook and just picked up some salad and grape tomatoes. Now I know it says that this is a 20 minute meal, but unfortunately, it took me a little longer to create mine. Try 2 hours. Whoops. But I did add in two more dishes (the cobbler and PW's creamy mashed potatoes), plus I had a little wine to slow me down and I was grooving to my ipod.
  Anyways, without further adieu, a pictures of our glorious meal. Yup, don't you wish you ate at my house last night? You betcha.

I must say that this meal was absolutely delicious and Patrick voted it one of the best I've made to date. The only problem I had was that the meat was a little too tough because I overcooked it by probably 2 minutes. I've never cooked meat using the broiler before, so I cooked it 3 minutes on each side, but that was way too much. So when I make it again, you're invited and I promise not to overcook the meat! I've never made creamed corn before and this recipe was super good and easy (maybe if I hadn't decided to make the cobbler and mashed potatoes, it would have been about a 30 minute meal). P asked, "Is there cheese in this?" to which I cackled, those are ONIONS! I can NEVER get the boy to eat loads of onions like I do! Another cha-ching, Real Simple, cha-ching!
  My cobbler was okay, but not as good as my apple pie is. I think I may have used too many blueberries or the wrong kind of flour because my crust still didn't rise up like it is supposed to. Alas, I will have to try PW's recipe again.

Add a little vanilla ice cream and it's a pretty tasty dessert.

Below is the recipe from Real Simple:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, chopped
4 cups fresh corn kernels (from 8 ears--or 5 in my case)
1 cup half-and-half
Salt and pepper
1.5 pounds skirt steak cut into two pieces (I used top round)
2 teaspoons blackening or Cajun seasoning (I used Tony Chachere's)

Melt the butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften, 4-5 minutes. Add the corn, half-and-half, salt, and pepper and simmer until corn is tender and half-and-half is slightly thickened, for 5-8 minutes.

Heat broiler. Season steak with blackening seasoning, salt, and pepper. Place on a broilerproof rimmed baking sheet and broil for 3-4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Let rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing. (I broiled the steak on high, but should have done low in hindsight and broiled for 3 minutes on each side--this was too much as the steak was not medium-well but well-done.)

Mix salad together and serve with steak and corn.

Recipes courtesy of Real Simple, August 2010 and Pioneer Woman