Tuesday Night Steak And Stir Fry.

Youngest Hawthorne arrived at home

about 5:15 the other afternoon.

Mama, are you cooking dinner tonight?

Why do they ask me this?

I always have dinner.

I need something now.

I can't wait.

He can't wait 45 minutes for dinner. He had to have something to tide him over.

So I boiled some rotini.

Here it is, drained and steaming.

I added some freshly ground salt and pepper

and some buttah.

While it was still hot,

Mr. Hawthorne grated some Il Villagio Parmesan cheese over top.

I had some pesto left from a few days ago

when I made the pesto pizza for all the Xmaskaties.

And Mr. Hawthorne forked the

greeny, herby, nutty, cheesy goodness of the

pesto into the pasta.

The lovely thing about rotini pasta

is that the shape of the pasta

holds the sauce or pesto or whatever you add to it in the little grooves.

Youngest Hawthorne ate the entire bowl, then was ready for dinner in 45 minutes. I love pasta with homemade pesto. It's one of my comfort foods. Now that Youngest Hawthorne has been nourished and can actually make it to his next meal without passing out, I'm starting on the real meal for tonight.

I tell you, this is one hungry crowd

at the Hawthorne household.

And it seems like I'm always in the kitchen

preparing, cooking, and serving.

And once I finish cleaning up,

it's time for another shift,

since the Hawthornelets are in and out

throughout the day.

For dinner Tuesday night,

everyone was in the same place at the same time,

so Mr. Hawthorne grilled a flat iron steak and a filet mignon

and I stir fried vegetables and baked potatoes.

Filet mignon in the back.

Flat iron in the front.

We buy the whole tenderloins

when they're on sale

(I think these were $7.99/pound),

slice them into individual steaks,

and vacuum pack them.

The flat iron we found mismarked

for hamburger meat,

so we got a good deal on that too.

Just some freshly ground salt and pepper

and the room temperature meat is ready for the grill.

Perfectly rare.

My veggies:

chopped peppers

broccoli

celery

And onion wedges.

While Mr. Hawthorne was grilling,

I did a quick stir fry of the veggies.

I heated my wok,

added in a few tablespoons of oil

(I used canola oil. I prefer peanut oil

but a gallon of that is $26 down here

so no peanut oil for me.),

and added a few garlic cloves.

Broccoli went in first

since that takes the longest.

I stir fried this maybe 20-30 seconds

before ...

... adding in the celery ...

... and the peppers ...

... and the onion.

Toss and stir for about a minute.

And when I stir fry broccoli

I always like to add a tablespoon of sugar.

I find that the sweetness of the sugar

balances the flavor of the broccoli.

I had a little bit of the sauce

and a few vegetables from

the shrimp stir fry the other night,

so that got added in.

Just heat through and the stir fry is ready.

I love all the colors.

I baked the potatoes until tender.

And I chopped some chives, parsley, and dill

for toppings.

With a sprig of basil.

If you haven't tried a flat iron steak,

you're really missing out on a tender, juicy,

extremely flavorful cut of meat.

The freshness of the herbs was a wonderful

addition to the potatoes, along with buttah of course.

And the veggies were crisp colorful bites

of flavor and crunch.