My Perfect Summer Meal

For my first potpourri post, I’m sharing with you my favorite summertime meal:

Steaks on the grill.

Just a warning, this is no extensively delicious and somewhat complicated Liz Mal post, but a simplified, how few-things-can-i-go-to-the-grocery-store-for kind of meal.

We began with my summer staple, tomato and mozzarella salad with basil and balsamic vinaigrette.  I understand most people splurge and buy the actual leaves of basil (feel free to) but I’m not big on the texture. Very simple, but really delicious especially when in season.

For sides today I made some sautéed mushrooms and steamed up some frozen broccoli. With the mushrooms, remember when you’re at the store that when mushrooms are cooked, they decrease in size exponentially. So today, for my family of three, I got two packages of sliced mushrooms and it worked out fine. Just cook them til they’re brown and floppy and the smell fills the house.

For the main dish I grilled some steaks outside in the sunshine. Now, I didn’t stop at Ye Olde Butcher Shop like my Dad normally does, so I had to spruce up my Big-Y steaks a little. For this, I use the family’s not-so-secret steak marinade: equal parts of A1 and zesty Italian dressing mixed together. Marinate for however long you can and really cover the steaks with it. Then, throw them on the grill to your liking and you have the perfect summer meal.

As an extra bonus today, I had extra ripe bananas around the house (okay, I left a note to tell everyone not to throw them away once they started getting brown) so I decided to make banana bread. I found the easiest recipe on Epicurious, and followed the suggestion that when adding an extra banana (I used 4) to decrease the sugar to a half cup. But, if you have 3 as the original recipe states, feel free to go along with the full sugar amount.

I wish I had pictures to share of this wonderous meal, but my stomach got the best of me once it was ready to eat!

Hope your start of summer meals have been just as tasty.