Grilled Steak and Summer Veggies

It was a beautiful 80° day and I just couldn't bear the thought of being chained inside.

I thawed two loin steaks, totaling 1.2 pounds to grill on the Weber. Then I got to thinking, why not take advantage of those hot coals and cook everything out there?! No dishes and no kitchen clean up = SCORE!!!

I cut up 1 zucchinni, 1 yellow squash, and the remaining asparagus from the quinoa salad - about 2/3 of the bunch. I layed these in a pyrex dish and poured Drew's all natural garlic Italian dressing over them, flipping and rolling them around to ensure everything was covered. I really like the integrity of Drew's salad dressings, but the flavor of this one is just too mild on a salad, so I use it for a marinade quite often.

Next, I took a quart sized Ziploc bag and added 2 cloves of minced garlic, a big glug of Drew's dressing, and 1/4 tsp of black pepper and Old Bay seasoning. I smushed this around some to mix the flavors, and then threw the two steaks in, squeezed out the air, and made sure the meat was covered in the mixture.

Everything went into the refrigerator to marinate for about 3 hours. While the coals were heating up, I took the food out of the fridge to cool down.

I found a great site, GrillingTimes.com that lists thickness, cuts, times, and temperatures for grilling meats, seafoods, poultry, and vegetables.

Because they take longer, I started with the asparagus, about 10 minutes total. Then, following their instructions for our 1" thick steaks, we cooked for about 3-4 minutes each side, turning 1/4 to get beautiful grill marks! This delivered a really juicy, flavorful, medium rare steak. When there were about 5 minutes left on the steak, I threw the squash on because I cut them really thin, maybe 1/8".

Everything came out absolutely delicious! The vegetables had a nice char flavor, but still a little bit of a bite, which I like. The steak was a nice medium with little bits of color here and there, which always has a nice burst of flavor!

I received a little Leah & Perrins sample of the new thick worcestershire sauce, so decided to give it a head-to-head "taste-off" against our usual favorite A.1.! While the worcestershire was definitely really tasty, both Johnny and I preferred the A.1. for our steaks. The worcestershire had a bit more sweetness to it, which I think would pair better with poultry, and Johnny said he'd like to try on a burger.

After dinner the coals were still hot, so we did what every respectable American should do - made s'mores!! Here's a shadowy shot of me eating mine while enjoying Top Chef: Masters!


And, the best part about dinner (besides no clean-up) is I'm still chipping away at my Freezer Meat Challenge! It's taking a little longer than I expected to make a huge dent. We've had some leftovers to use up, and then a busy week that lead us to eat take-out once and had friends over so I didn't cook! But I'm still holding strong, and even if I haven't used much I've remained true to my word and haven't bought anything to add to the load.