Grilled Rib Eye Steaks with Mushrooms, Red Pepper, and Blue Cheese

I've got faculty meetings tonight. Classes start next week. I can't put it off any longer. Back-to-School is creeping up on me, nudging summer off the high dive and into the deep end of the swimming pool. The backpacks are already being yanked off the store shelves to make room for Halloween costumes. Is it really time to put away the popsicles and take out the pencils? When did you go back to school when you were a child? September, sometime after Labor Day, right? The apples aren't even at their peak until September; do kids these days leave their teachers an ear of corn on the cob? And yet...the weather is on my side of the argument. Yesterday it was screaming summer at 104 degrees. Ha-there's still time to get a few more of your summer favorites in before you surrender to pumpkin pie.

Like grilled steak-the ultimate summer dinner. Bonus: it makes men go wild to smell steak grilling. I think it's some cave-man throwback. All right, it makes me go a little wild too. The scent of beef on the grill is absolutely seductive. And hey-I lucked out this week. As part of my meal planning for Food on the Table (the website I love for planning menus that coincide with the weekly specials at your favorite grocery store), I printed a copy for a grilled Rib Eye steak with a mushroom, red bell pepper and blue cheese topping. People, I give it an A plus. Sheesh, I'm grading food now. Maybe it really is time to get back to school.

Money Saving Tips: You could use whatever steak for grilling your grocery store has on sale this week-strip steak, flatirons, flank, etc. Grill up some extra steak to use in a salad tomorrow night. The toppings would also be nice over chicken, pork, or even fish. If you can't get blue cheese on sale, swap it out for feta or even parmesan. You only need about an ounce, so a little goes a very long way.

Grilled Rib Eyesteaks with Mushrooms, Red Bell Pepper and Blue Cheese

For Four Servings: $12.00-but get your steaks on sale for sure!

1 lb rib eye steaks, or any other steaks for grilling

1 tablespoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 small red onion, sliced

1 red bell pepper, cut into strips

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 ounce blue cheese

Preheat a grill for medium hot cooking. Season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper. Grill steak to desired doneness, about four minutes per side for medium. Let rest for five minutes. Meanwhile, melt butter in large skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and bell pepper. Saute until vegetables are tender. Stir in mustard, brown sugar, and Worcestershire. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide steaks among four plates. Top with vegetables and sprinkle with blue cheese and serve.

Next Up: Chile and Lime Corn on the Cob

Barefoot Thursdays: Lightened Up Cream of Mushroom and Brown Rice Soup

It was seven years ago, the last time I made Cream of Mushroom soup. One of the tacit compromises I made when I said I do to the Quiet Man, was to put aside my love of mushroom soup. He didn't ask me too. He didn't have to. He just had to use the body language that I've become so adept at reading. The slightly slumped shoulder, the single inverted eyebrow, the tense wrists, the rummaging through the fridge, the occasional whole body quiver. Out of consideration, I turned to cream of broccoli, cream of potato, asparagus, corn, chicken-anything but the dreaded fungi.

Seven years ago, he was at a Navajo reservation doing an internship for his Master's Degree. The night he left, I skipped to the super market and bought a giant pack of mushrooms for my brew. I ate a whole pot full of the marvelous stuff, drinking in the earthy pleasure all week long. Seven years worth of pleasure in one week.

How fitting that this weekend, coinciding with my Barefoot Thursdays assignment for Garten's Cream of Mushroom Soup, The Quiet Man was in Denver doing work for his Doctorate. Back home, I was slicing and dicing those precious shrooms, marveling at the funny way that life works. Not quite alone but still nostalgic, I savored my luscious bowls of soup.

And Quiet Man, I missed you. But if you ever want to do some post-doctorate work, I know what I'll be having for dinner.

Notes: Of course, I couldn't really add 10 tablespoons of butter and oil, 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of half and half, as Ina suggests. Shocking state of affairs! Instead, I trimmed and slashed the fat, adding in some nutty brown rice to make it seem luxurious yet earthy and satisfying. To become a Barefoot Blogger, click here.

Money Saving Tips: Use whatever combination of mushrooms you can find on sale. I used sliced baby portabellos ($2.69 for 8 ounces at Albertsons) and just a handful of shitake. Make a giant batch of brown rice and freeze it in 2 cup portions, so it's ready to use in any recipe. You can double or triple the homemade stock recipe to use in later recipes. It's much cheaper and better than buying the canned variety.

Lightened Up Cream of Mushroom Soup with Brown Rice

Estimated Cost: $6.00 for 5 servings

Notes: You can use Minute Brown rice, or even the new steam-in-the-bags frozen brown rice if necessary.

8 ounces baby portabello mushrooms

4 ounces shitake mushrooms

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

1 potato, coarsely chopped

2 large onions, 1 coarsely chopped for stock

1 clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 and 1/2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 and 1/2 cups fully cooked brown rice

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup milk

sliced green onions, for serving

Remove stems from mushrooms to use for the stock. In a large pot, saute over medium heat the mushroom stems, carrots, potato, 1 coarsely chopped onion, and garlic. Saute for ten minutes, stirring often. Add 4 cups water and thyme. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I used about 1/2 teaspoon of each.) Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. This will be the stock for the soup. You need 4 cups so add water if you don't have enough.
Strain and set aside. (This can be done ahead of time and frozen or refrigerated.) In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Mince remaining onion and slice mushrooms and add to pot. Cook for about five minutes, or until softened. Add flour and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for ten minutes. Stir in brown rice and warm through. Add cream and milk and warm through without boiling; season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with sliced green onions and serve.

Coming Tomorrow:

Johnny Appleseed's Birthday

Crumbly Apple Oatmeal Bars

Cranberry Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing

Last July, we moved to a quaint little small town in the southwest. It's the kind of town where neighbors congregate in driveways to chat about PTA meetings and the price of gasoline while the children eat Popsicles and race bicycles around the cul-de-sac. It's also the kind of neighborhood where if you have something extra, you pass it around. It could be extra tickets to the symphony, half open bags of fertilizer, gently used baby bibs, or it could be this....Spring Spinach.

So fresh, so green, so crisp that I couldn't even dream of cooking it. A simple salad was the only worthy choice. The hot-and-smoky, sweet-and-tart, bacon-and-onion dressing only slightly tames the greens, making it possible to eat vast quantities without feeling too much like Popeye the Sailor man before he socks it to Bluto. Although it helps to bring up the famous sea-faring spinach-lover if you're trying to convince a 5 year old boy about the virtues of iron and folate. It helps to remind grown-ups (38 year old husbands), too.

You're going to want seconds....

Cranberry Spinach Salad

Estimated Cost: $5.50

Notes: To make this salad more substantial, add a couple of hard-cooked eggs.

4-8 slices of bacon, chopped

1 red onion, cut into thin wedges

4 tablespoons apple cider or red wine vinegar

4 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Fresh spinach

sweetened dried cranberries

sliced fresh mushrooms

In a medium saucepan, cook bacon for five minutes over medium heat. Add onions and continue cooking till bacon is crisp. Add vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook until thick and syrupy. Meanwhile, layer spinach, cranberries and mushrooms on 4 separate plates. Pour HOT dressing atop salad and serve immediately. Makes four servings.