Beef Medallions to the Rescue

Today was my toughest day at school, so I planned an E.Z. Fix dinner of grilled burgers. Little did I know that the dear hubby grilled up ALL the burger patties last weekend. I had thought he just made a few extra for his snack purposes. Tonight, I found out that I had no easy dinner as planned. But I am never completely caught off guard, because...well, this stuff seems to happen to us more times than I care to admit. So, the moral of this story is that scheduling is great, but add some flexibility and it is even better.

I had a couple packages of cooked beef medallions out in the freezer for emergencies. These are easy enough for a teenage boy to cook up for himself, which is really what I intended. Tonight, they made a quick supper for the family. I simply heated them up in my cast iron skillet, until they had gone from frozen to warm. Being precooked, they don't give off much fat for gravy, so I improvised. I didn't have the barbecue sauce I usually serve. Here's the recipe for what I did:

Quicky Beef Glaze

1 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 bouillon cubes
2 tablespoons cooking sherry
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or another thickener

I added the water to deglaze the pan. Use this water to dissolve the bouillon cubes. Add the cream and sherry. Heat to boiling and sprinkle the xanthan gum over while stirring. When mixture is thick, stir in beef to coat.

While that was heating, I steamed some fresh cauliflower and some frozen broccoli from Sam's Club. I love Sam's frozen broccoli. Generally, I dislike frozen blends because they contain too many stems which just never get to a good texture. Fresh is better, but these are so close and much more convenient.

Somehow, these tired old bones made a really good impromptu dinner. It is odd to think that I used to cook like that all the time--making up dinner while staring into the fridge. That would make me a nut case these days!

Probably won't be blogging tomorrow. It is our 23rd anniversary, and we plan to dine out. Nothing too fancy, just a local Mexican food place that really knows how to use a grill. It is easy to pass up the tortillas when your plate is full of steak, sausages and veggies cooked up until they caramelize on the grill. Mmm. Can't wait. Maybe I'll take a photo to show you and try to duplicate that grill at home.