Mon-Fri Seasonal Recipes + Grocery Shopping List: February Week 3
Flank Steak with Crispy Shallots, Garlic Herb Ground Beef with Cauliflower Mash, Skillet Lemon Chicken, Dijon Sirloin Tip Roast, and Crispy Skin Salmon with Roasted Broccoli...
This week we’ve been working hard on the garden beds. We dug up all the previous owner’s soil so we could refresh everything with our own organic mix…
…and as we were digging we started noticing rot on the sides of the beds. Turns out they aren’t cedar (which is naturally rot resistant and can last up to 15 years!) So now we’ve decided to replace all the beds with cedar and set them up the right way. Better to know now than after everything is planted. I guess with traditional treated wood it can contain arsenic, so it’s not recommended for garden beds where you’re growing food. Learning as we go! The silver lining is that now we’ll be able to fit a dinner table down the middle so we can eat outside in the garden once everything is set up.
This week we’re keeping things simple. Beautiful cuts of beef, winter vegetables, and techniques that make everything taste deeper. I’ve been taking a cooking class and one thing that’s stuck with me is that 1% salt by weight is usually the sweet spot for most dishes. I’ve worked that into this week’s recipes and the difference is noticeable, especially when you’re building flavors in something like a pan sauce or a roast. I never want food to taste flat or under salted, and having an actual ratio to follow instead of just eyeballing it has taken the guesswork out of seasoning. The cast iron flank steak with crispy shallots and lemon is one of those meals where the sear on the meat and the bite of fresh lemon do all the heavy lifting. There’s also garlic herb ground beef over creamy cauliflower mash, skillet lemon chicken with a glossy pan sauce, Dijon herb sirloin tip roast with caramelized carrots, and crispy skin salmon with roasted broccoli and bright dill yogurt. The base flavors are mild and family friendly, with easy options for adults to add heat at the table. These are dinners that feel like you put in way more effort than you actually did!
P.S. If you’ve been wanting to learn to bake sourdough bread, make sure to check out my post on how to make a sourdough starter from scratch. Next week I’ll be posting the video walking you through how to bake your first loaf, plus a baking schedule to follow if you work full time and aren’t home most of the day. It’s still totally doable. Once you bake your first loaf you won’t go back to store-bought!
The full step-by-step recipes and organized grocery list are below for my Substack family: