Marily finally started cooking!

After a few weeks of feeling like I had been knocked down by a cement truck I got the energy and motivation to start cooking again. I figured I would start out by making something light to fit my mood.

As you can recall we purchased specialty pasta during one of our Farmer's Market excursions, I decided to try out the Sun Dried Tomato Fettuccine. After looking online for about an hour for a recipe it dawned on me to go to the website for the pasta maker...who would have thought!! I then found the recipe for Double Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Broccoli and Pecorino Cheese; seemed easy and we had everything we needed in our kitchen. Of course, I decided to change it up a bit and add a few things extra that we love.

To start, I marinated a medium sized petite sirloin in EVOO, sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, and Worcestershire for about an hour. I then chopped a few cloves of garlic (we LOVE garlic) and a very small onion and set them aside with the sun dried tomatoes.

The only broccoli we had in the house were frozen, so I improvised a little. I cooked the broccoli for half the time it asked on the steam bag and set them aside. I then sautéed the onions and garlic in EVOO until fragrant then added the broccoli. The recipe did not ask for this part but I figured...hey why not! I chopped a few sun dried tomatoes and added them to the mix of garlic, onions and broccoli in the pan, I let that heat for a little on the pan then covered and set it aside while I finished the pasta.

While I was cooking the veggies I had boiled the water for the pasta with some salt. Once the water was at a boil I added the pasta and let it cook for approximately 8 minutes, drained and also set them aside.

I now poured the veggies into a bowl and in the same pan I cooked the veggies I sautéed some more garlic and onions in some EVOO and then added the sirloin to the pan. I cooked the sirloin for 2 mins then flipped it over for another 2 minutes. I then turned the stove off and flipped the sirloin one more time and let it sit for 2 more mins. I then removed it from the pan and let it sit on the cutting board for approx 10 mins to let it rest.

While the meat rested I mixed the pasta and broccoli mixture together, chopped up some fresh basil that we got from our neighbor (Thanks Sharmy and Bill). I also grated some fresh Pecorino Romano cheese, lots of it actually...this cheese is amazing with food, and chopped a few more sun dried tomatoes. I then tossed everything together.

Now, for some reason in our home when it comes to cooking a piece of steak on the pan (even oven) we can't seem to get it right. We love our steaks Medium and at times Medium Rare and we always seem to over cook them. So the pressure was on to make a perfect steak, to show that I have learned from our past mistakes and to prove that I CAN DO THIS!!!!

I let Chris do the honors of slicing the sirloin and after the first slice I rejoiced to myself by saying...."HA!! I AM THE STEAK MASTER!!!!!!!" Seriously, it was all in my head I didn't want to rub it in that I am THAT good.

After my little happy dance in my head it was time to plate the meal. I was very tempted to just eat right out of the bowl because it smelled amazing!!!

Overall, I loved how light the meal was, even with the steak the meal wasn't heavy on your stomach. With all the colors on the plate it was very eye pleasing. However, Chris and I both expected a little more from the pasta...the taste of sun dried tomatoes in the pasta was very faint for me and non existent for Chris. Now this doesn't mean that we will not try another type in the future, especially since we still have 1/2 lb of lemon basil fettuccine.

Bon Appetit!