Kitchenette

Your husband’s company gives you an enormous box of meat for Christmas!
See, Chicago has always had a love affair with, well…meat. I guess to a Chicagoan, nothing says “let’s celebrate the birth of our Lord” like a big ol’ hunk of center-cut filet. Being a simple country girl lost in this big city, I much prefer a spiral-sliced ham and a contrite heart at Christmastime, but whatever. Combine that with the 17-pound turkey I received as a Christmas gift from my work and, well, let’s just say our freezer now contains a stash of meat worthy of the Oregon Trail.

And we wonder what happened to all the buffalo.

Anywho, in an effort to make a dent in our pile o’ meat, we turned to this recipe for steak sandwiches. It only takes a few minutes to cook up the steaks and make the pesto. We sprinkled our steaks with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and browned them in a little bit of olive oil. Cook the steak in any way you like - the recipe recommends medium-rare, but ours was more on the medium side. Grilled steak, leftover steak, hot steak, cold steak - the variations are endless, and all would be delicious. We added slices of havarti cheese, but sauteed onions or peppers would be tasty, too, if you are of the vegetable-eating mindset.

Steak Sandwiches with Tomato Pesto
Adapted from Gourmet, May 1994 - via Epicurious.com
Makes 4 sandwiches

2 garlic cloves, chopped
6 tbs olive oil
1/3 c drained sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
1/3 c packed fresh basil leaves
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 lb sliced steak
8 1/2 inch slices sourdough bread, toasted lightly

1. Heat oil over medium-low heat in a small saucepan and cook garlic until softened. Allow to cool.

2. Puree tomatoes, basil, and balsamic vinegar in a food processor. Drizzle garlic/oil mixture with the food processor running and puree until mixture is smooth.

3. In a bowl, toss the steak with half of the pesto and spread the remaining pesto on the bread. Divide the steak among 4 slices of bread and top with the remaining 4 slices.