Natasha & Bobby

A few months ago, my friend Naomi loaned me a book called Julie & Julia. The book is based on a blog that the author, Julie Powell, wrote to document a unique cooking project (it's a movie now!). In the course of a year, Julie planned to cook each of Julia Child's recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Reading the book lit a fire under my own ass; if I have to cook, why not make it an event? I too was going to cook my way through a cookbook. I owned MtAoFC and decided to make Julie's first recipe -- potato leek soup -- that very day.

A few weeks later, I actually did make potato leek soup. As I stirred the soup, my head started to pound, my throat started to ache, and I spent the entire evening huddled under the covers convinced I'd soon die. Though what I assumed was swine flu was only a case of bronchitis, I nevertheless now associate potato leek soup with plague and disease. I still wanted to cook, but in light of my potato leek soup disaster, I decided summer really isn't the appropriate season for cream, butter, and Julia.

It turns out I did not need to look far for a new muse. Last March, Mom and Dad came out to visit and, noting the sorry state of the community grills, bought Chad and I this cute little Weber. Three months, sixty cheddarwursts, and two weeks of bronchitis-induced stupor later, Borders emailed me a rare 40% off coupon. Chad and I raced to the cookbook section in search of a little grilling inspiration and left with Bobby Flay's Grill It!

I'm not sure how serious I am about cooking my way through Bobby's book but so far, everything I made has been really, really good. I started cooking before I started taking pictures, but here's a partial rundown of the menu at my house since June 16.

Spice-Rubbed Rib Eye with Bar Americain Steak Sauce and Old Bay Grilled Potato Wedges -- After trying a really easy pork recipe and an even easier lobster recipe, Chad and I branched out to making sauces. The steak sauce is just a mixture of condiments and spices and the steak and potatoes really couldn't be simpler. After making this, I decided we were ready for an intense week of grilling. But first, I had to take ingredient inventory. To make this, Chad had to make an emergency run to the grocery store for spices and I had to substitute cayenne pepper for horseradish. So, for the next week, I vowed to use up as many ingredients from my own house as possible.

Junior's Cheesecake -- For some reason, we had 4.5 boxes of cream cheese in the fridge so I thought it was time to make a cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake though, Junior's Most Fabulous Cheesecake. This was the hardest recipe I've ever made. First, I had to make a sponge cake crust which took a lot of steps and careful recipe reading. Then I had to make the cheesecake filling. I would never attempt this recipe without a KitchenAid stand mixer because it took about 45 minutes of constant beating. I put the whole thing together and then realized I needed to set my springform pan inside another pan full of water while it baked. I didn't have a pan that was big enough and had to race to the grocery store to buy a turkey roaster! It looks all brown on top and I'm not sure why -- the middle never set. But it still tasted pretty good for my first attempt.

Grilled Zucchini with Fresh Dill Vinaigrette -- We always get steaks in packages of 4, so we had the rib eye recipe again with this zucchini. The dill is from the garden and I was really excited to eat it but it turns out dill is kind of gross! I am now avoiding the "squash and eggplant" chapter in Bobby's book.

Grilled Pizza with Asparagus Pesto and Fontina and Prosciutto -- If the Junior's cheesecake was the hardest recipe I've ever made, this came in a close second. I love to watch cooking shows and have seen chefs make pesto hundreds of times. Doing it myself is another story. Chad grilled the asparagus while I selected the choicest basil from the garden, carefully chopped up the garlic, grated lemon zest, measured pine nuts... and then tried stuffing it and all the asparagus into my tiny little food processor. I was supposed to slowly pour olive oil into the mixture as it processed but that wasn't possible. So I just poured it all in at once. It turned out pretty well. I thought the hardest part was over. But nope... the hardest part was slicing the fontina cheese without a cheese slicer. And then I had to arrange all the stuff artfully on top! 3 hours later... we ate a very good pizza.

Pork Gyros with Yogurt-Tomato Sauce, Red Onions, and Spinach -- This recipe was really "creative." Our grocery store, Von's, loves selling pork tenderloin in bulk packages. I love it when they do this except that they always package 1 big section of tenderloin with a section of tenderloin that's been pre-sliced. I don't know what to do with the slices. So this recipe was an experiment to see if they could be grilled. They were a little tough, but edible. The best part of this recipe was using up a bunch of stuff on the verge of rotting -- sketchy Greek yogurt from the back of the fridge, a slightly rancid package of spinach, leftover dill, and dried out tortillas instead of pitas.

Santa Maria-Style BBQ Tri Tip with Cuban-Style Corn -- This was our 4th of July meal. The tri tip is a really ugly looking roast that happened to be on sale this week. It is shaped like a tri-corner hat and over half of the one we picked out was fat. It is apparently an authentic "California" cut of meat and you're supposed to eat it with beans, salsa, and french bread. I guess it's supposed to be a bit juicier but we didn't get the timing right and cooked the juice out of the beans. The steak is a bit rare and really tough. But this is the kind of meal that grows on you. The corn, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. It was smeared with mayo and cheese!

Homemade Pasta -- For Christmas I got a pasta maker and have used it a few times this summer. I expected it to take me hours and hours. I expected to have an anxiety attack while using it and fail miserably. It was actually really easy to use and only took me 1 hour to make from start to finish. That included 20 minutes of resting time for the dough. I guess I probably come off as pretentious for wanting to make my own pasta but it really tastes quite different -- light and airy but still filling. I'm no pasta poet, but if I was I am sure I could fill a few stanzas about its awesomeness.

Martha's Chicago Hot Dogs -- This is a recipe recommended by my parents who I suspect are going through a bit of their own gourmet phase. It's just a hot dog topped with a chunky relish that consists of tomatoes, cucumber, onion, banana peppers, mustard, and vinegar. I topped mine with a pickle spear too (I finally had a reason to buy a jar of those fancy refrigerated ones!) This was the most filling hot dog... I thought I'd need 2 but there was no way.

Grilled Salmon with Oregano Oil, Avocado Tzatziki Sauce, and Grilled Lemons and French Fried Potatoes -- This recipe was kind of scary. We always eat our salmon simple and Norwegian-like. Bobby's recipe called for a serrano chile pepper! But it was good enough to eat twice and twice we ate it in the same weekend! The potatoes, by the way, are from the Julia Child cookbook and are very easy to make. Cut the potatoes, dry them with a paper towel, and put them a pre-heated mixture of butter and olive oil. Keep it on medium heat or it will get too hot and burn the potatoes. Cook on each side for about 2 minutes, salt, and cover. Stir occassionally for about 10 minutes or until done. Julia puts more butter on top, but I just add a little more salt, some pepper, and Fox Point seasoning from Penzeys.

Food Network-Inspired Meatballs and Homemade Pasta -- So here's the pasta being reborn a few weeks later under these meatballs we learned how to make watching TV. The secret to the meatball, according to the TV, is to add 4 eggs/pound of hamburger and then bake. So we tried it and liked it! Hopefully you've noticed the quality of my food photography went up. I got a new digital camera! Now I can zoom in a bit.

Fried Egg, Bacon, Curly Endive, Tomato, and Homemade Pasta -- I don't know why, but this sounded really good. It's a Martha recipe and it did taste good, especially with the runny egg yolk. For some reason, I'm a big sucker for anything with chili or fried eggs on top.

Grilled Lamb Chops with Garlic and Mustard -- We were in LA and stopped by Whole Foods to get these chops. They were really, really good and really, really expensive. We were trying to ration by only buying 3 apiece, but they turned out to be double chops and therefore cost twice as much. But you only live once... as the poor lamb proves.

Boring Tacos -- These tacos may be boring, but the salsa is anything but! Chad and I spent the last 2 weeks in July housesitting in LA and got to eat tomatoes picked fresh from my professor's backyard. The ones pictured above are mini-heirloom tomatoes and came in both red and purple varieties. The beans here are our last can of Kuner's... now I'm going to try to make my own.

Spanish Spice-Rubbed Steak with Sherry Vinegar Steak Sauce and Rice-A-Roni -- Here we are taking advantage of another super saver meat pack at Von's. Von's only sells rib eyes and NY strips but they sell them for less than $4 per steak so who cares! I tried to "plate" this meal like a pro, but it just looks kind of greasy. It really was one of the best things we've ever made though and the Rice-A-Roni (beef flavor) was much better than it had a right to be.

Prime Rib -- Again, Von's only sells rib eye and NY strip. A few weeks ago they sold the rib eyes uncut as prime rib for $3.50 a pound! Last Christmas my dad bought a prime rib and it was quite a bit better and the au jus was tastier, but this one was pretty good too. Prime rib leftovers for the next few days... so much better than May's menu of cheddarwurst and Del Taco.