Olio Santo

My guess is that this weekend will be the best weather of the fall in Indianapolis.  The sky has been that gorgeous clear blue you only seem to get in the fall.  And, the temperature has been perfect.  Warm during the day and a tad brisk at night.  I suppose I'd get tired of "perfect" weather all the time, but I'd like to try it for a month or two :-) 

Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market and picked up Annie's lamb treats for the winter.  Terry Knudsen who owns Viking Lamb has his two little guys sell the dog treats.  They're saving the money for college.  We've not seen the kids for several weeks because they've had football on Saturday mornings.  So, it was really nice to get to see one of them yesterday. 

Then, all too soon, it was time for me to dig into my desk.  I'd done pretty much everything I could do from home early in the morning but I was to the point I needed both computer screens.  Ok, so let me rant here for a moment.  When I first started working all those years ago, we had typewriters. My first computer was a dumb terminal on my desk at the bank.  Everyone thought I was nuts because I created form letters for my clients and had to go to the computer room five floors up to pick them up.  That was back in the day when I was a commercial loan officer.  Man, am I ever glad those days are gone!  Now, here I am with a computer at home that's got room for all my food photos, has full access to my desktop at work and can access any of the programs I use on the cloud.  And, I'm griping because I don't have two monitors.  As my beloved husband would say, Get over it!

Last night, we went to see, "I Love to Eat."  It's a one-man play about James Beard.  Showtime was 8:00.  That meant that dinner needed to be quick.  I had a couple of the little steaks from the Omaha Steak starter pack (what a bargain - it was about $1 a serving and we've enjoyed the stuff for months!) and I'd bought white corn and tomatoes at the market.  And, I had some white button mushrooms to make lacquered mushrooms.  My menu had called for steak au poivre.  But, on our way to the market, I was leafing through Everyday Grilling and found a recipe for Florentine T-bone with Spinach.  The sidebar had a recipe for Olio Santo - holy oil.  I love a pat of butter on a good steak, but have never tried olive oil.  Until last night.  I spooned a bit on and added the rosemary and garlic cloves.  It looked ok.  In fact, it looked rather pretty.  Then, I took a bite.  Love it.  OMG.  Love it.  The Olio Santo and the steak do a cha cha cha together.  Oh la la.

Olio Santo

Ingredients:

1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 t red pepper flakes

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan. 

Heat them gently for five minutes.  Remove the pan from the heat and allow the oil to cool to room temperature.  Spoon a couple of teaspoons over each steak.

adapted from Meals in Minutes, Everyday Grilling