This one was completely by accident folks, but holy crap, it is good! I completely made this up. I didn’t even know what ingredients I was going to buy until I was walking the aisles at the store. The sauce I made at the end was thrown together out of old condiments in my fridge. The whole thing took 20 minutes of prep-time, including washing the dished afterward, and 20 minutes to cook. All told, it’s a very easy meal.

The version I’m sharing is exactly what I made - a lower-fat type of beef dish. You can easily use the “real” stuff instead (full fat cream cheese and ricotta, a more marbled cut of beef, etc.). I’ll tell you what - we did not miss the fat in this one. It was just lovely!

Ingredients

• 2lb. Flank Steak, lean and trimmed
• ½ cup reduced fat cream cheese
• ½ cup fat free ricotta
• 6 oz. baby spinach, or however much comes in 1 bag
• Dill
• Lemongrass
• Salt (I favor Jurassic Salt)
• Smoked pepper (regular pepper will do, if you don’t have cool stores near you like Heather’s Heat that sell this stuff)
• Olive Oil

Kitchen Tools

• Meat tenderizer
• Cutting board you can beat the bejeasus out of
• Baking sheet
• Medium sauce Pan
• Saran wrap

Spread your flank steak out on the cutting board and…well…*sigh*…start beating your meat. Pulverize the steak until it is as thin as you can get it. I was able to get it about 1/3″ thick. Spread it so you have plenty of room to roll it with the grain of the meat later. This will require tenderizing and then squishing with the palms of your hands or maybe a rolling pin (Saran wrap might be handy here). I really don’t know the best way to do this - it’s the first time I did it myself, and I was just making it up as I went.

Mix the ricotta and cream cheese until they’re smooth. Add dill and lemongrass to flavor. I have no idea how much…maybe ¼ of a teaspoon? Add it until you like the taste - whatev. Add a dash of salt, mix a little more and spread this mixture evenly over your flank steak.

Heat up the saucepan with just enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Wash your spinach, dry it (I just wrung it out with my hands), and pan fry the spinach until it’s nicely wilted. Add salt and smoked pepper right when you put the spinach in the pan. I don’t know how much; don’t ask me these things. Just make it tasty. Add a thin layer of spinach to the top of the cheese mixture on the flank steak.

Next, move your layered steak onto Saran wrap, and roll it up into a pinwheel. Make sure you don’t roll the saran wrap too! When you have it rolled all the way up, wrap the outside tightly with Saran wrap. Then take the sharpest knife you own and cut 1″ rounds off the pinwheel. You should get plenty out of this. We ended up with 12 rounds.

Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. This is probably even better on the grill, but I don’t have an indoor grill, and it was freaking freezing outside.

This recipe is super tasty just like it is, but if you want some sauce, I threw together something that actually ended up really good - completely by accident (I rummaged and mixed up whatever sounded ok from my fridge - that’s pretty much how I cook anyway).

Sauce

• Ketchup - a lot
• Mustard - a little (dijon/brown, not yellow or sweet)
• Worchestershire sauce - a fair bit
• Pepper - as you like it
• Whiskey - a dash

Mix them all up, and then add a little pinch or dash of whatever until it tastes just right to you. It should be reminiscent of A1, but more interesting and flavorful.

Last Friday, Amy and I hosted about 20 friends at our house for a wine and food party. We have tons of wine, and we don’t drink it at nearly the pace we buy it. So we figured this would be a great way to open up a few bottles and have some fun with friends.

The party itself went great, and once the food and wine part was over, it was time for mixed drinks. I poached a drink recipe from a trendy restaurant in Wooster, Ohio (Sarah, if you’re reading this, please help me with the name!), and after a little experimentation, I came up with what is now our “house drink.” Even though it is an Amaretto Sour, I’ve renamed it “Orange Popsicle,” because that’s what everyone says it taste like.

Orange Popsicle

• 3 Lemons
• 3 Limes
• 6 heaping teaspoons of suger
• 1 shot of Cointreau
• Amaretto

Squeeze the lemons and limes into a shaker. Make sure no pulp or seeds get in; use a hand juicer. Add the sugar and Cointreau (I don’t actually measure the Cointreau, so just splash it in until you feel good about it). Shake vigorously until the sugar is completely dissolved. You’ve just created the world’s tastiest sour mix, and you’ll never use that bottled syrup crap again.

Pour over rocks, 50% mix, 50% Amaretto. Stir until mixed, and enjoy. Depending on how generous you are, you’ll have enough sour mix for 4-6 drinks.

Hope you like it!