Flank steak is a fabulous grill cut, but what do you do in the winter when you don’t want to stand outside in the cold? If done right, it can also be a fabulous cut to roast!

1 flank steak

Steak Marinade:

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- fill up to 1/3 cup with Worcestershire sauce
fresh cracked black pepper

combine all ingredients and pour over the flank steak. Marinade for 4 hours to overnight.

Filling:

2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 large cloves of garlic – minced
1/3 cup sweet onion – minced
1/2 large bunch of spinach, or 1 pkg. frozen, chopped spinach
1 Tbsp. butter

Filling Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
1 sprig fresh rosemary – minced
1 tsp. mexican oregano, minced

1/4 cup crumbled feta
2 1/2 inch slices onion
3 med. yukon gold potatoes – peeled & cut into large-ish chunks
2 carrots – peeled & sliced into chuncks

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a small bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, mustard and herbs. Set aside.

Saute the garlic & onion in the olive oil & butter. Wash & chop the spinach. Add it to the pan when the onions begin to brown, and saute it for 1-2 minutes, or until wilted.

Pour 1/3 cup of the vinaigrette over the spinach mixture & remove the pan from the heat. Stir while it cools down. Reserve the rest of the vinaigrette for later.

Remove the steak from the marinade, and crack black pepper onto both sides. Score one side heavily and cover with the spinach mixture – keeping it around 1.4 inch thick. Sprinkle the feta over it to cover.

Slowly roll up the steak and tie with twine.

Sear the outside of the steak.

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan or large casserole dish. Lay the 2 slices of onion in the bottom, and set the seared, tied steak on top of them. Surround with the potatoes and carrots.

Put into the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes (the roasting pan takes a bit longer, but then you get a good base for gravy), or until the inside temp. reaches 140 degrees F.

Remove from the oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Remove the twine and slice into pinwheels.

Serve with leftover vinaigrette or gravy.

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If you like gravy, this dish makes a very tasty one!

Gravy

Pan drippings from flank steak
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
splash of red wine (Merlot is recommended)
2 Tbsp. water (use as needed to thin down the gravy)
1/8 cup reserved vinaigrette

Heat the pan drippings on the stove top – this one should have quite a bit of liquid. Sprinkle the flour over the drippings, and whisk. While continuing to whisk, add the wine, water and vinaigrette as needed to thin the gravy down. Stir until it reaches your desired consistency.

Serve immediately on the side or drizzled over the pinwheels.

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I made this for Valentines Day, and served steamed asparagus with fresh hollandaise sauce as the other side dish. The pairing was simply wonderful!

For a tasty hollandaise recipe, take a look at GourmetSleuth.com

I was surprised at how quickly and easily it came together – just make sure you have a second set of hands there when you need them!

Ingredients:

4 pound slab of pork spareribs
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice (about 2 large juicy lemons)
1 cup bottled barbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Instructions:

Cover both sides of ribs with onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Be sure to coat ribs well.

Line a large baking pan with foil being sure to cover the bottom and slightly up the sides. Lay baking rack inside baking pan. Place ribs in a single layer on baking rack.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl mix together well the lemon juice, barbecue sauce, ketchup and vinegar. Pour half the sauce over the top of the ribs.

Cover ribs with foil and bake about 2 hours or until ribs are tender. Once the ribs are done remove foil. Turn your oven to broil and char ribs for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve with remaining sauce.

2 pounds hamburger
1 small package blue cheese crumbles*
1/4 cup butter – chilled & cut into small chunks
Worchestershire Sauce
ground pepper
1/3 sweet onion – finely diced
2 cloves minced garlic
seasonings to taste (we like Montreal Steak Seasoning)

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, mixing them well with your hands. Allow the mixture to sit for approx. 15 minutes, then form it into large, thick patties.

Grill the patties and serve with toasted buns, spicy, sweet hot or stone ground mustard, BBQ sauce, or your choice of condiments.

These are great for a change of pace from the normal burger. The blue cheese will melt through the burgers, adding a distinctive tang that will have people asking “what did you put in this? It’s great!”

*An alternate way is to form two patties for each person, and sandwich the blue cheese crumbles inside of them, sealing the edges. If you want a strong blue cheese flavor, this is the way to go, however you will often have a blue cheese explosion when you take the first bite. .Just be warned that there may be very hot blue cheese oozing out of the burgers.