Chopped @ Eck Abode

I am a fan of the show Chopped. Chef-testants have 20 minutes to make an appetizer using ingredients from the "mystery basket". Should their dish taste and look the best, incorporating all the mystery items (usually 4) then they get to move on and make an entree. The worst meal gets eliminated. Same thing happens until you have two Chefs remaining to compete over dessert, new mystery baskets each round.

That's the setup for the next part of this posting. 

I've had an unusual few weeks at work which have led me to coming home much later than usual. Instead of home at 5:30 or 6pm, I'm walking through the door much closer to 7.  This has effected my internal clock and I've had my blood sugar all over the map.  I'm finally starting to get a handle on it. So now that we've adjusted to eating later (instead of the usual 6pm meal) I'm getting home to cook as quickly as I can. 

Enter Chopped. 

Hubster had the brilliant idea to create a mystery basket. So now, I walk into the house and see what's on the counter, Hubs sets the timer for 30 minutes, and I'm off!*

AND THE MYSTERY INGREDIENTS ARE:

- flank steak

- white onion

- Mozzarella pearls

- French bread

Well, this one was a no brainer. I think he was being easy on me since I had a challenging day.

Sliced the onions and added some mushrooms, into the skillet and added a dash of white wine. 

Halved the bread and cut into halves again. Turned on the oven boiler to get a nice toast. Added some of the mozzarella pearls to get nice and gooey.

Flank steak in the cast iron, seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked to medium rare.

Pulled the steak onto the wooden cutting board to rest. Tossed remaining pearls into the onion/mushroom mixture. Pulled the bread from the broiler and placed the onion/mushroom down on the toasts. Sliced the steak into slivers, added to the toast and VIOLA!

Hubs got his quasi-Philly steak and cheese sub!  Needless to say, I won the competition. Granted, there were no other Chefs... but still.

*I should note that i LOVE to cook. It's not that Hubs cannot cook instead, he can... pretty much. But if I cook, I know it's healthy and tasty. His cooking is a little on the tasty/salty/fatty side and he tends to make a giant mess.