Tex-Mex Party Prep Day

Before I talk about today, here are a couple of leftovers from yesterday. It was bread baking day and oh so good with dinner.


Later, Bella is having to read over Alex’s shoulder and I can’t tell if she’s a little annoyed at having to.


Now, today is the day for getting ready for tomorrows dock closing party and the Tex–Mex meal we’re having. Hopefully, we’ll get enough done today that tomorrow won’t be too hectic or we won’t be worn out by meal time. So today, we’ll make as many food items as we can and haul most of the stuff we need down to the dock. This could be a little difficult as my Alma Mater (WVU) and my adopted team (UT) both play football on TV today.

We’re having beef and chicken fajita’s as tomorrow’s main course, which requires a couple of marinades.

The flat iron steak will be marinated from when I get up in the morning until cooking time (about six hours) using a recipe from Tyler Florence of the Food Network. Here’s the recipe and a few pics of the process.

Ingredients – I made a triple recipe for 6# of meat

Marinade (Mojo):
· 1 orange, juiced
· 2 limes, juiced
· 4 tablespoons olive oil
· 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
· 3 chipolte chiles, in adobo sauce
· 3 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
· 1 teaspoon ground cumin
· 1 teaspoon salt

Directions
In a small 2 cup measuring cup, or something similar size and shape, combine all the marinade ingredients. Using an immersion blender, puree the marinade until smooth. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and add the steak, seal and shake to coat. Refrigerate the beef for 2 to 4 hours to tenderize and flavor the beef. Here's the ingredients.


The lime squeezing set up.


Everything in the bowl.


I quick blend with the boat motor - as Emeril calls it.


The boneless, skinless chicken breasts will be pounded thinner and marinated for the same six hours in a Chili’s Restaurant clone from Robbies

Ingredients – I made 5x the recipe for my 5# of chicken

1/4 cup lime juice
2 Tbls. olive oil OR vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic - crushed
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Combine everything in a sealable plastic container, add chicken/steak to container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight (preferred). I ran the immersion blender through it. Here are the ingredients.


I nuked the limes for about 30 seconds, ala Rachel Ray, and gave them a good roll – they seemed to give up their juice freely.


After blending and ready for the chicken.


Some of the sweet peppers to be sauted tomorrow - all from the garden.


I had to take a kitchen break to help Alex. She had a piece of thread tied to a doorknob and the other end tied to a loose tooth. Only a couple of minor problems – the tooth isn’t quite ready to come out, the double thickness of thread would have just broken, and she had it tied to the wrong side of the door (she would have had to un-slam the door) and when I pointed out these things, she couldn’t get the string off the door or her tooth and the scissors were out of her reach – I missed the pic of her trying to reach them with her foot.

Here’s the of salsa, Bev just makes it up to taste but it has canned tomatoes, chopped onions and jalapenos, lime juice, cumin and cilantro.


Her somewhat unusual pico di gallo contains cucumber, tomatoes, onion, Italian salad dressing, and a little extra vinegar – she makes it to taste as well.



The refried beans will be made up later today from 2# of dried pinto’s – we like to have them left over.