Cheese, Brocolli, and mashed potatoes- what could be better?!

I had some leftover whipped potatoes from STEAK SUNDAY!!! that I wanted to use up.  So, I mixed them with flour and baked them at 400 degrees for quite some time.

I rarely keep track.  I mean, I knew what I wanted them to look like, so I checked them, and flipped them when the tops started to brown.  The bottoms had cooked on the cookie sheet like pancakes.  Just as I wanted. 
They look just like pancakes, but they taste like garlic and cheese biscuits.  Of course, their true taste will be obscured by the amount of cheese sauce in which they were to be smothered.  Serious deliciousness.  These things would also be good with ketchup, I bet.  Next time, I am going to try to fry them in Bacon grease.  I just want to see what happens!  Who knows, maybe they'll be awesome!
Broccoli can be every kids nightmare, but I think it may be one of my favorite vegetables.  The amount of green in it tells me that it just has to be good for me, and it goes so well with cheese.  And potatoes for that matter.  It's so easy to cook, too.  You just turn it on.  It doesn't even matter if you overcook it, it just blends all that much better into the cheese sauce.  Personally, though, I like it undercooked, just slightly, to preserve some of the crunch.  Don't judge.  I think we've got some broccoli in the garden.  One of the first tree runs I ever did was called The Broccoli Garden.  And sometimes, one can even still find some powder there.  It's just not very steep.  It would probably be a good place to get drunk, but nobody ever does.  Someone should set up a BBQ, except that the sun goes away there before it sets everywhere else, so it might be pointless.  Maybe it could be a breakfast spot.

But it must all remain a secret.  Forget I even said anything.  Anyway, like any good meal, there is a sauce to go with it.  This cheese sauce is an alteration of my mother's recipe.  Hint: I added pepper and sour cream.  It just came out so delicious.  It is so versatile, too. It goes with macaroni, broccoli, potatoes, or just a spoon if you're feeling real crazy.  I make something in the crock pot that reminds me a lot of it too, called Cream of Broccoli soup (but that is for another entry altogether).  When it comes down to it, this whole process was an experiment to occupy my mind while I made the next round of kombucha.  My kombucha mother had twins!  We're all so proud.  That means not two but three batches can be produced. 

We'll be in the kombucha business in no time!  Here we have the finished product of three delicious main ingredients, and many many secret ingredients.  I thought this might be too much cheese sauce, but it turned out to be the perfect amount, once the potatoes had sopped up all the excess.  So, I guess this wasn't gluten free due to the flour in the potatoes, but otherwise, it's legit.  It is definitely vegetarian, though it's not vegan.  I don't understand vegans, unless it's doctor's orders.  A world without cheese is no world at all, at least not one that I'd want to live in.  Listen, we're only here for  a short amount of time.  While that doesn't mean that we should all go start acting like douchebags, or worse, Teabaggers, it does mean that some simple pleasures should be had, and I am talking about cheese here.  Cheese wins again.

Steak Sunday!

Today was a great day.  Of the many things that happened today that were excellent, an appropriate finale has been found in our new grilling tradition- STEAK SUNDAY!!!!   A number of us, notably Jed, our mailman, and myself sit around a grill on at least one Sunday afternoon a month and grill steaks.  This is a worthy tradition.  Let me just illustrate how Steak Sunday has affected me.  At one point I ripped my shirt off hoping to find that I had a tattoo of a t-bone steak on my chest.  Alas, it just wasn't realistic.   Despite the glare in this photo, this Steak Sunday was actually shrouded by rainy weather.  However, bad weather is no reason not to hold Steak Sunday.  After all, we've got the postal service involved.   They would grill in the middle of a tornado.  In such a tornado, one could find us celebrating Steak Sunday.  Steak Sunday had its roots in simpler times.  Back when the family would wake up at the crack of noon and drink coffee until 2 p.m. before "starting the day."  Back when Bacon was the first and last thought of any good day.  Even Bacon has its shortcomings.  That's right, I said it.  Steak Sunday is a dominating presence, and I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.  Steak Sunday was the brainchild of a group of dedicated barbecue aficionados who felt that the usual fare of hot dogs and burgers, while also very satisfying, just weren't cutting the mustard on a day that could only appropriately be held in reserve for something so worthy as a steak.  T-bones, Porterhouse, rib-eye,

sirloin- all are welcome on Steak Sunday.  We even classed it out with some red onions on the grill and some whipped cheddar and garlic potatoes, done with my new mixer (more on that later).  You'll see some chicken kabobs also.  What can I say, steaks aren't as jealous as Bacon.  I kind of felt like I came up short with the sirloin on the left, after I saw the comparative size of the rest of the t-bones.  Taste made up for it.  It also didn't hurt that I finished it on the grill with some whipped horseradish and black pepper butter.  Steak Sunday!  Butter on steak is one of the greatest culinary innovations of all time. 

I would submit that everyone ought to celebrate Steak Sunday.  You should invite your mailman, too.  Buy him a steak to get it going.  You'll be glad you did.  And if you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for your community.  A world that doesn't celebrate Steak Sunday is no kind of world at all, at least not one of which I'd want any part. It turned out well. 
See that red tint on the plate?  That is a rare steak.  Not medium, not mid-rare, rare.  And that red stuff under the knife?  Blood.  It turns out that mashed potatoes have two purposes along with being awesome.  1- sopping up blood, 2- sopping up steak sauce.  That's right Steak Sunday can involve steak sauce.  I'm not a purist when it comes to steak eating.  I like all kinds of sauce.  To be perfectly honest though, I was actually more dedicated to putting the steak sauce on the grilled onions.  I mean, that is real living.  While I haven't followed through with my exit plan for the leftover whipped potatoes, I intend to mix an egg and a bunch of flour in and make potato cakes in the over.  I have yet to be successful making potato cakes, but hey, it's Steak Sunday, and Steak Sunday is for having an open food mind.  Remember, when in even the least amount in doubt, add cheese.  That is you lesson for this Steak Sunday, let's hope for many more.