Recipe Fantasy Life

I’ve talked about my mom before. You will recall that she was a simple, yet spectacular cook. She cooked comfort foods before they were called comfort foods. She didn’t cook anything fancy. But almost every night she prepared a delicious meal for my dad and their four kids, and always made it seem easy.

I don’t recall that she particularly took time to teach any of her daughters how to cook. We learned from watching her, but even that took place mostly after we were grown up. We would sit at the counter and watch as she cooked, making mental notes. At least I did.

She died in 1995, and somehow I ended up with her recipe box. It is a hodge-podge of recipes written in her hand, recipes written in the handwriting of my sisters and me, recipes given to her by persons (with handwriting) unknown. Several recipes are even in the handwriting of a couple of her children’s ex-spouses! Guess she figured you could toss out the spouse and yet keep the recipe. The box is crammed with recipes on yellowed newsprint from years back.

The thing I have always found somewhat amusing about my mom’s recipe box is that almost none of the things we ate as we grew up are in that box. Almost like a secret fantasy life, my mom had recipes for things such as Shish Kabob Sauce, Coquilles St. Jacques au Gratin (I’m pretty sure the only scallop you would have been able to find in the Nebraska town in which I grew up in the 60s would have been at the bottom of a kitchen curtain), and no fewer than four jambalaya recipes.

Needless to say, jambalaya never graced our dinner table as a child. However, Mom did become much more experimental in her cooking as her kids grew up and left home. I don’t think my father ever complained.

As I went through some of her recipe cards, I noticed the names of the dish often included one of her kids’ names, i.e. Kris’ Eggplant Pasta Sauce or Jennie’s Party Pork Chops. One recipe name made me laugh out loud (and I’m writing it exactly as it was written in my mother’s hand): Beckie’s Chili (originally my chili). Only a mother would hand off a recipe (and the credit for it) to her daughter and not look back.

One recipe that I came across looked yummy, and I want to share it with you. Flank steak is a delicious, though not particularly inexpensive, cut of beef that generally requires a marinade to tenderize and flavor it. After it has marinated, a quick trip to the grill (or under a broiler) so that it is crusty on the outside and pink on the inside is all it takes.

Mom’s Flank Steak Marinade
1 to 1-1/2 c. beer
3 scallions, minced
1/3 c. olive oil
3 T soy sauce
2 T sugar
2 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ t. Tabasco

Mix the ingredients. Place your flank steak in a zippered plastic bag and pour the marinade over the meat. Marinade for six to eight hours, giving your bag a squeeze and a turn every once in a while.

The meat should be removed from the marinade and grilled or broiled for about five minutes per side (less if you like it really rare). Let the meat rest five minutes. Then slice the meat against the grain and serve with some roasted potatoes or hash browns and a veggie or a salad.

As an aside, as I began writing out the recipe, it started seeming familiar to me. I think the recipe came from me. Now I’m a bit hurt that it wasn’t labeled Kris’ Flank Steak Marinade. Sigh.