A Wonderful Dinner at Home

We are in the process of repainting our front door and got started on it this last weekend.  I’ll have a full post about it as soon as we are done to show the entire process of it but suffice it to say I worked pretty hard this weekend!  So, last night it would have been very simple to go out to eat or heat up a frozen pizza, or even order a pizza in, but we were good and actually cooked a great dinner at home.  I thought I would share it with you.  It was delish!!!!!

Our menu consisted of a porterhouse steak that we shared, corn and green chili risotto, and a fresh tomato salad with mozzarella and basil.  So, here goes…

As for the risotto, here is how I made it.  I started by putting a full container of chicken stock in a small sauce pan and put it on the stove covered on low.  Then I drizzled olive oil in a medium skillet with a couple of pads of butter until the butter was melted.  I added one cup of Arborio rice to the skillet and cooked it on medium heat for about 10 or so minutes.  You just basically want to brown the rice.  Once the rice has “toasted” for awhile you add about a half a cup to a cup of good white wine to deglaze the pan.  Continue cooking until almost all of the wine has been cooked off.  Once the wine has been cooked off, you add the chicken stock by a ladle about 1 to 2 ladles at a time.  After the addition of each ladle you stir the rice and let it cook until the liquid is almost gone and then repeat the process until all of the stock is gone.   Depending on how creamy and soft you like your rice you may have to add some additional stock but usually the one quart of stock is sufficient.  At the last ladle I added a cup of frozen corn that I had heated in the microwave along with about a half a cup of green chilis.  Once almost all of the liquid is gone, you add cheese.  I just grate fresh parmesan into the pan to the desired consistency and taste.  I added about a half a cup or so.  Finish the dish by adding one more pat of butter at the last to give it a good shine and taste.  When serving I added fresh cilantro as a garnish (which added quite a delicious touch I might add!).  The end result was AMAZING, even if I say so myself.

For the tomatoes, we had a fresh one from our garden so I sliced it and sprinkled some fresh chopped garlic on top of the slices, then sliced some fresh mozzarella to lay on top of each slice.  Then I laid fresh leaves of basil (from my herb garden on my back porch) on top of the cheese.  Next I drizzled olive oil over everything and then salt and freshly ground black pepper.   

While I was doing all of this, Hot Rod cooked the steak out on the grill.  He marinated the steak before hand with just dry grill seasoning and then simply cooked it on the grill.  Isn’t it amazing that a freshly cooked meal at home is sometimes so much better than anything else you could have done.  Behold, our wonderful fresh dinner: