Birthday Dinner

The Good Husband's birthday was yesterday and I try to make his day special by making all his favorite foods. For breakfast he had eggs and 'taters. We then went to a local craft festival and had a small lunch of fresh fruit, sun tea and donuts.

It was hot as hell yesterday. Summer has officially hit central Illinois. It is supposed to remain in the 90s this week with something like 80% humidity. How wonderful.

So this means that I will shun the oven for favor of cooking things on the stove and the grill since we don't turn our A/C on until at least the end of June. TGH wanted steak for dinner so I cranked up the crappy grill pan I have and slaved away.

You can always tell when I cam cooking either steak or on the grill pan since I set the smoke alarms off every.single.time. The Good Baby is used to the screeching by now. It's the one way she knows dinner is ready.

So we had a great grilled dinner of local, grass-fed, organic steak topped with blue cheese from the Farmer's Market, grilled asparagus and organic polenta with purple spring onions and blue cheese. Yeah, I went a little crazy with the blue cheese, but damn, if that stuff isn't moldy heaven.

To grill asparagus:
Trim and wash asparagus. Heat a grill pan on medium high heat until hot. Place asparagus on the grill and drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill for a few minutes on each side, turning often.

To make polenta:
Ingredients:
4 cups water
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup corn meal
1 green onion, chopped
blue cheese crumbles

Directions:
~Bring the water to a boil and add butter. Stir until dissolved.

~Slowly whisk in the corn meal, breaking up any lumps that might form with the whisk. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, switching to a wooden spoon to stir frequently. Cook polenta on low for 30-40 or until thicken and the sides pull away from the pan. Add the onion and blue cheese to taste. Serve immediately.

NOTE: I didn't stir in the blue cheese, since I had to leave some sans cheese for TGB. I should have dished her plate first and then stirred the cheese in but I didn't think about it. Oh well.