What's Cooking in My New Kitchen: Grilled steak tips with roasted broccoli and garlic mashed....

There's going to be a lot going on in this blog. I want to share a really great marinade with you, as well as the secret to my famous garlic mashed potatoes, and finally a delicious recipe for broccoli. I'll start with the marinade:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbs and 2 tsp of red wine vinegar

2 tbs of lemon juice

1 tbs and 1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tbs Dijon-style mustard

1/2 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 tbs Tarragon

Pour this over your steak, and mix in the onion and garlic. I leave it out on the counter to marinade, because steak cooks best when it is room temperature.

The next thing I get ready are the potatoes. I love using new potatoes, and like to leave the skin on, just not all of it! I peel strips off so that when I mash them, there will just be small pieces of the skin mixed in. Once they are semi-peeled, I cut them up and put them in a pot of water, along with alot of sliced fresh garlic along with some sea salt.

Once these are cooked, I am going to add a block of cream cheese, butter, 1/2 and 1/2, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and some onion powder. If I have sour cream, I'll add some of that as well. Making these mashed potatoes involves alot of taste-testing. I never measure anything, so if I don't taste enough of any one ingredient, I simply add more!

And now for the broccoli. As I have said before, I am into roasting vegetables, and so far I haven't found one that didn't taste good cooked that way! The process is pretty much the same when it comes to the roasting part. In a bowl, coat the broccoli with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then spread it out on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Heat your oven to 400 degrees, and roast for 20-25 minutes, stirring every once in a while. I have a lot of broccoli to cook, so I do it in batches.

While that is roasting, I pour approximately one cup of pine nuts in a fry pan and toast them until they are light brown. You have to watch them and stir constantly, because they can go from not being toasted, to being overly toasted in a heartbeat! As soon as they are done, remove from the pan and set aside in a bowl.

Once I have the broccoli cooked, I put it back in the bowl and mix in the zest of 1 lemon, a little more olive oil, the pine nuts, and some shredded Parmesan cheese. That's it! If I had any fresh basil, I would have cut some up and sprinkled that in as well.

It is now time to brave the frigid temps and grill the steak tips. Luckily they only take about 20-30 minutes, so with the right coat and a glass of wine, I should be alright!