Beef, rice, and french fries! What more can you ask for?

Lomo Saltado

La Buutique, is my older sister who made the best lomo saltado I've ever had. She also made a bomb dot com cilantro sauce to go with it. This was a quick and easy meal that she whipped up last week when I went over to her house. Lomo saltado is a Peruvian dish with Asian influences. Can it get better than that?

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen French fries
• vegetable oil as needed
• 1 pound beef tri tip, sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, sliced into strips
• 2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and sliced into strips
• 1 yellow chili pepper (preferably Peruvian aji amarillo)
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 dash soy sauce to taste
• Choice of rice
• 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 teaspoons mayonnaise

Directions 

1. Prepare the bag of French fries according to package directions.
2. Cook your choice of rice as desired according to package. We used jasmine rice.
3. While the French fries and rice are cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Season the sliced meat with salt and pepper to taste. Fry the meat until just cooked, and the juices begin to release. Remove the meat from the frying pan.
4. Then cook the onions, with additional oil if needed, until they are transparent. Stir in the tomato and aji amarillo; cook until the tomato softens.
5. Pour in the vinegar and soy sauce, cover, and cook until the beef is done, about 3 minutes.
6. For the sauce, add the cilantro, garlic, mayonnaise, and lime juice in a mini food processor. Mix until desired taste.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with chopped cilantro and French fries to serve.

Butternut Squash Pie

So I decided that this Christmas I wanted to make a different dessert. The pops and I were heading to Madison to visit family and see my cousin's new baby. Since they were making dinner (which included a very yummy goat curry), I decided, even though I was post-call and exhausted because the stupid pager was going off all night, that I would make dessert. So after Googling online for various pie recipes, I found one I liked @ a blog called Farmer's Daughter, and made a few changes to make my own and this is what I came up with:

Lulu's Butternut Squash Pie

Ingredients:

Pie crust (frozen)

1/2 butternut squash

1.2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 banana

2 eggs

In the oven I baked the squash @ 325 degrees for an hour. I then let it cool and scooped out the squash from the skin and placed it into my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl. I added all the remaining ingredients (except the pie crust) and mixed well until everything was well combined. The oven was preheated to 425 degrees. I rolled out the pie crusts (I used two) and placed them inside a 12 x 8 baking dish (something like that) as I didn't have a round pie pan. I then filled the crust with the squash filling and placed the pie in the oven for 10 mins. After the first 10 mins were over I decreased the temp to 350 degrees and continued baking the pie for another 50 minutes. Once the pie was done baking I took it out to cool, et voila! The pie was a BIG hit at dinner. There was only two pieces left by the end of the night because I had to steal them before anyone else tried as I wanted some for breakfast the next day. I really hope you guys give this one a try.