ny strip + garlic scape and dill compound butter

Joe and I went to our favorite nearby liquor store to pick up something for the July 4th weekend and came back with a super bonus. The owner shoved some vegetables from Grant Family Farms CSA in our hands as we were leaving because he’d gotten a bunch of extra boxes dropped off and couldn’t possibly use all of the veggies. How cool is that? Get some beer, get some local vegetables. In the box were kale, mesclun greens, spinach, eggs (YESSS), scallions, dill, and garlic scapes. I’d never seen garlic scapes at my grocery store (it’s not the most produce-diverse grocery store, though it is very cheap so god bless it for that) and I was super excited to try them out. Since we had already been set on cooking these NY strip steaks, I thought it’d be fun to make an herb-y butter. Butter on steak is just about the best thing there is, and herbed butter is even better.
We made this dinner the night before hiking Mount Bierstadt. Gotta fuel up pre-hike! I also ate some leftovers the morning of, too… It was a lovely hike, despite our late start. When hiking up high in the mountains you have to make sure that you start super early, otherwise you run into weather problems. Thunderstorms happen like clockwork around late morning/early afternoon and the last thing you want is to get caught in a nasty storm so high up and exposed. But despite knowing all of this, we still decided to sleep in a little bit – it was luxurious. I had originally thought to try and hike over to Sawtooth and then back down to the trailhead a different way, but we decided against it both because of weather concerns and because my stinkin’ legs were so tired from my workout the day before. D’oh. But boy was it wonderful to be up in the mountains. I might love the smells the most. And the wildflowers. And the views. And the pikas. And eating trail food. EVERYTHING. And running down the mountain. And not being able to move the next day because running down several thousand feet is hard.

herbed top sirloin with sautéed radishes

 So I’ve finally gotten my garden planned for the summer. I had initially wanted to build a raised-bed garden. The soil in Denver is laughably hard. Really, it’s like you have a cement yard. Not being interested in getting a rototiller when I’m just renting my house, I thought a raised bed was the best option. Then, when I was at Home Depot all set to buy the wood, I thought again and realized that I was doing the same thing – investing in the property. And if I decided to deconstruct the raised beds when we moved, then I’d have to replant grass where they were. My landlords aren’t interested in paying me to improve the value of the house and so I’m not going to do it. So, I decided to buy pots. That’s what I used to use back in Boston. I had to leave them all on the patio with my plants still in them when I moved – no room. So sad! I hope the new tenants there enjoyed all of my tomatoes! Though it was pretty late to start, I planted seeds in two egg carton pallets. Part of what I’m planting are a whole bunch of herbs in a goal to have a more complete herb garden. I hate buying herbs from the grocery store. I guess it’s okay for when you need a large amount for pesto or something, but for a recipe like this herbed steak, I don’t want to have to buy them. Having all sorts of herbs at your disposal will also make it easier to make a great last minute dinner.
I’m also growing radishes (my first seedlings to pop up!) and I’m super excited because these sautéed ones are a whole new way of eating them for me and they were super good. I kind of feel like radishes easily get relegated to garnish or filler status. But I’ve been eying lots of fun recipes with radishes in them since spring recipes started coming out this year. Sautéing and roasting are the two options that appealed the most to me, partly because it’s still not warm and summery out and I’m still easing into salad weather.