8-35: Flambéed Steak Diane

8-35: Flambéed Steak Diane

Today I have something “old-school” for you–8-35: Flambéed Steak Diane. This is a dish that’s been around for a while and is considered “retro” today. It is similar to steak au poivre and is another of those “quick pan-fried steak” recipes that use butter and some sort of umami as a sauce.

This is the last entry from the batch of beef-but-not-beef recipes I made to clean out the freezer–I’ve had those posts sitting in my queue for quite a while. I had to space them out because they’re all SO similar. You can scroll back to 8-39: Tournedos with Blue Cheese Sauce and 8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak for the other entries in this recent “mini-series”.


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8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak

8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak

I got into making my own plant-based meats a few years ago, mostly because the options available in the markets at the time were A) expensive; B) hard to find; and C) not very good. B and C have mostly been rectified in the last few years, so I find myself buying more of that and making less of my own (proving that time is money).

However, I had at one point stocked up my freezer with a lot of the homemade stuff, so 8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak is another one of those recipes where I was using up what was left of that stash.

It’s been challenging to figure out how to tackle these meat-focused recipes when I don’t really eat it anymore, so a lot of these have ended up being more “adaptations” rather than full replications of the given recipe. There’s so many cooking travesties on social media and the internet these days–this feels like a drop in the bucket at this point.


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14-31: Coffee Nut Crêpes

14-31: Coffee Nut Crêpes

Trying to sneak one in before the month of October completely passes me by. 14-31: Coffee Nut Crêpes is not the first crêpe recipe I’ve covered during this project, but it may be the last–believe it or not, I’m getting close to finishing a few of these sections. I made this dish back in May as part of my Mother’s Day brunch for 2018, since it seemed like a breakfasty-brunchy kind of treat.

You can find the other dishes I made for this year’s Mother’s Day tagged under MD2018–there’s also MD2017 if you’re interested in last year’s menu.

Yes, this is technically a dessert (according to Simply Delicious). But doesn’t brunch already cross a few boundaries just by definition? Plus, it was Mother’s Day–most restaurant brunches you’ll find on that day have a pretty extensive dessert section. I’m just contributing to authenticity.


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11-3: Indian Scampi

11-3: Indian Scampi

Jamie made me a dish when we first started dating that she called “Shrimp Something“. This recipe, 11-3: Indian Scampi is a dish that is pretty similar to “Shrimp Something” so I really enjoyed it. 👍

Shrimp has to be one of my favorite crustaceans to eat. 🍤


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1-19: Flambéed Mushrooms

1-19: Flambéed Mushrooms

🔥 Flambé! 1-19: Flambéed Mushrooms isn’t something I would normally serve because most people I know are not huge fans of mushrooms. I really enjoy using the lighter to flambé these mushrooms! 🔥

Mushrooms and garlic are one of my favorite flavor combinations. I really enjoy stuffed mushrooms and these taste similar, just without the breadcrumbs and butter. If you’re looking for something more similar to stuffed mushrooms, check out 1-16: Mushrooms Escargot. 🐌


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9-15: Peppercorn Beef Burgers

9-15: Peppercorn Beef Burgers

Hello readers, I’m Adam, your usual author’s husband, chiming in with a guest post. Jamie has these Simply Delicious recipes hung on our kitchen cabinets like a restaurant rail full of orders. There were some easy level recipes that I thought I could cook while Jamie was busy trying to finish her backlog of blog entries. 9-15: Peppercorn Beef Burgers are my first such attempt at preparing a recipe and photographing the process. I have to say that I had a lot of fun (I lit the sauce on fire!🔥) and you’ll see a few more guest posts from me coming up.

I’ve made more than a few burgers in my day, but the sauce on these patties did elevate the dish to a higher level.


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18-17: Cooking Glossary I

18-17: Cooking Glossary I

Here’s a new-to-you part of the book I want to start featuring. The last three chapters of Simply Delicious comprise their own section: Cooking School. These chapters detail more of the practical culinary knowledge required to execute recipes well, and teach some skills by going through some basic recipes.

I’m going to start mixing up the regular recipe entries with these Cooking School ones as well, which shouldn’t be too different. If anything, they’ll be a lot shorter–like this one.


18-17 Cooking Glossary I

Chapter 18 is about Basic Techniques. I thought that 18-17: Cooking Glossary I would be a good place to start. I used this same (complete) glossary when I taught cooking to K-8 kids in an after school program a few years ago, and I inserted a copy of it into the recipe book at the restaurant I used to work at. There’s also one taped inside my spice cabinet at home for reference.


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