Steak Fajitas

As I handed her the plate of sizzling steak fajitas, Annie commented, “I have so you well trained.  I have you cooking for me now just like Tony does at home.”  Well I am sure the comment was comically well-intended, I am not sure my smile hid my exhaustion.  It was about 9pm, and Annie and were finally getting to dinner (with Annie doing the relaxing and me doing the cooking).  Not that I minded too much, I rather like cooking late at night.  Since discovering my chai tea recipe, I make it at least twice a week.  However, the steak fajitas presented a different challenge then mixing milk and tea bags to make chai.  I can’t seem to cook steak right.  Annie told me to put the burner moderately high and sear the meat for a few minutes both sides.  Even though I follow her directions, the meat seems to get too tough and rather tasteless.  These fajitas had a good marinade over then, but that didn’t save the steak from the frying pan and my cooking abilities. 

The first night when I cooked the fajitas they were decent considering the meat was overdone.  However, I had marinated a lot of meat for the fajitas, and I am not affected with over exaggeration when I say a lot.  I ate overdone steak fajitas for a week.  The last few servings were eaten only because my mom engrained a strong sense in eating leftovers in me, and unfortunately, my dad isn’t in Laramie to clean up the leftovers I don’t want.  Three years after leaving home, I am still finding things that I miss about it, and after the steak fajitas incident, I really missed my dad’s tolerant taste buds.  However, without my dad, I had a chance to be innovate and find a new “garbage disposal” that wouldn’t make me feel guilty about wasting food.  Turns out it wasn’t hard to find.  I just looked down into the most beautiful brown eyes that had long ago perfected the art of begging that labs are so well known for.  Dakota got more than one table scrap that night. 

Ingredients:

1.       Marinade (see below)

2.       1 ½ lb beef boneless top sirloin steak, 1 ½ inches thick

3.       2 large onions, sliced

4.       2 medium green or red bell peppers, cut

5.       2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6.       12 flour tortillas

7.       1 jar picante sauce

8.       1 cup Monterey Jack cheese

9.       1 ½ cups guacamole

10.   ¾ cups sour cream

Ingredients for Marinade

1.       ½ cup vegetable oil

2.       ¼ cup red wine vinegar

3.       1 teaspoon sugar

4.       1 teaspoon oregano

5.       1 teaspoon chili powder

6.       ½ teaspoon garlic powder

7.       ½ teaspoon salt

8.       ¼ teaspoon pepper

1.       In a small bowl, make marinade by combing all ingredients.

2.       Place beef in a resealable plastic bag or glass dish.  Pour marinade over beef; turn beef to coat with marinade. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 24 hours

3.       Cook beef either by grilling or on stovetop.  If on stovetop, cook with onions, peppers, and vegetable oil. 

4.       Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Wrap tortillas in foil.  Heat in oven about 15 minutes

5.       Build your own fajita (I hope I don’t actually have to write out this process like the book took a paragraph to do.  If you can’t figure out how to build your fajita and fold the tortilla, you probably shouldn’t be making this recipe.  Don’t feel offended, I am just saving you time and frustration).