Have a little bit of steak and want to feel like you’re indulging? This open faced-steak and gorgonzola sandwich is a pretty and delicious way to both use up and elevate your leftovers! Throw it together and heat it up and voila, a perfectly filling sandwich in just about five minutes.
I originally named this blog On the Home Front because after the birth of my son, I wanted to shift my focus a little more toward my home front. Toward gathering, toward sharing delicious food with family and friends, and slowing the pace of life down a little.
In the past three weeks of working from home and social distancing, we’ve definitely slowed down the pace of life, and while there’s a whole lot less gathering with friends going on {except online, and this extrovert is very grateful for video chats with friends and co-workers!} but a whole lot more time with family. And a lot of time appreciating home.
I’ve been able to put in full days of work easily and for that I feel really fortunate. Data science is a good gig right now, and I’m able to work on projects I think will have some long lasting impact and help people. And I have been able to work as much as I have largely because teleworking has let me kick two hours a day of commuting to the curb. I’m also not burning money on parking, on the Metro, on Starbucks or fast food lunches or a lot of other things that I’m now largely viewing as wasteful, considering how productive I am at home.
My favorite site benefit of working at home, though? Lunches at home. Creative, healthy, fresh {mostly, because we’re also being very creative with pantry and freezer ingredients} lunches.
I hope this event changes a lot of perspectives. I hope my supervisors realize that data teams can work pretty much from anywhere as long as they have good equipment and a good internet connection. I hope we start reducing overhead costs for buildings and reducing costs and emissions for commuting by letting people work from home, at least a few days a week. I’m working on a project to analyze our productivity and the overall ROI of letting people work at home.
But where I really feel like I can personally make a change after this is in our eating habits. I can’t remember a time when I spent three weeks straight prepping three meals a day plus healthy snacks for my family. I can’t remember so few leftovers going to waste. I can’t remember emptying the fridge of almost everything without having to throw away things that expired.
We’re making awesome use of the food we buy and the leftovers we make. Everything gets used!
This particular recipe was a lucky one. I’ve treated our staying at home time as a personal Chopped challenge and have tried to use up as many things in our freezer and pantry as I can before I brave the store, and I’ve finally reached the bottom of our chest freezer. Nothing left but a couple of freezer meals, a giant Smithfield ham we will try to tackle in the coming weeks, and a London broil top round I bought from our local butcher when the farmer’s market was still open.
We roasted that for dinner a couple nights ago, and all that was left was a cut of steak that would have been fine for one of us but not two. Unless I got creative. And luckily, we had four pieces of sourdough, some baby portobella mushrooms, and some gorgonzola cheese crumbles. Perfect materials for these delicious open faced steak sandwiches!
So let’s do this thing. Get together your leftovers {or cook fresh if you have it}, throw it together, place on a pan, put in the oven on a low broil, and enjoy a delicious combination of flavors! Just plain yum – and yay for getting another meal out of perfectly good leftovers!
If you’re looking for these same flavors but no bread, add more greens and less bread and you’ve got a steak salad! I actually have a recipe for that over here – with my rosemary balsamic vinaigrette!
[lt_recipe name=”Open-Faced Steak Gorgonzola Sandwiches” summary=”This open-faced steak and gorgonzola sandwich is a pretty and delicious way to both use up and elevate your leftovers! Throw it together and heat it up and voila, a perfectly filling sandwich in just about 5 minutes!” servings=”2″ total_time=”5M” print=”yes” image=”https://homefrontcooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Open-Faced-Steak-Sandwiches-0371-1024×683.jpg” ingredients=”4-6 oz cooked steak;salt and pepper to taste;2-3 baby portobella mushrooms, sliced;olive oil;4 slices sourdough {or other crusty bread};4 oz crumbled gorgonzola cheese;1/2 cup arugula” ]Set your stove to broil low. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.;Place the sourdough slices on the pan and drizzle very lightly with olive oil. Slice the steak and layer the steak over the bread. Top with baby portabella mushroom slices, arugula, and crumbled gorgonzola cheese.;Place in the broiler for 3-5 minutes or until the meat is warmed, the cheese is slightly melted, and the bread is a little toasty.[/lt_recipe]
Normally I wouldn’t put a standard sheet or parchment paper into an oven set to broil, but everything is in the oven for so little time here, it works.
Here’s hoping everyone is staying safe out there, and that you’re finding little things that bring you joy in these crazy times.
