I watched the steak fajitas episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay a while ago and it stirred up a huge hankering for fajitas. Of course, Houston happens to be having an actual cold spell (current temp: 30°F) so there will be no grilling outside for the time being.

And then my birthday rolled around and with it came a Hamilton Beach MealMaker Express Contact Grill courtesy of my wonderful (and hungry) hubby. This guy is much larger than our old contact grill, which struggled with two paninis at once, and has removable plates for easy cleaning. This grill also opens all the way flat so you can cook different things on each side without pressing. Fajita time!

Sadly, the recipe for Father Leo’s fusion fajitas is not up anywhere on the internet. So I improvised. I put some ground cumin, garlic powder, paprika, crushed garlic, grated ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and olive oil into a giant baggie and threw in a 1-lb. skirt steak to marinate for an hour or so.

Meanwhile, I put two (Japanese) cups of long-grain white rice, some chicken broth, butter, and saffron into the rice cooker. Then I chopped up some peppers and onions and hubby made some guacamole to serve on the side.

I opened the grill flat and sprayed the grill with some nonstick cooking spray, preheated according to instructions, and then plopped the veggies on one side and steak on the other. I got a nice, satisfying sizzle.

The grill does not get super hot when it’s open (or maybe I didn’t preheat long enough), so everything took longer to cook than I thought it would. I also didn’t get a really good sear on the steak, but had to pull it after it hit medium rare.

It was still good.

Notice anything?

No? Then let’s compare the above photo with this one:

And I’ll give you a hint. The difference doesn’t have anything to do with the subject of the photo.

That’s right…NEW CAMERA!

My trusty old Canon Powershot A20 went into its well-earned retirement on its 10th birthday. The new baby, as you can see, is much better at handling closeups and low light conditions. It also has a built-in image stabilizer.

The food is nothing in particular—a dinner designed for the express purpose of using up pantry ingredients. The rice pilaf is a variation on the sage rice pilaf you see in the second photo. I didn’t have shallots so I threw in half an onion and a bunch of diced baby carrots instead. I actually prefer this version to the original—the carrots add a bit of color and onions are less expensive than shallots.

The chicken is a mindless pan-fried chicken. I took boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed off the excess fat, and butterflied them a bit so they’d lay pretty flat in the pan. Then I put some cornstarch, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a giant baggie, threw the thighs in, and shook to coat. Pan-fried them in two batches, 3-4 minutes per side, setting them aside on paper towels to drain.

I had all this wonderful fond left at the bottom of the pan, so I deglazed with a bit of chicken stock, let it reduce down a bit, then hit it with a dash of white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper when it was off the heat. Poured the sauce on the chicken, added some oil back to the pan, then quickly sautéed the broccoli while the meat rested.

Snapped a photo (just one!—I would have had to take at least 4 with the old one because camera shake was so bad in low light), then chowed down.

Happy 2010, everybody!

Here’s the long-overdue photo of last week’s Mapo Tofu bento. It unfortunately looks like a chunky brown mess even though it tasted great. Some chopped scallions, peas, or red peppers would have added some much-needed color.

The green stuff in the corner is sautéed baby bok choy. I cut the bunches in half, then lightly sautéed them with some garlic, salt, and pepper. The meal is rounded out with some grape tomatoes and sweet pickled daikon.