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.

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