Almond and Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade and The World's Best Ever Steak Marinade

This weekend as you well know is Father's Day weekend. Instead of hanging out around the house and  grilling some steaks and swimming in the pool we decided it would be a good idea to take all of the kids and meet the fam up at Big Lake for some camping chaos fun. If you didn't read my post from last year you may not fully appreciate how difficult interesting it can be when camping with 3 young children and a cranky teenager. If your up for a good laugh read about our adventure here.  I remain very optimistic that things will go much better this year.......

For one thing, I'm going to make things a LOT easier on myself and stick with the basics. Simple, yet good food and packing just what's necessary instead of trying to plan for every inconceivable disaster. Quite frankly I'm just too pooped to plan.


Last weekend we grilled up some steaks which turned out to be hands down best ever and all around awesome. I'm not a huge red meat so when I'm craving a nice steak or burger It better be good. I like my meat very tender and super flavorful. These steaks were both and the tangy, sweet flavor can be attributed to this marinade which worked wonders on the meat. Man, it was so good!

I also attempted to make a red pepper, cilantro pesto from Dara at Cookin' Canuck  but ended up tweaking the ingredients and process a bit to end up with more of a tapenade. I love tapenades in every variety, they are so versatile and satisfying in a grown up sort of way. They can be paired with steak, on top of smoked or grilled fish (my favorite) or as a stand alone hor d'oeuvres with crackers, a baguette and of course a good aperitif.

Basically, for this to be a tapenade instead of a pesto, you need to use a bit more almonds and less red pepper. Preferably use a small hand food processor or pulse just a few times in your regular one. I love my little manual one for chopping garlic, finely mincing onion, herbs and making salsa and guacamole. It's just a tiny little thing and so easy to clean. I use it daily.

Almond and Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade

1 small red bell pepper, roasted

3 cloves garlic

1 cup blanched almonds (2 handfuls)

small handful cilantro

squeeze lime juice

2-3 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil

Pulse all ingredients except lime juice and oil in a food processor until coarsely chopped.

Drizzle in oil and lime juice. Pulse until desired consistency.

Happy Father's Day to my dad who is the coolest and most gerous guy I know and to my sweet and as perfect as they get husband who keeps me grounded, happy and calm. 

and to all you other dad's, I hope you have a wonderful day!

(camping or not)