Beef and Veggie Rolls with Balsamic Reduction Sauce

The city I live in now does not have a the nice grocery stores I'm so used to... what I mean is that there isn't one of those Safeway or Lucky's type stores within city limits.. what do we have?... Discount grocery stores (not saying that Safeway doesn't have discounts...).. all those chains where we bag our own groceries and I feel like I'm in a warehouse store... not a grocery store... I truly miss living 1.5 block away from Mollie Stone's... Even though it was expensive, it fed me well. The selection of foods were interesting. I shopped the sales, and all their produce and meats were fresh.. considering it's a small store... It was just so convenient...and I knew I was going to miss that. Why do I make a big deal about not having a nice grocery store? I get inspired when I go to grocery stores... it's one of my favorite past times... wandering the aisles of grocery stores... yep.. I know. Wandering these aisles now doesn't take too much time... you basically have the same thing repeated a few times and most things are sold in bulk for families.... what's great about these stores are the prices... they don't even need sales to save me money... I used to make it a goal that I save at least 33% on my groceries from Mollie's and Safeway... but here?... I probably bought everything at regular price... and well.. it barely made a dent in my wallet...I will continue to shop at these places just because it's worth the 1-2 mile drive... I guess there's a positive in every situation... soon I'll be saying adios Safeway! (actually haven't been to one in around 2.5 months!)

In SF... my trips to the grocery store would be based on if I needed to move my car for street parking.. if I was running low on milk or half/half...or if my friends asked me since I had a car.... I probably made it out to one every week.. whether it was a nice stroll down the hill to buy some milk, bread, and bananas.. or more serious trips to Safeway aka "Dateway" in the Marina (I'll never forget that location!) with friends... it was just a fun thing that I really enjoyed doing... well now... according to yelp there were 5 grocery stores in my city... 3 are discount stores (Winco, Food Co, and Food Source).. and 2 are Mexican grocery stores. The Yelpers are also sad... I can sense from all their reviews that it's not just me who has been disappointed with how this city has developed... we used to have them.. and now they're all gone.. : ( ... going to Safeway would mean a 10 mile drive to a not so safe area... or a 15 mile drive to a nicer one.. that's around 2 bucks in gas every time I go!

I spent the day pinteresting .. is that a word?... of things I wanted to make... I've had very long conversations with many family and friends about my current situation and I'm determined to get back into this cooking hobby of mine...and love it once again...and I think it's working!... It was just so fun making these dishes so far.. decorating them.. staging the pics.. and running around the home trying to find decent lighting :)

Now here's the kicker... this was a beautiful dish... just stunning... this dish was good...flavors were spot on.. but... it was not great.. why?.. meat was tough.. even after bashing it with the meat tenderizer. I tried this recipe again and cooked the meat to just medium, and it was still tough... guess I had to cut it up into small bite size pieces... tearing these with teeth is just asking for you to get a date with your dentist ( lucky you! :) ) and/or you'll be choking away at the huge lump of beef that won't break down! I'll try and do this recipe another day with good steak... possibly even with filet mignon.. maybe it's best to just not roll up the beef and serve the veggies on the side... I love the presentation and all the ingredients... but the meat selection needs serious tweaking... I won't give up on this recipe because it's such a quick one... maybe I'll try it with super high heat + cast iron next time... I don't know.. my knife was having a hard time slicing it when it was raw... guess that kind of predicted the outcome...

One thing I'd definitely love to improve on is cooking meats...I've never been too great at it... I am a fan of stews because the meat is just so tender... but those regular meals where I just cook a piece of meat on the stove... I've had several misses recently... it's either too bland, over cooked.. or under cooked... :(

Beef and Veggie Rolls without the Sauce 

Recipe : http://picturetherecipe.com/index.php/recipes/balsamic-glazed-steak-rolls/

Changes:

Used red onions instead of red bell peppers 

Did not used green onions 

Added more spices while sautéing the veggies - red pepper flakes, garlic salt, 

Did not add shallots to the balsamic reduction (will do in the future if it's on hand)

I used thin sirloin 

Tips:

Beef cooked fast... real fast! I think I seared all the sides for a total of 3 minutes and it was already too "done!" - I flattened my beef out a lot btw.. 

Marinate as long as possible? Maybe that will make the beef less tough?

DO NOT SKIP THE GLAZE... it's SO good (even without the shallots!)

Try using a less tough cut of meat? Will try filet mignon next time...