Skillet Steak Fajitas

I'm finally back to cooking, you guys! I basically exclusively baked my way through December and January, and when I cooked, I cooked boring pasta that I've already blogged about.

But yesterday, I felt like it was time to branch out from my staples of chicken breasts and tacos. I told Sean we were having FAJITAS (sorry, that is the most fun word to say) and he needed to pick up some skirt steak.

Since his preferred grocery store is the worst store in the world, they didn't have and didn't expect to have any skirt steak. I said, "How about flank steak then?" They did have a flank steak, but it cost $20. After some hemming and hawing, Sean convinced the butcher to cut the steak in half (way to go, boo!).

But that was just the first challenge in FAJITAS night...

Right off the bat, I had no idea how to cook the steak. Every recipe I found called for grilled steak and since we don't have a grill, I was a little stumped on what to do next. Also, many of the recipes suggested steak should be marinated overnight; that wasn't going to happen.

Finally, I found this recipe that called for steak marinated for a half-hour and cooked in the skillet. Now we're talking!

But it also called for orange juice. We had orange juice crammed in the back of the fridge with a date that, let's just say, is long passed. So I made a substitution: grapefruit juice.

The recipe calls for a litany of spices (which I love): garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, coriander and cilantro. Mix the spices with the juice for the marinade, then add the steak, cut into thin strips.

It looks like brains, but smells delicious. Let marinade sit for a half-hour.

Meanwhile, chop green pepper, red pepper and onions. We did this while listening to "Let It Be." "I Dig a Pony" is my jam, ya'll.

Saute the peppers and onions in a tablespoon of canola oil on medium heat. Do this until you feel ready to stop, then set the peppers and onions aside, tented with aluminum foil to stay hot.

Add another tablespoon of canola oil and turn the heat up to high, then add the steak strips. It will smell delicious, make an incredibly satisfying sizzling sound, get very juicy and very smoky.

Finally, plop the ingredients in the center of a tortilla (Sean bought super huge ones for some strange reason) and garnish as you wish (I wish cheese and sour cream; Sean wishes no extra garnish).

The steak was deliciously flavorful, but cumin is the strongest flavor here. I was really impressed with the steak, which I thought had to be grilled to be good. Plus, I love sizzle. Seriously; it might be one of the most satisfying sounds ever. I would even daresay the steak was more flavorful than fajitas at, say, Chili's and it was really easy in the grand scheme of things.