Oh My My, Oh Heck Yes!

Tonight I decided to have steaks for dinner.  We had no propane, so I decided to make my version of Steak Au Poivre on the stove!  I'm going to go through the entire process with you, and I'm adding pictures to help you enjoy the experience along with me.

I started with 2 ribeye steaks.

 

Then I dry both sides with a paper towel, so they will hold seasoning better.  Then, I salt and pepper both sides.

 

 

Then I put cracked peppercorns on a plate.  I used black, but you can also use the tri colored ones.  Then, I press the outside of the steak into the peppercorns until the whole thing entire outside of the steak has a peppercorn coating.

 

Now, you need to melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan on med-low heat.  It's important to use butter because it will eventually become part of the sauce.  I use unsalted, organic butter.

Now add the steaks to the pan of melted butter, and let them sit and sear before turning them.

 



 

Once they steaks have seared nicely on both sides, and they've cooked long enough for you to be happy with the inside temperature, remove the steaks to a plate and wrap the plate in foil to keep them warm.  My steaks stay in the pan anywhere from 25-30 minutes.  I like them to be pink on the inside, but not raw.  I have a picture at the end of the inside of my steak.

 

To make the pan sauce, you will combine 1 cup of unsalted beef stock with 1/2 cups of any red wine you have on hand.  It is important to use unsalted because you do not want to mask the flavor from the steaks and the stock and wine mixture. You only want to enhance it.

 

Let this cook down as long as you want.  I cooked mine for about 25 minutes on low, so that it would cook down to the point where I could add about 1 tsp of cornstarch just to thicken the rest up.  I know it looks burned in the picture, but I promise that's just the peppercorns.  It isn't burned.

 

Every good steak needs a delicious side dish.  Using the ingredients below (Kosher Salt and pepper -season to taste-, 2 sliced lemons, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 minced clove of garlic, 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and green beans)  I have whipped up a fabulous green bean side dish that has the green beans coming out tender and delicious every time.

 

Pour 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into a baking dish, slice two lemons and lay the slices on top of the EVOO at the bottom of the baking dish.  In a bowl, combine the green beans (1 pound with the ends snapped off), 1 minced clove of garlic, juice of 1 lemon, the last 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.  Place this mixture on top of the sliced lemons in the baking dish and cook on 450 for 1hour.  Here's a picture of the finished product after I made my plate.  They're so good, I couldn't wait!

 

My other easy, go-to side dish is roasted tomatoes.

 

Slice a tomato, spray a baking sheet and salt and pepper it to flavor the bottom side of the tomato slices.

 

salt and pepper the top of the tomato slices after they're laid out on the baking sheet.

 

Cook them at 450 for about 20 minutes.  You have to keep an eye on them.  Clearly, I got a little distracted and two of mine got burned.  You can also cook them at 350 for 30 minutes, but I was cooking mine in the same oven with my green beans.

 

Here's the finished dinner plate!  The green beans were tender and acidic,  the tomatoes were soft and juicy, and the steak was thick and juicy with a nice zing from the peppercorns on the steak and in the sauce.

 

As promised, this is what my steak looked like on the inside once I cut into it.

 

 

Let me know if you have any questions about this meal or others.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right!

   So I have been hearing all about this show My Big Fat Revenge.  I decided to watch the first episode and see what it was all about.  I have to say that I was not at all pleased by what I saw with this show for many reasons.

1. They spent probably about 1 minute in the entire show showing the girls exercising.  They didn't spend any time talking about healthy eating, tips to cure sugar cravings, etc.  They mostly showed a lot of pushups and weightlifting and 1 short clip of one of the girls running with weights.  Even my husband said, "Where's the cardio?" 

2.  The entire show is centered around people getting their revenge on someone for making them feel bad about their weight.  While I am sympathetic towards these people for the way someone made them feel small, inadequate, and insecure,  I don't see how getting revenge on someone shows that you have grown, changed, or matured from the situation.  They're stooping to the level of their "haters" and in the end, they are just as bad.  Anyone who gets pleasure from hurting someone or seeing someone hurt is, in my opinion, disgusting.  Going after someone who hurt you is just showing them that they have won.  You are letting them know that for however long, you have carried them around with you.  You have thought about them and let them be a part of your life all this time because you couldn't move on and forgive and forget.  In situations like these, you usually have a  determined outcome you'd like to have from the person who hurt you, but usually once you receive this determined outcome, you realize you don't feel as good as you thought you would. 

3.  If you are going to lose weight, it needs to be a lifestyle change for yourself.  You don't EVER need to lose weight for someone else, because eventually, hopefully, you will grow up and move on and stop caring about that person.  Once you stop caring about them, you won't keep the weight off unless you decided to change for yourself!

Well let me know how you feel if you've seen it.  These are my opinions, and you're entitled to your own, but I hope I gave you some things to think about.  Let me know if you agree or disagree.