Steak and Chicken

Not wanting to give a wonderful steak to a 4-year old I decided to cook some chicken to go along with the steaks. The chicken can been seen in the back marinading in the small orange bowl.

On the chicken I created another sweet sauce that I was sure my kids would enjoy. The marinade for the children had:

1 T soy sauce

1 T honey

1 T extra virgin olive oil

pepper to taste

The steak had my usual rub that you can find several places on the blog...most recently in late December.

Celebration Steaks

December is a month of celebration in our house. Working in higher education we often have nine days of vacation and lots of opportunity to spend with family. On the 21st we recall the night we were engaged nine years ago. After Christmas we celebrate with more time with family and watching bowl games. For the past few years we have had chances to deer hunt and hope we can do it again this year.

The celebration begins tonight with my wife's birthday dinner. She requested grilled steak and sides.


Though the picture isn't great, this is a grilled stuffed mushroom. The "stuffing" is a can of diced tomatoes with onions and garlic added and seared on the stove top. I sprinkled bread crumbs on top and added salt and pepper. They were a little spicy but very good.

The t-bone steaks were cut about an inch thick and they are as large as they look. I used a very simple rub of salt, pepper, and chili powder. I used a small amount of olive oil on the steaks and cooked them for about eight minutes total.

The kids were treated with frozen pizza an hour earlier in hope that we could have a nice dinner. However, our "eater" returned to the table for bites of steak. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Tony Chachere's and bourbon

Tony Chachere's is a great seasoning blend that goes well with chicken or steaks. I favor dry rubs like Tony Chachere's over most marinades. I pulled a couple of steaks out of the deep freeze and allowed them to defrost in the refrigerator overnight.

I rubbed a generous spoonful of TC on the steaks and placed them in a bag with 1/2 cup of bourbon. After living in Kentucky for four years bourbon is among my favorite adult beverages. I allowed the steaks to marinade for about four hours an then cooked on each side for about six minutes.

In-doors my wife cooked potatoes and green beans. With a side salad and cold beer, it was a perfect meal.

Grilled Fajitas

I had a nice sized flank steak. It was almost two pounds and we had been craving fajitas. I searched for a recipe and could not find anything that did not involve marinading the steak for a couple of hours. So I decided to do a dry rub.

I rubbed two table spoons of extra virgin olive oil on the steak and then prepared my rub. For the rub I used:

2 teaspoons of paprika
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
1 teaspoons of Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoons of cumin

I combined the above ingredients and rubbed them into the steak. I would like to have let them season for a little while but we were hungry!

After grilling for about 7 minutes on each side I cut the steak into strips. We also had leftover chopped onion and green pepper from something we cooked about a week ago. Earlier this year my wife planted a pepper plant in the backyard along. There was one red pepper on the plant.

The peppers and onions were put into a skillet along with the flank steak. After cooking together for about five minutes the fajitas were ready. Next time I may try to marinade the meat but given the short time I had to cook, they were great!