Dinner is Served

I am no chef! Not by any stretch of my very vivid and fantastical imagination! However, there are about 6 meals that I can cook very well (ummm I can figure some things out)!  Lately, I've acquired a taste for steak. I'm generally not a fan of red meat.    I very seldomly eat it, but thanks to Shan talking about steak 24/7 I decided to give it a try and take cooking directions straight from the horses mouth.  Before I get into it, let me digress a little.  Shan is a master chef and can cook any and everything and makes cooking seem effortless and fun (it never feels that way when I start cooking though but she'll trick you into believing that).  She's in the process of working her baby, FourHeavensSake, a catering company into fruition so you honeeyz will have a chance to experience a little slice of food heaven!!!  Trust me, I freeload and give it a try all the time and I feel sorry for you honeeyz that have not been blessed yet, so I suggest you keep your eyes and ears open for when FourHeavensSake officially launches!  Now back to the matter at hand...my inability to cook like Shan, therefore taking careful direction from her in making my steak.  For the second evening in the past 2 weeks I've had a taste for steak and I decided to cook 2 pieces tonight.  I had one for dinner and will have the other tomorrow.  I cooked the steak with sauteed asparagus.  I would've added a baked potato but since I was cutting up this weekend with my eating habits and I lost an additional 2lbs (yaaaayyyy), I've decided to forgo the baked potato, reluctantly.  All turned out well and I'm full and happy! Here's a step by step (well sort of) summary with some quoted commentary from Shan as to how this all went down....

STEP #1: The evening before I cooked the steak I marinated it in seasoning and soy sauce.  Shan said that soy sauce (despite the fact that I absolutely detest it...she remembered that and pointed it out) is an excellent marinade for steak.  It helps to season it, tenderize it and keep it nice and juicy... just the way we all like it!! In the past, I've used (with her approval) italian dressing, A-1 steak sauce and teriyaki marinade to marinade my steak.  After I work the marinade in and add the seasonings of choice I seal the steak up in a freezer lock back and stick it back in the fridge.

This seasoning was highly recommended by Shan and I love it!! Great taste and great mix of salt and pepper.  Rather inexpensive as well and very easy to use with the grinder top.  Love it.

For the next few steps and the finished product click below! 

STEP #2: Add olive oil (which I cook everything in and guess what, so does Shan. Duh Winning!!) to a pan and heat before adding steak to the pan to cook.  I cook it til it's brown on both sides and maybe add a little more seasoning if you would like. I prefer medium-well b/c well is just too dry and boring and for medium is a little too pink so I like the in between thang!

I hate onions. Omg, I hate them things.  But they are great to cook with (so they say, but since I'm no pro I follow the rules).  I have learned that scallions are equally great to cook with without the strong taste of onion that I don't like.  I went with the onion this time.  I wanted the authentic steakhouse taste although I remove the onions before eating it.

My choice of seasonings and additives...  I'm still an old school A1 girl. I'm not a big deal steak eater so this makes things nice and happy for me.  :-) Real steak eaters don't need it.  I also am addicted to white wine and lemon for cooking, especially for veggies and sauteed foods.  I love it.  I added them both to my asparagus for extra flavor.

For my asparagus: I added some olive oil to the pan and just put the asparagus in the pan, added my extras and seasoning and kept flipping the asparagus around until they got softer and brown.  I should've clipped the back ends before I cooked them but I did it after they were done. 

Fun Fact: about 6 months ago, asparagus was absolutely gross!!!

ALL DONE AND DELICIOUS.  THE BEST PART IS THAT IT'S ALL PRETTY HEALTHY! ASPARAGUS ARE PERFECT FOR YOUR DIET AND A LEAN STEAK IS GREAT PROTEIN!  Shan says when looking for a good piece of steak when you can't afford the filet mignon at the drop of a dime like she does (ballinnnnnnnn') to go for a steak with "loin" in the description because "a loin is good.  A good amount of marble (the fat in between the meat) is great.  Not fatty though!!"  Please Note: I had to quote her text b/c I don't know what any of that means nor do I understand but hopefully you cooking honeeyz can figure that alien talk out!!!