I know. But, there's been a lot of them around. I can't let them go to waste. There are other apple-based projects in the works (apple crisp and apple butter, to name a couple), but I'll come back to them another time.
Besides, I've got to give my hands a break. All the peeling and chopping has got my wrists and knuckles a bit sore. I might need to stage a party - BYOP: Bring Your Own Peeler.
There's been several instances of yummy-goodness that have nothing to do with apples. So, let's take a look at one of those. Literally.
What you see is dinner a couple of Saturday nights ago.
These steaks were purchased at the meat department at Walmart with the intended purpose of meeting the heat of the porch grill. The man, i.e. resident grill master, was suppose to handle the meat while I took care of the veggies; but I got an unexpected surprise when he walked back into the kitchen with a resolute, "there's no gas."
WHAT?!
Oh, it was so sad. Beautiful, chunky slabs of beef without a working grill...tsk, tsk.
I really wanted this meal to be lovely and delicious. I was with a couple of friends away for the weekend, and we had opted to eat in instead of making reservations on one the local winery-restaurants nearby. I'll admit, I felt a little bit of pressure to provide an above average meal.
I don't really have experience with broiling, but I knew immediately that was the best alternative available. I had already planned to roast the veggies in Olive Oil with salt and pepper - simple and delicious. I could have sauteed the squash, which is the best option for squash in my opinion, but there was no real butter in the house.
(Again just my opinion, but squash prepared in a hot pan is only best with real butter in the mix.)
So, I rummaged around the kitchen to make-shift a boiler pan for the steaks and placed them on the highest shelf in the oven. The veggies went on the lower shelf on a cookie sheet. And I kept my eye on things -- that's really the only secret I can offer. I didn't know what kind of time I should be employing and didn't have the means to look it up online. We were in a cabin in the VA Mountains. It was a remote weekend away (a sometimes very necessary thing, when one's job is being connected 24/7).
When they looked brown and the fat was cracklin' a bit, I pulled out the pan and flipped them. I also conducted the touch-test, to see how much "give" the meat had...hoping that somehow, my fingers would translate the amount of "give" with how pink in the innards were.
Rough estimate was that I had the steaks under the broiler for about 6 mins on each side. The NY Strips eneded up medium to medium well. The Rib Eye steaks were medium to medium rare. And, magically, everyone was happy with this outcome.
I look at this picture and my mouth immediately waters with the want of meat.
It could be the influence of my werewolf friends starting to affect me, finally.
