Steak, baby. It's what's for breakfast.

We shouldn't be eating so much red meat, or for that matter, meat of any kind.  When it's free, though, it's hard to ignore.  We have resolved to sell my cow's next calf, even if we're getting low on beef.  When the time comes, though, I'm not so sure my resolve will hold, because this beef is prime stuff, and I've learned proper ways to cook it.  
I get all excited when I manage to cook a decent steak:  I never learned proper methods because we've never bought steak.  It's so expensive, and if I ruined it, that would be a lot of money thrown away.  Since we started having our own meat butchered, I've learned how easy it is to cook a good ribeye, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with a sirloin.  
Last time we went to St. Louis, we took Cliff's sister and her husband some sirloin steak.  His sister has been somewhat under the weather and they didn't plan to leave home, so she took a package of sirloin out of the freezer Friday, planning to cook it Saturday.  Later they decided, with her doctor's permission, to make the trip to Kansas City for Pat's family Christmas get-together.  Charlene didn't want to leave the steak unthawed in the refrigerator for two more days, so she brought us back our steak.  (How many steaks to you know of that have made the trip to St. Louis and back?)  
Cliff's next-door sister, Rena, is cooking spaghetti for dinner today and we're invited, so I said to Cliff, "I'm going to experiment with this sirloin; what do you think about steak for breakfast?"  
I'm sure you can guess what sort of response I got.  
I went to THIS SITE and read the various instructions.  I cut the sirloin into serving-sized pieces, dug out my meat hammer, and used the flat side of it on the meat as instructed.  Just for insurance, I sprinkled some tenderizer on the portions.  I did not use a marinade as the site suggests.  I chose method number 7 on the article for our steak, and followed it precisely.  
"Frying sirloin steaks is a popular cooking method. Turn the heat on high and sear both sides of the steak. Turn the heat down on medium low and cook the steaks on each side for 3 to 4 minutes until they reach your desired taste."
If I told you how tasty and tender that meat was, you wouldn't believe it.  I am now confident enough about this method that I wouldn't be afraid to serve it to guests.   

Steak

Until the last couple of years, I have been a failure at cooking steaks.  It all goes back to the days when I wanted my meat well-done; if there was the tiniest bit of pink in the middle of the meat, forget it.  I've since learned that steak well-done isn't usually a good idea.  

Even if I had been able to do a good job of cooking steak, who can afford it?  So I've stuck with roasts, something economical that isn't so easy to ruin.  

When we took Sir Loin to the butcher shop, we had him mostly put into ground beef; the only steaks we saved were the fillets, because they are tender no matter what.  You see, we had never had such a young, grass-fed animal butchered.  He hadn't been fed any grain, and we were afraid the meat would be tough (remember, I didn't know how to cook steak anyhow).  Cliff had the best roasts saved, but mostly we had a freezer full of ground beef.  That isn't a bad thing:  ground beef is versatile; you can make meat loaf, chili, tacos, stuffed peppers... the possibilities are endless.  

Once we tasted the steak we had saved from Sir Loin, we realized we had made a mistake.  That grass- and milk-fed steer was as tender and tasty as could be.  

So when we butchered Clyde this year, we saved lots of steaks and roasts.  

A year ago, with the help of the Internet, I managed to cook some steak without ruining it.  Oh, baby!  I closed my eyes and thought I was at Outback.  It just goes to show that you are never too old to learn.  

Of course, those steaks were fillets, the most tender cut in existance.  Today I will branch out.  

I'm cooking sirloin steak.  

From what I'm seeing on the Internet, it can be cooked just like fillets; I'm a little concerned at the words, "Sirloin steak is a cut that's easy to overcook."  

One recipe suggests using a meat mallet on it, but the other recipes make me think that shouldn't be necessary.  

I found a marinade that I'm going to use; perhaps that will insure tenderness.  

I have harped all summer on my lousy tomato crop.  While the vines went wild, the tomatoes produced were few and far between.  Most of them rotted before they could ripen.  There weren't enough to can, although I did freeze some whole, in baggies.  I've always heard you could do this, but had never tried it.  It works like a charm, and is easy to do.  I've used some of them in taco soup.  

A couple of weeks ago, with frost threatening, I brought in some green tomatoes I planned on frying.  Before I could get around to using them, though, they ripened, right there on the counter.  I tasted one, and it was just like a fresh summer tomato.  I brought more inside, and we are still eating delicious tomatoes.  It's good to know those vines are finally giving me back a little something for my efforts.  

    
And in non-food-related news, my granddaughter Monica turned sixteen yesterday; to celebrate the day, she went and took her driver's test... and PASSED!

Steak!

While I consider myself to be an adequate cook, I have to tell you about two things I've never been able to cook properly:  fried chicken and steak.  I can now mark steak off that list.  
I love a good, medium-rare steak; sometimes I make Cliff splurge and take me to Outback just so I'll get a decent one.   
When we had Sir Loin butchered, we ended up with some lovely steaks to put in the freezer, two to a package.  My original thought was to save them for one of those times when the daughter's family is here for a cookout;  the son-in-law does a great job with steaks.  
But one evening a couple weeks ago while Cliff was at work, I decided to try cooking a decent steak one more time.  I was the only one here, so I wouldn't have to feel bad watching Cliff chew on shoe-leather and pretend it's good.  
I searched the Internet and found a couple of recipes I thought might work for me.  
At this point, those of you who have cooked pan-fried ribeye steak all your lives are laughing at me, wondering what's so hard about cooking steak.  I know you are, so don't deny it.   
I found the Pioneer Woman version and used some of the seasonings she mentioned, although I really didn't make a rub as she did.  I looked at the pictures (by the way, you know I love you, Ree, but there can be such a thing as too many pictures) and found one that put me on the  right track.  Hopefully she won't mind my stealing this picture.

I never knew I was supposed to actually burn the butter.  
I ended up cooking the steak longer than her recipe suggested (two minutes on one side, two and a half on the other) because there was too much blood coming to the surface to suit me.  
But somehow, the steaks ended up tender and quite good.  I used extreme self-control and saved one for Cliff.  He had it for breakfast the next morning and agreed that I had hit on something; it was even good left over.  
Yesterday I decided to try steak again, using another person's methods.  
This recipe said not to go crazy on the seasonings; I decided to use no seasonings at all.  I read the instructions over several times, and realized this person addressed everything I have ever done wrong with a steak:  Don't use a fork to turn it, that lets the juices out.  Don't move the steak around in the skillet except when you turn it. Leave the heat on medium; don't turn it down.  Don't cover the pan.  Oh, and get the steaks out of the refrigerator at least an hour before you're going to cook them.
The cooking time suggested on this site was four minutes on the first side, five on the second.   

I threw those babies into the smoking hot cast iron skillet and came to my computer room so I'd leave them alone for the allotted time.  The timer beeped that four minutes were up and I turned them with tongs, set the timer for five minutes, and came back to my computer.  
They were as good as any steak I've ever had at Outback, fork-tender, juicy, and pink in the middle.  
Cliff agrees.  
Now if only I could learn to make fried chicken as good as Mother used to make.    

a motorcycle ride

The trees had started to leaf out nicely three weeks ago; then we were hit by a week of hard freezes at night, which killed all the green. They are now starting to make new leaves again,thank goodness! The landscape is very bleak when the trees are bare.

Somebody owns a LOT of cattle! One thing about it, the hard freeze didn't ruin pasture-grass. It sure did hurt our alfalfa at home, though; we won't know how much damage was done until we mow it and see if it grows back properly.

I'm sure there's something really valuable to somebody here. I do enjoy going to swap-meets. You never know what you'll find, and it's a great place to people-watch.

or dog-watch.

Or find yourself a slightly-used car.

We usually avoid freeways when riding the Honda; but I had a hankering for steak, and there was only one way to get to Longhorn.

We hardly ever get appetizers, and of course we don't need the salt and calories. But once in a while, you just gotta splurge. These are firecracker chicken wraps. We really didn't taste any chicken, but they were sinfully good!


So was this.

And we were home in plenty of time for me to ride Blue. And for us to have a nice visit from the daughter's family, dogs and all.