STEAK.

Hello! All one of you who will see this… Patty. I learned this from my friend who is a chef and has done amazing cooking classes with me. I buy New York Strip steaks because they have some marbling in them and it's nice to have a little fat in there when you want to cook at home. So…. here's what we do:

1: get the steaks out of the fridge and not necessarily to room temp, but at least un-chilled.

2: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Preheat skillet (preferably one that can go from stovetop to oven!) to medium/medium-high.

3: LIBERALLY salt and pepper your steak on both sides. Don't use table/iodized salt. Used flaky salt… sea salt. It should be a thin/tiny layer on the whole steak.

4. Put your steaks on a hot skillet… medium high heat… and don't touch them. We are going to watch them for FOUR minutes on the first side.

 

See this picture below… before you turn the steak (at four minutes)… the grey will creep up about 1/3 the way up the steak. You can tell it's cooking through!) This grey will creep up the other side when you flip it and then it will finish cooking all the way through in the oven.

5. At four minutes, flip the steaks. 

This is what it will look like when you flip the first time. The bottom still looks raw, but you can tell the top has been cooked on the stove and is getting there.

Cook them for FOUR MINUTES

on the other side!! Then get ready to throw them in the oven.

6. Put them in the oven for 6.5 minutes. Take them out and immediately get them off the stovetop and onto a wooden cutting board to rest for a few minutes!

6. When you take them out of them oven, remove them from the pan and put them onto a wooden or rubber cutting board to let them rest for 6-8 minutes. If you leave them in the pan, they will keep cooking and over cook.

This is what they should look like when you first get them out of the pan!

This is what the inside will look like when you first take them off… they will keep cooking slightly for a couple minutes if you don't touch them. I wanted to see what it looked like so I cut into them.

See below… that juice coming out the bottom means there is juice running from the top of the steak to the bottom and it makes it so flavorful!

And… above… I slice the steaks before I serve them. I can serve one steak to three people (along with great sides) to make the steak stretch.

This was my lunch on a snow day… leftover homemade brussel sprouts and leftover restaurant tater tots plus steak and "easy Alton Brown horseradish cream sauce" for lunch!

Hope you try this soon! Let me know if you even see this (since I haven't blogged in like 18 months) or have questions. :)

See below for the "recipe" I sent to friends in case it gives you more context than the blog above!

- Let them sit out from the fridge a bit to not be super cold

- liberally salt and pepper each side

- sear on a medium/high skillet for 4 minutes on each side... Meat should be "greyed" on each side about 1/4 up... NOT all the way meeting in the middle. Should still be pink line through the side

- transfer skillets to 350 degree oven IF your skillets are oven proof!!! If not, transfer steaks to baking sheet with sides then put in oven

- cook 8 minutes

- remove from oven and transfer to cutting board or plate to set for 8 minutes. Don't cool on tray/skillet because they will keep cooking.

- so... Recap, 4 min each side in skillet, 8 in oven, 8 set. If you cut one after oven and feel they aren't done, cook 2 more minutes... But remember they keep cooking when you take them out.

This Old House

This Old House is MY first house. The house that Daniel and I chose after a summer of driving aimlessly around the streets of Austin on the weekends, picking up flyers as we went. What a fun summer that was... listening to music with the windows down, sharing a snack at Sonic, playing golf and eating Mexican food in the evenings. And This Old House is what we chose. And it wasn't great... but it was good.

This Old House is where we started having family Christmas gatherings when my grandparents moved into a retirement home. It's where THIS happened one year. It's where my mom's side of the family stood around singing Christmas Carols as my grandmother asked "what key?" and played her mother's piano. Played songs she can't ever forget though she now can't remember much at all. And it was priceless... and it was good.

This Old House is where we have had parties... oh, the parties. For friends about to have babies, with friends celebrating the new year, with people we hardly know at all as we get to know them, for family BBQs and fancy dinner parties and football and birthdays and for no reason whatsoever. And for going away. And it was FUN and it was sad. But it was good.

This Old House is where my sister and I did this. I think about it sometimes and feel happy and warm and good about those days. They were sweet and very good.

This Old (Old) House is where my mom and I spent hours and days and weeks getting ready for the-artist-formerly-known-as "Buddy." We cleaned, talked about baby names, redesigned the entire front of the house... in short, we nested. And the nesting was so exhausting. But the house was FINALLY great. The house was finally a home. And the process was so good.

This Old House is where we brought Charlie home. Where he fell in love with his family and where they fell in love with him. Where he sat and rolled and walked and talked and pushed and ran and met his sweet friends for the very first time. This is where we spent precious moments, the three of us, snuggled in bed in the mornings and where we waved bye bye to Dada every day when he went to work and where we stared out the window and squealed every day when he came home. We will do that in the next house... but this is where we did it first. This Old House is where we took thousands of pictures that will always remind us of This Old House. These days were the very definition of good.

This Old House Is JUST a house. But that's not what it represents. It means friends, family, faith and firsts. The only things that make life good.

And This Old House  is where we are moving... for now. And I just keep reminding myself that it too will be good.

A Year... and Eleven Months.

Well, My Charlie...

It has been 11 months since I posted on here. And it makes me a little sad to read back at all I documented before you turned one and realize I haven't been doing that as we've gone. So I want to do a snapshot of you at almost 2 to tell you how amazing you are.

Charlie, you are a giggly, spunky, obedient, funny, tough little man. You like to run and vroom trucks and watch cars out the window. You also like to "rock da mama", read books on repeat, hold hands, be sung to and dance. I don't know that any of this is abnormal for a two year old, but it's so precious to me.

Some specific things that I know you will stop doing someday but that I love so much right now:

- When we are in the car, you gasp and point at things. Like it's the first time you've ever seen something so awesome and so loudly I'm afraid someone is about to ram into the car. You wave at the (fake) cows at the restaurant down the street and when you get anywhere near turning onto that street you say "pass de dows... mmmmmm(oo)... bye bye dows". When we are at Shoal Creek and 2222 (or on Shoal Creek anywhere south of 2222) you start saying "da Gee-Mahnn" because you want to go to G-Man's house to watch the trucks go by. You know when we are getting close to things (airplanes at Camp Mabry, where "da boats doh", school, Moyce's place, the Children's Museum, Aunt Kate's even restaurants) and I'm impressed every time. And I love that you know where you are and are ALWAYS excited to go there. I'm going to miss that about Austin.

- "Da Mama da and Doh"... meaning "the mama's hand go" when we walk into school. We talk through the plan at night before we go and in the morning before we go and even as we walk up. We hold hands, you give me a "chiss" and say Bye Bye Mama then you walk in and "wash da hands... da shoap" and then vroom da trucks. You are so brave and smile and wave even when every other kid in the room is crying! I am so proud of you!

- You love to give hugs and kisses. You warm up to people so quickly and will almost immediately give a high five. When they leave it would be a rare occasion for them to not get a kiss or a very willing hug. You love people and they love you!

- Your smile and laugh absolutely light up a room. Your sheer joy with each activity, quiet moment, new friend, old friend, family member, animal... almost anything really... is so evident. I hope that love of life stays with you forever.

- This list is solely for me... but I wanted to have it written somewhere! --> Words you say wrong (or at least ultra-emphasized) that I wish you would never learn how to say right (or at least the normal, boring way):

Ain't Kayte - Aunt Kate
Ma-Mowah - Lawnmower
Dowm - Down
Char - Car
Chah-ee - Charlie
Jewake - Jake
da Mahk - The Mark aka a tractor
Cheez - Please
WaWa - Watermelon
Mook - Milk
Gee - Glee
Dince - Dance
da mama/da dada - Mom/Dad. Always with "da"
Eh-pwain - Airplane
Jewapes - Grapes
Chewack - Quack or Cracker
Biss - Bus
Chiss - Kiss
Daw-ig - Dog
Sham - Sam (friend in class!)
Mee-ohs - Miles (friend in class!)
Baby No - Noah :)
Da Wone - Phone

Correct but emphasized:
Beennn - Ben
May-mee - Mayme
TRRRUCK - TRUCK!
Da OFFFF (and wrinkle your eyebrows) - Off

This series of pictures gives a pretty great snapshot of you and your year...

(Happy Mother's Day to me... :) 

 (Your first teachers... Miss Angela and Miss Nancy.

You love them so much... gasping and grinning at their picture

every time we scroll by it on my phone.)

 (first baseball game with Dad. 

He said you hollered at people the whole time 

and didn't leave your seat for over an hour. :)

I love you my most amazing man.

Love,
Mama