Steaks in Winter

Living in SoCal, you'd think we would bbq year round. Thats not the case. During the winter we rarely bbq at all. My husband says he doesn't like to bbq when it's dark outside. That doesn't make sense because 9 times out of 10, he'd be out there after dark bbq'ing during the summer. I know people that bbq in the snow. Until recently we rarely had a good steak unless it was summer. I have a nifty little grill pan that's probably 30 years old (it use to be his mothers) that I've tried to use for steaks on the stove. Every time I cooked a steak on it, not only did it fill the kitchen with smoke, but I ended up over cooking the darned things. Then, one day as I was watching the Food Network I saw Giada de Laurentiis sear a couple of steaks on the stove and then pop them in the oven! OMG! I can do THAT!! duh! Guess what I made for dinner tonight?! 

I decided to heat up the black eyed peas and green beans from the other nights dinner, simple enough. Microwaves are wonderful for this sort of thing. The cole slaw was still good. I then pulled out one of my smaller cast iron pans so that I could sear my tri tip and stick it in the oven for a few minutes. Due to all the times I had messed up a steak, I've gotten used to using meat tenderizer "just in case". I can't stand trying to eat an over cooked, chewy steak. I knooow....its not the "thing" to do. If you're a diehard steak bbq'er, I mean no offense. If it helps, I only get the tenderizer without MSG. So...I sprayed the pan with a little Pam and put the pan on the stove to  heat up and sprinkled the meat with pepper and meat tenderizer. Somehow I got sidetracked and next thing I knew the pan was over heated and the Pam was smoking like a chimney. I turned on the fan over the stove, opened the front door and the kitchen window and proceeded to clean the pan and start over. Meanwhile one of my cats started meowing like crazy. He wouldn't shut up. He kept looking towards the kitchen and howling. The poor thing looked truly concerned. This continued until all the smoke had cleared up. During that time he hung out by the front door with my other cat. It wasn't the first time I'd smoked out the kitchen, so what was his problem this time? Then I got kinda freaked out (that superstitious part of me that I don't like admitting to) and kept checking my steak as it cooked in the oven to make sure it didn't go up in flames!

Towards the end of the steak cooking I noticed part of some french bread I had leftover from lunch (I tried my hand at making French Dip sandwiches) and decided that garlic bread would be a good addition to the menu. For my birthday I received "What Can I Bring? Cookbook" from my friend and had noticed a recipe for garlic bread in there called Cheesy Garlic Bread. It was awesome!! You mix together some butter, a bit of olive oil, garlic and oregano. Slice the bread into 1 - 2 inch slices, but don't go all the way through (all the slices are still connected along the bottom of the loaf). Then you spread the butter mixture on each side of each slice, sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese on top and plop it on the oven. mmm mmm. 

Once again, I had dinner alone. One daughter was working and the other went out with friends. Teenagers do keep themselves busy, which is fine. My husband is still on his "I'm not hungry" kick. There's no way he has gone 2 days without food. Have I mentioned that he is addicted to fast food? He can't go a weekend without it. I have no idea how often he eats it during the week while he's at work. This one time (in band camp.....:P) when we were arguing and he "wasn't hungry" he did offer to go to Del Taco to get me a burrito (?). When he handed me the bag, he failed to remove the receipt that showed 2 burrito's purchased. Its funny how he always has an errand to run around noon on the weekends. I don't think car wash facilities offer french fry as an air freshener.