friday night's all right for steak

after i discovered that my friend's birthday gathering was next friday not this friday i weighed my options for fun. shortly i discovered that everyone had plans. rats. well, looks like the only thing i could do
was cook myself up a killer dinner.

i decided on steak. the other day i hung out with my friend rick and he told me he knew the secret of the best steak ever.
cast iron. and then he told me how he did it.

before i even started doing anything i took my steak out of the package and let it sit on the counter for about two hours so that it would come up to room temperature. i picked this one because it was only $6.50 at acme.



while that was resting i decided to make myself a pseudo caprese salad. i've had basil for a while but i finally got two lil' red tomatoes and i was psyched to use them. i didn't have any fresh mozzarella but i did have a block of parmesan and i love using my brand new zester/grater.


i mixed it all together with a little olive oil and pepper. yum.




after enjoying my lil' salad i put my cast iron skillet in the oven and cranked up the heat to 500 degrees. while that was heating up i started my twice baked potato. i used to make these ALOT when i was living at home.
super easy and really good.

i baked my potato in the microwave and once it was done i cut it in half and scooped out all of the insides.



to the potato i added sour cream, cheddar cheese, chopped up green onion (also from my garden!) and some salt and pepper.


i mixed it all up and then put it all back into the potato skin and
put it in the oven.



by now my skillet was nice and hot so i moved it to my stove top at medium heat. i seasoned my steak with some season salt and lemon pepper a la pioneer woman and i rubbed a lil' bit of olive oil on one side. then i put it oil side down into that sizzling hot skillet.



i seared the steak for two minutes on each side and then i moved it to the broiler. before that though i plopped about a tablespoon of butter right on top. mmmmmm.



i left the steak in the broiler for about five or six more minutes (for medium rare) and then i transferred it to a plate, covered it with foil and let it rest for about five more minutes.



whoa. look at this. holy cow. i paired these meal with gentle ben's final stella artois and no joke - it was the best steak i've ever eaten.