Meet My Meat

I think my bottle was laced with meat when I was a baby. I. Love. Meat. My Grandpa was in the meat business so t-bone steaks and corned beef were staples at our house and the whole laced bottle makes sense, right?!?!

A few years ago my Dad was introduced to a new way to prepare steaks - soak them in beer before grilling! The beer cooks off but the alcohol helps break down the sinew so the meat is extra tender. I've heard of people using bourbon for this too!

We started my marinating the steaks in beer (30 minutes each side). Type of beer doesn't matter that much, but I stay away from the American light beer (good enough for me to drink during football season but not good enough for my steaks!). This time I tried out a chili beer for something different.

Next we coated the steaks with this incredibly flavorful rub my parents brought back from Paris.

We cut up the chili that was in the beer and wedged slices into the meat for an extra kick.

Depending on the thickness of the steak, my Dad taught me to grill as follows:

- Step 1: Five minutes on each side on hot to sear the steaks
- Step 2: Turn one side of the grill off and move steaks to the side without heat and grill five more minutes on each side (steaks pictured were cooked 10 on each side since they were extra thick)

Enjoy!

Krazy for Kale

Lately I've been exploring healthier alternatives to some of the foods I love. I prefer savory over sweet and have a weakness for salt. I love chips... but they're not the healthiest thing to eat.

Enter... kale chips! Today I attempted my first batch for my Labor Day barbecue. Surprised how easy they were to make... and good! I've had them once, and thought I needed a dehydrator to make, but thanks to inspiration from a friend's Facebook post, I baked them!

I washed the kale leaves, ripped them into "potato chip" size pieces, removed the stalks, marinated with a bit of olive oil, sprinkled sea salt and laid them out over parchment paper. Baked them on 375 for about 15 minutes (or until they get crispy).

Pick a sauce to dunk them in, and while definitely not potato chips, they satisfy my salty snack craving and are pretty tasty!