Peppercorn Crusted Steaks

Well today we had some really huge inch thick rib eye steaks to grill. Rib eyes?? On a military salary?? Yep, that's right because I can find those deals!! Albertsons had them on sale one day and I snatched them up. Sometimes you just have to! So we decided this was the weekend. We thought about rubs or marinades and couldn't really decide.Alex isn't a marinade kind of guy. Although I always tell him that marinades inject a lot of flavor into the meat. He says he prefers rubs. But oh well. On this occassion we decided on simplicity....peppercorn crusted. Although this is me we are talking about and anyone who knows me knows I cannot keep things too simple. So instead of salt and black pepper I used black Hawaiian lava salt and my 4 whole peppercorn blend. I stuck it all in my spice grinder to just barely crush my peppercorns. Then I generously applied to our steaks. And when I say generous, I mean it. It looked black beofre it even hit the grill. But I knew we had a thick piece of meat and I wanted the center to still have flavor. Then I handed it over to Alex and he grilled them up.

Our other dishes is where the dinner got messed up. My Dad told me of a recipe for baked stuffed potatoes. He had never done them, but they sounded good. So I cut the ends off some small potatoes and peeled them. Then using a small knife I hollowed out the center of the potato. I wrapped a slice of bacon around it and secured with a toothpick. 

We also decided to grill some portabellos. I found these lovely portabellos at the 99cent store. Can you believe that?? I love that store. I am going to miss it immensely when we move away from here. Dad told me to marinate in some balsamic vinegar and grill.

The potatoes had a hard time on the grill and in the 30 minutes they spent on the grill, they were still not done. The bacon kept falling off and scorching.....even in non direct heat. By the time everything else was done we decided to pull off the potatoes. I then stuffed them with some sharp cheddar. I even nuked them for 40 seconds to melt the cheese.....also hoping the potato would cook a little more. Sadly....they were terribly undercooked. They had a pretty good flavor though. We both agreed next time we will place them in the oven. I am more comfotable with things not on a grill anyway.

Although...I am not allowed to use the grill. That is Alex's one place to "be a man" so to speak. But even so, I feel more comfortable with temperatures inside the house. So I shall try them again.....only in the oven. 

We finally sat down to dinner with out peppercorn crusted steaks, undercooked potatoes, and mushrooms. The potatoes were inedible and the mushrooms were too vinegary for us. Go figure. But the steaks.....oh man the steaks.....were fabulous!! The pepper was wonderful! It almost tasted like the peppered beef jerky....only without the tough jerkiness. Not that I mind jerky...in fact I LOVE jerky. I believe that was the only part of the meal we ate. It's sad when that happens really. All that time and energy and now you are only batting 33%. Thats not a pretty number. But it happens. So we had bananas foster again to make up for it!!!! Heres to hoping all your grilling endeavors are betters than ours have been this weekend!!