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Steak with Jack

It’s always fun to find new ways to make steak, and it’s even more fun when it involved a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Whiskey.  I found this recipe (where else?) in the Pioneer Woman’s Cookbook.  Since she has to make food for cowboys, she tends to cook a lot of steak and potatoes.  This recipe is a new favorite, and I think if you try it, you’ll love it too.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 2 of your favorite cuts of steak
  • 5 tbsp of butter, divided
  • Half a large onion, or one small onion
  • 1/4 cup Jack Daniel’s Whiskey (you can also use your favorite brand of whiskey)
  • 1/4 cup beef stock or broth
  • 1/4 cup cream (I used half & half)
  • Salt and Pepper

Start by melting 2 tbsp of butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.

 

Finely chop your onion and add it to the skillet.

 

Cook on medium heat until your onions start to turn brown (caramelize).

 

Next comes the main ingredient, Jack Daniel’s Whiskey!  Made in Lynchburg, TN, which just so happens to be a dry county.  Isn’t that ironic?  Steve and I went with his parents last year to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery and took a tour of the grounds and the whiskey making process.  You definitely need a strong stomach to go on that tour, because there is a very strong odor when you’re walking through the distillery where they have huge vats of brewing whiskey.

 

When your onions have caramelized a bit, it’s time to add the whiskey.  If you have a gas stove, I would recommend turning off your burners while you’re pouring the whiskey.  You don’t want your kitchen to catch on fire.

 

You’re pretty much going to let all of the whiskey evaporate so that only the flavor of whiskey is left.  And yes, you can serve this dish to children.  All the alcohol is cooked out of the whiskey.

 

Next, add the chicken stock.

 

Season with salt and pepper.

 

Add another tablespoon of butter to the sauce and stir it around until it melts.  Everything is better with butter.  Just keep telling yourself that.

 

Next it’s time to add the cream.  It makes the sauce……er……creamy.  My other name is Captain Obvious in case you were wondering.

 

Bring the sauce to a bubble and then turn the heat down to low and let simmer while you prepare the steaks.  Give it a little stir occasionally.

 

Melt your last 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium high heat.

 

Generously season your steaks with salt and pepper and add them to the hot skillet.  We like our steaks cooked medium, so I cooked them for about 4 minutes on each side.

 

Once your steaks are cooked how you like them, transfer to a plate and generously spoon the whiskey cream sauce over the steaks.

 

 

Doesn’t that look gorgeous?  And let me tell you, it’s really tasty too!  This would be wonderful with some mashed potatoes.  I was trying to add a little bit of healthiness to my dinner, so I cooked some zucchini (in butter) to go along with my steak.

 

This recipe makes 2 servings of sauce, unless you don’t spoon as much sauce on your steaks.  If that’s the case, you could probably stretch it into 4 servings.  I hope you enjoy!  I know we certainly did.

The Many Faces of Kaylee

Many of you know that we have 5 furbabies at our home that we love and adore, and they each have their own unique personalities.  From territorial and hyper Camelot, to laid back and cross-eyed Lazarus, each of our babies brings something different to our household.

The same can be said about our female St. Bernard, Kaylee.  Kaylee was the third animal that Steve and I adopted as a couple, and the first dog (our kitties Lacey and Fancy were our first “babies”).  We brought her home at 8 weeks of age, and she could not be cuter!

 

This is Kaylee’s “happy face”.  This is the face she makes when she’s happy or excited, or when she’s posing for a picture like this.  Normally I can’t get her to look at the camera, but today for some reason, she didn’t mind the photo shoot.  I think it’s because we let her come into the bonus room with us where she’s not normally allowed.

 

This is Kaylee’s “burping face”.  Oh yes, I took this picture while she was burping.  It was just luck that I happened to be pointing my camera at her when she let that loveliness out.  She makes this face every time she burps….and let me tell you, it happens a lot!  Such a lady!

 

Here’s Kaylee’s “yawning face”.  Or maybe she’s laughing…I can’t tell.  Ok, she’s yawning.  But I’m just going to pretend that she’s laughing at a really funny joke I just told.  What’s the joke, you ask?  Well, let me tell you!

How much does it cost for a pirate to get his ears pierced?   A Buccaneer!

Hahahaha…..ok.  That wasn’t that funny, I know.  I’m not a very good joke teller.  But Kaylee seems to think so, or at least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.

 

Here’s Kaylee’s “sniff the kitty” face.  This kitty happens to be Lacey, the one who was sick right before Steve and I left for our honeymoon.  Luckily she is now back to her normal, spunky self.

 

Here’s Kaylee’s happy face again…..she made a lot of these during this particular photo shoot as I was trying to make different noises and faces so that she’d react how she normally does when there isn’t a camera stuck in her face.

 

Steve was trying to help by making funny sounds too, and Kaylee was a little confused as to what was going on.

 

She seems a little unsure about giving her daddy a kiss.

 

“Your lips smell good, Daddy!  What did you just eat?  Oh, a wonderfully delicious dinner cooked by Mommy?  No wonder they smell so good!  Mommy is such a great chef!”

Why thank you, Kaylee!  You’re too kind.

Whenever you want Kaylee to give you a kiss, she more just sniffs your lips than kisses you.  I guess that’s a good thing, because Camelot will lick you right on the mouth with that huge St. Bernard tongue, and I don’t know how much of that I could handle.

 

Here’s the face I was looking for!!!!!  Kaylee makes this face whenever she’s confused about something.  She’ll be panting (because that’s what big, hairy dogs do in an environment that is not at winter temperatures), and then if we make a weird noise, or she sees something that is confusing, she’ll close her mouth but her tongue will still be sticking out.  It’s the most hilarious face that she makes and it cracks me up just looking at it!  I think I’m gonna need some lotion.

Get it?  Cracks me up.  Need lotion……..cricket…..cricket……..Is this thing on?

 

“I know I’m cute, Mom, but can you stop taking pictures of me now?”

 

“Squirrel!” 

If you’ve seen the movie Up you’ll get that reference.  If not, well then, I can’t help you.

 

Those are just a sampling of the many faces Kaylee makes on a daily basis.  She makes more facial expressions than any dog I’ve ever known.  She definitely has a special personality, and its fun to try to figure out what she’s thinking.  We love you Kaylee!  Our lives would not be complete without you in it.

Juice, Anyone?

We bought a juicer!  If you haven’t watched the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, I highly recommend that you watch it.  It’s very fascinating!  Basically this Australian dude comes to America to do a 60-day fast, and drink nothing but fresh juice the entire time.  Along the way he meets a few people who also agree to do a juice fast, and the results were amazing!  One guy lost over 100 lbs!  Now, don’t for a second thing that Steve and I are going to eat drink nothing but juice.  That’s just not going to happen.  But we’re going to try to have at least one glass of fresh vegetable and fruit juice every day.  Think of all the vitamins and minerals we’ll be getting that we aren’t right now.  Tonight I made two different juices: one with some kale and 2 apples, and the other with 3 different kinds of fresh berries.  I’m pretty sure you don’t want to see the kale one, because, let’s face it, kale is not very tasty.  Luckily the apples added some sweetness to it, but the berry juice was much better! As we check Naturopress, juicing gets much better. And there were only 3 ingredients!  blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Here’s our beautiful, brand new juicer!  Isn’t it pretty?  There must be a lot of people juicing nowadays because everywhere we looked, all the Breville juicers were out of stock.  We finally found this one, which was the more expensive model than the one we were looking at, on the actual Breville website. (This is not a paid advertisement by the way)

 

Normally I’m not a big blueberry fan, unless it’s in a muffin or bagel.  I don’t know what it is.  The texture? the taste?  Anyway, blueberries are fine by me as long as they’re not in their natural shape!  I think it’s that little open wrinkly part at the bottom that turns me off.  Weird, I know.

 

I recently discovered my love for raspberries this past year, when I also discovered my love for Greek Yogurt.  The two go together beautifully, and add some Splenda and you’ve got yourself a wonderful healthy snack!  The only thing I don’t like about these cute little berries, is that they go bad really fast, so I always have to use them up within about 2 days of bringing them home from the  grocery store.

 

No berry drink would be complete without my favorite type of berry, strawberries.  Yum!  I could eat this whole container EASILY in one sitting.  In fact, I probably have before.

 

I started by adding a cup of blueberries to the juicer.  Of course since I was pouring with one hand and taking this picture with the other, some of the blueberries jumped ship and had to be reinserted into the juicer.

 

This is what blueberry juice looks like! And yes, that whole cup of blueberries only made this much juice.

 

Next I added the raspberries….more jumping ship.

 

The strawberries I added by hand instead of pouring that cup in there.  I don’t think that would have been very coordinated, because strawberries don’t “pour” like blueberries and raspberries do.

 

And walla!!!  A beautiful, healthy, and tasty beverage that you don’t have to feel guilty about.

 

Unfortunately all that fruit only made one glass of juice, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. 🙂