Baby T-Rex and Mattie like steak...

If it was up to Matt and we had an unlimited budget we would probably eat steak every other day. Mattie loves steak and partakes in it whenever possible. As most other people in the country, I grew up with the feeling that steak was a special occasion food and like that we only have it every once in awhile, it makes you appreciate it more. I would however like to partake in it more than we do and I feel like the baby T-Rex would agree seeing as I really enjoyed steak (and meat in general) for the first part of this pregnancy.

I will admit that Matt and I are both steak snobs. We would never choose to purchase a Ribeye and would rarely purchase a Sirloin. We would happily partake in a Sirloin at someone else's home and would eat a Ribeye there, but it would not be our first choice of meat. Plain and simple we are both Tenderloin filet kind of people. Matt does not like having to work for his meat and he hates having large amounts of fat in his steak, bacon, chicken, whatever. There has been no amount of marbling (the fat distribution within a steak) that we have found in a Ribeye that makes it worth it to him. Quite frankly I like the pure beef flavor of a Tenderloin and I like what a well defined piece of meat it is. I feel like you know where you stand when you get a filet and overall the quality of a filet is very hard to compromise, there is little room for deviation.

When I made the steak in the picture above I actually got them from the butcher at HEB. For me, if I am going to make a filet, I want to pick out what I will be taking home. I acquired the filets of my choice looking for little fat (and what fat there was having equal distribution through the cut), thickness (to acquire perfect medium-rareness), and a nice red color. Mattie and I both like our filets simple...kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper on the both sides and bacon wrapped. Matt likes the flavor of the bacon but not the usual softness so we have started par-cooking (cooking until barely cooked) and then wrapping so it can become fully crispy around the steak. I imagine you lose a little bit of bacon flavor this way, but it works out in the end. We will usually sear the steaks in olive oil and finish in the oven unless we have the grill going (which is rare).

These steaks we enjoyed with buttery baguette, green beans that had been sauteed with mushrooms and tomatoes, and a loaded baked potato. As far as baking the potato goes...don't. Pierce your potato (we prefer red potatoes) with a fork several times, rub in olive oil, and nuke in the microwave until you can pierce easily with a fork. Wrap that sucker up in foil to get an even, creamy texture, then indulge as usual.

So enjoy my foodie friends...I have a request for a certain recipe by one of my readers, but don't have any pictures to go along with the post...so we will see...