Man Night

Yes, that's right: Man Night. Not to discriminate or stereotype any particular types of food. This meal was purely inspired by a work of art: Tom Ford's brilliant film A Single Man, starring Colin Firth. Watch this movie. This weekend. Go. It's one of the most painfully beautiful things I've ever seen. After seeing it in the theatre with BFFs Nicholas and Casey, I drove home in silence, completely stunned by what I had just experienced. When I got home, I could only make myself a large vodka martini and stew in my cloud of pontification (what? who says that?). Luckily, Nicholas was available for dinner and broke me from my art induced funk (don't you love those?) and we decided that the only appropriate meal would be steak. Something about a big slab of red meat just felt right after being completely drawn into America 1962 and having my heart ripped out.... or maybe I just wanted to emotionally eat. Either way! We settled for burgers that night with a pact that "Man Night" featuring steak would happen soon. And here it is:

Above you see the klorious meat counter at Gene's Sausage Shop. All grass-fed beef. Given to you by a butcher. Who maybe has a touch of a German accent. It's incredible. It's like choosing your own steak at the Texas Roadhouse, but better because you'll be making it yourself and you won't have to sit next to a table filled with screaming kids throwing peanut shells at each other.

We picked out two beautiful ribeyes and headed on our way. Step one was getting a nice sear on the steak, courtesy of a rub of some fancy salt and pepper.

Then the steaks were laid in a hot grill pan, but don't wiggle them around! You want some nice grill marks. After a few minutes, give them a flip. You should see this:

Then these bad boys went into the oven at 325 until they still had a little reddish-pink in the middle. Remember, they need to rest for 5-10 minutes and will continue to internally cook! Other than that, the level of doneness is completely up to you. Some people prefer blood, some people prefer rubber. I'm not here to judge (well.... for the most part).

While cooking a man meal, I strongly encourage the drinking of whiskey:

The sides to accompany this simple, hearty feast? Oven roasted brussel sprouts (which the fallible foodies are obsessed with) and a baked potato. The brussel sprouts were simply halved and thrown into a baking dish with olive oil, salt and pepper. They were cooked at the same temperature as the steak, then while the steaks were resting, we jacked up the temperature to 400 to give them a nice finish. The baked potatoes were filled with homemade tzaiki, Nicholas' own recipe (to follow... unless you want to put it in a comment!).

Good food with a good friend inspired by a breathtaking work of art. Man. That's life!