Well That Fire Started Pretty Suddenly

So I lied when I said that I'd prepared what this week's meals were to be over the weekend--I only planned as far as Monday night.  Since I'm loving my cooking kick, my kitchen cuisine, I wanted to try something with substance.  Something that has the food equivalent of a good, swift kick in the mouth.  With the success of my butternut squash soup still fresh in my mind, I kept with the same cookbook but looked under the chapter, "The Main Course".  After skimming a couple ones that seemed good but didn't grab my attention, I suddenly turned to a page sans picture that said in plain and simple writing "Cowboy Steak with Coffee and Ancho Rub".

"THIS IS IT!  THIS IS THE ONE!" my brain exclaimed.  Synapses were firing like crazy--steak, with coffee, AND ancho powder??  Doth my eyes deceive me?  And get this...the coffee was espresso!  Not only was I getting my red meat fix, I was getting a wham! of caffeine and a pow! of hotness.  If I had to put this moment to song, it would be this.

I excitedly dog-eared the page and went to bed, with visions of the wild west dancing all through my head. Because I was so excited for this, I wanted to really feel like I craved the meal; like I had worked an entire day on the ranch with the cattle, under the hot and fiery 100+ degree sun, with grit in my teeth and dust on my clothes.  Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Given that I live nowhere near a place like this, I did the best I could--worked a full day at work, hit the gym hard, and sweated it out in the sauna.  I came home ravenous.

The good thing was that this was incredibly easy to make--it took like 3 minutes of prep, and 10 minutes of cooking, and that's only because I like my steaks cooked well done.  To show you how basic it was, here's my prep station:

All it called for in terms of spices was ancho chile powder, finely ground espresso coffee, dark brown sugar, dry mustard, ground coriander, salt, and black pepper.  The only thing I had to stop at the store for was the dry mustard and the espresso.  This leads me into a sidebar conversation to mention that I've discovered the best new fair trade coffee brand and it's Canadian!  The canisters are made out of recycled products and the names for each style of coffee was hysterical.  Since I was making a cowboy themed dinner, I couldn't pass this up.  I did restrain myself from buying the regular morning coffee called "Kick Ass".

Here's where I should probably mention how the fire started.  See, the coffee and ancho rub called for 1/2 teaspoon of dark brown sugar.  I knew I had some and sure enough, it was stashed in the back corner of the cabinet above my oven--and hard as a rock.  I smashed it against the countertop just to see if it would crumble enough so I could get my little meager amount but it wasn't budging.  In fact, I had a moment where I thought I might have damaged the counter.  What do you do if something doesn't work or is stuck?  Answer: Hit or smash it really hard.

What do I then do?  I throw it in the microwave thinking, "this'll soften it up!"  One small oversight.  I forgot to take the twist tie off, which had a metal wire in it.  The next thing I know, after like 3 seconds of being in there, I hear a small explosion and see flames.  Turns out, you should probably remove that.  Luckily it wasn't out of control and I was able to blow it out but it melted part of the bag and the liquid plastic got everywhere.  Small potatoes for a cowgirl though!

Getting back to the meal, I rubbed down both sides of each piece of meat and stuck it in the oven for 5 minutes on each side.

What came out 10 minutes later was the most glorious sight to my weary eyes and hungry belly.

Now if that ain't some good eatin', I don't know what is.  I was certainly hungry enough for it and will have plenty of leftovers to enjoy in the upcoming days.  The coffee made it a little dirty tasting (in a super good way) and the ancho powder was just enough to keep things interesting.  I couldn't really taste the brown sugar--all that effort...

I'd give this one an A+ with a gold star for being so awesome.  And in case you're curious, it's only 5 points in Weight Watchers...yeah, I bit the bullet and joined.

And now I lay me down to sleep, and pray the Lord my soul to keep.  For if I die before I wake, I'm certainly glad that this is what I ate.