Sugar and Citrus Cured Tri-Tip

The top two questions we get asked at parties are 

"When can we come over for dinner?" (Whenever you want)

and

"So are you trying to be like that blogger from that Julie and Julia movie?" (No.) 

Its a really strange phenomenon though, its seems like everyone's seen that movie, but nobody seems to have read the blog (still readable here, or her new blog here). Not exactly the same thing (we don't swear... as much). These blogs are all about someone's life, but we decided early on that we wanted instead to share our food with everyone, hearing about all the goofy stuff that goes on in our lives is more a side, or gravy. Pick your own analogy. We strive to tell the story of how our dinners came to be or what the dish means to us (we love food so much it gets put in that same nostalgic place as childhood toys and Reading Rainbow). One of the blogs we've come across that really stuck us as a great blog is Cookie Loves Eating, from which we adapted our Sugar and Citrus Cured Tri-Tip. Hit the break for the recipe, then pop over and see what they've got going today! 

Grilled Steak with Garlic Butter

It was about a month ago that Eric got home to find a backhoe digging a big hole in his front yard and our friends Dan and Jenn came to the rescue, inviting us over for dinner. Dan was going to fire up the grill and cook... something, but he wasn't sure what. Eric on the other hand had a great rub ready to go and really wanted to try out making some flavored butters. It was a match made in perfection. Eric brought the rub and the butter and Charisse and Jen handled the rest.

Using a fancy butter on a well seasoned steak is almost always going to be fantastic. The butter melts along the steak as you eat it, almost as an after thought to the flavors in the steak and the rub. The rub gives the steak a kick going down but doesn't hide the natural beef flavors and doesn't overwhelm the other courses. If it tastes like your shooting Tabasco sauce, your doing it wrong. Choosing the right flavored butter is key, and should be picked to be a counter point to the rub. The sweeter the rub, the more liberties you can take with the butter, without the butter becoming the main attraction.

Filets with Vanilla Bourbon Sauce and Garlic Red Potatoes

Some days you just want a big juicy steak. And potatoes. And bourbon. All at the same time. Clearly, this was a meal that Eric designed. We've been hanging onto a vanilla bourbon sauce for a few months now, and the potatoes have been a fancy staple for a few years. Putting them together with a pan-seared filet mignon was one of the best tasting decisions we've made all year. The sauce is seriously good enough to eat all by itself, but it definitely tastes better with steak. The potatoes are based on a technique we saw on the Food Network one day (yeah, we sit around watching the food network, when Eric doesn't have a Sharks game on). Now a more elaborate method for these potatoes would be to alternate garlic with small pats of butter and mix in any other spices or accents you want, but we generally like just the garlic.We were planing on serving this between Wednesday's Brushetta and Monday's Tart, but as you can see from the pictures here, too much food for two people, so print out the recipes for this whole week and invite some friends over! 

Pictures and Recipe after the break