{ perfect chicken fried steak with homemade cream gravy }

Looking for a fantastic Sunday (or Tuesday, or Friday, or ....) meal?

It's your lucky day: a beautiful, deliciously perfect chicken fried steak recipe has just fallen into your lap. I love how Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman) describes this recipe: "There’s nothing special about this dish, except that it’s a total miracle."

I know, I know. Calories galore. But every once in a while, we all deserve to dive into a big ol' heaping helping of sin on a plate, no?

There are several keys to the success of this recipe. The first and foremost is the steak -- cube steak, to be exact -- which is round steak that's been extra, extra tenderized. Another key is the double-dredging process of the milk and flour coating -- it's done twice, making the results extra crispy. The final key ... the gravy. For Heaven's sake. If you make this recipe, you must make the gravy.

Anybody and everybody appreciates a homecooked meal. And this one epitomizes comfort and love. Added bonus: it's super affordable steak.

Do it. You know you want to.

Perfect Chicken Fried Steak with Homemade Cream Gravy
(adapted from The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients

3 pounds cube steak (tenderized round steak)

1-1/2 cup whole milk; plus up to 2 cups for gravy

2 whole large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

seasoned salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

ground black pepper. Lots.

canola oil, for frying

salt and pepper, for both meat and gravy

Process
Combine flour, seasoned salt, cayenne pepper and desired amount of ground black pepper.

In a separate bowl, add milk and eggs, beaten together with a fork.

Begin with an assembly line of seperate dishes for the meat-dredging process: milk mixed with egg; flour mixed with spices; then have one clean plate at the end to receive the breaded meat.

Work one piece of meat at a time. First season both sides of steak with salt and pepper, then dip in the milk/egg mixture.

Next, place the meat on the plate of seasoned flour. Turn to coat thoroughly. Place the meat back into the milk/egg mixture, turning to coat. Place back in the flour and turn to coat.

wet mixture + dry mixture + wet mixture + dry mixture

Place breaded meat on the clean plate, and repeat with remaining meat.

Heat oil in a large skillet (ideally, cast iron) over medium heat. Drop in a few sprinkles of flour to make sure it's sufficiently hot. Cook meat, three pieces at a time, until edges start to look golden brown; around 2 to 2 1/2 minutes each side, using tongs to gently flip.

Remove cooked steak to a paper towel-lined plate and keep warm. Repeat until all meat is cooked.

Gravy: Pour grease from finished meat-cooking pan into a glass or heatproof bowl. Without cleaning the pan, return it to the stove over medium-low heat. Add 1/4 cup grease back to the pan. Allow grease to heat up.

Sprinkle 1/3 cup flour evenly over the grease. Using a whisk, mix flour with grease, and continue cooking until mixture reaches a deep golden brown color. If paste seems more oily than pasty, sprinkle in another tablespoon of flour and whisk.

Whisking constantly, pour in milk. Cook to thicken the gravy. Be prepared to add more milk if it becomes overly thick. Add salt and pepper and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until gravy is smooth and thick. Be sure to taste to make sure gravy is sufficiently seasoned. I really prefer a great deal of freshly-ground black pepper in this gravy.

Serve meat with mashed potatoes, and cover both with gravy.

{ grilled ribeyes with onion and mushroom blue cheese sauce }

While it's fun to experiment with new recipes and venture into the culinary Great Unknown, the truth of the matter is that most often when I try something new from a cookbook or from Pinterest, it's unlikely that I'll make it again. Like most of us, I tend to stick with the tried and true family favorites.

But every once in a while, I'm fortunate enough to stumble across a recipe that becomes an instant classic on our household's list of 5-star menu items -- this past Friday was just such a night. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that Ty requested it again on Monday night. So in the past five days, we've already made and devoured it twice.

It's no surprise that the inspiration comes from the fabulously brilliant, Ree Drummond (THE Pioneer Woman). I tweaked it a bit, but as usual, her recipes are pretty perfect just as she presents them. I added mushrooms and substituted light cream for heavy, but honestly, you'd never know. It's amazingly rich and creamy. Ree is so great at creating simple, yet delicious food that's realistic for the rest of us to try and enjoy. Thank God for the Pioneer Woman and her willingness to share her talents with the rest of us.

Speaking of Ree's talents, I think her reaction to this particular "sublime" recipe is better than any description I could provide:

"Good grief.
Help me.
Help me now.
This was delicious."

I foresee steak with blue cheese sauce on next week's menu as well. Oh, and the week after ....

Grilled Ribeyes with Onion and Mushroom Blue Cheese Sauce
(adapted from thepioneerwoman)

Ingredients

• 2 whole ribeye steaks
• 4 tablespoons butter (if using grill pan)
•  salt
•  pepper
• 4 tablespoons butter (yes, more butter)
• 1 whole very large yellow onion, sliced (I used 1/2 red, 1/2 yellow this time)
• 6-8 oz sliced button mushrooms
• 1 cup light cream
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Process

Salt and pepper both sides of steaks. Ideally, throw steaks on an outdoor grill and cook until medium rare. If cooking steaks indoors, use a grill pan and cook in 4 tablespoons butter until medium rare.

Saute onions in 4 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Cook for 7-10 minutes minutes, or until dark and caramelized, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms and cook until soft (about 5 more minutes), continuing to periodically stir.

Reduce heat to simmer and pour in cream. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. Once cream has taken on the caramel color of the onion and mushroom mixture, stir in blue cheese until melted.

Serve steaks on top of generous portion of sauce. Or, as my husband prefers it, ladle a heaping portion of sauce on top of steak.

{ not your grandma's grean bean casserole }

Green bean casserole -- an American classic. I made one last night, and it's not even Thanksgiving, and it didn't even have those canned fried onions on top. Oh, and it has cayenne pepper! Talk about walking on the wild side, no?

Acutally, I was watching Ree Drummond's new show on Food Network. In this particular episode, she shared her favorite pot luck recipes. Her green bean casserole had both Ty and I sold: Immediate recipe replication was definitely in order.

One of the few changes I made to Ree's recipe was to blanche the green beans for a longer amount of time than she did, simply because we like them softer, as opposed to super-crisp. Her original recipe calls for a jar of pimentos, but we used a fresh red bell pepper instead, as she calls for in her updated Food Network version. I substituted light cream for half-and-half, added a bit more cayenne, and finally, sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on top with the panko, just because, well ... it's more cheese! Other than that, it was pretty much amazingly perfect just the way it was written.

The recipe makes a huge batch, so we have leftovers galore. I foresee a week of green bean casserole on the side of each night's menu! And I'm totally good with it.

Green Bean Casserole
(adapted from ThePioneerWoman)

Ingredients
2 pounds fresh green beans, anapped with ends cut off

5 slices bacon, cut Into 1/4 Inch pieces

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2-1/2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup light cream

1-1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste

coursely ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

extra milk for thinning, if necessary

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Process
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare green beans by snapping or cutting them in half and cutting off the ends.

Blanch the green beans: drop them into lightly salted boiling water and allow green beans to cook for about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and immediately shock the beans by plunging them into a bowl of ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain beans once they're cool and set aside.

Add bacon pieces to a skillet and cook over medium heat for two minutes. Add diced onion, red bell pepper and garlic. Continue cooking for 3 to 5 minutes, or until bacon is done (but not crisp) and onions are golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a separate skillet or saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Sprinkle flour into the pan and whisk immediately to evenly mix it into the butter. Cook for a minute or two, then pour in milk and cream.

Continue cooking, whisking constantly, while sauce thickens, about 4-5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne, then add the grated cheddar. Stir while cheese melts. Turn off heat.

Add the bacon/onion mixture. Stir to combine. Pour over green beans and stir gently to combine.

Pour into a baking dish and top with panko crumbs and parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and panko crumbs are golden.