Chairman Kaga Would Be Proud: Battle Rib Eye!!

My mother is a fantastic cook. True, you could say that I'm biased because she is blood, but seriously, she's a phenomenal cook. The woman could turn crap into a delicious 3 course meal. She's creative and she loves butter but she doesn't look like Paula Dean. Growing up I always thought that I'd have to make a lot of money to pay the maid (because I despised cleaning) and to pay the chef because I didn't have the drive to cook my own meals or care about what I ate because let's face it, I was a lazy ass pre-teen/young adolescent. But now that I'm supposedly a grown ass adult, I've gotten the cooking bug. More like I'm tired of eating all the crap that's out there that passes for feasible. I want tasty. I want healthy. I want my thighs to not be as big as an elephants'. So, now I cook and now my Mom is somewhat impressed with the fact that I don't burn water. So impressed that she challenged me to a Rib Eye Off. 

Now what is a Rib Eye Off you ask? Well, basically she picked the protein and we were to cook it this past weekend. The rib eye could be cooked anyway we liked but there had to be some presentation there because we can't exactly taste each others' dishes (she's in Oregon and I'm in the land of death and heat aka Arizona) but we could at least make fun of how ugly each others' dish was. Well, she could make fun of how ugly mine was. 

I chose to braise my rib eye in a tasty merlot. Here's what I did:

Ingredients
2 rib eyes about an inch thick
2 Cloves Garlic chopped finely
Butter (mmmm)
Red Wine
Feta

I salted the steaks on each side with some coarse kosher salt and then let them sit to get to room temperature. I think heated my cast iron skillet on high heat for about 3 - 5 minutes to get it nice and hot. I went ahead and put in about 1-2 teaspoons of butter to coat the bottom of the skillet and then began searing the steaks on each side. I typically let the steaks sear initially for 2 minutes on each side. I turned the heat a bit down to medium and then cooked them for additional 2 minutes on each side. Once that was done, I went ahead and poured the wine in the skillet (about enough to cover the steaks halfway), turned the heat down to let it simmer, and covered the skillet for about 10 minutes, flipping the steaks once during that time. I took the meat out and let it rest for 10 minutes. I reduced the remaining wine in the skillet to a semi-thick sauce to pour over the meat on the plate. Mmmmm.... So tasty

 I didn't think it was too shabby. My official taste tester even gave his grunting seal of approval as he tore into it, leaving the plate bare in a matter of minutes. 


Now for my Mom's. If my memory serves me correctly, she BBQ'd this bad boy, marinating the rib eye in a honey and soy sauce creation. She also busted out cheesy potatoes  made with shredded potatoes, Parmesan, garlic, lemon pepper salt, and Italian seasoning. Oh and she busted out some asparagus because she always has to out do me. Check out her awesomeness below:

 Yup, my Mom's a badass. She busted out some pro looking square plate and a place mat. I don't think I even own place mats.

Well, there you have it: the First Ever Mother/Daughter Rib Eye Off.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. They may be the last that I take with my crappy camera phone!