Easy Peasy Steak Marinade

Despite its obnoxious color, Rick Bayless is onto something with this marinade. I have a slight obsession with Chef Bayless and he has never failed me! This green yumminess takes seconds to whip up and flavors the steak (or any other meat!) quickly. I left it on our steaks for about an hour and it was delectable!

Easy Steak Marinade (modified from the great Rick Bayless)
1/2 cup sliced, pickled jalapeños
2 tablespoons garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
Salt and pepper

1. Char the garlic and jalapenos over medium heat for 10 minutes.

 



2. In a food processor (or in our case, the Magic Bullet (R)), combine the juices, peppers, and garlic. Mix until smooth.

 

3. Prepare the steaks with salt and pepper. What I have been told is to overdo it with the salt to impart more flavor. I tend to overdo it with the pepper as well :)

 

4. Add the marinade to a Ziploc bag, then cover the steaks with the marinade. I kept our steak/marinade bag in the refrigerator for about an hour. I then let the combo come to a warmer temperature for about a half hour before grilling by leaving it out on the counter. Make sure your grill is nice and hot before you place your steaks on it to get those gorgeous grill marks! I was too hungry to take a picture of the finished product, but trust me - delish!

 

 

Ta-Da!! New Kitchen!!

Backsplash 101

We are trying to slowly upgrade our home on a budget. We started in the kitchen with a backsplash. When we bought the house, the kitchen was fine, but compared to the beautiful and open spaces in the rest of the house, it just seem OK. Wow, what a difference the backsplash has made. It has taken this barebones kitchen to fantastic. Check it out!

We started the transformation by clearing off all the countertops and scrubbing down the wall where we would be tiling.

 Then we added SimpleMat tile adhesive. This saved us quite a bit of money and time. We were able to do the mat over 2 days and not need to worry about it drying out overnight. Since we had a party to go to Saturday afternoon, we started in the morning and got about halfway through the mats before heading out. When we started the next morning, we were able to keep going with the mat and start the tiles.

 

 

According to the packaging, we could grout immediately. So, we grouted and let it sit for a few hours before cleaning off. We love the results! Not bad for our first major DIY project!