With Covid cases blowing up once again in the Wisconsin area, we decided to stay in and enjoy an afternoon in our backyard and grill some steak. Apologizes ahead of time to any vegans or vegetarians reading this...I definitely don't mean any disrespect.
The plan was simple for me; grill up these delicious T-bone steaks on my Weber grill, have a few beers, and enjoy the beautiful October weather with my family. First up, the steaks; we use a local CSA called Mastodon Valley Farms. I heard about this farm through the HigherSideChats about a year and half ago, and we've been using them ever since. Their belief is that animals should be raised humanely and be treated to a natural, grazing, healthy diet. They employ an Oak Savanna ecosystem for their land and animals...it's actually a quite fascinating story. Check them out if you are interested.
Next up, I got the lump charcoal going in the chimney:
And then of course grabbed a Toppling Goliath IPA in my favorite 'sconnie pint glass:
Even our rescue dog, Miss Mabel, fresh off of a grooming adventure of her own earlier in the day was enjoying the adventure thus far:
I then arranged the grill to set up a two heat system; my plan with these steaks is always to reverse sear the food:
Then on went the steaks to the cold side:
At this point I believe I was on to IPA number two. We probably drink too quickly up here in the cheese state. I let the meat go for about 10 minutes on the cold side, until it reaches an internal temperature of about 110 F, so with the downtime we decided to bring out a ceramic jack-o-lantern we'd bought the weekend before for our daughter and place it on our back steps:
I placed an emergency candle in the lantern to be lit for later in the pumpkin. I then moved the steaks to the hot side and let them sear for two minutes on each side:
I then grabbed another IPA, let the meat go for a bit longer, and then pulled them off to rest. Not bad, if I say so myself:
We then added some roasted Brussel sprouts, fresh from our garden, and some baked squash in maple syrup:
Not a bad dinner at all! A perfect October feast. Mabel enjoyed a few pieces of the steak too; our daughter, not so much. Once dishes were done, my daughter and started a new Halloween tradition. We go outside, light the emergency candle, and then place it in the pumpkin. It's been a nice dad/daughter tradition the past three evenings...and I'm hoping to keep it going through Halloween.
And a perfect Saturday afternoon complete! I was hoping to get a more exciting #engagetheweekend post together for my first entry, but I'll save that for next weekend if the weather cooperates. Thanks for reading, apologizes again for the red meat photos and beer references if you found them offensive, and I do hope everyone is safe and sound out in the world!
Looks like a nice weekend outing in the back yard. We can always find something to do. Old fashioned grilling. You can't beat that. We used to have a gas grill that was expensive, but the meats didn't have the same flavor. Do you put any sauce on your meat the final minutes, or just leave it and add later?
Nice latern for Halloween. Thanks for sharing your weekend. Stay safe.
Well, thank you for the kind words! For the red meats from the CSA, we usually just season with salt and pepper beforehand. I love grilling on the charcoal, especially with grass-fed/savanna fed beef, as there is a certain smell in the air you get from it. It's hard to describe, maybe more of an oil sensibility to the meat? Thanks for reading - the jack o' lantern is definitely a big hit here with our three-year-old.
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.In terms of drinking IPA's too fast and cheese- Wisconsin and Vermont seem to have a lot in common. Well, at least those two things; which kind of define us here.
And let me tell you, as a vegetarian of about a little over a year now- no apologies needed. Seeing this stuff actually gives me kind of a vicarious pleasure as it is something I miss dearly. And, I'm in full support of local, humane sources of meat- if I ever do eat meat again, that will be why. I stopped for economic reasons- no need to support the cages and I'm too poor at this stage in life to commit myself to only eating meat from good sources- so it was easier to stop altogether.
Looks like you guys had a great, safe weekend!! Wonderful first post in this community- I'm enjoying it here more every day
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.You know, I've never tried Heady Topper? My wife and I honeymooned next door to in Maine, but I could never find that one while there. We definitely want to visit Vermont at some point in the future, however. And yeah, Mastodon is great! At some point i'd like to visit their farm and share photos of the visit on Hive.
Heady Topper is good! For me, personally, I think it is a little "over-hyped". It is definitely good- but it's hard to finish one. It's a beer and a heavy dinner dish all in one. Personally, I believe the Focal Banger to be better- it's by the same brewery!
...And I suppose my invite was lost in the mail?
That meal looks legit, and it's cool to see that you do brussel sprouts in the same we do, roasted. So good. I usually steam them a little, drizzle with olive oil, grind a little salt and pepper then bake them when cooking inside, but do them on the BBQ too. I used to hate them as a kid, now I love them!
Legit looking weekend and thanks for using the engage the weekend community!
Thanks! That's how we made our sprouts too - delicious! We'll need to get more steaks when we get you and everyone else over here, however - maybe a bigger grill too!
More steaks, bigger grill...Hive party at your place!
ah that would be fun, wouldn't it? Life before the COVID days...I can barely remember!
It's all wearing a bit thin here as well to be honest. We've not had a case for months and all the measures are still in place. I understand the safety factor of course, but it's getting tiring.
We'll be able to get back to normal someday though I hope. We have to remain positive right? 🙂
Wisconsin is an odd place; we are still having a huge upsurge in cases, and yet there are no enforceable measures in place thanks to the state court. Most bars and restaurants are still open, and as you can imagine, most social distance/mask requests no longer work after a few pints. Work COVID policies aren't enforced, so if you do care, you are SOL. We're definitely remaining positive here, however, and yes, can't wait for this to be over.
That all sounds pretty odd considering the measures that other countries have in place. We still have distancing restrictions, X marks the spot scenarios in business's...Melbourne is still in full lockdown I believe but their cases went through the roof where other States didn't. It's all very weird.
I like that Wisconsin is taking that approach. The best thing to do is have a mix of approaches and see what truly works and what doesn’t. Having non-biased independent reviews of the data and mostly ignoring the propaganda employed will give a sense of what’s really happening.
If you test more of course numbers go up, so we’ll see what happens.
Those steaks look very tasty, and seems that Miss Mabel was also happy with food smells 🙂
oh she loved it - I may have given her a few scraps too as a special treat - she loved it
Man this looks amazing man! I’m mostly vegetarian now but damn that looks delicious hahaha. Looking forward to the days we can do this type of stuff.
I’m pumped that you use a CSA! We started one 3 years ago and haven’t looked back since. It’s such a wonderful thing to do. It helps small businesses, which struggle sometimes on a good day never mind in a scenario such as we are in. We love that we give most of our food business to the local farms and keep the tradition and generations going. We need that more then ever, in my opinion!
I haven’t had a good beer in a long time, I was craving one recently but haven’t had a chance to satisfy that. @lyubo19 is waiting for me to enjoy one, I swear I will before the year ends lol
Really solid post for the weekend community man, I would love to see you around here more often!
Thanks! I definitely agree with you on the need for CSAs, especially farmers who stay true to the land, animals, and the environment. This family has done such a good job of revitalizing old, traditional farmland, and brought the native prairie habitat back through land management. It's a wonderful thing to support...and speaking about COVID, prices with the CSA stayed fixed, whereas everything went bonkers at our co op once larger farms went down with supply chain issues. Thinking there is a lesson in there somewhere...
Greetings from Canada. Nice way to spend the afternoon. I love the fall colors.
Me too ! Hey up there! You can't beat the weather...I'm worried we're going to get hit hard with a brutal winter, so I guess we enjoy it while we can