Did this dinner the first weekend after we got home from out trip to TN...and still reeling from the abysmal food we had while on the road. Two of our very best friends we'd not seen for a long time due to several things that came up. Decided to extend an invite, which was graciously accepted. Gave them several options for dinner and they chose what I thought they would: NY Strip steaks, which are their absolute favorite of all the steaks. Thought it might be a good time to pull out the stops and do a really nice dinner.
The steaks. Three really nice CPB Strips
Rubbed with a bit of Worcestershire sauce then a nice sprinkle of black pepper and garlic powder. Also a bone for Bianca.
Now to the "kinda surf" part: crab stuffed mushrooms. Clean out the caps and get them ready. Only a couple of us will be eating these so didn't need to do a bunch.
Mix up a hybrid batch of crab filling I came up with reading recipes on the Internet and stuff the caps. This is a first for me.
Now to a batch of 5-cheese scalloped potatoes. Taters, onions, cheddar, Romano, Parmesan, and pepper jack cheeses.
Repeat until the casserole dish is full and pile on some mozz (the 5th cheese) and a sprinkle of black pepper. Add a nice drizzle of milk and it's ready to cook.
Appetizer platter with 4 different cheeses
Another first. I finally got good info from our friend
Bearcarver
on how to get perfect hard boiled eggs so did some and made Deviled Eggs. Man these were good!! Bear, please notice that there is an even number of eggs here 
Appetizer spread
Steaks on the Rec Tec. Plan was to run them on low temp / extreme smoke to an IT of 115, pull, cool, and sear to finish.
Since I was doing a nice dinner, Tracy got all sorts of fancy on us. A bit early for Fall deco, but who am I to argue?
Last time I did scalloped taters I didn't get them fully cooked and they were a it crunchy. Not making that mistake again so these go on early
Mushrooms on the grill with some butter in the skillet.
The steaks when they hit 115. At this point I called an audible. The color on these things is amazing so decided to just run them low and slow till an IT of 128 and forego the sear.
Rick and Susan brought a peach cobbler. Takes 90 minutes to cook so it's in the oven.
The entire dinner spread. They also brought a really nice salad.
You've already seen the taters but here's the 'shrooms
The salad
And the steaks. The color on these things is incredible!!
My dinner plate
Sliced shot of the steak. I'd say I about hit the mark with these.
And of course a close up shot of the steak.
Cobbler all done.
And served with French Vanilla ice cream.
Wow...this was a great dinner. The mushrooms were a huge hit and all were eaten, as well as the deviled eggs. To my surprise, Tracy at 3 of the eggs and she's not a fan. The steaks were simply off the charts. Nice light smokey flavor, perfectly cooked, super tender and juicy. Honestly though, the star of the show was the scalloped potatoes. Far and again the best any of us have ever had. This is another one that Tracy is really not a fan of but she tore these things up. At the end of the day there were only a few steak scraps left from the ladies. All the taters, mushrooms, and deviled eggs were history. I don't know how we managed dessert but something about fresh peach cobbler and really good ice cream is impossible to pass up Sure is nice to be home, have friends like R & S, and the availability to put together a dinner like this. It was outstanding and one for the record books.
Well, once again I warned y'all it was a long one but thanks for sticking with me....assuming you made it all the way through Gonna call it a wrap. See everybody soon because there is a prime rib feast going on this weekend that
clifish
said he was gonna attend I guess we'll see about that....
Robert
The steaks. Three really nice CPB Strips
Rubbed with a bit of Worcestershire sauce then a nice sprinkle of black pepper and garlic powder. Also a bone for Bianca.
Now to the "kinda surf" part: crab stuffed mushrooms. Clean out the caps and get them ready. Only a couple of us will be eating these so didn't need to do a bunch.
Mix up a hybrid batch of crab filling I came up with reading recipes on the Internet and stuff the caps. This is a first for me.
Now to a batch of 5-cheese scalloped potatoes. Taters, onions, cheddar, Romano, Parmesan, and pepper jack cheeses.
Repeat until the casserole dish is full and pile on some mozz (the 5th cheese) and a sprinkle of black pepper. Add a nice drizzle of milk and it's ready to cook.
Appetizer platter with 4 different cheeses
Another first. I finally got good info from our friend
Bearcarver
on how to get perfect hard boiled eggs so did some and made Deviled Eggs. Man these were good!! Bear, please notice that there is an even number of eggs here
Appetizer spread
Steaks on the Rec Tec. Plan was to run them on low temp / extreme smoke to an IT of 115, pull, cool, and sear to finish.
Since I was doing a nice dinner, Tracy got all sorts of fancy on us. A bit early for Fall deco, but who am I to argue?
Last time I did scalloped taters I didn't get them fully cooked and they were a it crunchy. Not making that mistake again so these go on early
Mushrooms on the grill with some butter in the skillet.
The steaks when they hit 115. At this point I called an audible. The color on these things is amazing so decided to just run them low and slow till an IT of 128 and forego the sear.
Rick and Susan brought a peach cobbler. Takes 90 minutes to cook so it's in the oven.
The entire dinner spread. They also brought a really nice salad.
You've already seen the taters but here's the 'shrooms
The salad
And the steaks. The color on these things is incredible!!
My dinner plate
Sliced shot of the steak. I'd say I about hit the mark with these.
And of course a close up shot of the steak.
Cobbler all done.
And served with French Vanilla ice cream.
Wow...this was a great dinner. The mushrooms were a huge hit and all were eaten, as well as the deviled eggs. To my surprise, Tracy at 3 of the eggs and she's not a fan. The steaks were simply off the charts. Nice light smokey flavor, perfectly cooked, super tender and juicy. Honestly though, the star of the show was the scalloped potatoes. Far and again the best any of us have ever had. This is another one that Tracy is really not a fan of but she tore these things up. At the end of the day there were only a few steak scraps left from the ladies. All the taters, mushrooms, and deviled eggs were history. I don't know how we managed dessert but something about fresh peach cobbler and really good ice cream is impossible to pass up
Sure is nice to be home, have friends like R & S, and the availability to put together a dinner like this. It was outstanding and one for the record books.Well, once again I warned y'all it was a long one but thanks for sticking with me....assuming you made it all the way through
Gonna call it a wrap. See everybody soon because there is a prime rib feast going on this weekend that
clifish
said he was gonna attend I guess we'll see about that....Robert
