Steak, Potatoes, and Prayer

Today I want to share two of my favorite recipes that are simple, yet delicious. I want to start with my garlic butter steak bites. This is a recipe I have tweaked to make it my own and it quickly became one of my husbands favorite meals. I start by getting two new york strip steaks. You can use any steak but I can get those on sale for $9.99 a pound and compared to other steaks, that’s pretty cheap. I buy them when I catch them on sale and then I go ahead and cut them up and portion them out before freezing them so when I get ready to make my steak bites I don’t have to dig out my knife and cutting board.

Anyway, back to the point, you can use whatever steak you prefer. I dice the steak into one inch cubes and then I coat them in Kinders buttery steak house seasoning. If you haven’t tried that seasoning you are missing out. It’s divine and you can buy it at Walmart (I’m cheap and mostly only shop there). The key to making these steak bites delicious is to use a cast iron pan and get it screaming hot. I put just enough oil in it to coat the bottom of the pan and then when I throw in the steak bites, its an instant crust. After they have sat for 60-90 seconds, I flip them and let them get crunchy on the other side. 30 seconds after the flip I put a whole stick of butter and 1 tbls of minced garlic in. I let the butter melt, then turn the pan off and move it from the heat. I stir the bites around until they are all coated in the garlic butter and then they are ready to serve.

Now you can’t have steak without some sort of potatoes and I have my fair share of favorite potato recipes, but this one is pretty simple. I peel and dice 4-5 decent sized russet potatoes. Then I put them in a pot, cover them with water, dump in 2 tsp salt, and bring them to a boil. Once they begin to boil I put a timer on for 3 minutes. When the timer goes off, I drain the potatoes and put them on a large sheet pan where they can fit in a single layer. Then melt 1 stick of butter and pour it over them on the pan. Add some salt to taste and about a teaspoon of italian seasoning. Stir it all together and then put them in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour. Go buy a bag of salad and some Hawaiian sweet rolls and you have a nice steak dinner at home!

I want to end this one by talking about prayer. Some time last year I started feeling really convicted about telling people I would pray for them, and then forgetting to actually pray for them. Years back I had a list in a binder, but if you know me, you know that list never came out of my back pack. So when we moved into our new house last summer I started something new that I want to share to hopefully help you remember to pray for those things that are important and that you promised to pray about for others. I found a doorway that doesn’t have a door (its the master closet tucked into our bathroom) and I bought some sticky notes. I write my prayer requests on those sticky notes and stick them to the right side of the door frame. Since I have to walk by that multiple times a day, it reminds me to stop and pray for all the things/people I have listed. The part I like the most is that when those prayers get answered, I move them to the left side of the door frame. This helps me when I am feeling discouraged to look back at all God has already done and it builds my faith to keep trusting even when it doesn’t feel like much is happening.

One other thing I want to say about prayer is to make sure you pray for your children. When my oldest was first born I would pray over him most nights. Some times it slipped my mind and other times I was just too tired to pray. Then someone told me this story and it made me realize how EXTREMELY important it is to cover our children with prayer. This woman was an elementary school teacher who practiced witch craft. After she got saved she told the story of how she use to cast spells on the kids that were in her classroom. While they were quiet and taking tests she would whisper spells over them (crazy I know). But she said there were some kids in the room that had something she couldn’t describe surrounding them. She couldn’t get through the barrier. Her curses wouldn’t reach them. I like to believe that was the prayers of a mom or grandmother that was protecting that child from evil. Our kids don’t know how to pray yet. It is so important to make sure they are covered by our prayers for them. So this week, buy some sticky notes and find a mirror, door frame, wall, etc and remind yourself to pray. Make sure your kids are at the top of the list! Love yall!