Red Meat

 

Monday was steak night. I've cut way down on red meat, only eating beef once a week. The upside is that I can afford a really nice cut of meat if all I'm buying is one steak. Anyway, it was time for my meat of the week. I cut the clear plastic wrap off the container and sprinkled the steak with some kosher salt and some black pepper. I then pulled the steak off of the foam tray and plopped it down into the hot skillet. It sizzled and smoked for a couple of minutes and then I took the tongs and flipped it over. I thought it was odd that a strip of the steak hadn't charred and was still pink. So I was going to flip it back on that side to  finish it off when I noticed that there was something black and burnt in the skillet. I picked at the burnt thing and to my horror discovered that it was one of those absorbent things, the thing with plastic film on it that the butcher puts under the meat. I could not pull it up because it was now fused to the skillet. I probably should have flipped the steak over before I put it in the skillet, but it didn't come with instructions. My first reaction was, how come I didn't smell it burning? My second reaction was, Mark is going to kill me. Yes, I know, but I figured he would haunt me for ruining his favorite large skillet. Also, it was my favorite skillet too. So I scrubbed and I scrubbed. There was no way I could clean it. The  plastic film was now part of the non-stick surface. And then there was the situation with my steak. Was it ruined? Did it have poisons from the plastic now embedded in the meat? I'll never know about that, but I do know it was delicious.