FĕDish: dirty thirty

Every birthday growing up, my mom would cook whatever we wanted for dinner. Every year, I chose the same meal: steaks on the grill and baked potato, with homemade chocolate cake for dessert. Clearly, I've always been a traditionalist. This year, I decided to go back to my roots for my Big Birthday. That's Big with a capital '30'.

I knew I wanted to have a few non-traditional dishes to go along with these awesome steaks, and after a little research, found the perfect recipes.

The first was something that I saw on Take Home Chef. Curtis Stone made steaks for a fellow Aussie, topped with this chipotle cilantro butter. I finely chopped 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, a bunch of cilantro, and mixed it with a stick of room temperature butter.

Once everything was well incorporated with the butter, I rolled it in some parchment paper and set it in the refrigerator overnight.

I also chopped and marinated some veggies in olive oil, s+p, and rosemary sprigs.

The following day, the boys fired up the grill while I started on dish number two: grilled feta! I finally made a trip to Hala, the mediterranean store for some Bulgarian feta. I sliced it up, drizzled some olive oil, cracked a little pepper and wrapped it in foil with a few tomatoes and a sprig or two. I found this recipe in Real Simple, where it said to grill the packets over medium-low heat until they are tender in the center.

regular veggie kabobs

Once the steaks were ready, I topped each one with a slice of the chipotle butter. It melted beautifully, and now I don't think I will have steaks on the grill without it.

I put a little of that amazing butter in my potato, too. And it was good.

cheese + grilled bread = nothing better

carnage

the best cake you will ever put in your mouth

The following day was my actual birthday, and I walked into work to find a beautiful bouquet from my co-teacher, a ton of cards from my students, and a variety of sweets.