How Blockette Made My Day

I scored an awesome deal on a t-bone steak this week at the grocery store. It was $6.32 for slightly less than a pound. You can't beat that with a stick. Besides, Mrblocko has been making puppy dog eyes at me to buy a better cut of meat since we grilled a piece of top round using the firehall marinade.

There were no digestive issues with the top round, so I figured I could risk having some of the t-bone. Oh. Sweet Baby Jesus. It was so good I almost cried. Seriously. We marinaded the steak overnight and it was the most awesome deliciousness ever on the face of the planet.

I feel like I should take out a public service announcement to inform the general public about the awesome combination of the firehall marinade and the t-bone steak. I'd probably do it like an old school Reese's peanut butter cup commercial. You know..."You got your firehall marinade in my T-bone!" "No, you got your T-bone in my marinade!" Good times all around.

Anyhow...as pure bliss as this manna from the bovine was, it wasn't how Blockette made my day.

I thought, what goes the best with steak? Potatoes of course. Loaded baked potatoes. It was 90 degrees out and who wants to heat up the house for an hour or more to bake a potato? Not this crazy lady. I've never had much luck with microwaving potatoes, so that option was out. I was worried that it would take too long on the grill. So what was I to do? Stick those potatoes in the crock pot.

YES! I will never bother with baking potatoes in the oven ever again. So simple and the crock pot costs less to operate than the oven. All you have to do is:
1. Wash your potatoes.
2. Dry them.
3. Stab them all over (like you are auditioning for the part of Norman Bates. Go ahead and make that little sound effect from the movie. It's fun and you know you wanna.)
4. Rub them with a bit of olive oil.
5. Stick them in the crock pot.
6. Turn the crock pot on.

That's it. My particular crock pot takes 1 hr 50 min, on high, to cook 3 medium potatoes. Your cooking time may vary depending on your vessel and spud size. I like to turn the potatoes after an hour. I don't think you need to. I'm just weird like that.

A potato was prepared for Blockette while I prepared myself for a fight at the table. This is the girl who notoriously does not like potatoes other than in French fry/tater tot form. I put on a pat of butter, Colby cheese, fresh chives and thyme from the garden. I let the cheese melt and let the potato cool off before presenting it to her at the table.

I was still int the kitchen preparing my own meal, but I noticed it was strangely quiet in the other room. I figured she was just sitting there not eating and generally being stubborn. Then, out of the blue, my little munchkin says, with her mouth full, "Mommy this is even better than macaroni and cheese."

Wow. Better than mac-n-cheese???? A potato? Wow. That is the best compliment and I'm still beaming from it a few days later.