Anniversary Dinner a.k.a The Best Steak You've Ever Had

Happy Anniversary to us—9 years and we're happier than we've ever been.

That said, we celebrated tonight with dinner in with the boys, and it was delightful. For my anniversary gift to myself, I splurged on a single 12 oz. New York strip steak that we all shared (who needs all that meat to themselves, anyway?) and for my gift to Liz, I helped clean up the kitchen, including scraping dried gnocchi dough off the counter, after we finished.

The gnocchi was Jodi's recipe, which I love because it combines just the right amount of egg and flour to make the little potato dumplings perfect [although I add more salt!] and I served it all with a garden vegetable dice of zucchini, yellow squash, tomato, garlic and fresh thyme. Despite these wonderful, fresh, homemade elements, it was the slab of beef that really stole the show tonight, and while I wish I could take credit for cooking the best steak I've ever had, I can't. Well, I did cook it, but I followed someone else's instructions. I've you'd like the video version, you can watch it here, but if you're a follow the written recipe type, then I'll reproduce it for you.

The Perfect Steak

a la Chris Lim of BLT Steak in New York City

• Good cut of steak [chef Lim suggests a New York, which is what I used.]
• Fresh ground pepper [not too finely ground]
• Kosher Salt
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 5-10 springs fresh thyme
• 1 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350˚. Heat a seasoned cast iron or black steel pan over high heat until it's blastingly hot. That's important. Season your steak generously with salt and pepper on both sides; you can even dab the edges in it if you'd like. Oil your pan with a generous dose of high-heat tolerant oil—I used canola. Throw that puppy in the pan and let it sit for 1-2 minutes until a nice carmelized crust has formed on the bottom. When it has formed a golden crust, turn the steak over and immediately put the butter right on top of the steak, and throw garlic and thyme in the pan. Immediately put the entire pan in the preheated oven and cook 2-4 minutes more, or until desired doneness is reached. [You'll have to watch the video to find out how to do that without puncturing the meat—it's amazing.] We opted for rather rare tonight in the interest of time, more than anything. When finished, remove to cutting board to rest a few minutes. When ready to serve, slice against the grain at a slight bias and enjoy.