Barn Raising

With the baby on the way, we are needing to get the nursery ready. However, the room that will soon be the baby's room has been our "junk" room for some time now. So, we decided to put a storage building up beside the garage. Yes, that is an 800 square foot garage beside it and while most people would use that for storage, Michael does not allow non-garage type things in his garage. He's kind of a gear head. The lawnmower and yard stuff will even be going into the storage building.

Michael and his dad worked hard for 2 evenings to get this bad boy built. We only have the painting and shingles left to do. That should be done soon and I will put up pics of our little red "barn."

Now, to feed the builders, I decided a manly meal of beef was in order: Chicken Fried Steak. I ALMOST called mom because I've never attempted chicken fried steak before (shocking, I know), but I decided to figure it out....how hard can it be??

Chicken Fried Steak:

Round steak, cut into individual serving size pieces

1 egg

All-purpose Flour (1/4 to 1/2 cup)

Seasoning Salt

Pepper

Vegetable Oil

I started with a beautiful black Angus round steak. This is no store bought "suposed black Angus piece of meat. It's from one of my parent's cattle.

I trimmed it and cut along the seams to make 3 pieces of meat.

After using my meat mallet to flatten and tenderize the meat, I dipped it in egg and then into a mixture of flour, seasoning salt, and pepper. I was generous with both the salt and pepper.

I put about 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a skillet and got it piping hot. Then popped in the steaks.

After just a few minutes (we still like our meat a little pink on the inside), I flipped the steaks.

I paired my chicken fried steaks with mashed potatoes and toated ciabatta bread with salad and sweet tea. I don't know if there is any question what part of the country I'm from..... ENJOY!