In 10 days from now my husband and I will be celebrating our 16 year wedding anniversary. The last couple of years we have been trying to take a few days to go away by ourselves for this momentous occasion. It helps us keep our sanity for the rest of the year and allows us to remember why we fell in love in the first place before all the craziness of life/kids/business came into the picture. This year I was a little later getting started in my quest to find a place for us to stay in our sunshine state and have found that everywhere we want to go is either already booked up or it is just ridiculously overpriced. You see, February is prime season for everyone who doesn’t live in Florida to come visit here and it makes it really hard to find a place to stay.

I had come to the conclusion that we are out of luck for this year, and this is the conversation that we had about it:

Me: “I don’t think we are going to be able to go away for our anniversary this year. Everything is booked or costs way too much. It is really disappointing.”

Husband: “Well, we could always just rent an RV for a few days, it would probably be cheaper anyway, and it might be fun.”

Me: “Yea, but then we would have to find a campground or someplace to park it, and you know how I am about the whole camping thing.”

Husband: “We could just park it anywhere then. You know, like a Target or Walmart parking lot.”

Me: “Yea, cause that is EXACTLY how I want to spend my anniversary/vacation. If that’s the case then maybe we could even dress like the ‘Walmartians’ from those emails.”

Husband: “Hey, if the RV’s rockin’ don’t come a knockin’.”

This is a typical conversation between the two of us.

In honor of that conversation, and the fact that our anniversary is coming up next week, I am going to post this recipe for Chicken Fried Steak, because it is one of his all time favorite meals.

Chicken Fried Steak

• 2-3 lbs cube steak
• garlic powder
• minced onion
• salt and pepper
• season all salt
• cayenne pepper (optional)
• flour
• 2 eggs
• whatever oil you prefer to cook with
• 2 tbsp butter

These two tall silver things are automatic salt and pepper mills that my mom bought me for Christmas from Williams-Sonoma. They changed my life. No really, I am convinced that they spared me from getting carpel tunnel syndrome. The old ones that I had I had to turn and turn and turn to get the salt and pepper out and my hands and wrists always hurt by the time I was done cooking and I had to soak them in Epsom salts. (That might just be a tad bit dramatic.) Anyway, these are the perfect gift for someone who cooks all the time. They are my favorite kitchen tool. You fill them up with your favorite salt and peppercorns and then just flip them over and the salt/pepper is automatically ground right out! It is amazing and makes your life simple. (Williams-Sonoma has no idea who I am, I just really like these mills.)

Lay out your cube steaks on a tray and season them well on both sides with the garlic powder, salt, pepper, Season-All salt and minced onion (cayenne pepper if you like it with a kick).

If you can plan ahead for this meal, after you season them, cover them with foil and let them sit in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavors sink in.

In one large shallow bowl whisk two eggs with 3/4 cup of milk.

In another large shallow bowl/container mix about 1 1/2 cups of flour with some more salt and pepper and a little Season-All salt.

Take each piece of cube steak and dip it in the egg mixture, making sure to fully coat the entire piece.

Then dip the steak in the flour mixture, making sure to fully coat it.

Now repeat that process one more time, egg first then flour. Once you have each piece fully coated and set aside, in a large skillet, over medium heat, heat up enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan and come up about a 3/4 an inch high.

Once the oil is hot enough, (when you drop in a few pieces of flour and they sizzle, it’s hot enough) put in your cube steaks. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan.

Cook for about 2-2 1/2 minutes per side, or until it is a nice golden brown color like this.

Once you have cooked all the pieces of meat, set them aside to drain on a paper towel lined plate. Drain off all of the oil out of the pan except for about 1/4 of a cup. Make sure you keep the nice browned bits in the pan. Then add about 2 tbsp of butter.

To this add about a 1/3 cup of flour.

Using a whisk, mix up the flour into the butter/oil mixture to make a thick paste.

Once all the flour has been mixed in, slowly pour in about two cups of milk while constantly whisking.

Continue whisking until all the flour has dissolved into the milk and you have a smooth creamy gravy.

I like to serve this with mashed potatoes.

Oh My Goody Goodness this is good!