Cube steak: so much more than I ever imagined.

For me, I've never cooked with much cube steak.  I've always considered it to be a cheap, tough cut of beef.  Other than making the occasional country fried steak, I've never used it.  When my daughter came along, I started making steak fingers (same as country fried steak, but cut into long strips) because she loved them and I could get some red meat into her.  Babygirls chronic anemia caused me to start keeping cube steaks around.  For me, they are just so-so, but babygirl and my hubs wolfed them down along with the typical sides of mashed potatoes and gravy.  On a positive note, it was an easy and cheap meal, so I never said much.  Recently, I have become a huge fan on The Pioneer Woman....love her, love her blog and love her style of cooking!!  She makes a sandwich that she loving calls "The Marlboro Man sandwich".  The Marlboro Man is her nickname for her husband, Ladd.  Ladd is a tough, hard-working rancher who is a meat and potatoes man all the way.  Sounds like my hubby...lol.  I decided to try the sandwich and oh my goodness, I simply fell in love.  Seriously, y'all.  It shouldn't have been that good....nasty ole' cube steak, 2 lbs of butter (maybe a touch of an overstatement) and lots of Worcestershire sauce.  How could that possibly be good?  I just don't know, but it is.  Here is a link to her recipe. 

Some of the pros of this recipe are:  It takes about 20 minutes start to finish, which I love.  It's pretty cheap....cube steak is about 4 bucks per lb and this feeds 4-5.  Seasoned salt, worchestershire sauce and fresh garlic and onion don't set ya back much either.  As for the bread, I like using fresh bolinos from Wal-Mart bakery and they are like 1.60 per six.  As for the cons, well, if you are not a very active rancher, these have waaay too many calories for the average bear to burn off.  The amount of sodium in these babies is pretty crazy as well.  Bottom line:  don't make too often or these will increase your bottom line.  I make them no more than twice per month and I anticipate these like a child on Christmas morning.  It.Is.A.Sickness. 

Above is the real deal in my real kitchen.  You don't need a 3000 dollar camera to make this look good...wow!  Above picture is taken with my old D80, no natural light and a 150 dollar lens.  No retouching or editing....:)  And yes, I think my bokeh is quite acceptable!  Oh and BTW, I really don't change PW's recipe at all...no need for it :)