Sincerely, MAB

So, I picked up a few beautiful strip loins tonight and decided to fire up the grill (now that I finally remembered to refill the propane tanks...). While I absolutely love my steaks done rare to medium rare, brushed with olive oil, with salt and pepper, I decided I wanted to try something a little bit different tonight.

I'd seen a bunch of Food Network personalities make compound butter before, and quite frankly, it looked so simple. So, I decided to give it a shot.

It was largely successful. To make my compound butter, I tried to draw some inspiration from our garden. We had some chives that were on their last legs, but at the same time, our basil, rosemary and parsley were just thriving. Thiking to myself that basil and steak wouldn't "cut it" for me tonight, I instead grabbed some chives, rosemary and parsley, and threw it into the food processor with a pound of butter and a few cloves and garlic, as well as the juice of one lemon. To me, rosemary, garlic and lemon are a classic mediterranean combination for meats, so I thought, "Why not?" I pulsed it all up, rolled it into a nice little log and stuck it in the freezer to harden.

Of course, once the striploins were done (three minutes on each side, plus 5 minutes of indirect heat), I lopped off a nice little round and let it melt on my steak. It was great! I really enjoyed the acidity of the lemon juice combined with the herbiness of the, well, herbs. I would highly recommend it. Other great things to try, especially for steak, would be a blue cheese combination (classic!) and maybe even some grilled portobello mushrooms. Just think of all the things that are great accompaniments to steak, and add a pound of butter.

Honestly, how could you go wrong?

PS: A little goes a long way.