Guys! Let’s face it, I’m not exactly known for my home decor lifestyle posts. However, this is too good to pass up and worth sharing. I am currently getting ready to move. There will be more to come on this later. I’ve started cleaning some of the usual suspects in the house and I decided to start with the most used item in my house, the oven. Now, cleaning the oven ain’t no thing, but I have always, always struggled with cleaning the oven racks. You can’t fit them in the sink, I don’t own a pressure washer, and trying to find replacements isn’t easy- I’ve tried. So, to Google I went to find my answer. Now, I have seen some crazy solutions for how to clean various parts of my  house. My favorite was someone suggested a rain dance to wash my problem away. Remember the interweb is full of cooky stuff so be mindful, but I digress. Here I am looking for rack cleaning suggestions when I see something amazing. Ready for this?

1. Place your oven racks in your bathtub.

2. Fill tub with warm water until racks are covered.

3. Add a splash of your favorite dish soap

4. **Okay, this is where it gets weird, but you have to trust me. Add 5 or 6 dryer sheets to the tub. Yes, dryer sheets. I didn’t believe it either, but it is the best!! The short answer is the anti static properties in the dryer sheets pull the hardened caked grime from the racks with ease.

5. Let the racks soak at least 5 hrs, but you can go as long as you like.

6. Use the dryer sheets to scrubs the racks and watch the grime come off. You might notice that some of it won’t scrub off with the dryer sheets. If that happens, just grab your favorite scrubby pad to remove the rest. You can always do a second treatment to help loosen more of it.

7. Rinse the racks off and wipe down to make sure all the loose grime is gone. TA-DA!! Good as new!

Here is the original link for this awesome hack.

I did make the classic mistake, which is I didn’t take a before or after photo because I was pretty skeptical. Well, let me say, I won’t make that mistake again!

I promise that is a game changer!! Let me know what you think of this by commenting on my post or sending me an email. I can’t wait to hear what you all think!

The bone-in ribeye is one of my favorite cuts of steak. This cut of meat has the most flavor, it is pretty forgiving when cooking, and relatively economical. I recommend, if you can, finding a good butcher that will cut you the size you want. You only need 4 to 6 oz per person for a proper portion.

Alright, so before you cook a large piece of steak or pork, you want to set it on the counter for a little while to let it come to room temperature. Before you throw me into the fire, I can assure that you leaving a piece of pork or steak out for a up to a couple of hours won’t cause you to take a trip to the ER or leave you on your death bed. If you left it out for a few days and moved it between hot and cold climates, more or less humidity, and exposed it to other contaminants, then yes, you would be asking for trouble!

Next, like our short ribs recipe, you want to salt the rib-eye pretty heavily, as shown in the photo (above). Again, this  heavy dose of salt isn’t a sure fire sign of bad cholesterol or anything like that. If you have to add salt to your coffee, cereal, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and dessert, then yes, you might have a bit of problem. Seriously, we are going to lose some of this during cooking and the meat is going to absorb this salt — which equals flavor.

Season well with fresh ground pepper as well.

Look Ma, no salt! The steak has taken all that in and created a glossy finish that will help develop color when cooking the steak.

The steak is done! Cook it for about 4 to 5 minutes a side for medium rare. Make sure the grill is hot, as medium high heat is the target. When the steak hits the grill, don’t move it! You won’t get the color you want if you keep moving it. You should only turn the steak a total of 4 times in the entire cook process. When you take the steak off the grill, let it rest. This will help the juices redistribute throughout the meat. I usually tent my steak with foil for another 10 minutes once it is taken off the heat.

An ingredient that strikes the fear into the hearts of most people, the 007 of vegetables if you will….Sprout, Brussel Sprout.

I know of all the brussel sprout horror stories, but I think these photos will change everything. We make this a few times a week.

The formidable and intimidating brussel sprout.

First up, cut the stem end off as demonstrated here.

Cut the brussel in half, peel the exterior leaves that make look discolored or funny. The external leaves will come off really easily.

Heat a pan with a good bit of olive oil and put it on medium heat.

The brussel sprouts absorb the oil as they get good color on them. Put the brussels in a medium or large saute pan when it starts to smoke and get hot. *Note: Move the pan off the heat if it gets too hot. Place the brussels in saute pan cut side down.

After about 4 minutes you should have brussels that look like the photo below. At this point you want to add water into the pan about two-thirds of the way up. Don’t submerge the sprouts in the water. Just enough where most of the brussel sprout is submerged. OK, turn the heat up to medium high and cook until the sprouts can be pierced with a easily with a fork with a little bit of resistance.

Drain the water, and saute until all the liquid has evaporated. Congratulations, these are your finished brussel sprouts!

Put everything on a plate and enjoy!