this post is not for the vegetarians

about a month ago my friend jen approached me with a favor. she had been a vegetarian for almost eight years, but had decided to cross back over to the dark side and eat meat.
the favor? she wanted me to cook the meat for her. i happily accepted the challenge and set about to deciding what the perfect meat would be. i asked if she wanted to keep things low key, but was told no. she wanted to plunge in, feet first. that narrowed the choices from chicken, lamb, and beef down to lamb, and beef. i asked what she preferred and was told beef....but then i was left with a conundrum. what kind of beef? something complicated and saucy? something tender and simple? a t-bone, or a prime rib? ultimately, i defaulted to my old standby; the filet. i have to say, i think it was a good choice.
i also prepared roasted garlic smashed potatoes and asparagus with hollandaise sauce, but the filet was the star of the show. jen agreed to pick the steaks up, and i gave her explicit instructions. then i got to looking up the best way to prepare a rare filet at home (because there was no way i was going to let her get into the habit of eating thick rubbery meat, what would be the point in abandoning vegetarianism for that?)
after several searches, i decided that the best way to do it would be to pan sear it (one minute for each side) on the highest heat my burner could put out, and then pop it into a 450 degree oven for three minutes. i let the meat come to room temperature while i prepared the other dishes, and only when it was nice and ready did i season it with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper and coat it in oil for searing. the searing was lightning fast:

and in a mere matter of moments, they were plucked from the oven ready to sit for ten minutes before being eaten. while we waited, we brought everything up to the roof deck where we planned to eat. it was windy and cool, but the perfect weather for such a momentous night. we all had our cameras poised when she took her first bite:

and i was pleased as punch when she declared it "very good!". actually, it was very good, so good in fact that i took a shot of my plate so that you could see the scrumptiousness of the meat:

and here is one last shot for good measure. we must have been very noisily enjoying the steak because tucker was feeling a little left out...he kept wandering by my chair and vj's chair begging for some of the steak...how could i say no to that face?

easy! this steak was expensive...i ate each and every delectable bite of it!

Mmmmm, steak. :)