Can't remember where I got this, but it's really good! I add a dash of crushed red pepper flakes to the breading for the steaks AND to the cream gravy, along with a dash of paprika to both Chicken-Fried Steak Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds of top-round steak 2 cups of flour 3 eggs 1/2 cup of milk or buttermilk 1/2 teaspoon of salt 1 teaspoon of cracked black pepper (can also add cayenne to add more heat). Lard or vegetable oil Method: Cut your top-round steak into four pieces. Pound beef with a meat tenderizer until flattened and almost doubled in size. Place flour in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix eggs in another large bowl with milk. Take piece of tenderized beef and coat in flour. Dip coated beef into egg mixture and then dip back into flour again. Heat on medium enough oil or lard to fill halfway up the sides of a cast-iron skillet. When a drop of water makes the oil sizzle, it's ready for frying. Take the coated beef and place it in the skillet. When the blood (er, red-meat juice) starts bubbling out of the top of the steak (about three to four minutes) gently turn it over with a long fork (using a spatula can cause the oil to splash out of the skillet). Cook another five minutes and then take the chicken-fried steak out of the pan and drain on a paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat process for remaining cutlets. And while you're frying the others, you can keep the cooked steaks warm in the oven. Cream gravy Ingredients: Two tablespoons of pan drippings, bacon grease or vegetable oil Two tablespoons of flour 1 1/2 cups of milk 1 teaspoon of cracked black pepper Salt to taste. Method: Combine fat with flour in a hot skillet, continuously stirring, cook on medium for a couple of minutes until a dark roux is formed. Add milk slowly to skillet, and mix with roux using either a whisk or wooden spoon (be sure and press out any lumps). Turn heat to low and continue stirring until mixture is thickened, a couple more minutes. Add pepper and salt to taste. If gravy is too thick for your taste, you can thin it by adding either more milk or water a tablespoon at a time. Goes great with mashed potatoes, fried chicken, biscuits, chicken fried steak, grits, vegetables, rice or anything else you can imagine.

I think I'll try the dry pan method for the mushrooms next time. I made another pizza last night, precooking the dough with dry cheese on top first and then added an extremely thin layer of sauce. I also added quite a bit of chopped fresh basil, two mushrooms sliced very thinly (for a 17" pizza), some black olives, and two jalapeños also sliced very thinly. On the top I used regular mozzarella instead of fresh, and it got very brown in the oven at 550° for 9 minutes. There was still a bit more moisture than I wanted, although the cheese was very dry and almost chewy. I didn't try the ricotta, although it is definitely drier than the fresh mozzarella. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting closer. Before I was making pizza with a thinner crust and using a lot less on top of it. Maybe I should go back to that method, although it is a bit tricker to get the dough stretched out. I bought the pizza peel myself, and it is aluminum. I might buy another one that is all wood. Lars

Beez is right, unless you have a commercial oven or a dedicated salamander, it's not going to get hot enough. If you cook over charcoal on a grill, don't go with Kingsford. Look for all natural lump hardwood charcoal. It gets several hundred degrees hotter than briquettes. And, consider grilling right ON the charcoal. I'm not kidding. By putting the meat directly on the coals you don't get any flare ups. The fat can't get the oxygen it needs to burn. All you have to do is get a good hot natural lump charcoal fire going, then using a hair dryer, blow the layer of ash off the top (this will also help liven the fire) and flop your steak down. When that side is done after about a minute, flip it over. Once you do that, you can clean off any charcoal that is sticking to the first side. Once it's done on both sides, wrap it in heavy foil and leave it rest for 10-15 minutes.

Nothing. We went out for lunch (Olive Garden) for the soup, salad and breadsticks. Used our last OG gift card from DD. I absolutely pigged out on breadsticks and salad, so I couldn't even finish my chicken gnocchi soup. Brought it home for DH to have for supper, 'cause I'm STILL full of bread!! It was delicous but I felt like I'd just had Thanksgiving.