Restaurant Style Filet Mignon

Usually for Valentine's Day each year, I made cheese and chocolate fondue. This year, I decided to try something different after seeing this pin. I'm so happy I did!

The recipe:
Restaurant Style Filet Mignon

2 8 ounce filet mignons
4 teaspoons kosher salt
4 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1 stick butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
Take 1/2 stick of butter, softened, and mix well with the peeled, chopped garlic, the chopped herbs, and the lemon zest. Form into a log and refrigerate. Generously season the filet’s with salt and pepper, approximately 1 teaspoon of seasoning per side.

Heat the remainder of the butter (1/2 stick) and the olive oil in a cast iron skillet to a screaming hot temperature. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Sear the filets in a screaming hot pan for about 2-3 minutes per side, or until a nice brown crust has formed. While the steak is searing, continue to spoon the residual butter in the pan on top of the meat while it’s cooking. Once both sides are seared, place in the center of the oven for about 6-8 minutes, depending upon how thick your steak is. In the last minute of cooking, take the log of compound butter and slice a nice thick piece to place on top.

Your steak will be ready when it is approximately 135 degrees in the center, or when you push lightly on the top center of the steak and it gently and slowly bounces back. (Note, this is medium rare kids. Some people don’t like to eat cows while they are mooing, so clearly you can cook longer if your afraid of the pink.)

*** The filets I used were larger than what this recipe called for. I had to cook them for about double the time in the oven to get them medium rare. But I just kept adding more butter, so that's ok! I did have 1/2 of the butter left over so I decided to melt it into the fresh green beans I steamed while cooking the meat. Super yummy! 2 nights after I made this my husband and I went out to dinner. I couldn't resist and ordered the filet mignon. I must say (and my husband agreed) mine turned out so much better! I hope the meat goes on sale again soon so I can make this again! ***

Here is the original pin:

Source: whitsamusebouche.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Crayon hearts

I feel like my kids get so much candy on Valentine's Day when I saw this alternative I was so excited!  I had the silicon heart mold already.  I went to the dollar store and was able to buy 30+ crayons for $1.  1 box of crayons filled 20 of the heart molds.
I must say the most tedious part was pealing the paper off the crayons.  That did take a while.  And then I was able to just break the crayons to fit into the mold.  No need to cut.  The pin says to bake at 230 for 15 minutes.  At the 15 minute mark, mine were barely melted.  I pulled one batch out at 20 minutes.  It wasn't completely melted but it was kind of cool be cause there were parts of the crayon you can still tell are crayons.  The next batch I did I took out at around 25 minutes and they were completely melted.  These made great crayons as well.
For my daughter's class (1st grade) I had her draw her classmates a card that we taped the crayons too.  For my son's class (1 1/2 - 2 year olds) I put his in a lollypop bag and sealed it with a label.
Here is what I did for my sons class:



Here is the pin:

Source: dayanatuna.tumblr.com via Kristen on Pinterest