Yeah in all honesty I forgot to pick up stock at the supermarket because I thought I had some at home (nope, threw it out like a week ago, sigh) and didn't want to buy a huge bottle of brandy to put in barely any at all. It was weird but fine.
The steaks themselves were not high quality. That's why I'm calling this a test run. I'll head to whole foods and pick up the good ingredients later this week.
And yeah, I really really like peppercorns.