Steak, Potatoes and Spinach with Blue Cheese

So... it's been a while.

Let me see if I can catch you all up in just a few sentences...
I'm two years older.
I've had a baby. She's adorable and getting cuter every day.
I've done a lot of decluttering and reorganizing to streamline my life.

I think that about sums it up.

Now, on to the reason for the post.

Isn't that gorgeous.  I made up some of it, and while I was cooking I said to my husband, "if this turns out well, I'm totally going to make a lazy wife post about it."  And it turned out amazing.

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Steaks with Red Wine butter - derived from Les Halles cookbook by Anthony Bourdain
The following measurements are not exact and should be tweaked to suit your own tastes.

1 small red onion (the original recipe calls for shallots)
1 cup red wine (I used Merlot, you can get inexpensive red wine but make sure its something you wouldn't mind drinking)
Salt
2 sticks of butter

Enough steak to feed your family
Salt & Pepper

To make the flavored butter:
Mince your onion, and put it in a pan, and a pinch or two of salt (depending on your tastes).  Add the wine and bring up to a simmer.  Stir occasionally until the wine has almost completely evaporated. Cool to room temperature. Soften the butter and blend the butter with the onion.  You can do this in a food processor, or a mixer, or by hand.  Just make sure it's fully incorporated and there's no large sections of plain butter.  Then get out some parchment paper or plastic wrap, and make a log out of the flavored butter and chill in the fridge.
You can also freeze the butter and use it at a later time - I have a bit in my freezer that I pull out any time I want some quick, easy, and delicious steak.

For the meat:
Salt and pepper one side of the steaks.  I like using top sirloin, but you can use whatever steak you like. Preheat your oven to 350.  Also, preheat an oven safe pan on the stove - I have a lovely cast iron skillet that works great.  Once the pan is hot, sear the seasoned side of the meat and season the other side with salt and pepper.  Sear all sides and then put the pan in the oven and cook until it's done to your liking.  My husband likes his steak well done, so I get everything else going before I turn the oven off and take the meat out to rest.  Once the meat is done, take it out of the oven and put a nice pat of butter on top and let the meat rest for 5 - 10 minutes so all the delicious juices get redistributed and the butter melts.  Mmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Pan Fried Potatoes and Onions
I eat this for breakfast most days with a fried egg, but they're just as delicious for dinner.

3-4 medium sized Yukon Gold Potatoes (about 1 medium potato per person)
1 medium-large onion
1 Tbsp butter (you can use the wine butter in place of regular butter)
Dried Thyme (optional)
Salt

I use a 10" ceramic non-stick skillet for this recipe.  Preheat your pan on medium heat.  Chop your potatoes and onion into bite sized cubes (for breakfast, I like to slice them more thinly) Melt the butter in your preheated pan. Add the onion and potatoes, and sprinkle a pinch or two of salt and dried thyme.  Cover, stirring occasionally (or do that awesome chef-flick to flip everything) until the potatoes are soft.  Then remove the cover and still stirring occasionally, cook until it gets deliciously caramelized and browned - you may have to turn the heat down so it doesn't get blackened.

Creamed Spinach with Blue Cheese
I just made this up last night, so my recipe is very inexact.

1 bag frozen chopped spinach
1 tsp better than bullion chicken broth
1/2 tsp garlic powder (more or less depending on how much you like garlic)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

In a sauce pan on low/med-low heat, add frozen spinach, chicken broth, garlic powder - put the cover on until the spinach has thawed.  Once thawed, add milk and stir occasionally while it simmers for about 15 min.  Add the blue cheese and stir to melt it in.


Then you serve it all up and feel like you're eating at a 5 star restaurant.  I'm so glad I added that blue cheese to the spinach... and I'm also glad that I made enough last night that I have left overs to eat for lunch today :)

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

I was kneading bread yesterday, and I started thinking that my arms would probably look a lot better (read: less flabby) if I baked bread every day.  But then I realized that I'd also have to be eating the bread I made that day, which, I think, would cause some pretty intense weight gain.   Unless, of course, my evil plan of baking bread and delivering it to people came to fruition...

I love bread.  And one bread that I have a particular passion for is Hawaiian Sweet bread.  So, of course, when I saw a recipe for it, I decided that I should give it a try (since King's is SO expensive)... and I just happened to have a can of evaporated milk on hand - I don't know where it came from, I certainly didn't buy it - and I REALLY love Hawaiian Sweet bread...  I will admit that my bread isn't exactly like King's Hawaiian, but it does make up for it in cost.

I was trying to make medium sized sandwich rolls, but they puffed up a lot in my oven, so they definitely could have started out smaller.  Also, the recipe I used lied to me in a couple places, so I'm giving you *my* recipe that has corrections/lazy options included.  I found the recipe online, it said that it was a version adapted from The Food of Paradise, but now I can't find the site, so I can't link to it :P

In response to this post, I expect you all to be extremely sad that you don't live with me or close enough to me to get a sample of this bread...

Mini Pommes Anna

That's right! Potatoes! Not just any potatoes! Deliciously French potatoes, or rather Mini Pommes Anna.

Wikipedia tells us that "Pommes Anna is a classic French dish of sliced, layered potatoes cooked in a very large amount of melted butter."

I can't take full credit for this recipe, since I got the idea here: Bakers Royale

I changed the recipe a little, since I didn't have any Yukon Gold potatoes (those would be really good for this though) but I had a mixed bag of fingerling potatoes... and they were also very delicious.  And looked a little more like a real Pommes Anna instead of just a single stack of sliced potato.

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Mini Pommes Anna