April 28, 2012 – Dinner – Rib eye steak with sautéed Mushrooms, roasted vegetables and asparagus

April 28, 2012 – Dinner – Rib eye steak with sautéed Mushrooms, roasted vegetables and asparagus

Max Aragon came by for dinner tonight around 7:30 p.m. because he was picking up his partner, Jane, at the airport at 10:00 p.m. and I invited him to dinner.  I had thawed out one of the boneless rib eye steaks I had bought at Lowe’s for $3.98 per lb.  I had some of the roasted vegetables left and some asparagus.  I sliced about two cups of portabella mushrooms and two cloves of shallot and tossed them into a skillet with a Tbsp. of butter and a Tbsp. of olive oil and sautéed them for a minute and then cut the steak in half and put the steak into the skillet and cooked the steak and mushrooms for about ten minutes.  Then I added about three Tbsp. of Italian Red Vermouth to the skillet. And sautéed the mixture about two or three minutes more as the Asparagus steamed.

I fetched a bottle of Cutler Creek Cabernet Sauvignon ($3.33 at Sunflower Market) and we had a deliciously tender steak stewed in vermouth and mushrooms with the heated roasted vegetables and the asparagus. 

After dinner we had a few sips of French Calvados and Gemain Robin Apple Brandy and then around 10:00 p.m. Jane called and, after a sip or two more of Calvados, Max thanked me for dinner and left to go pick Jane up at the airport.

Bon Appétit      

April 28, 2012 Dinner – Boneless Pork Chop with Wild Rice and Asparagus

April 28, 2012 Dinner – Boneless Pork Chop with Wild Rice and Asparagus

Suzette is still out of town, so I made another super simple dinner tonight.

I thawed out one 1" thick boneless pork chop and salted it with coarse sea salt and ground pepper and sautéed it in a pan with about 1 1/2 Tbsp. of garlic infused olive oil that Eric, the chef at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery made for us.  I put the heat at a a relatively high temperature so the meat would sear and I kept flipping it every couple of minutes for a total of about eaght minutes of cooking time.   I undercooked the chop a bit, so the center was still pink and let it continue cook to white inside as it sat on the plate.  This kept the juices inside

I steamed about 8 stalks of asparagus and heated a pile of wild rice in the microwave oven and then plated the asparagus and when the chop was cooked placed it on the plate with the heated wild rice and drank a glass of Tempranillo/Grenache Spanish Wine with it.

Fast, hot, and delicious.

After dinner, I had another glass of wine with a couple of slices of heated whole grain bread from Costco spread with Costco’s Celebrity fig compote infused goat cheese for a lovely light cheese course after dinner.

Bon Appétit