Anniversary (or any special occasion) dinner – Steak w/ blue cheese, garlic smashed potatoes and asparagus

For those of you who don’t know, it was our 5^th (!!) anniversary on Friday. Dan and I thought about going out but decided to enjoy a nice meal at home instead.

Not only was it much more affordable, I personally think it was restaurant quality and no need to deal with Friday night crowds! We served the meal with a $4 bottle of White Zinfandel wine from Trader Joe’s. I’m far from a wine connoisseur, but I really like it; try it before you knock it!

Steak with Blue Cheese topping

Serves 2, but can easily be doubled or tripled

2 Strip Steaks - That’s what we had but you can use others. Rather than the cheapest cut, find a mid-tier+ one that’s on significant sale – I got this $4 per pound off.

Pepper and/or steak seasoning

2 T gorgonzola or other blue cheese crumbles

1 T softened butter or margarine

Preheat grill (or appliance of choice – we used our George Foreman), and season steaks on both sides with pepper/seasoning to taste. Cook ~2 minutes or 1 level less than desired; for example, medium if you want your steak to be medium-well. While steaks cook, preheat oven to broil – toaster oven is fine if there’s only 2. Mix blue cheese crumbles and butter until thick and uniform, then spread on top of steaks. Broil 2-3 minutes, or until steaks and cheese mixture are golden brown. Serve immediately.

Garlic Smashed Potatoes

Serves ~4

Around 1 1/3 lb potatoes, diced into 1 inch pieces. We had red potatoes, but regular russet are fine too. If you use russet, be sure to peel them – you don’t need to peel most other types.

2/3 c. garlic sour cream*

Pepper to taste

Other herbs as desired – I used dried dill and parsley, ~1/2 t. each

Put potatoes in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer until fork tender - meaning a fork will go in easily and split the piece in half, 20-30 minutes.

Smash potatoes with a spatula or large spoon (or a potato masher if you happen to have one, but I do not!) just until potatoes reach desired consistency; we like a few chunks still in. Stir in garlic sour cream and season to taste.

* I actually made potatoes this way to use up this new sour cream, which I got on super sale (of course). It has a very strong garlic flavor, so is great for this recipe, but not the best plain. To substitute, you can use 4-6 cloves of minced garlic and 2/3 c. sour cream.

Steamed Asparagus

Serves 4

1 lb. Asparagus - I always look for relatively skinny stems as they are the most tender.

Seasoning to taste

I didn’t do anything special here. Trim off the tough bottom end of asparagus spears, usually 2 to 3 inches.  Place in a steamer basket over boiling water and steam for 5-7 minutes, or until desired texture is reached (if you don’t have a steamer basket, boil 1 inch water in a pot wide enough for the asparagus, and place asparagus in the water to simmer).  Do not overcook!