Yesterday was my husband's 28th birthday and his first birthday as my husband. Although it was during a work day for both of us, I wanted to commemorate the day in a special way and decided to make him a delicious dinner which would include (not so incidentally) trying out some new recipes! Task #51 on my 101 Tasks is to try out 30 recipes I've never made before, and last night I knocked out two of them.
Originally I wanted to make Adam some lamb, because it's a meat I'm not as familiar with and so have less experience making, and it's also one of his favorite kinds of meat. I had a great recipe all ready to go, with the ingredients that I needed to buy on my shopping list... all the way up until I got to the store after work and there was no lamb. Crap! Silly Muffin, sheep give birth in the spring. It's November. Of course there's no lamb. But, as luck would have it, there was filet mignon on sale! Adam's favorite cut of steak. Good enough! I decided I would look up a filet mignon recipe as soon as I got home, gathered up the rest of the ingredients I needed for dinner and started heading home.
I was about 5 minutes from home when Adam texted me that he was leaving work early. Crap! I rushed home and started gathering all the ingredients together on the kitchen counter while simultaneously looking up recipes for filet mignon sauces and setting the table with the fancy table clothe and napkins my mom gave us for a wedding present and our wedding china. I managed to get the table set up all nice looking before he got home:
Once he came in the door I barred him from the kitchen and got to work. Fortunately, once I actually looked at the recipe I had for biscuits I found that they weren't going to need as much time as I'd thought they would. Unfortunately, I hadn't managed to find a single recipe for filet mignon sauce that I could make using ingredients that we already had.
So this muffin got creative.
I remembered a friend telling me that the reason steaks taste so good in restaurant is because they're smothered in butter. I looked around on our shelves and spotted some Sherry Vinegar which we hardly ever use because it's hard to find, but its flavor is more delicate and not as over-powering as Balsamic Vinegar (and if you're going to eat good steak, why overpower it with the sauce?). I couldn't remember what Sherry Vinegar tastes like, so I gave it a quick sniff. Yum. The vague citrus overtones inspired me and I grabbed the orange flavored olive oil that I bought from a specialty store only a few weeks ago. This was either going to be great or really really strange. I melted the butter and whisked in equal parts Sherry Vinegar and flavored oil and then smothered the filets in it. For the two filets I used about 2 tablespoons of butter (pre-melted measurement.).
For a vegetable I made steamed broccoli seasoned with Mrs. Dash (A nice easy, lazy but delicious way of doing it). The piece de resistance, however, was the biscuits. My friend Anna bragged that she had found a recipe that made the mouth-watering, soul-satisfying, addiction-starting Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits (<---click here for recipe). If you've ever been to Red Lobster, you know those biscuits. I don't even like seafood, but I'm always willing to go to Red Lobster just because I want the biscuits. Well, now I don't have to!
These biscuits were so much easier to make than I thought they would be, and only took me 20 minutes total including baking time.
The blend of the cheddar biscuits baking combined with the sizzle and scent of citrus-y, buttery steak was heavenly. My kitchen smelled great. Adam kept commenting about how good everything smelled, and he didn't even know what I was making!
Paired with Joseph Phelps Insignia Table Wine from 2000, it was the quietest birthday dinner I've ever sat down to. The conversation consisted mostly of "Mmmm" and "Ooohhh wow." The steak was succulent, the citrus and sherry flavors present but not at all overpowering. The broccoli steamed perfectly and was just slightly crisp in the stems and soft in the flower. And the biscuits. Oh... the biscuits. Crunchy, flaky outside opened to a moist, soft inside that melted into buttery, cheesy goodness in our mouths. Adam went back for seconds.
He was highly impressed, not just by the biscuits, but also by my creativity and resourcefulness in creating my own filet mignon sauce. A very good birthday dinner!!!
(If you're wondering about dessert... I cheated and bought it from a local bakery, but we ended up not eating it. My kitchen prowess inspired him and he ended up making us some brownies, which I'm going to make him write down the recipe for so I can try my hand at making them =)
Originally I wanted to make Adam some lamb, because it's a meat I'm not as familiar with and so have less experience making, and it's also one of his favorite kinds of meat. I had a great recipe all ready to go, with the ingredients that I needed to buy on my shopping list... all the way up until I got to the store after work and there was no lamb. Crap! Silly Muffin, sheep give birth in the spring. It's November. Of course there's no lamb. But, as luck would have it, there was filet mignon on sale! Adam's favorite cut of steak. Good enough! I decided I would look up a filet mignon recipe as soon as I got home, gathered up the rest of the ingredients I needed for dinner and started heading home.
I was about 5 minutes from home when Adam texted me that he was leaving work early. Crap! I rushed home and started gathering all the ingredients together on the kitchen counter while simultaneously looking up recipes for filet mignon sauces and setting the table with the fancy table clothe and napkins my mom gave us for a wedding present and our wedding china. I managed to get the table set up all nice looking before he got home:
So this muffin got creative.
I remembered a friend telling me that the reason steaks taste so good in restaurant is because they're smothered in butter. I looked around on our shelves and spotted some Sherry Vinegar which we hardly ever use because it's hard to find, but its flavor is more delicate and not as over-powering as Balsamic Vinegar (and if you're going to eat good steak, why overpower it with the sauce?). I couldn't remember what Sherry Vinegar tastes like, so I gave it a quick sniff. Yum. The vague citrus overtones inspired me and I grabbed the orange flavored olive oil that I bought from a specialty store only a few weeks ago. This was either going to be great or really really strange. I melted the butter and whisked in equal parts Sherry Vinegar and flavored oil and then smothered the filets in it. For the two filets I used about 2 tablespoons of butter (pre-melted measurement.).
These biscuits were so much easier to make than I thought they would be, and only took me 20 minutes total including baking time.
He was highly impressed, not just by the biscuits, but also by my creativity and resourcefulness in creating my own filet mignon sauce. A very good birthday dinner!!!
(If you're wondering about dessert... I cheated and bought it from a local bakery, but we ended up not eating it. My kitchen prowess inspired him and he ended up making us some brownies, which I'm going to make him write down the recipe for so I can try my hand at making them =)
Yummy! Sounds like you guys had an amazing bday dinner as a married couple. Good for you!
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