Pan-Seared Rib-Eye Steak

So this started out as me doing a rib-eye steak with a nice steak sauce, but when I looked a little closer, the recipe required a whole lot of extra work to make the sauce (which I assume would be delicious) but for just myself and Shannon the hours of extra work, seemed to me to be a bit absurd.  So I just made a simple pan sauce for this.  It was pretty good.  This was one of the many meals this week that have iron in them to hope to account for at least part of my on-going iron deficiency.  I served this with a simple salad.  I don't serve steak that often because it's expensive (and I honestly prefer cheap cuts, lovingly longly prepared) and Shannon's not the biggest fan.  Also, I honestly prefer pork over beef any day.  But that's just me.  Shannon is also not the biggest fan of beef (she prefers chicken).

Oil and Balsamic Vinegar, I love how they look together

Spinach-Arugula Frittata (p61 March 2011 Food & Wine)

Eggs...mmm...iron, Spinach?  Iron.  Arugula?  Ehh...not so much.  Anyways, this turned out pretty well and tasted good.  Though I have made several variations on the same idea, this was still a good meal.

Spinach-Arugula Frittata

Black-Bean Turkey Chili (p124 March 2011 Food & Wine)

Turkey and Black Beans are both iron rich (yay!) and this meal was pretty simple.  i started making this on Friday (and cleaned the kitchen when I was waiting for things to get done).  I did make an alteration.  If I had followed the recipe exactly, it would've become far to thick by the time that Shannon got home from work.  So I added some additional water (about a cup and a half).  So when Shannon got home (and I woke up from my nap), it was almost about the right thickness.  It was pretty good, though we did add sour cream and cheddar cheese to it as well, which, I think, defeats the whole purpose of the section of the magazine.

Simplest Chicken-and-Leek Stew (p47 March 2011 Food & Wine)

So after the daring use of mushrooms last week, I decided to pull back a little and make sure the mushrooms got much smaller.  So I followed the recipe for this and then when I pulled out the mushrooms from the pan, I rested them for a bit, and then put them in the food processor.  Now this didn't really lead to what I imagine would be a presentable soup (the leeks are supposed to be a feature of the soup and they  are now in tiny pieces).  It still tasted good.  It wasn't like wow this is good, but it was certainly good.

Chickpeas in Spicy Tomato Gravy (p74 March 2011 Food & Wine)

So I made this for movie night.  Vegetarian, check, at least some semblance of iron, check.  So in Entertaining they had a recipe for naan, and if I had remembered in a timely fashion, I probably would've made that and skimming through the recipe, I probably could've too.  Oh well.  I picked up some nice bread and used that instead.  I served it with a salad and used the Extra Virgin Olive Oil and 18 year old Balsamic vinegar that I had gotten from All Spice (similar to what is pictured above).  I was totally sold this, because the lady there had me try the olive oil by itself, and then together with the vinegar.  Wow.  Anyways it was a bit of a splurge, but I cannot believe that I could use this olive oil (at the price) for regular cooking.  Everything came together pretty easily.  I really liked how the vegetables looked, cooking together.

Onions, ginger, garlic and jalapeno peppersAfter simmering everything together, it worked pretty well and led to a delicious and filling result.  Although, it was almost exactly the right amount of food.  Bread was gone, salad was gone, and I couldn't believe how guilty or shameful it made me feel to not have copious amounts of leftovers.  Anyways, we then had chocolate ice cream with girl scout cookies and called headed down to watch a movie.

Bonus Brownies

So for game night I made some brownies.  The idea here was to have a layer of brownie, a layer of chocolate, then another layer of brownie...  The brownie batter that I made ended up tasting good, but did not seem like it would be conducive to the idea.  They still tasted pretty good though.

Chocolate and butter deliciousnessBrownies after being ravaged by game night attendees.They turned out well, but not exactly what I intended, so I'll try again.