My Valentine's Day Dinner

Recently, I’ve been writing about restaurant and theme park food. We enjoy going out to eat, but we also enjoy staying in and eating. And the more confident I become with my cooking skills, the less interested I am in going out to eat. Too often, that involves driving down to the Strip, walking through a smelly casino, and paying tourist prices for good food and mediocre service. So, for the last couple of Valentine’s Days, instead of going out for disappointing meals, we’ve been staying in. The last two years, we had the exact same meal, and both times, it turned out great.

We ordered a couple of 8 oz American Wagyu filets from Snake River Farms. We have a decent butcher shop near us, and two Christmases ago, my brother sent me a box of meat from Omaha Steaks, which were really good. But for really high-end meat, we generally turn to Snake River Farms. (We’re not the only ones; I’ve seen them listed as the suppliers of meat on several Walt Disney World menus.)

This year, we had a 25% off coupon from Snake River Farms, which helped with the cost. The fillets arrived packaged in a giant box. (Note all the “this end up” arrows, which FexEx completely ignored.) 

Inside the box, the steaks themselves were wrapped in a nice insulated reusable tote bag, which is a nice new addition from Snake River Farms. We’ll probably use it for shopping or taking lunches to work or whatever, if we can ever get it away from Rumplestilskin.

The steaks were individually wrapped. We kept them frozen until Monday evening, when we put them in the refrigerator to defrost for dinner on Wednesday.

When I removed them from their package, I was a little dismayed to see that they weren’t identical. While pretty clearly the same weight, one was a little smaller around and thicker, and they weren’t quite the same color. We were pretty sure this wouldn’t make a difference once they were cooked, but at $50 a filet (before the discount), I was anxious every step of the way.

Following the cooking instructions on the Snake River Farms web site, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I seasoned the filets with salt and pepper, and seared them for about two minutes on each side in a cast-iron skillet.

Look at that beautiful sear!

After searing the steaks, I inserted our Thermoworks Smoke thermometer probes into them. I didn’t want to take any chances! However, I must have been placing the thermometer probes badly, because one read 130 and the other read 50. We decided to throw caution to the wind and just put the steaks into the oven for 8 minutes and let the chips fall where they may.

After 8 minutes, we took the steaks out. While they rested, I prepared the herbed balsamic tomatoes according to the recipe on the Snake River Farms web site. (Last year, they send out that recipe as part of a suggested Valentine’s Day dinner, and it turned out so well, I decided to make them again this year.) At the same time, my wife finished making her fantastic mashed potatoes.

Five minutes later, the vegetables and potatoes (‘maters and ‘taters) were finished, the steaks were rested, the wine (a Riesling; my wife’s favorite) was opened and poured, and we sat down to eat. Now came the moment of truth: had I done justice to our two expensive pieces of beef? Or had I ruined them?

As you can see from this photo, we had a perfect medium rare. Both steaks were fantastic, despite their differing appearances at the beginning. They were so tender, we almost didn’t need knives to cut them. The flavor was out of this world. If anyone wonders why we would pay so much for a pound of beef, they clearly haven’t tried beef of this quality. Of course, it goes without saying that my wife’s mashed potatoes were just as good, but I’m going to say it anyway. And if I say so myself, the tomatoes were a great complement to the rest of the meal. The acidity of the tomatoes and balsamic made a good contrast to the overall heaviness of the beef and mashed potatoes.

Just for fun, I looked up the menu for Gordon Ramsay Steak. They serve an 8 oz American wagyu filet for $79. Sides are $13 each, and one side is probably smaller than the total amount we made for ourselves. So if we had purchased this dinner at Gordon Ramsay Steak, it would have run us over $200 (probably closer to $250, assuming we had drinks but no appetizers or dessert). We spent less than half that on our dinner at home, and it was every bit as good as we would have had at a restaurant, plus it was easy to make, plus we didn’t have to drive to the Strip, plus we didn’t have to put up with indifferent service, plus we could drink as much as we wanted.

On top of everything else, I also got the satisfaction of making a delicious, romantic dinner for my wife. Taking someone out for a nice meal is fun, but I find I am even happier when I can make something for her myself. I’m not going to get that from a restaurant.

I hope everyone else had a great Valentine’s Day dinner, or just ate well every day this week.

Today’s Pop! of the Week is a two-fer: The Angry Beavers, from the Nickelodeon series from the 90s. This series was a particular favorite of mine, although I might not have watched it at all if a friend of mine hadn't told me that Nick Bakay was doing one of the voices. (Bakay was the sidekick on a late-night comedy show that my friend and I watched on the early days of Comedy Central, Night After Night with Allan Havey. Whatever happened to those guys?)

I didn't watch a lot of 90s Nickelodeon cartoons, and don't have the same sentimental attachment to, say, Rugrats or Hey, Arnold that a lot of people seem to have. But I loved the Angry Beavers and I loved Rocko's Modern Life. (Expect to see the Rocko Pops featured here, once I actually purchase them.)

That's it for this week. See you next week!