Wednesday Dinner: Valentine night dinner

Today is Valentine's day, so I'm making steak dinner. It's not a quick dinner, but we have Valentine's day only once a year, right?

Cream of mushroom soup:
Button mushrooms (1-1/2 pack)
Onion (1/2)
Milk
Flour (2Tbs)
Butter(1Tbs)
Salt
Pepper

1. Dice up the onion and slice up the mushrooms.
2. Sautee the onion with butter and a sprinkle of salt on medium high heat in a pot until tender.
3. Add flour to the onion and keep cooking until very smooth.
4. Add the mushrooms.
5. Add milk up to the level where everything is just covered. Keep stirring until the flour mixture is fully incorporated with milk.
6. Cook on medium heat until mushrooms are tender.
7. Use a hand blender or food processor to blend the mixture. I got a hand blender for last Christmas, and it really works like miracle... It's easy to use and easy to clean.
8. On low heat, stir in milk for desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to flavor it.

For this recipe, I used flour to thicken the soup and used low fat milk, rather than using cream like most of other recipes call for.

Roasted finger potatoes:
Finger potatoes (as many as you want!) - You can use small baby potatoes too.
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes into half and place them on cookie sheet, cut side up. I put my Silicone sheet on the cookie sheet. If you don't have one, you can use alumni foil. It makes cleaning much easier.
2. Drizzle olive oil over potatoes.
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper over potatoes.
4. Bake for 25-30 min.

It's really easy to make roasted vegetables this way. Try zucchini, egg plant, etc.

Steak:
Your favorite steak meat - I made two pieces today.
Butter (1Tbs)
Salt
Pepper

1. Heat pan on high heat with butter.
2. Salt and pepper the side of the meat that is facing up.
3. Put the meat on the pan with the side that is salted and peppered down.
4. Salt and pepper the other side.
5. Don't touch them for at least 10 sec. When it's nice and brown, flip it.
6. If your pan is oven safe, put it in the oven for about 5 min. If your pan is not oven safe, grill the other side on the pan until golden brown, then put it in the oven on aluminum foil over a cookie sheet for about 5 min. How much you want to cook it in the oven is up to you.
7. Take it out of the oven and put it on your plate!

I made steamed broccoli to go with the steak and potatoes. I always use the microwave to make steamed vegetables because if you boil them in water, all the nutrients melt away in water. Just rinse your vegetable, put it on microwave-safe plate, and cover it with plastic wrap but not completely covered to let steam escape.

For dessert, I made mini chocolate cake and served it with vanilla ice-cream after warming the cake in microwave for 30 sec. I used the recipe that was on the Hershey's Cocoa box. Delicious!

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