Here’s the scene from last night: It’s a Friday night in my home. It’s a Friday after a very long week (ironic, considering that we had Monday off to celebrate the holiday). And there was a part of me that really, really, really wanted to tell my husband that I was going to blow off cooking for the night and that I really wanted to go out for dinner. Somewhere nice – not our normal pizza joint.
But I remembered that I had a steak in the fridge. So I picked up a couple of potatoes and a loaf of bread from one of the local bakeries in town. And then as I was cooking, I remembered that I had a box of vegetables in the freezer that could be an awesome side dish.
One hour later, my honey and I ate a wonderful steak dinner. The steak was grilled perfectly (not to toot my own horn, but I am decent at grilling), we had baked potatoes, some really good bread and a side dish of cauliflower with cheese sauce.
The total cost? Under $15 for both of us – $6 for the steak, which we split in half (I usually buy a good sized, really decent cut of steak. I’d like to think that I could eat a whole steak, but it would be ridiculous to do so and splitting it in half is enough for both of us.) About a quarter a piece for the potatoes. The veggies were on sale for $1.50 or so. The bread was $5.50 for the loaf, but I only hacked off a couple of pieces and we’ll eat the rest throughout the weekend and into the week for our sandwiches.
Don’t get me wrong – as the chef in our household, I love going out. But the older I get, the more I realize that the only time we really have a good excuse to go out is if I can’t recreate something in my own kitchen. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Indian food – a cuisine I have to master.)
