Mmm... Butt-ah

Yesterday wwas one of the best meals I've cooked in a long time. I made:
Rib-eye steaks with bearnaise butter
Horseradish mashed potatoes (and butter) with carmelized onions
and Roasted butternut squash with brown butter and nutmet

It started off as a great day because I didn't have to go into work. I had time to do the million things I always have to do when not busy (work on my home company, answer emails, workout, clean...) but Scott volunteered to go to the grocery store with me and didn't complain when I suggested Publix - expensive but one can usually buy everything needed in one, yes, one trip.

We did find everything we needed and a few yummy extras.

Dinner didn't take the three hours I expected. I used my $9.95 madonline from Target (instead of a $75 from William Sonoma) on the 2.5 pounds of onions that needed to be "thinly sliced". The madonline did great and I had a huge mound of fluffly transparent onions ready to saute. The butternut squash is not in season because instead of one 2-lb one, I had three tiny ones to cut up. Still, it didn't take long and soon things were boiling, sauteing, and roasting in my oven/stove top combo.

The best part was cooking the steaks. The smell of meat with pepper and salt is heaven and luckily the recipe callled for olive oil at this point. I got to try the touch test for doneness instead of having to cut them open.

As I said, dinner was great, exept for the bernaise butter on the steaks. The description says it "mingles with the meat's pan juices to create extravagant flavor" - we thought it made our steaks taste like salty butter and got in the way of the great meat. So we shoved it off to the side. The butternut squash had carmelized nicely and I could have eaten it for desssert it was so sweet. The potatoes were wonderful and I even liked the onions on top - I always question balsamic vinegar.

All in all very satisfying.