Steakhouse Steaks

We celebrated an early Valentine's Day last night by staying in and making a fabulous meal together.

Brian was in charge of appetizers and made these Spicy Chipotle Grilled Shrimp from Allrecipes. They were so good that we ate them before we had a chance to take a picture!  He updated the original recipe for just two servings, so some of the ingredient measurements were a little weird, but he rounded up or down on those and the end result was perfect.

The shrimp were so good I could imagine using them as a main dish over some rice or pasta, or on a pizza...so many options...!

Neither of us had worked with canned chipotles in adobe sauce, but I'll be looking for other ways to use them. They have a creamy, smokey heat that was just delicious.

For dinner, I wanted to try filets mignons. I decided to make Ina Garten's Steakhouse Steaks from her new cookbook, "How Easy is That?" - a Christmas gift from Brian's mom and dad.

Surprisingly, I made them almost exactly as the recipe directed - there aren't many editing options with only five ingredients.  My notes:

• The filets I used (from Arnold's, of course) were about 8 oz. each, and measured 1.5" thick. I adjusted the cooking time accordingly and roasted them for nine minutes, let them rest for 10. The larger of the two came out perfectly rare for Brian, and mine was a little firmer - still fully reddish pink but warm throughout.
• A tablespoon of salt seemed like a lot, so I just sprinkled them with kosher salt before searing.
• Again, a full tablespoon of butter seemed excessive, so I used about 1/2 T for each.

I made a simply pan gravy to put on top:

• Melt 2T butter in a saute pan. Add 1 large onion and 8 oz. of cremini mushrooms, both sliced, and saute over medium high heat until juices start to evaporate.
• Add salt and pepper to taste, 1 T finely chopped fresh rosemary, and 1/2 T fresh thyme. Stir to combine and cook 2 minutes.
• Sprinkle with 2T flour. Stir to combine and cook 2 - 3 minutes to cook out the raw flour flavor.
• Add 2 C beef stock. Stir or whisk well to combine. Bring just to a boil then reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Simple mashed Yukon gold potatoes and steamed asparagus, along with a nice glass of Merlot, rounded out our "steakhouse" dinner. We enjoyed it so much that Brian declared it's what he wants for his birthday dinner from now on - success!!