4 Ingredients + 3 Stores + 30 Minutes = 1 Hot Valentine’s Day

This is the post for those people who held off on Valentine’s Day until the last minute.  I know you’re out there.  It was the same for Christmas and her/his her birthday.  It’s okay.  We’re all busy!

The good news is BlogWellDone.com is here to help! If you can buy four ingredients, a good bottle of wine, and a store bought dessert from a nice place you will have:

The Easiest Valentine’s Day Menu Ever!

Seriously, I threw this menu together in about 5 minutes.  It only uses four ingredients you may have to purchase from the store (plus salt, pepper, cooking oil, and butter if you have it), then you buy a good bottle of wine (suggestions below) and his/her favorite dessert from a bakery or restaurant.  That’s all you need for love to be in the air in less than 30.  I promise.

The Easy Valentine’s Day Menu

Here’s your shopping list:

• 2 8 ounce filets
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 2 pounds russet potatoes
• 1 cup heavy cream (that’s one smaller container)
• 1 bottle of medium body red wine
• 1 favorite dessert

Easy, right?  I can get all of that from a little shopping center about 15 minutes from my house that has a Whole Foods, a Cheesecake Factory, and a wine shop.  Bang!  Valentine’s Day.

Here’s how to make the meal:

Get the meat out of the refrigerator, sprinkle both sides of the meat with salt and pepper, and let it come to room temperature.

Cut the potatoes into large cubes and boil in salted water.

While the potatoes are boiling, bring a saucepan full of salted water to boil and cook the asparagus for 3 minutes.  Remove the asparagus from the water and IMMEDIATELY put in ice cold water.  This is called shocking the asparagus and will keep it form losing its green color.

When the meat has lost its chill, preheat the oven to 350.  Put a little oil (I prefer olive or grapeseed, but anything will work in a pinch) in the skillet over medium-high flame.  Let the oil heat.

Add the meat, cook 2-3 minutes to make a nice brown crust, and then flip and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.  Put in the oven for 6-8 minutes for medium.  Remove the meat from the pan and let it cool.  Toss the asparagus in the skillet and them get warm.

Serve the dish by creating a bed of mashed potatoes, put the steak on the potatoes, and then stack the asparagus on top.  Serve with the good wine and dessert at the end.

It’s Valentine’s Day.  Enjoy!

Notes:

• For wine, go with something a bit earthy, but not overpowering.  A very full bodied red will overpower the flavors of the potatoes and asparagus.
• Splurge on dessert.  If your special someone’s favorite dessert can be bought at the grocery store, cool.  If not, make the extra effort to get something nice.  From personal experience, I can tell you that you can serve burnt, messy, salt mush for the meal and all anyone remembers is how great the dessert was.  It’s worth it!

Okay, stop reading!  You have shopping to do!

Thanks to Acme.com for the heart.