E's Valentines dinner for Bob

Happy Valentines Day!
I am working today on this day of love, so I cooked dinner for my love last night. He is cooking dinner tonight. We just like Valentines Day because it gives us an excuse to eat decadent food and drink a lot to celebrate our love. We also celebrate our love on Presidents Day, Columbus Day, Thursdays, and pretty much every chance we get.
I love Bob more than anything else in the world, and more than anything else, Bob loves to eat a good Rib Eye. That’s a kind of steak. So I made him a decadent steakhouse dinner…at home.
On the menu - Panchetta-Horseradish Smashed Potatoes, Creamed Spinach(which one of us ate stuffed in a tomato,) Rosemary Rib-eye, and drunken strawberries with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.
And here is a list of what you need –
2 large Idaho potatoes
EVOO
2 or 3 slices of Panchetta
Some sour cream
1tbl spoon prepared horseradish
1pint strawberries
Some orange liqueur
A dark chocolate candy bar
1and ½ cups half-half or cream
Whipped cream
1onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 boxes frozen spinach
Some nutmeg
A tomato (or two if your partner isn’t a sissy)
½ cup blue cheese crumbles
1 rib-eye steak for each person eating steak (or split a giant one)
Fresh Rosemary sprigs or a lot of dried rosemary

1) Get your pots and pans in order. Put a pot of water on to boil. Pre-heat the oven to 375.
2) Defrost your frozen spinach by putting it in the microwave for 10mins.
3) While the spinach is in the microwave, wash and peel your potatoes, and dice them into small chunks. Wash the strawberries and cut off their tops. Wash the tomatoes. Cut off the tops of your tomatoes and hollow out the inside.

4) When the water is to a boil, put your potato chunks in and boil them for 15-20mins.
5) Put your strawberries in a dish and pour some liqueur over them. Put them in the fridge until dessert time.
6) In a small pot or sauce pan, put 1 cup of half and half or cream and simmer it on low for 10mins. This is called reduction.
7) Dice up your onion and your garlic. Add the onion and half of the garlic to a medium sized sauce pan with some EVOO. Sautee them for 5mins over medium heat.
8) Heat up a large skillet (with nothing in it) over medium high heat.
9) Drain your spinach by putting the defrosted lump in a clean dish rag, and ring out the liquid over the sink. CAUTION – the spinach lump will be hot on the outside and still frozen on the inside, so be careful.
10) Take your steaks and coat one side with EVOO and either sprinkle with dried rosemary, or lay down one whole sprig of fresh rosemary. Put the steaks seasoned side down in your large heated skillet. Turn in five mins. Before you turn them, dress and season the otherside.
11) Add you defrosted spinach lump to your garlic and onion pan. Stir and mix it up. Heat spinach all the way through.
12) Add reduced cream to spinach pan. Stir.
13) Take a cookie sheet and coat it with a little EVOO and lay the rest of the garlic down on it. Take your steaks out of the pan and put them on the cookie sheet. Stick the cookie sheet in the oven until you are ready to eat. This will cook the steaks the rest of the way through and keep them warm.
14) Add sliced pancetta pieces to the steak pan. Cook for 5 mins or until it is crispy.
15) Drain your potatoes and put them back in the warm pot.
16) Put your spinach mixture inside of your tomatoes and top with blue cheese crumbles. Add the tomatoes to the cookie sheet already in the oven – this will melt the cheese and keep them warm.
17) Mash/smash the potatoes with a potato masher or a large spoon. Mix in the pancetta, the sour cream and the horseradish. Stir well and put in a bowl.
18) Plate your food. Take the steaks and tomatoes out and put them on a plate. Add potatoes and serve.
19) Eat.
20) When you are done with dinner and ready for desert, heat the remaining half and half or cream in a small sauce pan (just use the one you used to reduce the cream for the spinach)
21) Take out your berries and put them in pretty bowls.
22) Chop your chocolate bar into chunks.
23) When your cream is heated, add the chocolate chunks and stir to make a sauce. The chocolate will melt and look yummy.
24) Pour sauce over your berries and top with whipped cream.

Enjoy. Make this meal for someone you love.