Birthday Steak and Creamed Spinach!

It's hubby JL's birthday today! Happy happy Birthday :)

Hubby JL is pretty easy to please - good food, good wine, good bourbon, and he's a happy man.  We have 10 bottles of really really nice red wine that we collected along our trip to Napa Valley last year.  They have stayed safely nestled in our wine fridge, waiting for special occasions to break them open for.  Well, unfortunately there weren't many blockbuster events this year to commemorate, so there they have stayed. 

Hubby's home-cooked birthday meal

I definitely wanted to open a bottle for hubby JL's birthday, and figured a nice, juicy, rib eye steak would make a perfect pairing for the Frank Family Vineyards 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Frank Family Vineyards 2008 Cabernet Saugignon

I got a 1 1/2" thick rib eye for hubby, and a 1" thick New York strip for me.  With my new Le Creuset cast iron skillet in hand, I followed Alton Brown's recipe for Pan Seared Rib Eye. 

Big hunk of rib eye!

I warmed the oven up to 500 degrees with the Le Creuset skillet inside.  In the meantime, I let the steak get to room temperature, coated it with olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Then I removed the hot hot skillet from the oven and put it over high heat on the stove, seared the steak for 30 seconds on each side, and put the skillet back in the oven.  I cooked the steak in the oven for 2 minutes, flipped it, and then for 2 minutes more.

Creamed spinach is hubby's favorite side dish with steak, so I tried out Paula Deen's recipe.  I used frozen spinach instead of fresh spinach, and it still came out pretty good!

New York Strip Steak with Creamed Spinach

Overall, it was a piggylicous meal with not a scrap left on our plates!  I think hubby JL is enjoying his birthday :)

Piggy KL