Dinner & a movie.

For the release of the Sex and the City dvd, I decided to make New York Steak with Spinach and carmelized onions and New York Cheesecake for dessert. It was easy to make, but I made some bad decisions, which resulted in an "okay" dinner.

But first, the ingredients:

2 inch thick New York steaks

1 bag of spinach

1 onion

garlic

ginger

olive oil

salt & pepper

and whatever seasonings you like for your steak. I like garlic, so I added some Tastefully Simple Garlic to my steaks. 

Chop up some fresh garlic and add it to 1/4 cup of olive oil. Rinse the steak and pat it dry. Add salt and pepper to the steaks then brush it with the olive oil mixture on both sides. Turn on the oven to broil (I suggest you grill the steaks instead, if you grill it). While letting the steaks sit for a few minutes, you can slice your onions and dice the ginger and garlic for the spinach. You want make sure you dice the ginger into tiny pieces. I used about a tablespoon of fresh ginger. Add as much garlic as you want for the spinach. Place the steaks in the oven and cook 4-5 mins on each side. When its done, remove from the oven and let the steaks sit for 15 minutes. The reason why you want to do this is because if you cut into it right away, all the flavor and juices escape. While waiting, you can cook the spinach so its nice and hot when you cut into your steak.

Heat up a large saute pan and add some olive oil. Add the onions and cook until it is brown and carmelized. Add the garlic and ginger, stirring often for about 1-2 minutes. Add the spinach little by little, as it wilts. Trust me, you will use the whole bag. When all the spinach has reduced in size, immediately turn the heat off and add a little bit of salt and pepper. I used just a dash of salt, added about a teaspoon of soysauce and a teaspoon of sesame oil. Mix and adjust the flavors to your taste. 

It was raining, cold, and ugly outside so I didn't want to fire up the grill**bad decision**. So I thought it would be a good idea to "broil" the steaks. The steaks were about an inch thick and we like it medium, so I put it in for 4-5 minutes before I turned it over for another 4-5 minutes. This is what it looked like. I'd much prefer the grill, so i'll never make this mistake again. 

Here it is, sitting for 15 minutes before I get a chance to cut into it. 

Spinach and carmelized onions.

Now for the New York Cheesecake.

The ingredients:

I used the recipe and directions from Emeril on FoodNetwork. This is the first time i've tried this recipe. I used it because it had high ratings and I wanted to see how it turned out without using a waterbath. I had made 2 kinds of cheesecakes from scratch before. It turned out beautifully and yummy, but the centers wasn't firm. 

So here was my other mistake. I went to Safeway earlier to get the ingredients I was missing. Mainly sour cream, cream cheese, and the lemon and orange. The recipe calls for 2-1/2 lbs of cream cheese. I know for a fact that 16 oz = 1lb because I used to work at Haagen Dazs and we'd sell pints all the time...but anyway, back to the story....I already had a box of cream cheese at home, which is 8 oz, so I needed 4 more boxes. So why did I get only 2? I kept thinking in my head at the store that 1 box was 1lb. I did not want to wake my daughter to get 2 more boxes of cream cheese, so I scoured through my refrigerator and found "flavored cream cheese". I normally would use that for bagels. I improvised. It was berry flavored. I'm glad I had enough to compensate the amount I needed. This is how my filling looked like. 

It has a slight purple berry color, but you can't really tell can you? 

Graham crackers in a springform pan (very important). 

Ready for the oven...you can see pieces of lemon and orange zest in the filling.

And the finished product. The verdict: My husband likes it, I thought it was okay. I think I like using the hot waterbath for the cheesecakes. Although this was easier to make, without the waterbath, there were cracks on the sides of the cheesecake. 

This wasn't a good picture, I accidentally erased the nicer one...but here you can see the crack on the side. It still tastes good though. I think it didn't taste as good to me because I used flavored cream cheese and I knew that it would have tasted so much better had I followed the recipe. Well, at least the movie was good. I kept feeling like the movie was going to be over because i'm so used to watching the 30 minute shows on HBO. This show was the only reason we subscribed to HBO- and boxing...especially PPV. Go Manny Pacquiao! Well,  let me know how yours turns out if you try to make this. Happy Eating!