Success with steak, arugula and roasted pepper salad

Last night, I was bored, so I decided to find a fun recipe for dinner in one of the many cookbooks we have in our cupboards. I chose Seared Rib-Eye Steak with Arugula and Roasted Pepper Salad. Why? Well, I've never cooked with rib-eye steak, nor with arugula. And the last time I had a roasted red pepper was in Armenia, where it is part of the horavats tradition, aka barbecue; peppers are "roasted" in the horavats pit, and peeled and devoured along with any number of delicious bbq'ed meats and vegetables. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Anyway. This is the recipe, except I followed the nearly identical one in our under-used cookbook: Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes featuring Giada de Laurentis.

I roasted the red peppers in the oven at my house – not nearly as fun, but almost as tasty. And while I can't find the recipe online, I followed the recipe in the cookbook for roasted red peppers, which called for marinating the roasted peppers (post-peeling) in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic for at least five hours. As per usual, I did not read that part when deciding to pursue this avenue, so mine marinated for about an hour. Still good though. While we were waiting for the peppers to cool and marinate, we had a simple appetizer of cracked pepper & olive oil Triscuits with mozzarella cheese, grape tomato and a little basil and pepper sprinkled on top. The recipe is on the back of the box. I highly recommend the cracked pepper & olive oil Triscuits, but they are highly addictive. We frequently have them with cheese for happy hour at home.

When it was time to cook the rest of meal, the recipe was surprisingly easy. With the exception of accidently buying two different cuts of meat – a .7 pound rib-eye steak and a .52 pound New York strip steak – I followed it exactly and, what a surprise, it actually came out quite well. We even avoided overcooking the steak by following Giada's time recommendations in the cookbook: 5 minutes a side for medium rare. What's more, the seared top and bottom of our steaks looked like the picture in the cookbook, a sure sign of success! Right?

Here's the final product. A bed of arugula, marinated strips of roasted red peppers, steak cut in 1.5 inch strips (or as close as we could get), with a dressing whisked together with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and the juices from the steaks after they rested for 10 minutes (before slicing). And then we put fresh Parmesan on top, sliced with a carrot peeler. Next time we're going to go with the New York strip steak for the salad instead of the rib-eye as the recipe recommends. We both liked the texture of my accidental purchase better than the fattier rib-eye. We also thought we might add roasted grape tomatoes to the mix next time, and try it with spinach instead of (or with) the arugula.

Served with roasted potatoes seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.

The wine from last night: Insatiable Red Wine. It's a red blend, and so far it's my favorite of the line. Pretty mild, and perfect with the steak and apps. You can learn more about this wine here.

We followed up dinner by finishing the bottle with a couple games of chess, per my goal to get "good enough to beat someone." I did pretty well. I've played before - but never well - and I think I gave my husband a little bit of a challenge. He even said once: "That was a good move." I hold onto that remark as hope that I may reach that goal.