Sides dishes for steak!

I love steak but I don't think I had ever bought myself a steak at the grocery store to cook at home. It just seems decadent, I guess. But yesterday was the day. Steaks on the grill for dinner and they were yummy. Plus, our dinner guest made a darn good imitation of A-1 sauce by combining ketchup, worcestershire sauce, and Heinz 57 chili sauce. However, I thought it would be more interesting to post about our sides. I opted for potatoes and spinach, which seemed like the classics.

I was tempted to make creamed spinach but it seemed way too rich.

We often saute spinach with feta cheese and pine nuts, but with no feta I used goat cheese instead.

First, I toasted about 1/4C of pine nuts in a dry pan over med-high heat. I am really good at forgetting about toasting nuts and letting them go too far. It is very easy because they go quickly from perfect to burnt.

This time I stayed close to the stove, shook the pan often, and turned off the heat when they started to smell toasty and delicious. The smell even rivaled the grill just outside on the deck.

Next I cooked 2 cloves of minced garlic in about 1T olive oil.

Once fragrant but not browned, I added the spinach. I covered it for a few minutes and then stirred it to combine the oil, garlic, and spinach.

Once it was all wilted, I added the pine nuts and about 2 ounces of goat cheese. I drained a little of the water out of the pan because I was worried that the cheese would mix with the water and lose its richness. It did melt all over the spinach but did not lose the creaminess.

For our potato side dish, we grilled tiny red potatoes in foil. I wrapped up the spuds in three layers of foil with 1T olive oil, salt, pepper, and several sprigs of fresh rosemary.

We wrapped up the package and let it cook on the edge of the grill. It is good to rotate the foil package around from side to side and to flip it over from top to bottom. The potatoes were on the grill for about 30-35 minutes total. Yum!