As a teacher, Valentine’s Day means lots of chocolate, crazy students, and sugar highs. By the time I got home, it had been a long day and we didn’t want to go out with everyone else so we decided to keep it simple and stay home. Even though our grill is in storage my husband still makes a mean steak, so I took care of the sides. We did a simple arugula salad and a warm wild rice salad. It was super quick, little clean up, and tasted great. Apparently my steak made great leftovers for lunch too, but I wouldn’t know.

Steak

• Rib-eye steaks
• Salt and pepper

Cover the steaks in salt and pepper on both sides. Hubs does a reverse seer where he cooks them in the oven at 175 for about 45 minutes or until the internal temp is between 135-140. Then he switches them to the cast iron and cooks them on the highest heat. He likes his still mooing and I like mine dead dead.

Arugula Salad

• cherry tomatoes- halved
• 1 tsp powdered sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz pancetta (although we used prosciutto because we couldn’t find pancetta)
• 1/3 a red onion- grated
• 2 garlic cloves- grated
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 12 oz arugula

Preheat your oven to 325. Slice your tomatoes and lay them out. Mix up the sugar, salt, and 3 tbsp of olive oil. Pour over the tomatoes and roast them in the oven until they’re good and soft. Let them cool. Do not drain them!

Heat some oil and cook the pancetta until crisp. In the same pan cook the onions, garlic, and 1 tbsp olive oil. Season lightly with salt.

Transfer the mixture into a bowl, add any remaining liquid from the tomato roasting. Add in the balsamic and whisk. Toss the arugula in, and then top with the tomatoes and pancetta. Done!

Wild Rice Salad

• Salt
• 1 cup wild rice
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp molasses
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup dried fruit (we used a cherry/strawberry blend)
• 6 scallions- greens and whites

We start by cooking the rice, which is terrifying to me. If I can’t use my rice cooker, I panic a little. I cooked it with 5 cups of water and brought it to a boil. Then added some salt and the rice, and then I reduced it to simmer. It cooked for about 55 minutes. Check it at 50, and then go from there.

While the rice cooks, make the dressing. I added the red wine vinegar, molasses, and olive oil together first and whisked it together. Then, right before I added the rice, I added the scallions, fruit, and sesame seeds. I didn’t want them to get too soft, I still wanted that crunch.

Drain any remaining liquid from the rice and toss directly into the dressing. Add salt if needed. Serve warm for best results.

Zinfandel

Red wines scare me. True story. This particular Zin was really mild, and paired really well with our steak. It was really smooth and you got a lot of the dark fruit notes. When you’re buying a Zin, check the ABV. A light Zin has an APV of about 13.5% whereas a bold has 16%. Ours was a 14.5%, so a good balance on the acidity levels. The taste lingered just long enough that you wanted another bite of food and then more wine. Zin is also the only wine to have a festival designated for it, who knew! Full disclosure, I woke up at 2 am the next morning with a raging headache. I totally forgot about my fancy filter thing. Next time!