Valentine's Meal

It was only a few weeks before Valentine's day. I was in England, while Ellie was thousands of miles away and we were rather frantically trying to decide what to serve. You see, my sibling's and I own a restaurant. This all started quite a few years ago, when my parents wanted to go out for dinner on Valentine's day (I wanna say 2006? Could that be right?). I don't remember why they couldn't, but mom came up with an alternative. She made a meal and we decorated the basement and that night the parents ate downstairs and we ate upstairs and the tradition was in place.

2008 on our own for the first time.

So, as we got older we did all the cooking and all the planning. We would form a menu, set up the basement in the restaurant's style, and serve it to our parents. Each year it got fairly more elaborate. We made our own recipe, we did a German meal, we did a French meal. We changed the name of our restaurant a couple times (it's been Sous la Maison for a three years now- let's hope it sticks) but we haven't changed what the restaurant is.

After mulling around different ideas we came up with the one that stuck- steak and shrimp. We decided on sides (broccoli, salad, and mushrooms) and came up with a desert (cheesecake) and searched for recipes.

Doesn't it look tasty? Is your tummy growling yet? Well, you're in luck because now you can make this meal too!!! Don't worry, it's really not that hard. Just make sure you have all the ingredients and a helper or two, and voila! You are ready to begin.

Marinated London Broil

Ingredients

5 large garlic cloves

1 Tbsp. salt

1/2 c. dry red wine

1/2 c. balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp parsley

1 Tbsp lemon juice

2 steaks

Combine all marinade ingredients, mixing well to dissolve the salt. In a heavy- duty resealable plastic bag combine London broil with marinade. Seal bag, pressing out excess air. Marinate, chilled, turning occasionally, for 4-6 hours. Remove steak from marinade, letting excess drip off, and grill in an oiled pan for 7-9 minutes on each side for medium rare.

You could grill this on a grill outside, or cook it in a pan over the stove, whatever you prefer. Since I've never grilled anything in my life, we chose the latter.

We made the broccoli by sautéing it in garlic and butter and lemon juice and parsley. We didn't have a strict recipe for this so we had to go by taste. We made the mushrooms by sautéing them in butter and adding wine and sour cream. Again, we didn't have a recipe so we had to go by taste.

So, enjoy the steak and sides and I'll post the Shrimp recipe sometime in the near future. :)