Steak au Poivre?

Four years ago yesterday, hubby fell off a park bench and asked me to marry him. Because I've seen so little of him lately and to remind him how happy I am that he fell off of that bench, I decided to make him a fantastic dinner. I decided on Steak au Poivre since I'd seen Ina make it last week, and it looked so delish. I plunked down an obscene amount of money for the steaks, and set off to make the requisite French bistro fare.

Let me be the first to tell you: no matter what Ina Garten says, 4 minutes on one side of a 1-1/4" thick filet and 3 minutes on the other will not equal medium rare. It will equal "barely not crawling off your plate." So, what would have been perfect timing for rolls out of the oven-steak resting for 10 minutes- last batch of fried sweet potatoes out of the oil turned into "everything is cold and my steak is still just this side of raw." Total suckage. The brownie pie was even a bit much. Yummy, but too rich without ice cream. With ice cream it would have been divine. At least the wine was good and the table looked nice. On a more positive note, here are the recipes for the Lo Mein and Orange Biscuits. The Lo Mein is a no brainer. It's a half pound of angel hair pasta mixed with whatever veggies I have in the house. I always use onions and at least one bell pepper. Then I add whatever I can find. The sauce is a mixture of 3/4C of low sodium chicken broth and 1/4C of low sodium soy sauce. That's it. For the record, I do cook the veggies before I mix everything together. I wouldn't want anyone biting into raw onion in their lo mein and blaming me for not telling them to cook it. I saute the onions and peppers in a little olive oil. I blanched and shocked the peas, and I steamed the broccoli just a bit. I usually sprinkle toasted sesame seed on top. I forgot to this time, though.

Moving on to orange biscuits. So you know, the flavor is pretty subtle. If you want "kick me in the face orange flavor" you'll need to tinker with it. I liked the subtlety. I thought they were nice and light. Here goes:

For the biscuit:
2-1/4C Bisquick
2/3C Milk (I used soy)
1/4tsp ground cinnamon
4t sugar
Zest of one orange

For the glaze:
Juice from that zested orange
Confectioner's sugar

Mix up all the biscuit ingredients and turn out onto floured surface. Roll out to about 1/2" thickness. Double over and roll lightly to make it stick together. Cut those suckers out with a biscuit cutter. Bake at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes.

For the glaze, I'd start with a few tablespoons of sugar and add orange juice to it. I went the other way and ended up with something like a cup of icing when I really only needed a little bit. If you've ever made glaze like this, you know how quickly it can get out of control in the pursuit of the proper consistency. I let the biscuits cool for just a couple of minutes before I brushed the glaze on.

Hope the recipes don't let you down...especially the ridiculously simple biscuits.

I'm off. Baby girl and I are dropping sandwiches off at church for reading camp and they have to be there by 9. Then we have to figure out how to get rid of the ants that are creating a new country outside the back door.