Today we celebrated Joseph's birthday. In the past, I've always made a big meal with lots of appetizers and showy drinks but we figured it was too much with the baby and everything. So we actually planned on ordering out for the big day... however we couldn't think of anything that we really wanted to eat. So, I looked in the fridge and pulled out a skirt steak that I had bought the other day. I hopped on the internet and searched around until I found this recipe. I followed it pretty closely except I substituted toasted Wonder bread cubes for brioche and I omitted the arugula, pine nuts, and red wine. I did add some of the demi-glaze
that I still had in the fridge though. I also pounded the skirt steak out a bit so that it was flatter before rolling. Ok, so maybe I didn't follow it that closely!This turned out so much better than I ever imagined. It was tender, juicy, and very flavorful. Joseph gave it rave reviews and said it is definitely a keeper. He said it was the best tasting beef he'd had for the price of the cut. He mentioned that it had a very complex flavor and he wanted to eat more
except he needed to keep room for dessert. I served it with mashed potatoes, bread, and asparagus.I spread the prep time out over two days which really helped out. I made the stuffing and rolled the steak yesterday and secured it with toothpicks. This made the roll easier to deal with today and it held its' shape really well. I also made the birthday cake yesterday. This gave me time to decorate and get balloons for the big celebration.
Dessert was another highlight. I made a vanilla and chocolate checkerboard cake. It had chocolate icing inbetween the layers and I served it with some homemade chocolate ice cream. For the ice cream I used the same base as the one from my earlier post except I omitted the vanilla.
I changed it up by using a couple of Special Dark chocolate bars I had leftover from some brownies. I chopped the chocolate up and placed it in a bowl with a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I poured some of the hot cream mixture on it and let it set for 5 minutes or so. Then I whisked it together and added it back into the rest of the cream mixture. Then I followed the recipe from that point on. It was so good. It turned out creamy, luscious, and chocolately without being too sweet. It was a good compliment to the super sweet birthday cake.
