Last night I made Jeff's birthday dinner, a bit belatedly. He requested the black and blue steak from Forever Summer, a basic soy-ginger-garlic-sesame oil-sugar-scallion marinated steak seared and served over plain white rice. To go with it I made buttered baby spinach from the Gourmet Cookbook, which could not have been easier. Melt some butter, toss in some rinsed baby spinach, and cook for a few minutes and then season with salt and pepper. I'm oddly drawn to the really simple recipes in that book. And they all turn out well. I actually tried to snag some of my husband's spinach.

I don't normally blog about wine because we're usually whatever TJ's has for $3.99 folks, and, I don't want to be mocked for our lack of wine knowledge. However, last night I went up to $7.99 and bought a bottle of Guenoc Cabernet Sauvignon, 2000, and that extra $4 was well spent. Jeff couldn't believe that I bought the wine at Trader Joe's, it was that good.