“Beef and Barley Stew with Mushrooms” from Simply Recipes. “Cauliflower with Mustard-Lemon Butter” from Epicurious.

Dinner tonight was a Real Dinner. Stew with melty-soft chunks of beef and roasted cauliflower so wonderful that I’m glad I had already packed away the rest of the dish, otherwise I might have gone back for seconds, thirds and possibly eaten the entire head.

I kept both recipes mostly the same, although I only casually measured the ingredients for the stew. It’s likely that I inadvertently increased all of the vegetables. In addition to turnip, I also added a fennel bulb as suggested by one of the recipe’s commenters. Really enjoyed this additional. I didn’t use sour cream.

Unfortunately, Real Dinners have become a little few and far between recently. I’ve lately been feeling a little uninspired when it comes to eating and then there’s this matter of going back to Real College: balancing 36-hour work weeks during the day with nine credits at night. Thankfully, this stew has not only fed me tonight but has also put a total of five additional meals into the fridge and freezer.

Flank steak with “Hashed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon” from Simply Recipes and “Parsnip Purée with Olive Oil and Sage” from French Revolution Food.

I made the side dishes fairly faithfully, making only minor changes for convenience or carelessness. Both were quite good, although I’d definitely put the Brussels sprouts ahead of the parsnip purée in order of excellence. The texture of the parsnips wasn’t quite right for me; they were a little too wet despite my cutting back on olive oil.

“Tuscan Steak with Rosemary White Bean Mash” from French Revolution Food. “Sautéed Greens with Pine Nuts and Raisins” from Simply Recipes.

Dinner tonight was one of those monumentally good meals that I think about later and the next day (and the next). It was the holy trinity of weeknight dinners: quick, easy, satisfying. And while I’m no nutritionist, I think it was relatively healthy. But mostly, it tasted super good. There was something utterly perfect-tasting about the filet mignon but adding a smear of white beans to every bite was like icing on cake. The greens were good — I’d certainly make them again — but they were upstaged by the meat and beans. Those beans: I’m already thinking of the next time I’ll make them.

Filet mignon with mustard compound butter and roasted potatoes with lemon and dill.

Meat and potatoes. Nothing green except that handful of chopped dill. It’s a little shocking, I know. But also very good. Habits should not be made of food like this.

London broil with corn relish.

Sautéed mushrooms, roasted broccoli and steak.

The mushrooms were honestly the best part of dinner tonight. I sautéed them with a few small cloves of garlic, some salt and pepper and a little water when the pan got too dry. As they were close to being done, I added some fresh thyme and right at the end, I threw in a half-tablespoon of butter. The broccoli was pretty good, it retained a nice bite and a deep flavor; and the steak was a nice piece of organic rib-eye; but those mushrooms really hit the spot.

London broil with sautéed zucchini and sautéed mushrooms.

Dinner tonight was a very off-the-cuff. In fact, right before I was ready to prep everything, I dashed out into the rain and bought a lemon and some parsley because I decided these were critical ingredients and I hadn’t had the foresight to get them while it was drier outside. This was also my opportunity to pick up a corkscrew and well, I didn’t. More on that later.

I made the London broil with a flank steak from a grass-fed cow. It was marinated in a little soy sauce and then cooked over high heat in a cast iron pan instead of grilled or broiled. The zucchini was sliced into ribbons and sautéed with garlic. Once it was off the heat, I added the zest of a lemon, which gave it a nice “fresh” taste. The mushrooms were sautéed with garlic, then I added a splash of balsamic vinegar and some flat-leaf parsley. Simple, tasty, happy.

And then there was this bottle of wine. Tasty, yes. Simple? No. Happy? Eventually. If you ask the internet how to uncork a bottle of wine without a corkscrew, it has options for you. Several, in fact. The least invasive way is the “Hit Method,” which is harder than it looks. Or maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough — I have neighbors. Then we move into the “Household Implements” methods. Screwing a nail through the cork and pulling it out with a hammer was somewhat easier but not perfect. The bottle was now only two-thirds corked. I became disillusioned with these methods so I moved onto the “Push” method. There’s only one and all you have to do is push the cork back into the bottle. Brilliant! Of course, this is a one-way street; there’s corked and not-corked but nothing in between. Less brilliant and the internet doesn’t really answer that question. Let this be a lesson to you: own a corkscrew.

(Ten minutes I was reminded that there’s a cork screw on my knife.)

“Beef, Broad Beans and Udo” from Tokiko Suzuki’s Japanese Homestyle Cooking. “Pumpkin with a Sweet Sesame Glaze” and “Lightly Pickled Tomatoes” from Harumi Kurihara’s Everyday Harumi.

I don’t know much about udo. I know that it’s a perennial . It has a “light fennel flavor.” And, at least in 1914, a “considerable number” of Americans were “beginning to like udo.” Oh — and I know that I can’t find it. So I used fennel in its place in the beef dish. I may never know how accurate of a substitution that is but it tasted good.

The real star of dinner tonight would be the pumpkin. I cut back on the sugar (2 tablespoons to ~ 1.25 pounds of kabocha) because Kurihara tends to make things a little sweeter than I prefer. I used a little bit more than the soy sauce than the recipe called for because sometimes that’s how it comes out. The resulting pumpkin wasn’t very glazed but it was soft and had absorbed all of the liquid. Combined with the toasted sesame seeds, it was sweet, a little nutty and the texture was creamy. Great dish. Love this.

The pickled tomatoes made yet another appearance at the dinner table tonight. I’ve had a continuous supply of them in my fridge since I first made them on Monday.

“Beef with Eggplant” from Beyond Kimchee and “Korean Spinach,” also from Beyond Kimchee.

As soon as the Korean homestyle cooking blog, Beyond Kimchee, posted these recipes, I knew I would make them. I can hardly resist any dish with Asian eggplant and spinach is usually a winner in my book as well. Together, they seemed like a pretty good meal too. And they were.

I really enjoyed that the eggplants were steamed, as it’s my experience that steaming eggplants (as opposed to stir-frying or deep-frying them) yields a different texture. I think they also taste more “eggplanty,” which I like. I mean, I also like them when they’re saturated with flavors but there’s a time and place for things. I totally spaced on getting chilies so there was none of that. (Oops.)

The spinach was also excellent. I briefly considered skipping the powdered shrimp — I blame laziness due to impromptu furniture rearrangement — but being that it was one of only six ingredients, it felt cheap to skimp. I mean, where’s the sense in that. So I made a small mason jar of it and I’m glad I did, as this is a dish I will definitely make again. (I also was then able to use it in the eggplant dish.)

Roasted green beans and pan seared organic happy-land rib eye steak with mushrooms.

I woke up this morning and the moment I asked myself, “What should I have for dinner tonight?” I immediately knew the answer. I’ve had a busy week — somehow busier than usual although also not-really — and each night I’ve come home, stood in the kitchen and eaten some combination of brown rice, miso, sardines and / or hard boiled eggs. It’s not glamorous but when you’re hungry, it does the job right. Briefly. For a few days. But then you need a change.

I don’t often crave steak but when I do, I get a nice piece of meat. Since I’m a single person, expensive cuts of beef become quite affordable. The same goes for fish / shellfish and organic meat, in general. So I picked up the smallest organic grass-fed pasture-raised rib eye steak while I was on my lunch break and spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about the butcher paper-wrapped package I left in the office fridge.

The vegetables were easy afterthoughts. In pondering to-compound-butter-or-not-to-compound-butter, I decided to go with mushrooms instead. I sautéed them in butter and a little olive oil with garlic and a splash of sake. I decided I’d roast my vegetable since the stove top would be busy and I happened upon some nice green beans on the way home.

This was a good meal. This is also the first time I’ve documented a dinner of non-Asian origin has been documented. It simply doesn’t happen very often around here.