Sometimes when you’ve had a couple of recipe flops in a row, you need to regroup with something you know will be a win.  With that in mind, I made a steak salad on Monday night.  I knew it would come together pretty quickly, and I knew I couldn’t go wrong with the ingredient list–steak, spinach or any greens you prefer, pecans, goat cheese (favorite), dried cherries, and caramelized shallots.

I was right.  This was one of the best steak salads I’ve ever had, and it was just as simple as I thought it would be.  The homemade dressing was good, although I might have gone heavier on the soy sauce than the recipe intended (measuring is good in this case… the recipe is right).  I used regular pecans instead of candied ones mostly for convenience, partly to save money and/or increase the health factor.  And while I normally use onions when a recipe calls for shallots, we went all in this time, shallots and all.  They were pretty tasty.

With that fantastic steak salad (Thanks, Iowagirleats!), the string of “meh” recipes came to a dramatic end.  Whew.  That was a close one.  I think you lose “good cook” points if you cook bad meals for more than a week straight.