Food: Simple Spring Dinner - Porterhouse, Caprese Salad, Grilled Asparagus

This past weekend I made a quick and easy dinner (yes, I know it's a week later...I just didn't get around to posting it!). And since I took photos to show off the pretty plating, now some of you can see the Lenox plates I teased Jonathan about when we first started dating. Being the "Captain Obvious" that I am, I said to him "Did you know your plates have flowers on them?"

Here are my "basic" instructions.

Porterhouse Steaks - Pre-heat grill to medium heat. Rub each side of the steak with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Grill direct for 5-6 minutes/side for medium (1" thick steak).

Simple Caprese Salad - Wash and slice some on-the-vine tomatoes (I used yellow ones this time around). Since we're going to create a tomato stack, you may need to leave off the rounded slice from bottom to make the tomato sit flat on the plate. Create your stack by alternating layers of fresh mozzarella slices, basil leaves, and tomato slices. Drizzle with a simple dressing consisting of 2 Tb white balsalmic vinegar, 4 Tb evoo and 1 Tb olive tapanade (preferably kalamata). (BTW...I had caprese served this way when I was working in Indianapolis last year. The one main difference is the chef at Agio took a kitchen torch to the skin of the tomato. It was fabulous. I'll try it sometime and let you know if I can perfect his technique...need to buy the torch first though.)

Grilled Asparagus - Wash asparagus and break off the woody bottom parts. Toss the tips with olive oil, salt, pepper. Grill for 3-4 minutes on medium heat, turning once while cooking. (You want the asparagus to still be crisp - not mushy!)