Ribeye Steaks and White bean salad

When do you plan for dinner? Do you think about it in the morning? And does it often involve taking something out of the freezer? We are completely awful at remembering to do this, even if we are standing in front of the freezer we'll just start talking about a different subject or start kissing or something, and next thing we know its time to start dinner and we realize we forgot to take something out.
Today Dave couldn't go to work because our garage door was broken and he couldn't get out of the garage. I'm sure many of you are saying to yourselves 'just pull the cord and lift it'. Well, considering we live in a large condo building, the garage door does not simply just lift. In fact three guys tried to lift this garage door and it didn't budge. The great thing about this besides Dave getting to stay home for part of the day is that Dave was able take something out of the freezer for dinner and he makes great marinades!. When I finally got home I found 2 big beautiful ribeyes that had been marinating in Guinness all day. And the weather was perfect for grilling; around 6o degrees if I recall correctly.

So what to make that goes with steak and Guinness; that really depends on what's available in the house. I found a head of iceberg lettuce, it's a very rare item to find in our house and it definitely needed a little cleaning. but it was something to start with. I started chopping and adding items together even though I didn't really know in which direction I was heading. A nice little lettuce cup filled with a cold bean salad.

What's the morel of the story, if you can finally remember to be prepared for dinner, you could wind up with a really great meal! And once you have that, then you can be fat and happy!

Marinate your steaks in a can of Guinness and crushed black peppercorns.

Add the following to a glass bowl:
1/2 can white beans
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 chopped olives, use the good mixed variety
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese cubes, chopped real small
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Now whisk together
3 Tbls grainy mustard
2 Tbls red wine vinegar
black pepper
1/4- 1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbls balsamic vinegar, (use a good one, this one I actually picked up in Modena, Italy- it's the 5 year old, not the 25 year old! They did have a 50 yr old bottle going for about $600, I could rent a cabana boy for a week for that price!)

Now pour the vinaigrette over the bean salad and toss. Grill the steaks, my preference is medium rare, and remember to let them rest before you slice into them or you'll lose all the juices. Peel a layer of the the iceberg lettuce off the head and place on the plate, now fill with the bean salad. The mustard vinaigrette goes beautifully with Guinness flavor on the steaks! I don't know how I didn't get a photo of the steaks after Dave grilled them, but they were beautiful; warm and bright pink inside. He just did a fabulous job I simply adore him!