Creamed Spinach and Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

Diet food (or 'rabbit food' as my dad and brother like to call it) does have its place. Preferably at the side of a well-cooked, tasty steak.

For dinner tonight, the menu consisted of steaks, shoestring french fries, and creamed spinach gratin.

Cook the steaks in your preferred fashion until the favored level of pinkness (or lack thereof) is reached. My preferred method is to find an obliging man and arrange him in front of the nearest grill with the steaks, but using a broiler works in a pinch.

Shoestring fries are easily found in the frozen foods section, and go better when seasoned with salt n' pepper.

Not that it needs it, but creamed spinach can be livened up by making it au gratin, as Ezra Pound Cake does here.

Creamed Spinach Gratin

So much more exciting.

For dessert, I made Mint Chocolate filled cupcakes. I had quite a bit of the Mint Ganache left from the Mint Chocolate Macarons last weekend, so I made a statutory chocolate cupcake (with sour cream in the batter, because they're just better that way), and piped in the ganache. My mom topped half of them with a ready-made Peppermint Buttercream frosting from Williams-Sonoma. Very refreshing for a hot-weather dessert:

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Bon Appetit!