Working Woman Weeknight Dinner

On weeknights, there isn't much time to cook an elaborate dinner by the time I get home and the evening chores are done.  I had vegetables from the farmers market and a skirt steak, pre-seasoned, in the refrigerator.

I started with beets.  I had a nice bunch of small beets, perfect for the two of us.  I set the oven to 450F and got out my small roasting sheet.  After rinsing them and twisting off their tops, I cut off the top and bottom.  I put each beet in the center of a piece of foil, drizzled each with olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper.

After gathering the foil up to make little packages, I slid the pan into the oven and roasted the beets until a butter knife slid into a beet easily, about 35 minutes.

While the beets were roasting, I put a small pot with salted water on the burner.  I prepped my bag of green beans and slid them into the boiling water.  I like beans al dente (with a little give when I bite down) so when they got to that point, I drained them and added some butter, salt and pepper to the pot.

Meanwhile, I mixed up some of my best quality olive oil with about half as much balsamic vinegar and a bit of salt and pepper.  I threw a handful of walnuts into a dry frying pan and toasted them on medium heat.

When the beets were done, I switched the oven to broil and put the skirt steak in for three minutes or so on each side.  Skirt steak is thin and if it cooks beyond medium rare, it gets tough.  While the steak cooked, I rubbed the skins off of the beets with a paper towel.  A paper towel works great -- you don't burn your fingers and it rubs the skins right off.

I tossed the warm beets with the vinaigrette and some goat cheese.  I scattered the walnuts on top once they were on the plate.  I carved the steak, poured the wine, and we were ready to eat.

Bon Appetit!