The first night of our stay-cation was going to be one where we took it really easy. It’s been a stressful few months, what with the working from home, the no going out, the no respite from the home office. We figured we’d ease into the vacation mindset with some easy living at home, movies, reading, lounging on the couch or on the deck, and leave the new recipes for the rest of the vacation.

Originally, we were just going to have an easy dinner – steak and our favorite Dijon roasted potatoes. But then we thought, hey, why not punch it up a little! I remembered that we’d had Steak au Poivre months ago which was really tasty, and from memory thought it was pretty easy as well.

And so, for our first night of stay-cation… Classic Steak au Poivre and Fries. Again, didn’t change much to this recipe – instead of cracking my own pepper from peppercorns, I used the Tellicherry Cracked Black Pepper from Penzey’s. I had much more of that handy than I had whole peppercorns, and it worked a like a charm. Probably a bit more peppery than I normally like, but with the cream of the sauce, it worked out for both of us.

Since the recipe was relatively last minute, I didn’t have heavy cream on hand, nor did I have crème fraîche – Google is my friend, so I learned that I could substitute sour cream instead. Worked like a charm!

All in all, this is a pretty simple recipe, but it feels really decadent – worth the last minute change of plan for one of our first nights of vacation!