Seared Steaks with Porcini Mushroom Cream Sauce

Amy and I made dinner for Jay, Larry and Fiyaz tonight. We wanted to do something simple, because we made fondue for our lunch.

- We made a classic fondue. It was excellent. We learned that we're supposed to dip the bread in a figure eight motion to keep the cheese stirred.
- The cream sauce for the steaks calls for a jar of Il Trullo Funghi Porcini in Olive Oil. We were irritated that Food & Wine would require an ingredient that was impossible to find - we looked at the specialty Italian store as well as the local gourmet market. In addition, the bottle retails for fifteen dollars. We used a mixture of cremini mushrooms and King Oyster mushrooms instead of the jarred mushrooms. The sauce turned out really well.

• Classic Swiss Three-Cheese Fondue (Fondue, Rick Rodgers, p. 18) with cubed sourdough bread
• Smoked Trout Rillettes (Fine Cooking #42, January 2001, p. 44)
• Seared Steaks with Porcini Mushroom Cream Sauce (Food & Wine, March 2004, p. 173)
• Stuffed Baked Potatoes (Knudsen Cooking For Compliments, p. 89)
• Arugula Salad with Cherry Tomatoes, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar

Wine: A. Rafanelli 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon. We have one more bottle of this... it's still very good. It's softened quite a bit over the past few years.