This week Luke turns 28! We won’t be together because the poor guy’s special day falls the day after Thanksgiving. Luckily this will be the last year we’ll be apart.

We decided to celebrate this Sunday night with a big home-cooked dinner and some present-opening. Luke’s meal of choice? Flank steak pinwheels, fresh asparagus, baked sweet potato fries and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Great choices if you ask me! And even better, the timing for cooking this meal works out perfectly. The steak and potatoes cook at the same temperature for an hour, the asparagus is on the stove top and the apple crisp goes right in the oven at the same temperature as the other stuff for only a half hour.

I started on the flank steak while Luke cut up the sweet potatoes into fries.

Flank steak is one of my favorite cuts of meat. It’s not too chewy but is also a thin enough slice that you’re not totally overwhelmed eating it. I mixed up some marinade on the fly based on what was in my fridge:

1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 balsamic, TBSP of spicy mustard, TBSP of lemon juice and cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper to taste.

After sitting in the fridge for several hours, I discarded the marinade and got my steak ready to be stuffed. Sitting rolled out in a baking dish, I topped it with sliced onions (about half an onion), feta cheese (one container), minced garlic, fresh spinach and some pepper.

Then I rolled the steak up making sure to keep all the delicious toppings inside. You can use toothpicks or kitchen twine to secure it, but it’s not necessary if you sit the steak seam-down.

Since the steak and sweet potato fries cook at the same temperature and time, you want to get both dishes ready to go in the over together.

For the potatoes, place the fries in a plastic bag, fill with 1/2 cup olive oil, your seasoning and shake to coat. You can go either sweet (nutmeg, cinnamon) or spicy (cayenne) with these. Spread out onto a baking dish and they’re ready to go.

Bake both the steak and fries at 375 for one hour. Half way through, flip the fries so both sides get crispy. If you want an even crispier texture, put the fries under the broiler flame for five minutes at the end.

While the steak and fries were baking, I started peeling and chopping four granny smith apples for the apple crisp. I found a delicious recipe on Food Network that incorporated chopped pecans into the filling and topping.

After getting through the work of peeling and chopping the apples, this dish was super simple to put together. Here’s what is looked like waiting for the oven.

Once dessert was ready to go on standby, I sautéed some crisp, green asparagus in one tablespoon butter and two tablespoons olive oil. I liberally seasoned them with salt and pepper throughout the cooking process.

After much chopping, rolling, seasoning and cooking, here’s what the fruits of our labor resulted in…

Oh yeah, fresh out of the oven still steaming hot! Check out how perfectly that flank steak is cooked still pink in the middle. If one thing’s for sure, this supper makes for one colorful plate!

And of course the apple crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Amazing- especially this time of year! Luke was one spoiled birthday boy!

Here are all the full recipes I used for inspiration:

Flank Steak Pinwheels

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Apple Crisp

Enjoy!