Fine dining, but at home

Eating at restaurants is expensive. After the obligatory markup of items on the menu (they have to make a profit, right?), pricey drinks, and a decent tip, finding an affordable fine meal can be daunting. Then again, you could always eat at home.

Most college students don't venture much further than Easy Mac and pre-packaged pudding cups. I get it. But learning to cook isn't any harder than class. Actually, it's usually a hell of a lot easier.

I cooked for my two female roommates on Valentine's Day. None of us is shy around the kitchen (in fact, we all work at the Hillcrest Marketplace, too), but we decided to elevate the complexity of our dinner for the occasion. The menu: Steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus. A bottle of wine (and Heineken for me), and we were ready to eat. The total cost? Around $10 each. (Not much more than a burrito and a coke downtown.)

New York strip steaks from the butcher's counter at Hyvee cost just $6 each for the girls (eight ounces, for the record.) My 12-ounce cost $9. A bag of potatoes cost $2, and asparagus was on sale for $2.99.

We already had a bottle of wine and beer at home, so I've subtracted that from the total cost. But in less than an hour we were sitting and eating in the comfort of our own home. At One-Twenty-Six, a downtown Iowa City restaurant I hope to review later this semester, their beef tenderloin and Yukon Gold potato dish costs $26 before you factor in a drink (or two) and tip. By the end of the meal, you're talking close to $40 for dinner.

Sure, cooking at home doesn't replace the expertise of a well-trained chef, but at $10 I'll take my chances.