Steak Lovers Unite!

Now forgive whatever parts of this post doesn't make sense and/or are offensive, as I have had some wine and cannot be held responsible for what I type. Today I finally managed to get to the grocery store, and I picked up some stuff for a "fancier" type of dinner. You know the filet that comes prepackaged with the bacon wrapped around it that you don't want to buy but you do because your grocery store doesn't have any other kind of filet? And you're thinking as you buy it "Oh god. What did they do to this meat. Why is this filet so cheap?" Well that's what was for dinner! I've succumbed to the ease of this prepackaged filet many times in the past months. It's not that terrible, but let me advise that you don't eat it often. It's probably like tuna fish...not toxic... in small quantities.

Anyway, though. I use a recipe out of my Williams Sonoma cookbook that I talked about in this post and usually I just use their quick method for cooking filet mignon but this time I decided to make the recipe... kinda. Let's get this straight... I'm not LAZY exactly but when it comes to marinating steaks in bone marrow juice for 6 hours... well let's just say both "ew" and "I have better things to do." I am just not really going to sit around poking bone marrow out of cow bones...not to mention then I'd have to buy cow bones and who knows what kind of look the cashier would give you. Just not for me. I'm not that crazy yet.

Anyway, I was able to put together a really delicious meal in about 40 minutes. Would have taken less time if I had more than 2 operational stove top eyes to work with... Damn you 1950s kitchen! You are funkyretroawesome and yet you suck. We had long grain wild rice, wheat rolls, filet mignon with "bordelaise" sauce, and garlic asparagus. Delicious! (Anyone else see filet mignon and say in their head "mig-non" for giggles? Ok, good.)

For the long grain wild rice I opt for Carolina brand - it's cheap (under $1 per package) and has a great flavor. For the rolls, I had some pre-baked frozen rolls that you just pop in the toaster oven for 12 minutes and they are crusty and very tasty. In this instance, I used Rhodes rolls out of the frozen aisle. The asparagus was fresh, and always tastes better with fresh garlic, though I used bottled minced garlic. And the filet was tender and delicious with the quick'n'easy "bordelaise" sauce. Below are the recipes for the asparagus and the filet, and this recipe serves 2.

Filets Mignons with "Bordelaise" Sauce and Garlic Asparagus

• 1 Package pre-bacon-wrapped filet mignons (2 Filets)
• Olive oil
• 1/2 Tsp beef bouillon concentrate (I use "Better than Bouillon" brand) combined with 1/4 C. water
  
• 1 Medium shallot, minced
• 3/4 C. Red Wine (I use a Michigan wine, Grand Traverse - best red wine for people who don't like red wine.)
• Butter, unsalted, unsoftened
  
• Pinch of Thyme (dried OK)
• 1 Dried bay leaf
• Salt and pepper
• Asparagus 1/2 bunch
  
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Remove the filet from its packaging and pat it dry with paper towels. Rub it lightly with olive oil on both sides and let it sit.
   
3. In a shallow skillet, melt 1/2 tbsp butter and add shallots, cooking until translucent about 5 minutes.
   
4. Add the wine, thyme, and bay leaf and simmer uncovered until it's reduced by 3/4ths about 12 minutes.
5. In the mean time, heat about 1/2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, and sautee the garlic lightly. Add the asparagus, and cook over high heat for about 3 minutes, and medium heat until the asparagus is cooked but still slightly crisp, about 10 minutes, tossing regularly to keep the asparagus from burning.
   
6. If you have a double oven, place the asparagus in the oven that is not on. If not, place it (skillet and all if possible) in the microwave and close the door.
7. At this time, when the wine mixture is reduced, add the 1/4th cup of beef bouillon and let it continue to simmer uncovered.
   
8. Heat a well seasoned cast-iron skillet over high heat until very hot. Return to the filet and coat it lightly in fresh cracked pepper and salt. Place it in the skillet, and cook on one side 2 1/2 minutes. Flip and cook 2 1/2 minutes on the other side.
   
9. Transfer the whole skillet into the oven and cook 3 minutes for rare, and 5 minutes for medium. If you like it really well done, you probably shouldn't be eating filet.
10. In the mean time, while the filet finishes, continue to stir and simmer down your sauce. Let it cool for a few minutes. When the filet comes out of the oven and/or the sauce has cooled a bit, take 1/2 tbsp chilled butter and mix it in until it melts - this will thicken the sauce a bit.
    
11. On the serving plate, pour the sauce over the filet, and serve the asparagus and other sides together. They all blend well with the "bordelaise" sauce.
    

Pork, Pork, Pork!

There was a time, once, when pork was not something I liked... at all. Needless to say, those days are gone. In fact, after I went through the menu for this week I realized 3 out of 4 dishes included pork. The thing is, pork comes in so many forms it's hard to keep track! Between prosciutto and pancetta and pork chops and loin.... The thing about pork, though, is that it can have a lot of different flavors and that makes it enjoyably versatile.

So far, the two recipes I've made out of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook are really good and will be made again. Our favorite of the two was definitely Fettuccine With Vegetables and Prosciutto. It had a very mild flavor and tasted very fresh. I have to wonder if these recipes made it into the newer edition of the cookbook. The great thing about this cookbook is that it tells you whether the meal is fast, low fat (and includes nutritional counts) and the instructions are quite concise and easy to follow. Plus there is an abundance of photos, which we all know quickly converts me to a cookbook.

Last night, we had Rosemary Porkchop Skillet which was surprisingly quick and easy, though I think that the pork was a bit over-done. (Most likely due to my ridiculous stovetop that knows only two settings -- hot as hell and off) Then later in the night I had some friends coming over for dessert and a chat. I didn't want to go buy a dessert so I figured I would make something I had all the ingredients for. I chose this Crockpot Chocolate Mud Cake recipe. It was a real winner - simple to make, and perfectly hot and delicious when it came time to eat. I served it up with vanilla bean ice cream and it was a big success. I did have to do some research on Dutch-processed Cocoa versus Unsweetened Cocoa and luckily I was able to substitute Unsweetened Cocoa for the Dutch-processed. I imagine it also helped the mellow sweetness that I used milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet. The cake was floating on a sea of melty chocolate sauce. This recipe will definitely be going into my favorite-recipes cookbook. If you decide to make this recipe - put a papertowel under the glass lid of your crock pot before you start cooking. It doesn't affect the cake at all but prevents the condensation from dripping onto your cake as you remove the lid or check to see if the cake is ready.


In other news, my garden is growing! Here is a photo of my first "harvest" (though I did already have my other head of lettuce). My green beans got too much rain and a lot of the nitrogen was flushed out of the soil, so I'm trying to nurse them back to health with some Miracle-gro. I think it's working, but it's hard to say. Luckily I took the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" approach this year and I also have a green bean plant in my in-ground garden as well as my container garden. That one is quite healthy but needs a trellis to grow on.


And take a look at my herbs! The basil plant is a new one, though I am please to say that the one I had written off as dead and decrepit has now made a full recovery and has been re-potted. It's quite persistent! (the one in the small pot on the side) Also growing in my garden this year are strawberries, bellpeppers, green onions, and roma and cherry tomatoes. We've also made a planter in the front yard filled with Impatients and Begonias, and dressed up the side of the driveway with some Day Lillies and ..some other perennial I don't remember the name of. And we've planted and mulched the flower beds and trimmed all the bushes. We're actively trying to intimidate our neighbors by our yard. It's awesome. The only bad thing is that the birch tree in our front yard consistently loses leaves almost as soon as it starts making them. We don't know what's up with this thing but it drives us crazy. It's like perpetual Fall here.


We're happy with our yard this year and so happy to have the "birch circle" as we call it, finished. It's been haunting us with its unfinished-ness since March.

Here's the recipe for Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto - it was quick, mild and delightful. It's fast and low fat.

Fettuccine with Vegetables and Prosciutto

• 8 Oz. dried fettuccine, broken in half
• 1 Pound fresh asparagus, bias-sliced into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 Roma tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped
• 3 Oz (a little less than 1/4th a pound) of Prosciutto cut into thin strips
• 1/3 C. grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook fettuccine according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook and stir asparagus in hot oil for 4 minutes or until nearly tender. Sprinkle asparagus liberally with salt. Add tomatoes and prosciutto and cook about 2 minutes more or until heated through.
3. Add asparagus mixture to fettuccine and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.