I surely hope that all of you have had a great, great Christmas. 2011 was kind of a toughy in spots and I am praying that 2012 is a bit easier on all of us.
We spend a few days in the Chicago area the first part of the week just before Christmas. Our friends there were wonderful hosts and Dan and Den got the rest of the modifications done to Dan's whole house, natural gas 12KW generator to keep it air intake and exhaust out of the Midwest snows which we haven't gotten much of thus far. While we were out and about, we stopped at Costco and picked up a few things. One of those things I want to tell you about. We had missed that sale in our Fareway for beef tenderloin and the one at the Jewel near Cindy's house was needing quite a bit of trimming and a few bucks more a pound than the sale that we missed out on before we left Manchester. However, Costco was offering a good sized roast, well trimmed and yes we were going to pay Chicago prices and union pricing for it but I purchased one at just over 4.5 pounds. This is one of the most tender pieces of beef that I have ever in my live eaten so here we go.
Before leaving for Barrington, Ill. I happened to catch a show on Food network called Pioneer Woman. This lady and her family were having a family gathering and she was fixing the eats. You can catch most of the recipes on food network.com/pioneerwoman. She get a bit spicy for me but I think that I could find ways around the hot, hot jalapeño peppers with maybe some sweet banana peppers. Anyway, when it got to meat dish she called in her husband.
They live on a ranch so they have one of those charcoal grill thinks that would hold about 40 pounds of charcoal and sport a rack for spit roasting (no cover on this one). They had trimmed 4 beef tenderloins of silver flesh, fat and connective tissue. Tied the slender tail under so it didn't over cook while the rest of it cooked.
In large foil pans she placed 2 beef tenderloins. The meat was seasoned well with seasoning salt (Lowery's or McCormick's or the like), lemon pepper and ground pepper. Over the meat she pour melted butter. She had melted 1.5 pounds of butter and split it between the two pans. Then on to the grill. Half way through the turned the meat over and it was browned on the bottom. What they didn't tell you were things like how long for how well done and how hot the coals were.
Well, as I told you I purchased a beef tenderloin. I cut it in half as it was going to be just the Denman and I for our Christmas doings. Den wanted me to fix it in the house so I fired the oven to 400F figuring, hot coals....... right. I foil lined my 12" cast iron skillet and put the piece of meat that I hadn't put in the freezer in it. I melted 3 sticks of good quality butter (I did put in a bit of Penzey's Mural of Flavor while it melted, smells great already). I season the roast librally with Lowery's and a good coating of Mural of Flavor and pour the melted butter over it all. In to the oven for 20 minutes. Pull it out and turn the meat. Back in for another 20. Pull the foil up over it to rest while you fix the potatoes and asparagras and Béarnaise sauce. OK ready to go. Cut the meat about 3/4-1 in thick and serve it up. WOW! This great, wonderful, the best Den has ever eaten and so on. I will tell you that the meat at the point that you take it from the oven is about medium rare, the resting take is to about medium. If I weren't looking out for Denny, I would have done it for 10 minutes on a side and called it good.
It isn't greasy even with the butter but just has a wonder flavor and so very tender that a steak knife is way over kill.
The other things that she served was a fresh corn casserole that is like what I call crock pot corn but she used whipping cream where I use cream cheese and she added red bell pepper and jalopania where I would have stopped a bell pepper or changed the hot one for a sweet banana pepper.
She had a marinated tomato salad, twice baked potatoes and for dessert she had brownie sundae's.
Admittedly this is not a roast that you would fix on a regular basis as it usually runs between $11.00-$20.00 per pound but for a very special occasion, it is really pretty special.
God Bless and my best wishes for the new year!!!!!!
Linda
