Christmas Dinner 2011

Christmas Dinner 2011

by | Beef, Holiday

Sometimes holiday traditions are welcomed and in our family recently beef has been on as the main course for Christmas Dinner.

This year I made mushroom and spinach stuffed beef tenderloin. It is easy to make.

Start by saluting mushrooms and shallots. The recipe called for one kind of mushroom, but I did a mixture of three.


Gotta add a touch of Brandy to the mixture.


Salute spinach and garlic. When a recipe calls for minced garlic, I always use bottled minced garlic for a time saver.


Very important part of the recipe which is to strain all of the liquid out of the spinach mixture. For me, this was the hardest part of the recipe.


Mix the mushroom and spinach mixtures together.


Is this a beautiful beef tenderloin?


I ask the butcher to butterfly the tenderloin. Butcher are very happy to do this for you. Important to make sure it is all the thickness so giving it a pounding is needed.


Now time to put spread the filling.


Don’t overstuff like did, but who wants to waste that lovely mixture?


Roll it and tie with string.


Roast in a 500F oven for 35 minutes. Most ovens have troubles reaching and keeping at 500F so a meat thermometer is a good idea.


And the plated dish.


The beef was accompanied with some other great sides.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Maybe not the Feast of Seven Fish, but…

Maybe not the Feast of Seven Fish, but…

by | Holiday, Seafood


It was a Feast of the One Fish. While I really would like do a Feast of the Seven Fish on Christmas Eve, it would have been crazy for us to do it for the four of us (Opa is visiting). We would have been eating fish for weeks afterwards and fish really doesn’t last.

So we had Tilapia on a bed of mushrooms. It was a Dutch recipe (Gearoofge Tongfilets op een bedje van Champignons) that called for Sole, but we used Tilapia since it was readily available.

It was a very simple recipe: fish, butter, salt, lemon juice, onion, parsley, and white wine. Done in 30 minutes. Sauté onion and mushrooms in butter. Rub salt and lemon juice on fish. Butter a baking dish. Place fish on the bed of mushrooms, add a glass of wine and parsley then pop in a 350F oven for 20 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes.

It is one of those recipes where you don’t really measure the ingredients you just do what feels right. And it turns out wonderful.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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