Beef Wellington

A elegant and beautiful, yet simple meal for a special occasion. My first Beef Wellington was also made for Christmas dinner. I remember cutting puff pastry scraps to make an entire Nativity Scene on the top of the roast. Unfortunately, it was long before digital cameras. :D

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 lb Beef Tenderloin 
Puff Pastry, you can make your own, but frozen is just fine! Thaw it...
Pate, again, make your own or buy a nice one
Egg, beaten
flour
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Roast the tenderloin in a 425*F oven for 45 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 130*. Remove from oven, cover and refrigerate. 

Make your puff pastry, Or roll out one sheet of your store bought pastry. I use Pepperidge Farms pastry from the freezer section of the grocery store. Let it thaw while you roast the meat. It should be fully thawed by then. Roll it out to about 14 inches square. This should make it plenty large enough to wrap around your tenderloin as well as have a bit you can use for decorations. Trim off a slice off the end, that you think you can spare. Roll the remaining pastry out a bit farther if you feel you need more to cover the roast.

Spread your pate over the entire rolled out pastry, leaving about 1/2 inch around the edge naked. Remove the tenderloin roast from the fridge. Dab the bottom on paper towels to catch any drips. Place the meat, face down onto the pastry and fold the pastry up over, sealing any edges with beaten egg. 

Turn meat over into a shallow baking dish and put into the 425* oven for the last 30 minutes of baking. After 30 minutes, the pastry should be nicely browned. 

Slicing with an electric knife is highly recommended. It will slice very well without ruining your handiwork with the pastry. 

Christmas Eve Surf and Turf dinner.

Frozen pastry works excellently. Pepperidge Farms makes a very nice product that is reliably good 

quality.

Roll out the pastry, using a bit of flour to keep it from sticking to the counter.

I just cut some little shapes to decorate, nothing fancy. Feel free to get as creative as you have time for!

Spread your pate around on top of the pastry. I used about half of the package... 3 ounces.

Some times I make my own, other times, not. It's Christmas and I'm quite busy. This is what I found at the store, in the deli section with all the fine cheeses. It worked quite well and had some added pepper. It really doesn't add a huge amount of flavor, just a touch. Many people use a paste they make from mushrooms or truffles. (I don't like mushrooms, but don't tell anyone! Shh)

This is my roast, face down. It was 3.66lb. It went in looking rectangular, came out square. :) Adjust your pastry rolling to fit the roast you have.

Pull the pastry up and around the meat. Seal edges where you need to with the egg wash.

Flip baby over and put into a shallow baking dish.

Use your egg wash to attach and decoration pieces you cut from the scrap pastry pieces. Then brush the entire surface with egg wash so that it browns nicely in the oven.

All done and ready for the oven. Into the 400* oven for 30 minutes or until nicely browned. If you are making other things with dinner that need to go into the oven, set your timer and add things as time approaches. I had bread and crab legs to bake. Crab went in as timer hit 20 minutes, bread went in as it hit 10 minutes. When the timer went off, everything came out!

Out of the oven.

All sliced and ready for the table. These slices turned out to be about 6 inches around! Even hungry teenagers couldn't eat all this!

Christmas Eve Surf and Turf. Beef Wellington, King Crab Legs with drawn butter, fresh broccoli, and hot bread. Enjoy! No room left for dessert...

Creamy Potato and Bacon Soup

This isn't what I started out to make for dinner tonight. I had planned to make my Leek and Potato soup. But I emptied both freezers looking for the gallon sized baggie filled with sliced up leeks and doggone, it was GONE!! You'll never guess. My teenage son ate them! Yup, I know it sounds like "My dog ate my homework!" I mean, really? My kid ate the leeks?  Next he'll be eating the brussel sprouts!  But truly. He told me that he'd been throwing them into soups and stuff and then they were gone! Of course, no one ever tells the grocery shopper when something is gone...  So, with the ingredients I had on hand, this is what I whipped up!

 Needed:

One package of bacon, sliced into strips.

3 pounds or so of peeled potatoes, cubed

one large onion, chopped

one large carrot, sliced

one can of evaporated milk (NOT CONDENSED sweet milk!!!)

Pepper, parsley

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Put sliced bacon pieces into stock pot, cook until well done, spooning off fat. Once bacon is done, add onions and cook until softened. Add potatoes, and carrot. At this point, add enough water to cover the potatoes. Not too much.

Bring to boil, simmer until potatoes are tender. Mash about 80% of the potatoes, add evaporated milk, pepper, and parsley. Simmer gently to bring back up to temperature. Salt, if you HAVE to. I prefer to allow everyone to salt to taste at the table.

If you want to thicken the soup a bit, add dehydrated potato flakes. The kind you would make instant mashed potatoes with. Just make sure they are really just potato, not something else added in there. 

Enjoy....  This is my favorite potato soup. It's my own rendition of soup made by my dear, dear lovely other mother, Helen Rebrovich. {{{  }}}

Bacon and Onions.

Potatoes all peeled and ready to be cut up.

Add cubed potatoes to pot. 

P.S. I left out the carrot on purpose. Jonathan has been complaining abut too many carrots lately. I prefer to have the carrot in there. It adds color too. 

Add just enough water to cover the potatoes.

See, just enough to cover. Don't flood them.

Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer until potatoes are tender.

Check tenderness of potatoes.

Mash up a goodly portion of the potatoes. I like lots mashed, but I like chunks too.

Can you see the consistency?

 Add 1/2 stick of butter.

Just toss it on in.

Add lots of pepper.

Add one full can of evaporated milk. Not condensed sweetened milk. That's for making fudge, not soup!

To thicken up a little, add potato flakes. If you had too much water in the beginning, you'll need a bunch. Hopefully, just a bit now, maybe 1/2 cup.

Parsley for some color.

Nice and chunky, yet very creamy.

A plate of fresh sliced tomatoes or a green salad is all you need to round out the meal.

Dig in!!