My First Beef Tenderloin

Oh. My. Gosh. After mentioning to a cooking friend that I had never attempted beef tenderloin, she emailed me her recipe. I tweaked it just a bit and have to say this is so moist and tasty you will want to make it more often than is affordable. It's not as expensive as prime rib, but it is right up there. I made this for our anniversary last week.

Serves 4-6 depending on portions.

A day ahead, kosher salt and pepper both sides of 3 lbs beef tenderloin and marinade in a ziplock bag with lite soy sauce

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
Fresh thyme sprigs
3 TBSP unsalted butter
3 shallots, thinly sliced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups merlot wine
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
4 cups low sodium beef broth

DIRECTIONS:
Let beef sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 250. Re-salt and pepper both sides, lay meat on top of fresh thyme in roast pan (let marinate liquid sit in bottom of pan), cover top with more thyme sprigs. Bake for one hour and check meat temperture. Using instant read thermometer, place in thickest part of meat. Continue to bake until temp rea
ds 130 for medium rare, approximately 30 more minutes.

RED WINE SAUCE:
Melt 3 TBSP butter in large skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in garlic and shallots until translucent, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Heat turned to high, add the wine and vinegar and boil til syrupy consistency, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add broth and heat another 20 minutes. (My friend's recipe called for the sauce to be strained, we didn't do that. It also called for more thyme to go in the sauce. We didn't do that, either.)

We sliced this thin and served it with garlic mashed potatoes, lemony green beens and red-tip lettuce with a vinegrette. I am salivating as I write this.

One of Spot's new fav's! 4 paws for sure.

My First Caramelized Onions... with Steak and Fancy Potos

Yum yum! I have never tried to make caramelized onions before. (Although sometimes that has partially, accidentally occurred.) This recipe is inspired by a card I saw in the deli section of the Brookings, S.D. Hyvee grocery store back in September. I put the card "somewhere special" and just found it. Hyvee uses that famous TV Australian chef... Curtis? to promote recipes and merchandise. Anyway, I changed his stuff up a bit. The potato recipe I got while watching The Chew on ABC last week. Changed that one up, too. The result is yum city for our fam. Note: If you use the thin round steak, just watch carefully so as not to over cook. We discovered we would like even more onions next time.

Marinate Time: 24 hours
Prep Time: 15 Min.
Cook Time: 60 min.


INGREDIENTS:
1 – 2 pkgs beef round steak (2-3 steaks/pkg), marinated
Marinate overnight in 5 TBSP soy sauce, kosher salt, ground pepper and 2 TBSP Newman’s Oil & Vinegar dressing
3+ large red onions, diced
3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 TBSP brown sugar
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
½ cup beef broth
Kosher salt
Ground pepper
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 pkg frozen broccoli, cooked and chopped into bits
8-10 large red potatoes (or more depending on eaters)
2 small pkgs reduced fat crumbled feta cheese
4-5 big squeezes of lemon juice

1. Marinate meat (could even be steaks) overnight in a Ziploc. Flip it over when you think about it in order to get all pieces saturated, no big deal.

2. An hour before you want to eat, wash potatoes and bake at 400 til fork tender.

3. 30 minutes before you want to eat, sauté onions with olive oil until brownish and tender. Add brown sugar, pinch of salt, then vinegar and broth. Cook until liquid is absorbed and set aside.

4. Prepare potato stuffing: In medium bowl, add broccoli, salt and pepper to taste, feta, juice. Mash this up really good.

5. When potos are done, slice the top 1/8 off each poto and discard. Using small scoop, scoop out middle of each potato and place scoopings in the bowl mentioned above. Now you have little potato vessels… get ready for yum! Mix potatoes with stuffing (#4). If mixture gets too dry, add more lemon juice. Fill each vessel to slightly overflowing and place back in the oven to keep warm til the meat is done.

6. 10 minutes before you want to eat, BBQ meat and brown 3 minutes each side. (Longer for bigger meats) Do not over cook. Once meat is done (Medium), spread blue cheese over each piece. Move meat to the side, cover grill and cook til cheese melts, about 2-3 more minutes.

7. To serve, plate meat topped with the onions and 2 potos per person.

Spot has no paw ratings because she was up in the loft watching TV, mourning the fact that her brothers went to their other home tonite