Christmas, 2020

I got my beef tenderloin at Sam's Club this year. I THOUGHT I was picking up a 'USDA Prime' but, un-noticed by me, someone must have slipped in a 'USDA Choice' in the display and, wouldn't you know, THAT was the one I picked up.

But, it is what it is and, quite honestly, I don't see a lot of difference ~ I even had a 'test' piece and it was tender and flavorful.

So, here's my breakdown of a Sam's Club whole beef tenderloin:

Started out as a bit over 7 pounds:




Kitchen got cleaned/sanitized and the tenderloin was removed from the cryovac packaging and dried with paper towels ~ here is the top & bottom view:






It was fairly easy to separate the muscles just using my fingers along the fat/connective tissue, only using a boning knife when absolutely necessary:




The silver skin removal did require a boning knife ~ LOVE my Victorinox knives....SO SHARP! ~ Not a problem at all:




I ended up with 2 roasts that I tied with cotton string so they will cook evenly, trim that will be used for beef kebabs, bits that will be beef tips & gravy and the fat/silver skin and icky stuff that will get tossed:




I packaged everything for the freezer ~ a 1# roast, a 3# roast, kebabs & beef tips:



In all, I ended up with about a pound and a half of waste:





I think I'm going to roast it the same as I did last year ~ well seasoned, baking soda dusting & low oven. I think it took 35 minutes or so last year to come to a perfect medium rare, but I've got to go back and check. We will definitely have enough for six people.

That is a lot of waste Beth, about $20 worth

It didn't hurt much because neighbor Jim bought it for us!

Actually, $88 for 6 people isn't all that expensive.....and Christmas only comes once a year!

Not sure if we'll even have a Christmas dinner with Lyn & Bill. He may have surgery between now and Christmas ~ lots of problems with his thyroid ~ but we won't know for sure for a while. Whatever happens is OK. We roll with what we have to......

We’re doing prime rib this year. I used to love popovers and since I moved to high altitude, they haven’t turned out great. I’m trying one more time and hope they come out perfectly this time. I’ve got someone else’s recipe from about my same altitude. We’ll see.

JanaAZ wrote:We’re doing prime rib this year. I used to love popovers and since I moved to high altitude, they haven’t turned out great. I’m trying one more time and hope they come out perfectly this time. I’ve got someone else’s recipe from about my same altitude. We’ll see.

I've only made popovers twice and both times I ended up timing them with the 'smoke alarm' method.

The first time my oven wasn't just cleaned and the smoke alarm went off about half way through.....the high heat does a great job of burning off everything on the oven walls!

The second time I DID clean the oven and the racks and thought I was OK. I even put foil on the rack under the popovers 'just-in-case' they popped over. The fat was what bubbled over and THAT set off the smoke alarms.

It's really difficult to pull a hot pan of popovers out of the oven when you're laughing so hard you can't see! LOL

Today is my 'cooking' day in prep for tomorrow's Christmas Dinner.

I have my mashed potatoes done, cooled and in the refrigerator. I boiled the russset potatoes until completely done, pushed them through the medium sieve of the food mill (Boy, I love that OXO Food Mill!), along with my stewed onions/butter. I added some cream cheese, sour cream & thinned them with some half & half.

I also got my mushroom cream sauce made for my 'Green Bean Faux Casserole' ~ We'll put a serving of green beans on the plates, spoon on some of the mushroom cream, & sprinkle with warmed French's Fried Onions. Here's the mushroom cream sauce cooking. I slice the stems & a few of the mushrooms & brown in oil/butter until golden. Then I add some thyme sprigs and put into a couple cups of heated half & half. That gets simmered until it reduces by about half and the cream is really infused with the flavor of mushroom. The rest of the mushroom caps get sliced and browned in butter. When the cream is reduced it gets strained over the browned mushrooms and, if needed, I'll stabilize with a bit of a flour slurry so it doesn't break when I reheat it tomorrow.

Lyn & I did 'restaurant' style serving last year and we'll do the same tomorrow ~ warm plates will get filled in the kitchen and served.  There will be seconds for anyone who wants but, we've found, that's not usually the case.  

We'll have beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green bean 'casserole', roasted cauliflower & a red cabbage/apple slaw.  Bill, being on a very low sodium diet, will have unseasoned tenderloin, baked potato, low sodium canned green beans and his birthday gift of pickled red beets (doesn't exactly go with his low sodium diet but it's his birthday and he loves them!).

Lyn invited two of their neighbors who didn't have any plans because she didn't want them to be alone (checked with me first) and Marilee wanted to contribute something.  Since Lyn was planning on her pizelle cookie cups with ice cream for dessert changed her mind and asked Marilee to make a dessert.  That way everyone is happy.

Here's the recipe for the Red Cabbage Apple Slaw I'll be making:


Red Cabbage, Cranberry & Apple Slaw

(Cooking Light, December 2003)


5 c. thinly sliced red cabbage (approx. 1-1/2 pounds)
½ c. dried cranberries (or cherries)
1/3 c. rice vinegar
1/3 c. sugar
2 T. white wine vinegar
2 t. olive oil
¾ t. salt
½ t. freshly ground black pepper
2 ¼ c. thinly slice Granny Smith apple
¼ c. chopped pecans, toasted

Preparation:

Combine cabbage & cranberries in a large bowl.  Combine vinegar and next 5 ingredients (vinegar through pepper), stirring with a whisk; drizzle over cabbage mixture, tossing gently to coat.  Cover and chill 2 hours.  Add apple, and toss well to combine.  Sprinkle with pecans.



Beth’s Notes:

Decrease salt to ½ tsp.  Add ½ tsp. sesame oil to dressing.  After thinly slicing apple cut into “match sticks” for easier eating.

Our Christmas eve dinner were Cornish hens.

Absolutely beautiful, Norm! The whole plate is magnificent!!!

Merry Christmas to you and Charlie!

Merry Christmas to you and everyone else.

Merry Christmas to all...

My meal today, just me and Geoffrey;
very small spiral sliced ham
mashed potatoes
breaded, sautéed green beans

I usually put pineapple on top of the ham. The ham is so tiny, that I do not think the pineapple will be to my liking. So, I am going to sauté on top of stove, add to ham, before heating.

I think I am going to experiment and try my own version of a pineapple glaze: use juice from pineapple can, add some mustard, a tiny bit of brown sugar; thicken up on stove top, if necessary, add some cornstarch if too thin, or more pineapple juice.... We will see how it turns out...

Merry Christmas, Cyn!

Your pineapple glaze sounds yummy ~ It should go really well with your ham.

I use to make an apple jelly mustard sauce ~ just warmed apple jelly with yellow mustard ~ to go with ham, more of a dipping sauce than a glaze. I had forgotten all about it until you started talking about your pineapple glaze.

Remember Pete from Tampa? He LOVED a pineapple preserve, apple jelly, horseradish, dry mustard "Jezebel Sauce" to be spooned over a block of cream cheese and served with crackers. I think the only place I've ever found jars of pineapple preserves is here in the South ~ I never, ever found it when I lived in Ohio. LOL

I gave Charlie a choice for dinner tonight: Ham, Rib roast or turkey.  I kind of hoped he'd choose Rib Roast but he said he wanted Thanksgiving dinner again so that is what we had, somewhat abbreviated.

You did an amazing dinner, Imelda. I'm sure your mother-in-law is over the moon happy to have you there to cook for her. There is no better compliment than someone asking for seconds ~~~ and then 'thirds'! Good for her!

*****************

Dinner with Lyn & Bill was lovely. Lyn always decorates her house for the holiday and she set a beautiful table, as usual. Our meal came out exactly as planned......except LYN was in charge of adding the garnish of chopped chives or parsley to the plates ~ and she FORGOT! LOL So, since that was the worst that happened we considered the meal a success.

Beef tenderloin (cooked to 123°) done in a low oven so it was bright pink from edge to edge. It may look rare to some but it was 'set' and warm/hot all the way through ~ not a lot of juices running off. The green beans got a spoon of mushroom cream & a sprinkle of chopped French's Fried Onions, the mashed potatoes were made with stewed onions, cream cheese, sour cream and half & half and they stay hot for a long time because of the cheese. The cauliflower was done in Lyn's new air fryer. Everyone liked our traditional red cabbage/apple slaw with dried cherries.

NormM wrote:
I gave Charlie a choice for dinner tonight: Ham, Rib roast or turkey.  I kind of hoped he'd choose Rib Roast but he said he wanted Thanksgiving dinner again so that is what we had, somewhat abbreviated.

So now you've learned........'Charlie, would you like ham or rib roast?'

LOL

Looks great!