Good Food, Great Friends...

Last night one of my best friends from college visited us with her family; I haven’t seen them since February 2010 so it was great to catch up.  They live in Texas now so we don’t get to see each other too frequently but it’s always great when we do get together.  Her daughters are older than S, 4 years and 20 months; it was fun to watch them play with her.  S was very interested in what they were doing; she spent most of the evening crawling around trying to keep up with them.

Menu

Appetizers

Brie, Fig Preserves, La Quercia Prosciutto, Dried Cranberries and Crackers

Main Course

Beef Tenderloin Sandwiches with a Dijon Horseradish Sauce and Caramelized Onions

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Grilled Asparagus

Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

Fruit Salad

Beef Tenderloin Marinade

The marinade recipe is one that my mom received from a friend of hers when they lived up in Wisconsin.

Combine the following ingredients into a large zip lock bag:

¾ cup soy sauce

½ cup sugar

½ cup toasted sesame oil

¼ cup flour

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

¼ teaspoon pepper

Add trimmed tenderloin to the marinade for 15-20 minutes. Be sure to move the bag around to make sure the marinade covers the entire tenderloin.  (I actually ended up leaving the meat in the marinade for about an hour)

Grill on indirect heat at about 425 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until the desired temperature on the meat is achieved.

We actually cooked the meat the night before and just threw it back on the grill for 5-7 minutes at about 400 degrees just before we were ready to eat.  On Tuesday, when we took the meat off the grill we let it rest on a plate and covered in it aluminum foil and let it cool down before putting it in the refrigerator.   I took the meat out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before we put it back on the grill to bring it down to room temperature before we put it on the grill.

For the rolls, I just picked up a package of the Parker House Rolls from Trader Joe’s.

Caramelized Onions

Slice 2 medium to large Spanish onions

In a Dutch oven add 1-2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Add the sliced onions, cook until the onions start to caramelize, stirring frequently.

I would say the total cook time was between 30-40 minutes

Salt and Pepper the onions and add a few pinches of thyme

Dijon Horseradish Sauce

I intended on following a recipe that I found on Epicurious for a Mustard Horseradish Sauce. When I started making this I just started adding things and tweaked it a bit.

2/3 cup of sour cream

¼ cup of Dijon Mustard

3 very full tablespoons on prepared horseradish

Fresh ground pepper, approximately 2 turns of the pepper mill

Thyme, approximately ½ tablespoon (I used dry because it was all I had but fresh would work too)

Mix the above ingredients together well and chill until ready to serve

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Remove the stem from cleaned cremini mushrooms. I bought an 8oz container of lump crab meat and followed the recipe for crab cakes off the back of it to use as the crab stuffing.  In a small bowl mix together,  ½ of a beaten egg, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, ½ tablespoon prepared mustard,  ½ teaspoon of dry mustard, ½ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon of Old Bay Seasoning, ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice. Add the crab to the mixture and then fold in 3/8 cup of bread crumbs, I used panko crumbs.  This makes more stuffing then you need for 8 mushrooms unless you have really large mushrooms.  I think next time I would add some additional old bay seasoning and maybe a small amount of chopped scallion or chives.

We grilled these in a cast iron pan for about 15 minutes.  I normally would have just placed this in the oven to cook them through and then put them under the broiler for a few seconds to get a little bit of crust to the top of them.  With it being near 100 degrees in the shade last night there was no way I was turning on the oven, so to the grill they went. 

Grilled Asparagus

Cut the tips off the bottom of the asparagus. Drizzle with olive oil, the juice of a half of lemon and kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Grill for about 15 minutes on indirect heat and then finish them up for a minute or two on direct heat.

Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

I used a mixture of petite Yukon gold and red potatoes.  In total I probably used slightly under 1 lb.  I just wash the potatoes well and leave the skin on.  Cut them in halves or quarters depending on the size of the potato, so that all the potatoes are generally a similar size.  In a large zip lock bag, add the potatoes, 2 (maybe slightly more) tablespoons of good olive oil, 3 large cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary chopped, 1 tablespoon of Montreal Steak Seasoning, 1 tablespoon of fresh parsley chopped, a couple dashes of dried thyme (fresh is better but I didn’t have any on hand). Shake all of the ingredients in the bag to coat the potatoes as evenly as possible.  Add a dash of salt and fresh ground pepper.

You can let the potatoes sit in the bag until you are ready to grill. To cook, remove the potatoes from the bag and wrap them in aluminum foil.  Be sure you have them wrapped well so that you don’t lose any while you are turning them on the grill.  The aluminum foil bags work great for this too.  Place on direct heat for about 45 minutes. Turn them every once in a while so that they cook evenly.

Fruit Salad

I put watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries and Kiwi in the fruit salad.  All fruit that Stella absolutely loves, which is good since I made a huge bowl of it.

Unfortunately we never made it to dessert. I had picked up Chocolate Lava Cakes and some Vanilla Ice Cream from Trader Joe’s for the adults. For the kiddies, I got Trader Joe’s mini ice cream cones.  By the time we finished dinner we were all stuffed and it was quickly approaching all of the kid’s bed times.  Lisa and Larry, next time you are in town I owe you dessert! 

This meal was rated 4.5 asparagus spears