Joe & Terry – visiting from Seattle – and Rachael came over for dinner last night. With Mark and Kanari and me, that made six for dinner. I made a beef tenderloin – bought on a whim at Sentry last weekend, a 3-lb hunk of peeled tenderloin, at $20, seemed too good to pass up. Even though I had no specific plans for the meat when purchased, it made the perfect entree. I took some tips from this recipe on Epicurious – rubbed the meat with cracked black pepper, coarse salt and olive oil, then seared it in a pan and roasted it in a 450° oven surrounded by little potatoes that had themselves been tossed with more olive oil, whole garlic cloves, and rosemary. I made creamed spinach – because I love it – and used sort of the Joy of Cooking recipe:
- 1 1/2 lbs spinach, washed and stemmed but not dried
- 2 TBLS salted or unsalted butter – if you use unsalted just add salt later
- 1 small shallot, diced fine – about 3 TBLS – 1/4 cup
- 1 TBLS flour
- heavy cream mixed with spinach liquid to make 1/2 cup, heated
- grated nutmeg, white pepper
Wilt the spinach in a large deep pot with a lid – heat the pot, add as much of the spinach as will fit, and cover. Add the rest of the spinach as the first batch cooks down. When it’s all wilted, dump it into a colander that is on top of a bowl or glass measuring cup to catch the juice. Melt the butter in the same pot, and add the shallots. Cook until the shallot is sofetened, and stir n the flour. Heat the cream/spinach juice mix in the microwave till it’s steamy, then whisk into the shallot-butter-flour mixture. When the sauce is thick and smooth, chop the spinach by handful, and add it to the pot with any juice that squishes out. Cook for about three minutes. Season with nutmeg, white pepper and additional salt if necessary. Can be done ahead – cover the pot and reheat when you’re ready to eat.
I made popovers using a mini-popover pan I unearthed – and the butter I greased the pan with boiled over and burnt on the floor of the oven, and smoked up the kitchen, giving the cat the opportunity to steal a hunk of Asaigo cheese off the appetizer cheese board. My cats are well-trained – they know they’re not supposed to eat in the kitchen, so when they steal food, they take it down to the basement to eat. Since I was distracted by the billowing smoke, I kind of knew the more adventurous cat had gotten something, but it wasn’t until I realized they’d both been down the basement for a long time that I went to check and found she’d taken the big piece of cheese.
For dessert – blondies and strawberries with mashed raspberry sauce – no pictures of anything except the blondies. I made them to use up the white and unsweetened chocolates I’d evidently overbought at cookie season. We ate dessert while watching the Syracuse vs. Michigan game – Joe’s team – Syracuse – lost. Shucks. Here’s the recipe for the blondies if that’s any consolation.
Lime & white chocolate blondies
