twothirds

For a holiday dinner this year we made Beef Wellington. For the meat, I purchased a whole Filet Mignon from Costco which I butchered into a large roast for the Wellington. In addition to some left-over steaks that went into the freezer, I also picked out all the edible meat from the “side chain,” the gnarley grizzly piece that runs along the side of the tenderloin.

With a Good Eats episode as my muse, I raided the freezer for the chain and made some yummy steak sandwiches with cheddar cheese and semi-carmalized onions. Semi? Yeah, I was hungry. I did not want to wait the full 45 minutes for the onions to turn into a gooey mess of goodness. I just wish I had some mushrooms in the fridge to complete the sandwich. Oh well–next time.

Cheese Note: Yeah, cheddar is not “traditional”, but I have had odd cheddar obsessions recently. Next time I will go for the traditional cheese whiz.

Now if only I had a Tastykake and Yuengling Lager to compliment the meal

At my fathers birthday lunch this weekend, I was served some “chicken tartar.” Even if it was “perfectly safe to eat” as the manager insisted, it is not something I wanted to eat. Bloody chicken is not too appealing. Dinner tonight was Garlic-Roasted Chicken with Fingerling Potatoes and Bacon to redeem this weekends travesty. Mmmm. Bacon.

Whenever I use fresh thyme, I am reminded why they call it thyme. It takes a hell of a lot of time to get the littlest bit of fresh thyme. It took me at least 25 minutes to separate and chop a tbsp of the herb. Good thing I had some garlic to roast since that accounted for 45-minutes of dead time.

The chicken was pan-fried and then thrown into the oven. The potatoes were only supposed to be boiled, but [soon-to-be] Mrs. M decided to throw them into the oven with the chicken for a bit. This gave them a bit of chicken fat and radient heat to brown them up nicely.

The final product (fingerling potatoes looked bad so new potatoes were substituted.) with a side of wilted spinich.

And the “macro” photo (I have to use the features on the new camera!)

Sunday’s dinner was Spicy Vietnamese Crab and Garlic Noodles. The concept was good, but it is one of those meals where the effort and cost overwealm any potential enjoyment.

The crab was procured live from the local market. This gave me the pleasure of being judge, jury and executioner. I followed some directions off the interweb and…

First, place the crab on it’s back and hold it in place with a large cleaver or french knife positioned on the center-line of the crab, between the two sets of legs. Strike the cleaver a sharp blow with a rubber mallet or similar tool; chopping the crab in half and killing it instantly.

I lack a rubber mallet, but a rolling pin was a great substitution. Previous adventures with live crab had me follow directions of, “…strike the head against a hard object and rip off its top shell.” Yikes! Not easy.

At this time I should point out that a recently live crap cut in half will have involuntary muscle spasms. This is common sense and I was already equipped with this knowledge, yet I still let out a “little girl scream” as 1/2 a crab body managed to leap out of my hand during cleaning.

Without too much fuss, I was able to de-leg the crab, cut into quarters and pan fry it. Aromatics were added and it was placed on top of noodles. The finished product looked yummy, but then I remembered I had to de-shell the beast.

I always enjoyed crab as a child. I am not sure why it seems like so much more work these days. Maybe my hands are too big? Either way, after 30-minutes of cracking, poking, cursing and swearing, I was finally ready to eat.

I would make this meal again, but I would use bulk lump crap to save time and money. I do enjoy the taste of crab–I just hate all the fuss required to enjoy it.

Jalapeno-glazed duck breasts were deemed the last dinner of 2007. My two previous duck adventures resulted in one good and one bad duck dish. 2007 ended up on a high note.

The breasts were seared in a cast iron skillet with a salt-herb rub over medium high (start skin-side down).

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