"The food you cook at home is better than the food you get a restaurant," asserted Kay.
"Some is," I nodded in agreement, but inwardly I was not so sure. I'd had some wonderful meals at restaurants. And I still felt bad about burning the kids' grilled cheese sandwiches the night before.
"How did that happen, Mommy?" my six-year-old had asked as he'd watched the smoke rise.
"Hm, I wasn't paying attention," I frankly answered him. "I was busy doing something else." I had looked at this small person and could tell he was thinking about the butter and bread crumbs I'd burned the previous night. This is the topping I always recommend to parents to bury vegetables under so kids will unwittingly eat them. That night, dirty dishes drew my hands and eyes from the stove top, the butter had smoked, the pan scorched, and the kids fussed about eating naked zucchini. But back to the burned grilled cheese. The secret to rising from the ashes from this charred meal is to only grill two sandwiches at a time. You see, never does the entire grilled cheese sandwich burn, well nearly never. So you can salvage the meal by cutting the sandwiches in half, giving the less-burned halves to your offspring while you make one more sandwich to which you now can direct your full attention because your children are busy at the table scrutinizing their half sandwiches. You make this third sandwich pretty well, cut it in half, give each child a half, and then you join them at the table with the left-over, burned halves from the first two sandwiches. True, the black charcoal is poor in taste, but it's high in charred carbon. And such carbon does a magnificent job at sopping up excess stomach acid, which you no doubt have, given that you were so frantically busy you burned the grilled cheese in the first place. So just quickly eat the burned grilled cheese then rush everyone off to the dog's puppy class.
But this evening with Kay was different. My kids were away with their dad, her daughter is grown and her husband working. The two of us were taking time to relax with my home-cooked gourmet meal. I'd bought the beef tenderloin on sale, so I was saving money too. With quiet music playing, candlelight on the dining room table, and a bottle of wine, Kay and I were pretending we were luxuriating at the White Gull Inn. The White Gull Inn is a famous Wisconsin restaurant on the Door County peninsula. People with money and well-behaved children make pilgrimages to the White Gull Inn to feast on fine Wisconsin food. In truth, I've never been there, but I have their cookbook, which is a blessing in itself. So for this relaxing evening with Kay, I prepared the White Gull Inn's recipe for stuffed tenderloin filet. Click on "Continue reading..." for the recipe.
The recipe calls for the round, cross-cut tenderloins, but those weren't on sale. I used the long, whole tenderloin instead. Come to think of it, I could have cut this into cross-cuts, but no matter, it all tasted the same and was absolutely delicious, and surprisingly simple too. This recipe, although it sounds fancy, was easy to prepare. The secret to the gourmet flavor is in the quality of the ingredients. The recipe calls for smoked cheddar cheese. Do buy smoked! And do buy quality cheddar. The flavor combo of excellent cheddar with the mushrooms, green onions, and beef is phenomenal! I confess I used regular button mushrooms rather than shiitake; shiitake are more expensive and I don't like them as well. My mushroom substitution worked for us. The other key ingredient is the bacon. Beef tenderloin doesn't have much fat; no problem, just lubricate it with smoked bacon and all's well. So here's the recipe for the White Gull Inn's Stuffed Tenderloin Filet.
Stuffing:
- 1/2 Tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1 cup chopped green onions
- 1/2 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 1/2 cup shredded smoked Cheddar cheese
Meat:
- 2 tenderloin filets - about 6-8 ounces each
- 2 strips smoked bacon
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium frying pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Saute thyme, onions, and mushrooms until soft, approximately 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat; add Cheddar cheese and set aside to cool.
Make a horizontal slit in each tenderloin filet, working knife around to create a deep pocket. Stuff onion mixture into each filet. Warp filets with bacon and secure with toothpicks. Insert a meat thermometer in the filet and bake until desired degree of doneness, approximately 25 minutes for rare. Serve immediately.
Yes, serve immediately after cooking, but I prepared most of the recipe ahead of time. I sauteed the veggies and stuffed them into the filet, covered it all with bacon and then left it in the 'fridge while Kay and I took a long walk. This recipe really is a snap to make and it tastes so elegantly gourmet that it is truly impressive on any table.
So next time you need a money-saving perk, treat yourself to a quiet evening with a good friend and the White Gull Inn's stuffed tenderloin filet. Enjoy. The good life doesn't last forever.
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