Cooking Club Making Beef Wellington in March

Beef Wellington. 

Three of my friends and I have started our own little cooking club where we get together once a month to try out new recipes and enjoy lunch together.  We usually meet at my house since I am centrally located, and this month we made Beef Wellington.  It was a dreary rainy day so I set the table with my Blue Ridge dishes to brighten the mood.  The Lenten Roses that were blooming in my garden made a lovely arrangement for the table.

Boguska arrived early to help get all the ingredients together, and here she is preparing the baking pan with parchment paper. 

Boguska preparing the baking pan. 

We browned the tenderloin on all sides,(shown here) with the duxelle (mushroom and shallot paste) and prosciutto that the meat is wrapped in.

The tenderloin wrapped with duxelle and prosciutto ready to be wrapped in the puff pastry.

Out of the oven nicely browned and ready to be sliced. 

We plated the Wellington with a side of sauteed carrots and fennel.  The side dish was quite delicious as was the beef.

This was a perfect medium-rare.  

Assunta has cleaned her plate and is waiting for dessert. 

We prepared a pistachio pudding topped with a slice of kiwi, whipped cream and a tiny coconut macaroon. Unfortunately we forgot to get a photo of the dessert.

Assunta will be planning our meal for April---a shrimp and tomato sauce served over spaghetti squash.  I think she is also bringing homemade ice cream. 

The recipe we used can be found at https://tasty.co/recipe/show-stopping-beef-wellington.

Glazed Carrots A Festive Side Dish

Glazed carrots. 

I like carrots in all forms: raw in a salad, in spaghetti sauce, in potato salad, to crunch on as a snack, but over the holidays I prepared glazed carrots as a side dish for a fancy dinner.  They are so easy, and almost everyone likes them.

I chose carrots of about the same size.  Actually I bought these already with the leaves and peelings removed.  So very, very easy to prepare.

Carrots with leaves and peelings removed. 

I boiled them until semi-tender.

Boiling carrots. 

Then I melted some butter (about 2 tablespoons) along with 1/4 cup of maple syrup.  I transferred the carrots over to this pot and coated them well with the glaze. I cooked them about 5 minutes in the glaze.  I like them not overcooked so they were perfect as a side dish with a bit of fresh thyme sprinkled on top.  They added a lot of color to the plate.

Butter and maple syrup. 

Glazing the carrots. 

Ready to serve. 

Don't you think they make a colorful and healthful side dish?

Potato Leek Soup Dairy Free

Dairy free potato leek soup. 

Since I've developed an intolerance to dairy products, I've been missing some of my favorite soups so I began looking for recipes for making potato leek soup without dairy.  There are a number out there so I kind of combined several and came up with this one which worked nicely. 

2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup diced leeks
2 cups of diced potatoes (I used small red potatoes that I happened to have on hand.)
1/2 cup water
1/2 to 1 cup of almond milk
salt and pepper to taste

First I sauteed the onions and leeks in the butter until the leeks were soft.  About 3 to 5 minutes.

Sauteing onions and leeks in butter. 

I diced the potatoes and added to the onion and leeks along with 1/2 cup of water and cooked until potatoes were soft.

Diced small red potatoes.  I leave the skin own. 

Add potatoes to the onions and leeks and cook until potatoes are soft. 

In my blender I added the mixture and blended until smooth.

Blending until smooth. 

I put the mixture back into my saucepan and slowly added the almond milk until the desired consistency was achieved.  I like my a little thick so I used about 1/2 cup almond milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Adding almond milk until desired consistency reached. 

Read to eat with chives from my garden as garnish. 

I would never have known that there was not regular milk in the soup.  The consistency was perfect and the taste divine.  It is comforting to know that I can still have creamy soups without cream or milk.