One of the first meals we prepared together for my dad's birthday a few years ago was
beef wellington, and it has secured a spot in our "special occasion" repertoire. We've tried a few different recipes, but this year we used the
Ultimate Beef Wellington recipe from Serious Eats (sans foie gras). We bought a beef tenderloin from our local meat market and had them trim it and tie it with twine.
Jason seasoned it with salt and pepper....
and seared it in our cast iron skillet.
We worked on the mushroom duxelles....
...and coated the beef in a horseradish/dijon mustard mixture.
Assembling the whole thing can be a little frustrating, but we handled it well. It's difficult to keep everything (phyllo and prosciutto) tight as you roll it up.
We had a little excess puff pastry when the final layer went on, so I made some cute little goat cheese tarts as an appetizer, and they were promptly gobbled up without photographic evidence. 😋
The end product turned out perfectly - Mom and I preferred the more well-done outer cuts while Jason and Dad liked the rarer middle cuts....
This recipe is such a nice presentation for a special occasion, and a great way to show someone how much they mean to you! While it seems super-complicated, it's not too bad - it just takes a little bit of planning ahead!
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Just a couple of projects to share from Jason's birthday. He was sweet enough to send me flowers at work on our date-a-versary back in June and it was such a nice surprise, I wanted to do something similar for him at work. After looking at some of the more masculine floral/plant delivery options, I decided to make my own booze-quet for my bourbon-loving hubby.
I got a dozen different mini bottles of bourbon and whiskey (and one scotch....I ran out of options). I used E6000 glue to affix a wooden skewer to the back of each one, then put a strip of packing tape across it and left it for a couple days to cure. I got a cheapo but heavy ceramic wine holder, layered several pieces of styrofoam, then inserted the skewers. I made a few little flowers out of tissue paper and my trusty
fringe scissors (affiliate link), plus added some tissue paper (both solid and Makers Mark-printed from our visit to the distillery gift shop!). I think he - and his coworkers - got a kick out of it, and it's a gift that keeps on giving!
Another of his gifts was a group of 6x6" canvases of photos from several distillery tours we've taken in Kentucky. I used
this tutorial from Lovely, etc. and am pleased with the results, though it would've been easier to manipulate my prints on thinner paper. Maybe this project works better with larger format prints? My matte photos were purchased from Snapfish, and since I was working with 6x6" canvases, I got 8x8" square prints made with a matte finish. I'll definitely try this again - it was an easy and heartfelt gift that will have a special place near our bar and reminds us of some fun memories!
For Jason's birthday dinner at home, we did filet steaks and an amazing pear and arugula salad in
The Food Lab cookbook (affiliate link) - this thing has come to serve as our kitchen Bible. Since his birthday was on a Friday, we spread the celebrations out all weekend long, having friends over Saturday for pizza, beer, and bourbon, then dining out at a new fave spot -
Main Street Public House. It's only been open a few weeks and we've already been several times!
