Happy March and Beef Wellington

 Happy March!

I called my grandfather this morning and wished him a happy March and he told me this little saying that my great grandmother used to say:

“A pinch and a punch, first of March.”

“A punch and a kick for being so quick.”

It was new to me. Have you heard it before?

Today I made Beef Wellington. This was my second time and it is surprisingly easy. We get a cow butchered from time to time when our freezer gets low so we end up with every cut of meat- otherwise I would probably never buy such an expensive cut. We opted for the beef tenderloin roast instead of the filet mignon steaks this past time so I get to try to make this fancy dish. 

It starts with a seared beef tenderloin in the middle smothered in mustard. This is then wrapped in a layer of prosciutto smeared with cooked mushroom paste. And then the entire package is wrapped in a puff pastry dough brushed with egg yolks and sprinkled with salt. The key is not to roast it too long. Recipe says to cook it to 125-130 F, but it’s better to cook it to an internal temperature of 110 F and let it rest to 125-130 F. My husband really likes a rare steak so this is a must for our house. 

Yummy! So tender and delicious. I literally cut my slice of meat with a fork and it was as easy to slice as a piece of pumpkin pie. 

Simply Recipes had an easy to follow recipe for making the Beef Wellington. The first time I made it, I really dreaded making the puff pastry because I’d heard it was a lot of work, but I think it is easier than making pie crust because it only has 4 ingredients. An Italian in My Kitchen has a very simple recipe for Puff Pastry with easy to follow directions and pictures.

Homemade Pasta

I’ve been making pasta from scratch more lately. It is so much better than store bought!  My husband bought me a hand crank pasta roller and cutter from Lee Valley. It will cut it into thin spaghetti style pasta or thicker fettuccine style pasta.  

The ingredients are pretty simple: mostly just eggs and flour with a little oil and salt. I’ve been using just simple white all purpose flour but some recipes recommend wheat semolina flour. I happened to see that Wholesale Club has big bags of it last time I was there. If the price is okay, I might try it. 

I’m still working out the right amount of flour to egg. The dough is sometimes too wet and doesn’t cut cleanly or too dry that it’s super difficult to mix. 

This time I served Beef Stroganoff and corn with it. So yummy!

Flower Embroidery Patch for Jeans

 I’ve decided to try taking up embroidery. I’ve done a lot of cross stitching in the past, but only briefly tried regular embroidery 10 years ago. For my first attempt, I thought I’d just make a patch for my old jeans. But it turned out so nice, it almost seems a shame to put it on an old pair of jeans. I’ll have to show the jeans once I’ve got the patch on, but for now, here is the finished embroidery. 

Homemade Flour Tortillas

 

I’ve made flour tortillas before but my sister passed on this recipe to me that she uses. It is so much better. The tortillas are much more flexible and moist and easier to roll out. They turned out awesome and all were eaten the same night. 

Homemade Mac and Cheese

 I made macaroni and cheese from scratch tonight for supper. I don’t usually buy things like velveeta, cheese whiz or american cheese so I was pretty happy my Good Housekeeping Cookbook had a recipe that just asked for cheddar cheese. 

The roux had onions in it for extra flavour and instead of bread crumbs, I used cracker crumbs for the topping. It turned out pretty good. A double recipe yielded a very full 9x13 pan and there was still half a pan left for tomorrow’s lunch. (A few of the kids weren’t too hungry as we’d had clementines and zucchini muffins for a late afternoon snack, while others went back for seconds and thirds.)

Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

 My oldest son asks to make cake almost daily. I bought a few cake mixes and have been getting him to make cupcakes. I supervise, but he’s ten and can do most of it himself.

I’ve been making Favourite Chocolate Buttercream from Sally’s Baking Addiction and it is so delicious. I tried her Favourite Vanilla Buttercream, but for me, it was a bit too sweet. Maybe I’m just too much of a chocolate lover, but her chocolate buttercream is divine.

We have our “blast chiller” now. In the winter, we often set baked goods out on our balcony to cool down quickly in the negative 20’s and 30’s. It’s convenient since it’s just off the kitchen. I prefer no sprinkles, but the kids will always want sprinkles. Actually, those chocolate sprinkles are pretty good. Next time I’ll have to get some of those.

Building a Ship

 My oldest son is always working on something whether it’s drawing or making melty bead things, or collecting and growing seeds. Recently he took up this project of building a boat from cardboard, craft paper and skewer sticks. He must’ve used up half a dozen glue gun sticks. But he is having loads of fun.

In the above picture, he put his plant pots inside to hold up his masts then later he glued on the deck and fastened the masts on. It even has a Crow’s Nest.