Happy New Decade!

Wow its been so long! The past couple of years have been really busy – one of the reasons for the lack of posts on this blog. Left England, moved to the States, went back to school, bought a house in Raleigh, NC. So I am starting to feel settled again and the urge to cook has returned. So for NYE, hubby and I decided to have a quiet one in but thought I would still try to cook something decadent. I went for bacon-wrapped filet mignons. They were fun to make and soooo good!

Raw bacon-wrapped filet mignon

They’re really easy to make. First, let your filets sit out for about 20-30 min to bring them to room temperature. Then, check them over to see if there’s any silver skin or fat to be cut off. Then, rub some olive oil into them and season generously with sea salt and black pepper. Once you’ve finished seasoning them, wrap one piece of bacon around the filet and secure with a toothpick. Insert the toothpick where the bacon overlaps. Don’t wrap them too snug or too loose otherwise they will come apart.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, put some butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the foam of the butter subsides, put the filets in. Brown them on the top and bottom (about 3-4 min each side). Once browned, transfer them to baking safe dish and put in oven. You will want to check them in 5-10 min intervals with a meat thermometer. Rare is about 120-125, medium is around 140-150 and well done is 160-170. Once done to your liking, take them out of the oven and let them sit for about 5 min.

Bacon-wrapped filet mignon with sauteed veggies

I served mine with baked potatoes and asparagus and portabello mushrooms sauteed in olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year! I look forward to a year of more cooking, baking and food blogging!

Steak and Potatoes (Twice baked that is…)

Hope everyone had a Great New Year! I know I did, playing drunken twister with friends. I’m sure there’s blackmail photos of that floating around the web somewhere…oh well.

I’ve finally gotten around to posting a dinner I made last week of a nice beef fillet and twice baked potatoes. I’ve been busy getting ready to move back to the States so there probably won’t be loads of creative posts going on here for a little while.

Anyway, I got a couple recipe suggestions for twice baked potatoes from some Nesties and combined two recipes from The Cooking Fiend and MikelovesJen (Not sure if you have a blog, I didn’t put it in my saved recipe so if you do, please let me know and I’ll correct this!). If you prefer, you can use ranch dressing instead of the sour cream. I would have tried this but didn’t have any.

Twice Baked Potatoes
Source: a combination of The Cooking Fiend and MikelovesJen

Ingredients:

4 baking potatoes
8 strips of bacon, cooked and cut into small pieces
1 cup of cheddar and gruyere
1/2 cup of sour cream
3-4 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degree F. Scrub potatoes and then prick with a fork a few times. Bake in the oven for about an hour.

Remove from oven and let cool for a bit. Slice in half and scoop out the insides into a medium mixing bowl being careful not to push through the skin and leaving enough potato so that the skin doesn’t become floppy.

Add bacon, green onions, sour cream and cheese (reserving a few tablespoons). Mix together and then mash until desired consistency. I like mine to be pretty creamy.

With a spoon, carefully refill potato skins with potato mixture. Sprinkle each potato with salt and pepper and remaining cheese.

Bake for another 10-15 minutes until cheese is slightly crispy.

For the steaks, I just rub a little olive oil, salt and pepper into the steak, then brown each side for 5 minutes. Transfer to a preheated 400 degree F oven and cook for about 5 minutes for medium. Cook a little bit longer if you prefer a more well done steak or less than if you prefer a more rare steak.

Now for some electro/synth-pop goodness…

Its Chromeo!

I just bought their new album Fancy Footwork off of iTunes and can’t stop listening to it. It has helped me get through my post-holiday workouts at the gym lately. I highly recommend it if you want to invite your friends round for a dance off.