Mon petit filet mignon

2010-11-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago, I went to a very posh and expensive restaurant. Before entering the building, I was quite confident in my culinary skills, knowing that I am a novice, but that I am very good at following instructions.

Terrible.

So, I chose one of the smaller starters, a 'petit filet mignon,' which was forty-two dollars, one of the less expensive options on the menu. I'm ashamed to say that I can speak a bit of french, but I never really focused on animals' names besides 'chat' or 'chien,' or 'oiseaux.' So silly me, thinking 'filet' was somehow related to fish, I imagined my meal with a piece of pearl white meat on the middle of my plate.

No.

Instead, the waiter countered with, "And how would you like it?"

To which my brain froze and scrambled at the same time. Was there different ways of having fish? Boiled? Grilled? Fried? I glanced at the person across from me for some sort of clue, but he just stared back.

"How can I have it?" I finally asked.

"Medium, medium-rare, rare..."

"Medium-rare."

Still nothing.

"Oh, so you like a little blood in yours!" Another dinner mate commented.

And that's when I realized that I had ordered beef.

From which we came

2010-11-17T06:22:00.000-08:00

As an at-home cook, I don't feel the need to make particularly healthy meals. Butter is okay, and I get through about four sticks in 2 to 3 weeks (albeit, I do a lot of baking). Right now, the most important thing to me is making a delicious meal, so that I can eventually make healthy alternatives without cutting back on taste. That being said, I think any meal without vegetables is ridiculous, and I want to learn how to cook vegetables I usually don't work with (i.e., everything except onions, and peppers).

At the end of October I bought a bag of beets with the hopes of cooking them. Yesterday I rediscovered them at the bottom of my fridge. They're still good, but they don't look like they have too much time left, so yesterday, I added them to a pizza I made. The earthy smell put me off so I peeled, cut, and fried them in olive oil and pepper. I love the colour of beets - they're almost neon pink. Sprinkled on the pizza, that baked for 25 minutes in the oven, the beets weren't bad; they retained their earthy quality, but a bite into the bigger pieces introduced the sweet flavour I read about. This morning, I decided to add them to a smoothie, because wouldn't they make a wonderfully coloured drink? And I could hide the flavour beneath the other ingredients! Magic! It was with this logic that I made the not so wonderful juice christened "From Which We Came," because of its earthy smell and aftertaste.

From Which We Came
For about 2 1/2 cups
1 cup plain yogurt
2 small beets, julienne
1 cup of cold water
1 cup of frozen mixed berries
1 tbsp of vanilla
1 tbsp of honey

My inspiration for this drink was the Lassi. I figured I could hide the beets in the drink, but they were definitely the feature of the drink. Taking a whiff, I could only smell beets. Sitting on my tongue, it wasn't so bad, but the aftertaste was... beets. Little known fact (to me at least), beets are commonly used in detoxifying diets which means I might have just OD'd on my beet consumption already... But if I were to make this drink again, I would lower the beet content, and maybe add something very sweet... like sugar. The honey just wasn't enough. I might also switch to a flavoured yogurt instead of a plain one. Any suggestions?

Beets and Books

Mon petit filet mignon

From which we came