In two days I turn 40. This milestone doesn't upset me nearly as much as I thought it would, probably because this has been a wonderful year overall, and I'm not going to have to face the BIG FOUR OH as a single mother-back in my early 30's that was a huge concern for me.
We'll be "celebrating" on Friday, rather than Thursday at Ruth's Chris steak house. And by "celebrating", I mean weeping openly into a large glass of red wine. Who am I kidding? Forty? What the hell? It really does bother me. When I was in Ohio over the weekend, my friend Nino made a disturbing observation. He hadn't seen my children in several years and he remarked that he and I were the same age as my oldest son when we became friends. Waaaaaahhhhhh! I'm old, oh so very old.
Console me gentle readers.
Here's a great steak recipe for the holidays...so easy, yet so very elegant. This recipe reminds me of the scene from Goodfellas where Paul Sorvino is shaving thin slices of garlic with a razor blade. He's cooking up an Italian delicacy-in a jail cell. I salivate every time I watch that scene. Try and get the garlic thin like that for this recipe, it just melts into the beef if you do. A very sharp paring knife will do the job-you don't need a razor.
Roast Beef Tenderloin
One whole 2 pound beef tenderloin
6 garlic cloves, sliced as thin as possible
Several springs of fresh thyme
4 shallots, sliced in half lengthwise and peeled
Fresh ground pepper
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the tenderloin in a roasting pan at least 2 inches deep. Rub the meat first with a cut side of a garlic clove, then with olive oil. Use a paring knife to create pockets all over the meat. Insert the thin slices of garlic into the pockets. Grind pepper over the surface of the steak. Coat the shallots with olive oil, then scatter all over the bottom of the pan. Pull the thyme leaves off the sprigs, and sprinkle all over the meat and shallots. Bake until desired degree of doneness. I can't imagine cooking it beyond medium, but I'll leave that up to you. A thermometer should read 125 degrees for rare, 135 degrees for medium rare, and 145 for medium. This is lovely for Christmas Eve. Last year I served it with lobster tails. YUM.