Recipes Gone Wild

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Actually, that's what people who steal other people's ideas tell themselves to feel better. In that spirit, I am shamelessly stealing my friend Susan's idea (My Sliver of Life) and offering a recipe that I wrote many years ago. I can now watch reruns of Mad Men tonight, feeling smug and guilt-free because I updated my blog.

p.s. I even stole the title from her.

Susan’s Beef Stroganoff Mistake

March 20, 2007

I got out my Joy of Cooking cookbook tonight and put it in my cookbook holder – I love those. I realized after the fact that I glanced at the recipe but basically paid no attention to it while I was cooking. The reason I made this in the first place is because yesterday on the way into Kroger, the girls and I ran into Tanita, who works at their dentist’s office, and I asked her what she was having for dinner and beef stroganoff sounded really good. (I made soup last night but that’s a different story.)

Although I usually use a cheaper cut of meat and first marinate and then pound it with my meat hammer, I used two filet mignons. This is because this really nice guy came around the other day selling beef from his truck. The reason we have a freezer in the first place is because at least 11 years ago (before kids), another guy came to our house selling beef from his truck – it was a pretty good deal and the meat was good, as it has been this time. The only problem is that the first guy stuffed it all into our little freezer above the fridge, and I could not repack it. So I went out and bought a freezer.

So I think a good cut of beef is nice to start with.




John describing the size of the beef.

I thinly sliced two filets, dredged them in flour, and started sautéing them in butter. I ended up adding some olive oil because the flour was getting stuck to the bottom of the pan. I kept scooping up the stuff on the bottom and stirring it back into the meat. I added generous helpings of salt and pepper and then added one onion, cut up (I like bigger chunks vs. diced). Then I added about two spoonfuls of tomato paste – I’ve never added this before but Tanita said it was good. After I got that all mixed up, I added maybe four tablespoons of butter, one package of portabella mushrooms and mixed it all up well. Then I added one cup of pinot noir (the only thing I measured, because Tanita gave me that measurement, although she said to use burgundy) and probably two cups of water – it was kind of watery so I let it cook down a bit, adding salt and pepper to taste. I also added a bit of allspice because I noticed in glancing at the cookbook that it called for a nip of nutmeg.

I served it over egg noodles and we all pronounced it delicious. John said that although he loved it, it was a bit watery and then I remembered that I forgot the sour cream. And I rarely use sour cream so it will probably go bad in my fridge.



Some girlfriends laughing with me years later about how I forgot the sour cream. Susan is second from the left and will hopefully still be my friend after she reads this.