Friday, February 15, 2008

I stopped at the store on my home last night and got fixins to make Beef Wellington, tortolini with a parmesan-champagne sauce, and a ceasar salad. We had brie and crackers first with a bottle of chilled Prosecco. Since we were both tired, we ate in stages, first the salad, then the tortolini and then the beef.

Io made the Wellington with two medium sized pieces of fillet, hand trimmed and lean. I was wondering what to put on the inside of the pastry to give the beef a fine taste, and for some reason I thought about using garlic hummous. When I got home, Greg wasn't into that, so I ended up using a cream of Rootebega soup that Brian, the chef from The Edge had given Greg for us to taste. (While I was away, Brian and his wife Tasha cooked a great meal for Greg and gave him leftovers...yea!!) You can see me use the soup here:

It gave the beef a great earthy and nutty taste. I then rolled the beef in puff pastry and cooked in a 450 degree oven until golden brown.

For the Tortolini, I made a bechamel sauce, melting two tablespoons butter and 3 tablespoons white flour in a pan, wisking and strirring to cook but not brown. I added 1 cup of milk and stirred it to a boil, thickening all the way. I then added 1 cup parmesan and about 1/2-3/4 cup of the Persecco and cooked and wisked until smooth. Poured it over a batch of fresh 3 cheese tortolini and we were good to go.

It was a nice way to spend Valentine's day.
You can eat healthy on road trips! I went down to Boston the other day on one of my speed runs, this time during the snow and rain storm we had on Wednesday. I was on the Maine turnpike around lunchtime and I was starving, having had only two bananas and some bottled water that morning. I was able to stop at the Kennebunk Oasis and with a bit of shopping around in the t-shirt shop, was able to come up with lowfat yogurt, two things of part-skim string cheese, unsalted cashews, and an Odwalla fruit powerbar plus water. I ate about half and was sated for a good 2 hours and then I ate the rest...not too bad in terms of fat and caloric intake.

I won't tell you how I cheated on the way home the next day, but I am still broken up and guilty about it, so my changed eating habits are working on me. I didn't like how full I felt after cheating.

I came home and made a decadent dinner for Greg for Valentinies day.