Saturday, December 27, 2008

Julia Child was in our Kitchen this Christmas

I am so glad that Julia Child visited our kitchen as we prepared a Christmas tenderloin. Julia took the form of our oldest daughter who is one year into medical school. Confession here- I have grilled several tenderloins and never dressed or trimmed them much beyond obvious fat removal. Now I'm reading Julia Child! She explains that you often trim 1/2 weight to dress it out and end up with a great steak for two and kabob meat for later. OK no revelation to some, but it sure was to me. Then my daughter took over as I read her Julia Child's instructions from page 221 of her book The Way to Cook. She hand trimmed the butt end and removed the tendon and membranes. Her cadaver training came in handy and we heard all about it. She only snipped with a knife a couple of times and mostly used her hands. She wants to give me a scalpel to add to my meat preparation tools. Pretty cool. These photos detail the preparation and trimming of the tenderloin. I'm beyond late early adopter on this one! It was fun learning from Julia Child and seeing our daughter prepare our family feast. And the Pig's Nose Scotch was absolutely perfect for the occasion! Since I am now actually reading cook books, I consulted Weber's Charcoal Grilling, The Art of Cookwing with Live Fire for their suggestions on properly preparing my Weber Kettle. I'm finally a student of grilling after 30 years of winging it. Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks?

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