Steak and Eggs

I served bruncheon at my house last weekend, and I made Croque Madame sandwiches for the monsieur that came to dine. That's a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top, if you didn't know, and I didn't before I spotted the recipe. It's topped with a Gruyère Mornay sauce to make it a little snobbier. A Croque Monsieur doesn't have the fried egg on top.


For dessert, a Berry Fool. That's an English dessert made by mixing puréed fruit, whipped cream, and sugar, if you didn't know, and I didn't. It's topped with graham cracker crumbs to make it a little less snobby. The traditional fruit used in a fool is gooseberries. I used strawberries and raspberries for this one.

In the Cook's Illustrated recipe, the fruit purée is stabilized with a little gelatin, to keep it from getting soupy. Some of the purée is folded into whipped cream flavored with a little sour cream. To serve, layer macerated berries, fruit purée, and the berry whipped cream, then repeat. It'd be pretty much impossible to serve this at large parties, because the cream has to be whipped just before serving.

Beef tenderloin and ribeye were on sale at United this week. I have the prices memorized for a few grocery items - namely Callebaut and Ghiradelli chocolate, heavy cream, etc., but also beef tenderloin. It's usually $27.99/pound for the Certified Angus, but this week it was on sale for $17.99/pound, so I accidentally ate it on Wednesday and Friday. Ribeye was about half price, so we had that for Mother's Day dinner, with shrimp, baked potatoes, and salad. Used a spice rub of ancho chile, cumin, cinnamon, brown sugar, kosher salt, and pepper on the steaks. I could obviously eat steak several times a week, but I still think that it's not froufrou enough for Mother's Day.


I fell asleep after dinner and my mom did the dinner dishes. Isn't that awful?