Valentine's Day Dinner - What We Ate (What I Cooked!)

We stayed home for Valentine's Day - That Knee isn't comfortable when it's not elevated for an extended time, so riding in the car and sitting at a table just aren't comfortable for it/him.  So we had a WILD evening at home.

Right.

Anyway, this week's Aldi's ad had filet mignon listed as their weekly fresh meat special, and the price per pound, although way higher than I'm generally willing to pay for meat, was, for filet, a STEAL!  The prices in the ad go into effect on Wednesday, but I didn't get there until Friday, so I figured I'd missed out.

However...

I guess lots of people don't like to pay exorbitant prices for meat either, even filet, so there were PLENTY of packages in the meat case!  SCORE!

I took them home and stuck them in the fridge next to the ribeye steaks I'd found earlier in the week at Kroger at a truly unbeatable price - more than two-thirds off!!! (It was in the "Manager's Special" meat case - my favorite place to browse.)

So I had a refrigerator full of expensive steaks.  What to do, what to do.

Dumb question, right?  It was pretty much a no-brainer - throw the ribeyes into the freezer and cook the filets for Valentine's Day.

Now, I haven't cooked a filet mignon in years (DECADES, actually), so I did some research to see how long those bad boys needed to lie under the broiler.  Other than that, I was good.  Filet mignon is super simple.

Every store seemed to have fresh asparagus on sale this week, too, so I planned to have that, plus some long grain and wild rice to round out the plate.  Easy stuff.  I didn't want to get elaborate - I wanted to ENJOY the meal myself, and not spend all night cleaning up afterward.

I should have expected what happened as each side of the filets was about done - the butter started to smoke and the smoke alarms began to scream!  Ah, me.  Annoying.  So the cats tried to find a safe space away from the terrible noises (there was none - more than one alarm was wailing), so That Man opened a couple of windows.  It was COLD out there, but it made the alarms settle down.  The windows didn't need to be open more than a few minutes - a good thing.

Anyway, the filets were amazing!  A good meal all around.


Filet Mignon

Here's an idea of how done these filets were
after a full 7 minutes on each side.

For each 8-oz filet:

1/4 t garlic powder (or to taste), divided
salt and pepper
1 or 2 slices bacon (uncooked)
2 T butter, divided
1 T minced scallion or shallot

Place the top oven rack so that the top of the meat will be about 3 inches from the broiler.  Set oven to Broil.

Sprinkle half of the garlic powder, salt, and pepper over both sides of the filet(s).  Wrap each filet with a slice of bacon (or two, if the circumference is too big!), and secure it with one or two wooden toothpicks.  Spread half of the butter over the top side of the filet(s).

Spray a broiler pan (or a rack placed inside a sheet pan with a 1-inch high rim) with non-stick spray for easy cleanup.  Place the filet(s) on the broiler pan and place the pan in the oven on the top rack in the oven.  (Disable the nearest smoke alarms, if needed!)

Let the meat cook for 5-7 minutes.  Remove from the oven, turn the filet(s) over, spread the rest of the butter on the top of the filet, and sprinkle the minced scallion or shallot over the top of the filet(s).

Return the pan to the top oven rack and continue broiling for another 5-7 minutes.  

Remove from the oven, tent with foil, and let rest while you plate the other food.

Don't forget to remove the toothpicks before eating and to re-enable the smoke detectors after - HA!


[NOTES:  I set the sealed packages of filets out on the counter for 4 hours to allow them to come to room temperature before cooking (horrors! - unsafe food handling practices!), and I still needed to cook them on the high broil setting for 7 minutes on each side.

I used Land-O-Lakes Garlic and Herb flavored butter (it comes in a small tub) for the butter.  It was easy to spread and gave the filets an extra depth of flavor.  I still used the garlic powder, too.  More Garlic = More Better!]