A break from food...

Tonight's post is going to break from the food genre just a bit.....

Tonight, I will open up...bare my soul....and share with you all the joy that is Rabbie.

Rabbie is a stuffed rabbit (very original, I know) that I have had since I was somewhere around 4 years old. She was given to me by my mother's cousin as a gift for being the flower girl in her wedding. I remember opening up the big square box and pulling out a soft, white bunny with floppy ears. It was love at first hug!

Throughout my younger years, Rabbie was a constant friend - always willing to play dress up or have a tea party. At one point we even had matching nightgowns. We were tight.

As I got a little older, our tea parties became few and far between but Rabbie and I remained close. Throughout middle and high school, my brother and I would go spend every other weekend with our dad and Rabbie always made it into the overnight bag. She also made several trips to Pennsylvania and Kentucky to see the grandparents. It was somewhat of a running joke in the family that I would be taking Rabbie to college....but wouldn't you know it! She was destined for a higher education.

Rabbie and I made it through 4 years of undergrad together. She stuck by my side through 4 roomates and 3 suitemates, multiple boyfriends, exams and -finally!- graduation. She was somehow always the perfect size for a hug (despite the fact that I DID grow a little bit from age 4) and she never seemed to mind if I needed to cry a few tears into her floppy ears.

When I started grad school, I moved into an apartment and then into my very first little rental house. I also got my my very first little dog. One day, I needed to run out of the house for a few minutes and I left my little dog in the house alone. I had no fear, she was a good little dog and had never really gotten into anything before....however.....when I came home from my errands I opened my bedroom door and found this:

******CAUTION! GRAPIC IMAGES******

I took 4 deep breaths....quickly put my little dog outside and out of harm's way....and then crumpled on the floor and sobbed. And sobbed. And sobbed. What had happened to my oldest friend??? There were bits of fur everywhere...a piece of an eyeball in the corner...It was terrible.

I eventually picked Rabbie up and tried to clean her up, but it was no use. She had had a fatal injury. I could not bring myself to throw her away, so for the next 3 years she lived in a bin in my closet.

Last fall, I was browsing online and found The Fuzzy Repair Shop - AAAAAAHHHH!! This lady in Pennsylvania was a miracle worker! She had photographic proof of her handywork! I emailed her immediately and sent along pictures of Rabbie's tragic injury. She responded right away and said that she would see what she could do.....

Well here it is....1 month after I mailed my precious rabbit away for a face transplant....and - TA-DA!!!!

She is healed!!!!! My miracle worker was able to take her tail and use it for a face transplant! She even found new eyes and touched up her little nose!

And now I am a very happy, 28-year-old, stuffed animal-hugging girl!

Much Love,

Plain Nicole

and Rabbie

Beef Tenderloin!

Ahhhh.....Beef Tenderloin.

It deserves capital letters.

It is delicious.

My mom made this recipe for our Christmas Eve Dinner and it was AMAZING! So when I went to the Restaurant Depot this weekend with Lenore and Nicole....and I saw some lovely beef tenderloin(s) on the shelf I thought,

"Mmmmm....that would make a great welcome home dinner!"

Now, beef tenderloin is fairly pricey. I got mine for approx $42, but here is my logic:

• I was able to cut it into 4 pieces for 4 separate meals
• That's $10 a meal
• $5 a person per meal...for delicious beef

Not bad.

I think you can expect to pay more than that at a normal grocery store....maybe around $60-$70 for a 6 pound tenderloin.

Anyhoo, here we go!

This is my massive cut of beef. It was more than a little intimidating to see all that fat and blood juice.

I LOVE YOU RESTAURANT DEPOT! They even provide you jackets to wear in the refrigerated section...which apparently make you look like the Gordon's Fisherman.

Make sure you have some of these handy when buying large quantities of meat. Or baking large quantities of muffins. They really help prevent the frostbite.

Would they work on feet?

So here is half of my massive tenderloin, pre-butchering. According to my sources (Pioneer Woman) it is very important to trim off a good bit of that fat AND the silvery membrane which will make your meat tough.

I thoroughly enjoyed this step.

I may have missed my calling.

Is it too late to go to butcher school? Do they have butcher school? Can I get a degree in butchery?

I tried to take a picture of myself trimming off the fat, but I didn't have enough hands and wanted to keep all my digits....so here is a picture of the beef - the one on the left has been trimmed, the one on the right has not. Duh.

I then put 3 of my 4 pieces of tenderloin into freezer bags and look forward to eating them later!

The remains.

Next up, the coating. Or is it a marinade? I'm really not sure.

For this recipe, you will need softened butter, dijon mustard, parsley flakes (or fresh parsley is probably better) and crushed peppercorns.

I halved the recipe since I was working with a quarter piece of meat. The above is

1/2 cup parsley

1/8 cup softened butter

2 tbsp dijon mustard (I went a little heavy on the mustard because I like the tang!)

You want to mix this up - real good!

And schmear it on the tenderloin. Top and bottom and in all the cracks!

Next you combine your coarse salt and crushed peppercorns and pat them into the schmear. The patting is very important. It makes your tenderloin feel appreciated.

I used:

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp of whole peppercorns - then crushed (not 2 tbsp of crushed flakes...unless you like it HOT)

The directions then say that you can chill the beef for up to 24 hours. I wasn't expecting Eric home for another 21 hours, so I figured the fridge was as good a place as any to keep this thing.

Hello fridge!

The next evening, I open the fridge and - HELLO LOVELY!

I prepped my roasting pan - that I bought at Kroger for 10% off! It says it is nonstick, but I wasn't messing around. NO WASTED TENDERLOIN.

And preheated my oven to 350.

I tenderly placed my tenderloin (get it?) on the rack and inserted my new favorite kitchen appliance. It is a meat thermometer! But a really cool one....that I got at Kroger for 10% off!

Then I constructed this foil tent to protect my beef, and placed it in the oven.

And my supercool thermometer stayed outside!! You put the probe into the thickest part of the meat, and watch the display until it reaches your desired temp! It even has an alarm in case you happen to walk away for a minute...or 5. For this dish, around 140 degrees would have been medium rare, and 160 was medium.

I went for the 160...I'm not into blood.

160 took about 53-55 minutes in my oven.

At 95.2 degrees is when my kitchen started smelling delicious and the dogs started whining.

Here are the little beauties! (P Dub's potatoes on the right...recipe coming later)

160! Time to bring this baby OUT!

Ta-DAAA!!! Now you are supposed to let the meat rest for 10 minutes. It has been working hard.

Next you need to find yourself a freak-disjointed finger to help you cut your tenderloin.

Don't have one?

You can borrow mine, but only if you are feeding me tenderloin.

And this, folks, is deliciousness. Eric probably would have preferred it a little redder...but I know for next time!

Much love,

Plain Nicole

Blueberry Muffins - not from a box

****MUFFIN UPDATE****

Eric loved them!

I would recommend that you warm them up and add a little smear of butter :)

I decided to make homemade blueberry muffins last night for Eric.

Come.

Follow me on my muffin journey.

The Players:

3 cups (minus 2 tbsp) flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

Heavy pinch of salt

Dash of Nutmeg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 generous cup plain yogurt

Vanilla extract (about 1 tsp)

2 cups fresh blueberries

Step 1. Gather your ingredients. I bought the smallest container of yogurt I could find because we do not normally eat yogurt in this house and I didn't want to feel bad about throwing away any extra. Note that the size pictured above is not quite enough for a generous cup. So you should probably get the larger size. And eat the leftover. I hear its good for you.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

Use a whisk to mix your dry ingredients. Try to break up all the clumps of baking powder. What? Your baking powder doesn't clump? Well...have you had it for 3 years? Come back and talk to me when you have.

In a separate, larger bowl combine your sugar, oil, egg and vanilla. This recipe called for a capful of Vanilla - which I thought was kind of weird because they don't know how big my cap is. I have a big cap. I'm not bragging....I just do. I'd say I used about a teaspoon.

Egg.

Banilla.

Then you need to whisk them together at light speed.

Then add the dry mixture. Don't overmix your batter, you want it to be lumpy. I think that I ended up using too much flour and too little yogurt because my batter was super thick and sticky. I added about 1/4 cup of milk to help with consistency.

Next up, add the grapes. Just kidding....blueberries. Almost gotcha.

And mix.

See how thick my batter is?? The poor spoon is standing up all by itself. The site where I originally saw this recipe had lovely, scoopable batter. I think mine would have been better with more yogurt.

Into the 385 degree oven for approx 20-25 minutes. I did 22.

Aaaaaand voila!

Beautiful blueberry muffins from scratch! I will have to let you know how they taste once Eric gets home. I don't eat blueberry muffins. :)

Love,

Plain Nicole

Hello my looooooooove!

This is Eric.

He is just plain.

Just plain AWESOME!!

He has a surprise waiting for him.....a food surprise, not a baby surprise or a new car surprise. Don't get too excited people, its not that kind of blog.

Eric has been out of town for the past 3.59 days and in anticipation of his near return I have been cooking (prepping) up a storm. This cooking spree was partially inspired by my meeting Friday night with The Pioneer Woman (actually I waited in line for hours to get her autograph - totally worth it!) and partially inspired by my trip to the Restaurant Depot (pretty sure I want to open a restaurant now) today with Lenore and Nicole. Whatever the inspiration, Eric is soon to be a happy camper! Tonight I made/prepped the following:

The Pioneer Woman's Mashed Potatoes

Roast Beef Tenderloin - sans dipping sauce

Blueberry Muffins

I tried to take pictures of the process(es) and will be posting them on here soon....but not now. Now is time for sleeping. And taking care of these fluffs:

Much Love,

Plain Nicole

Ooooo how exciting!

So I have been wanting to create a blog for a while, but wasn't sure what to write about and/or if anyone would read it and/or if I could keep it up. Well tonight I decided that the time had come. And if nobody reads this, I'll just consider it a fancy electronic diary. And if I don't keep it up it won't matter because nobody will be reading.

My plan is to post recipes, snippets of projects and random ramblings - so things might not always be super organized.....but here we go!