The Gift

Last year my friend, Julie, the mother of one of Carlos' friends at Bethany Academy approached me about donating an item to Bethany's annual silent auction.  We decided to donate a dinner party for six lucky participants.  The silent auction was part of the schools annual fundraiser.  At the end of the school year we made the decision to return Carlos to our neighborhood school, Poplar Bridge-but I maintained my commitment to my part of the donation.  After months of negotiating a date, Julie and I prepared our extravagant five course meal in the home of one of the families from Bethany last Friday night.

Julie and I put our sensational menu together using the recipes of dishes we have made that are tried and true and one course that was completely new to both of us.  You would have never known because it all turned out perfectly.  Having never cooked together before, I was delighted to realize that she and I worked seamlessly together.  It did not occur with out the occasional bump and misfire, but our guests were none the wiser.  We had given the winner of our auction item the choice of a few main courses and they chose the crown jewel, Beef Tenderloin so we built the rest of the meal around that.

We began with Ina's Cheese Puffs

Julie made her beautiful Sage Crepes 

Inside the Sage Crepes were sautéed mushrooms.  We had a guest who was Gluten-Free so Julie made a mushroom consommé from the mushrooms.

This gorgeous salad made its debut and it was heavenly!

Julie had her tried and true method from Christopher Kimball that made this beef tenderloin amazing! 

The proud chef putting the tenderloin in the oven for its 70 minute snooze in the oven. 

The tenderloin was served with my polenta recipe and garnished with sliced roasted beets and radishes cut like flowers.  Julie has a talent for cutting fruits and vegetables to look like flowers and such.  Me? Yea. Not so much-which is why we are a good team. We each brought different talents and experience.

The dessert course was Bananas Foster.  We lit that bad boy on fire table side and it was a big hit!

This photo of the end result does not do it justice, but it is what it is!  

Julie and I had chef jackets made for the event and I was super excited to break mine out for the first time.

Bon Appetit!!