Dinner amidst the chaos

Sometimes the best meals come from the chaos.  On the Wednesday before the party on Friday, Connie cleaned four beef tenderloins.  That meant four roasts to go into the freezer and a bag full of chain that he'll trim later.  It also meant a little pile of tips.  I had a box of sliced portabellas that was older than the box of white button mushrooms I'd bought for the mushroom truffle pesto.  So, that got used for the pesto and the button mushrooms were cooling in the garage.  Yes, we were out of space in the house for anything that isn't fussy.  Mushrooms are not fussy.  Milk is.  He asked if we could saute the beef tips with some onions and garlic.  Well, sure.  Kind of.  I already had the grill going for the tenderloins - pork and beef.  Onions were sitting out on the counter.  Besides, he'd asked for onions, hadn't he? 

Here's how it went together:

Chaos Dinner

Beef Tips
salt and freshly ground pepper
Worcestershire sauce

Mushrooms
olive oil

Hell Grilled Onions
1 large white onion
mayonnaise
shredded parmesan, romano or gruyere
garlic powder
cayenne pepper

I started out by tossing the beef tips with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce.  Then, I let them sit on the counter to warm up to room temperature.  The mushrooms were sliced and tossed into a skillet with a bit of olive oil.  Last, but not least, the onion was trimmed and cut into half.   I mixed a couple of tablespoons of mayo with some shredded cheese and a little garlic powder.  That got schmeared on top then sprinkled with cayenne pepper. 

The onions went on to the grill first. 

They need about 15 minutes to get really well done.  Be VERY careful when taking them off the grill so you don't lose the topping.  The meat will take a few minutes to cook - particularly if you like beef rare like we do.  The beef was cooked in a grill basket to keep the pieces from slipping thru the grates of the grill.