Steak au Poivre, oolala! Oh and Carrot Cake

That's right! Yum, yum. We finished off the M&B Bertolami birthday box tonight. The fillet mignon were amazingly delicious. I wish I could say I created this recipe but I didn't. This recipe definitely has a little spot in by heart. Way back when I was like 10 or something we went to Jamaica or it may have been Antigua (I can't remember) with the entire Feshenfeld side of the family. I know I had just had my hair braided into corn rows and I sure thought I was pretty spiffy. Each night of the vacation I had chicken au Poive. Yeah, I didn't like steak back then. My brother and I just had to sit down at the table and the waiter already knew what we would have, me the chicken and Matt the steak. I'm pretty sure I had a virgin pina colada as well! Pretty disgusting if you think about it, now that I know what's is in the sauce. Butter and heavy cream. Well tonight we tried to slim it down a bit by adding less butter and a mix of half & half and milk. We used more peppercorns that it called for because we really like the spicy bite it adds. Needless to say I didn't have a blender drink but stuck with a big glass of H2O! I don't think I will post the recipe but you can find it in The Gourmet Cookbook (the big yellow book, page 426). We rounded out the meal with some red potatoes and sauteed spinach.

Oh, that's right I also mentioned something about carrot cake. Everyone knows that this is my all time favorite cake. Dave made me the best cake last year for my birthday and this year I was lucky enough to have a wonderful friend Susan make me her famous recipe. It is so good! I think I was seven when I requested carrot cake for my birthday cake. After playing some crazy and creative game my mom created to wow my friends we came inside our old house in Boxboro and sat down to cake. At seven it was either "We're going on a lion hunt or the crazy spider maze game in the front yard. Every kid can't wait until the cake portion on a birthday party. I really couldn't wait because I knew what waited, boy were my little friends surprised when they saw orange shreds in the slice cake sitting on their plate. No one touched it, they all expected chocolatey goodness not somewhat healthy carrots. Oh well, more for me!