Note to self (and anyone else reading)

Never. Ever. Cook fillet of beef in butter ever again, ever.

So I cooked dinner for my host family, and oh boy, it was an event. For me more so than for them, I say this because I tried not one, but two new things. First, I made a mushroom and leek cream sauce to go with the fillet mignon, and second, I cooked the beef in butter.

Now, fillet mignon is a delicate steak, and it can easily have the meaty flavor leeched out of it while cooking. This is most often remedied by wrapping the steak in bacon, however, I had no bacon handy. I theorized that butter would preserve the "meaty" flavor. But, I'm not accustomed to cooking in butter, I didn't stop to thing that the outside may cook differently than in, say, canola oil. Unfortunately, the outside looked very different, and by the time I realized, it was ever so slightly too late. I had slightly overcooked the beef, while only slightly, mind you, it was still enough to mess with the dish.

Next we have the sauce, I started off going off a recipe I found on the internet, but after discovering that I didn't have access to a scale, I threw the recipe out the window. Thank god it turned out OK. In fact I'd go so far as to say it saved the beef.