* Exported from MasterCook *

Rolled Fillet with Shitake Mushrooms and Cabernet Sauce

Recipe By :R. B. Jeffrey
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Meat

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 1/3 pounds beef tenderloin -- whole
1 1/2 cups hot water
18 medium dried shitake mushrooms -- soaked in hot water
2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon
1/3 cup raisins
1 teaspoon tricolor pepper corns
10 cloves garlic -- roasted
2 cups sliced onion rings
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
arrowroot powder

Set aside the water in which the mushrooms were reconstituted. Remove stems from the mushrooms; cut mushrooms into slivers and set aside. Put the Cabernet, raisins, pepper corns and roasted garlic into a blender and whirl to liquefy; add 1/2 cup of mushroom water and strain 1/2 of mixture into saucepan. Over medium heat reduce this sauce to 1/3-1/4 of its original volume, or until slightly thickened and syrupy. Meanwhile, slowly saute the onion rings in butter until caramelized; season with salt as desired.

Slice the tenderloin in a spiral fashion about 1/2" thick. This should produce a fairly flat piece of meat that can be rolled like a jellyroll. Trim the corners if needed to remove loose pieces. Cover fillet with mushrooms; spread onions on top of mushrooms. Spoon enough sauce over the meat to moisten contents well. Roll fillet and tie with string to secure it. Place in roast pan on a rack. Pour remaining blenderized liquid over the roll; if any of the reduction sauce is left, spoon this over also. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-25" for a medium rare roast.

Place cooked roast on a platter and keep warm. Place roast pan over medium heat. Add remainder of mushroom water; reduce to about 1/2 and thicken with arrowroot (or cornstarch water mixture) to light gravy consistency. Slice roast in serving size pieces. Place portion of sauce on each plate and top with a slice of the roast tenderloin.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 605 Calories; 43g Fat (69.8% calories from fat); 32g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 131mg Cholesterol; 247mg Sodium. Exchanges: 4 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 1/2 Fruit; 6 Fat.

Suggested Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

The American Enterprise Online

"Eye of the Beholder" by Victor Davis Hanson August 3, 2006

War-torn Iraq has about 26 million residents, a peaceful California perhaps now 35 million. The former is a violent and impoverished landscape, the latter said to be paradise on Earth. But how you envision either place to some degree depends on the eye of the beholder and is predicated on what the daily media appear to make of each.

As a fifth-generation Californian, I deeply love this state, but still imagine what the reaction would be if the world awoke each morning to be told that once again there were six more murders, 27 rapes, 38 arsons, 180 robberies, and 360 instances of assault in California - yesterday, today, tomorrow, and every day. I wonder if the headlines would scream about "Nearly 200 poor Californians butchered again this month!"

How about a monthly media dose of "600 women raped in February alone!" Or try, "Over 600 violent robberies and assaults in March, with no end in sight!" Those do not even make up all of the state's yearly 200,000 violent acts that law enforcement knows about.

Iraq 's judicial system seems a mess. On the eve of the war, Saddam let out 100,000 inmates from his vast prison archipelago. He himself still sits in the dock months after his trial began. But imagine an Iraq with a penal system like California 's with 170,000 criminals - an inmate population larger than those of Germany , France , the Netherlands , and Singapore combined.

Just to house such a shadow population costs our state nearly $7 billion a year - or about the same price of keeping 40,000 Army personnel per year in Iraq . What would be the image of our Golden State if we were reminded each morning, "Another $20 million spent today on housing our criminals"?

Some of California 's most recent prison scandals would be easy to sensationalize: "Guards watch as inmates are raped!" Or "Correction officer accused of having sex with under-aged detainee!" And apropos of Saddam's sluggish trial, remember that our home state multiple murderer, Tookie Williams, was finally executed in December 2005 - 26 years after he was originally sentenced.

Much is made of the inability to patrol Iraq 's borders with Iran , Jordan , Kuwait , Saudi Arabia , Syria , and Turkey . But California has only a single border with a foreign nation, not six. Yet over 3 million foreigners who sneaked in illegally now live in our state. Worse, there are about 15,000 convicted alien felons incarcerated in our penal system, costing about $500 million a year. Imagine the potential tabloid headlines: "Illegal aliens in state comprise population larger than San Francisco !" or "Drugs, criminals, and smugglers given free pass into California !"

Every year, over 4,000 Californians die in car crashes - nearly twice the number of Americans lost so far in three years of combat operations in Iraq . In some sense, then, our badly maintained roads, and often poorly trained and sometimes intoxicated drivers, are even more lethal than Improvised Explosive Devices. Perhaps tomorrow's headline might scream out at us: "300 Californians to perish this month on state highways! Hundreds more will be maimed and crippled!"

In 2001, California had 32 days of power outages, despite paying nearly the highest rates for electricity in the United States . Before complaining about the smoke in Baghdad rising from private generators, think back to the run on generators in California when they were contemplated as a future part of every household's line of defense.

We're told that Iraq 's finances are a mess. Yet until recently, so were California 's. Two years ago, Governor Schwarzenegger inherited a $38 billion annual budget shortfall. That could have made for strong morning newscast teasers: "Another $100 million borrowed today - $3 billion more in red ink to pile up by month's end!"

So is California comparable to Iraq ? Hardly. Yet it could easily be sketched by a reporter intent on doing so as a bankrupt, crime-ridden den with murderous highways, tens of thousands of inmates, with wide-open borders.

I myself recently returned home to California , without incident, from a visit to Iraq 's notorious Sunni Triangle. While I was gone, a drug-addicted criminal with a long list of convictions broke into our kitchen at 4 a.m., was surprised by my wife and daughter, and fled with our credit cards, cash, keys, and cell phones.

Sometimes I wonder who really was safer that week!



Worth reading.



Iraq vs. California A very interesting perspective about "Drive by Media"!

Note: The suthor, Victor Hanson Davis, is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a Professor Emeritus at California University , Fresno , and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He was a full-time farmer before joining California State University , Fresno , in 1984 to initiate a classics program. In 1991, he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin. Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992-93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991-92), a recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002), and an Alexander Onassis Fellow (2001) and was named alumnus of the year of the University of California , Santa Cruz (2002). He was also the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy , Annapolis , Maryland (2002-03).

Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

SPOKEN:
And when I was 12 years old, my father took me to the circus, the greatest show on earth.
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads.
And as I sat there watching the marvelous spectacle
I had the feeling that something was missing.
I don't know what, but when it was over,
I said to myself, "Is that all there is to a circus?"

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

SPOKEN:
Then I fell in love, with the most wonderful boy in the world.
We would take long walks by the river or just sit for hours gazing into each other's eyes.
We were so very much in love.
Then one day, he went away. And I thought I'd die -- but I didn't.
And when I didn't I said to myself, "Is that all there is to love?"

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing

SPOKEN:
I know what you must be saying to yourselves.
If that's the way she feels about it why doesn't she just end it all?
Oh, no. Not me. I'm in no hurry for that final disappointment.
For I know just as well as I'm standing here talking to you,
when that final moment comes and I'm breathing my lst breath, I'll be saying to myself,

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

1. Men are like ...Laxatives ...... They irritate the crap out of you.
2. Men are like.Bananas ...... The older they get, the less firm they are.
3. Men are like ......Weather …. Nothing can be done to change them.
4. Men are like .......Blenders You need One, but you're not quite sure why.
5. Men are like .....Chocolate Bars ... Sweet, smooth, & they usually head right for your hips.
6. Men are like ...Commercials ....... You can't believe a word they say.
7. Men are like Department Stores ..... Their clothes are always 1/2 off.
8. Men are like .....Government Bonds .... They take soooooooo long to mature.
9. Men are like .....Mascara ... They usually run at the first sign of emotion.
10. Men are like .Popcorn ..... They satisfy you, but only for a little while.
11. Men are like Snowstorms .... You never know when they're coming, how many inches you'll get or how long it will last.
12. Men are like .......Lava Lamps .... Fun to look at, but not very bright.
13. Men are like Parking Spots ... All the good ones are taken, the rest are handicapped.

In the beginning there was God. Well I believe that is true. We the Human race has always believed in a higher power. Now the church tells us there is only one God. But God himself tells us something quite different. Quoting, God from the ten commandments. "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me" Now I ask if there is only one, why would God himself acknowledge the existence of other Gods in His first commandment.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (2) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. Consider th is, If you are a Catholic and have a Saint Christopher on your dashboard or around your neck you are in deep doo doo. God doesn't want for you to have to remind yourself of Him or His Son. What we really need is Not a jealous God but a compassionate one. The old testament really characterized God as a punitive universe dictator.

Have a great day thinking.