I had big plans for my birthday luncheon this year. I wanted to take the opportunity to make something special. Having come across some really nice cuts of deer back strap, I decided to attempt my first Wellington.
To learn the process I watched America's Test Kitchen Beef Wellington video, Chef Jon's video, Gordon Ramsay's video, a few shorts, Fallow's Beef Wellington Guide, and Chris Young's video, just to name a few. I will add my references at the end.
I took most of my inspiration from Chef Jon. He advised to keep realistic expectations. The meat is going to exude juices all over once you cut into the roast. The pastry is going to get a little soggy. Accept that. His tip is to bake extra pieces of puff pastry to serve with the Wellington, that way you still can have plenty of crispy, flaky pastry to go with the meat. He also prefers a more simplistic method and avoids the use of crepes or prosciutto.
I started by making the duxelles ahead of time. I knew that school would be back in session at the time of my birthday and it would be difficult to pull off the extra steps if I waited until the week that I needed the components.
I minced 2 ½ pounds of mushrooms by hand. I substituted onions for shallots and used a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar in place of wine. I seasoned the mushrooms with salt, pepper, bay leaf, and thyme. I didn't have any truffle infused pāté that Chef Jon recommended but I had some homemade liver pāté so I mixed in a spoonful of that once the mushrooms had finished cooking down.
Three days ahead I pulled the meat out of the freezer to thaw. I had two small pieces of deer back strap in one bag. I would make two small Wellingtons. I thought it would be the perfect amount for my family and I would be able to cook them effectively in my toaster oven.
Once the meat was thawed I patted it dry and salted the surface. Then I wrapped each piece tightly in plastic wrap to form them into nicely shaped logs.
I started the Puff Pastry two days ahead of time. You may remember that I learned how to make Puff Pastry last year in order to make an Egyptian dessert.
For the Wellingtons I made 1 ½ recipes of that puff pastry in one batch. It turned out to be the perfect amount for what I needed.
To assemble the Venison Wellington I rolled out a section of puff pastry, brushed it with a whole egg egg wash, and let that dry for a minute. While the egg wash was drying I spread Dijon mustard on the meat.
Next I spread the duxelles onto the pastry, and rolled the piece of meat up in the pastry like a fat sausage in a blanket. I brushed it with egg wash.
I really wanted to add a lattice ornament to my pastry. I had no lattice cutter but when I was little my mom let us play with hers when we had playdough. I remembered how it cut the dough and I tried to replicate the pattern on a section of puff pastry using a ruler and knife.
Voilà! I was so happy with these lattices! They were perfect! (Perfect enough for me.) Everything got another coat of egg wash.
I baked the Wellingtons at 450° F. for 27 minutes. The internal temperature reached 122° F. I removed them from the pan to a cutting board. After resting 5 minutes the temperature had risen to 150°F. The meat was perfectly cooked. It was between medium/rare and medium. What a relief. One of my main concerns was getting the meat cooked right without over cooking it. I opted not to sear the roast because I just knew I would over cook it, if I attempted a sear. American's Test Kitchen left out the searing in their recipe, too, so I was in good company.
My meal was delicious! I wanted a restaurant quality meal at home and that is exactly what I ended up with.
I compared 3 sweeteners in this Pumpkin Cake recipe. I was inspired to do this by my son's science book. One of his projects was to design an experiment to test a cake sweetened with sugar versus a cake made with honey. I did that a couple weeks ago. It was really hard to tell the difference. We did a triangulated blind taste test. We learned this type of test from Ann Reardon's YouTube channel: How to Cook That. I recommend her if you are interested in food science.
Last Saturday I decided to run another experiment. I wanted to compare sugar, honey and maple syrup. This time we didn't do a blind taste test. We just observed and compared the cakes.
This is the recipe I followed:
Pumpkin Cake
1/2 c. Sweetener (Honey, Sugar, or Maple Syrup
1/2 c. Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 c. Pumpkin Puree
1 c. Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1/8 tsp. Ground Cloves
Mix sweetener, oil, eggs , and pumpkin until light in color.
Add dry ingredients. Mix to incorporate and then beat for 30 seconds.
Pour into prepared 9 inch round cake pan.
Bake in preheated oven at 350° F. for 25-30 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes and then turn out onto wire rack.
I had to bake the honey and sugar cakes at the same time in my toaster oven. I rotated them half way through baking to get them cooked evenly. The maple cake got to have the oven all to itself when it was baking. It was right in the middle the whole time.
The honey I used is creamed honey from Canada. I know there is a lot of variation among honey in the flavor so this could be much different with different types of honey. The honey I am using is pretty mildly flavored.
The maple syrup is from Indiana trees. My Dad made it and gave me a jar this spring.
The sugar I am using is the Zulka brand cane sugar.
A.
The Sugar Cake:
Very moist
Sweet
Pumpkin flavor a little more noticeable
B.
The Maple Syrup Cake:
Moist
Less risen
Larger air bubble
A little tiny bit less sweet
A darker flavor. Not caramel-y nor molasses-y. Just more cloudy and murky.
No maple flavor detectable.
C.
Honey Cake:
Very difficult to tell apart from the sugar cake.
Very moist. Maybe a tiny bit more moist than the others.
Sweet with a little extra stickiness. Maybe caramel like but just a hint.
These cakes were hard to tell apart. They all tasted very good. We all tried to pick up the differences and compare notes.
The reason that I decided to do this taste test last Saturday was because we were going to the Pumpkin Festival in Libby's hometown. I wanted to get everyone in the pumpkin mood before we went to the parade on Saturday morning. We had pumpkin cake for breakfast and did a fun little taste test while we were at it!
Happy first day of fall! (For those in the northern hemisphere)
P.s.
I have got to tell you about this taste testing coincidence -
Yesterday, I chose to watch Ethan's Chlebowski's latest video. It is all about honey. About halfway into the video he does a taste comparison by testing honey, maple syrup, and sugar in a cake recipe to compare outcomes. What! I had to smile. How did I just do that for myself only days before his video released? I thought it was funny.
It's time to round up this month's nature pictures.
My favorite is the close-up hibiscus flower. The petals look so velvety!
Do you have a favorite from this gallery? Have you seen inspiring sights in nature this month?
My children ran to get me when they saw this freshly emerged cicada. They didn't want me to miss out on seeing it.
This sphinx month was very well camouflaged on our neighbor's mailbox post
Knobby knees of the cypress. I loved getting to see these! There is a poem in this scene somewhere. Let me have a crack at it:
Knobby Knees of the Cypress
A stoic people,
A stable people,
Watching the waves
Ever changing.
They stand,
Unmoved,
Never changing.
To shift?
Or to stay?
To shift
For the wave is best.
To stay
For the knee knob is best.
A foggy morning.
I saw a beautiful morning. Drips of rain clung on all the leaves and branches. It could have been a heavy dew. It was hard to tell. The droplets were prisms everywhere! I was able to catch the effect in this picture.
First omen of fall.
This woolly caterpillar was so funny to me. Look at how his little grippers meet each other as they grasp all the way around the singular vein of leaf that is left. I imagine him worrying about where to find more food having eaten almost everything on this leaf. "What am I gonna do? I have nothing left. I'm starving!"
I am going to add a video of a monarch caterpillar changing into its chrysalis. It took f-o-r-e-v-e-r . I had my phone propped up on my knife organizer block all day because it offered a decent angle to capture this monarch caterpillar turning into its chrysalis. After 8 hours I have up and turned my phone off. I happened to be in the room when it finally split it's skin. I turned my camera on quickly to catch the rest of the "action". Doing science takes a long time! It's a slow burn. Don't feel bad if you getting tired of this video and don't finish watching. I can admit that it makes pretty boring cinema. Don't get me wrong, it is an amazing process and seeing it happening before my eyes was a real treat!
My mom made these every year to pack for our lunch when we went to the State Fair. We'd walk around the fair for a few hours. We'd see the biggest pig and some teams of Clydesdale pulling polished coaches having a competition in the Coliseum or watch a demonstration of dogs doing long jumps into a big pool. There were so many things to see! The 4-h projects, a marching band, an old fashioned threshing machine, a historic village, fiber arts, giant fish in the conservation center, antique tractors, live music, mammoth pumpkins, and a specially carved pumpkin with a scene of the fair or something iconic about our state, large tractors driving shuttles that we'd have to scurry out of the road to let pass, and on and on. The lunch hour would come and then we'd head back to the van and have a picnic. We'd pull the cooler out, lay down a blanket and feast on slices of Ham and Cheese Braid dipped in horseradish sauce, homemade cookies, fresh grapes, and chips, maybe some baby carrots, too. After our bellies were full and the water bottles had been replenished we'd go back and see more of the fair. State Fair days were always long and hot and full of sights, sounds, and smells. The feeling on the drive home was so raw: I couldn't wait to get back to my happy, quiet home, but I was glad to have so many memories of the big, wide bustling fair in my mind. And I was just so grateful to have my family around me; of all the people that I had bumped shoulders with in the crowds during the day, I got to go home with the best people in the whole wide world - my favorite people - my family.
This year I made Ham and Cheese Braid to take to our State Fair. We don't do the whole picnic at the van. We bought corn dogs for lunch. We had Ham and Cheese bread for a snack and to keep us from having to buy supper from the vendors, though.
I had fun making Ham and Cheese Braid after so many years. I thought it would be fun to make a video about the process and it was a fun project. Here is my little video. You can see how to make a Ham and Cheese Braid. My mom uses ham, provolone, and deli salami. I substituted summer sausage for the salami because I am too cheep to buy anything from the deli counter. Sorry for being so stingy.
It has been an apple-y time of year! Last week I was processing apples Monday through Friday. I froze 19 bags of applesauce. There is about 2 quarts in each freezer bag.
We like applesauce plain but also in treats like Applesauce Cake and Applesauce Pancakes.
I cut this dress out back in August 2023. This January(2026) I pulled out the pieces to start working on the dress.
This is how I put in a centered zipper. I find the best results are achieved when I baste the zipper in with a spiraling zigzag stitch that holds the zipper teeth directly on the seam.
It turned out pretty good on the first time. I didn't have to do any stitch ripping. Yay!
I usually put an invisible zipper in this pattern, but I didn't find one right away so I went forward with the centered zipper. Sometimes you've got to keep chugging and not get derailed on the details.
I tried machine sewing the button holes. They were awful. I had to take them all out and hand stitch the button holes.
Much better!
I also added 2 more buttons because I had smaller buttons than the pattern called for. I had to change the placement of the button holes to add the extra 2 buttons.
Because this dress took me so long to finish I had gotten it soiled dragging it around from sewing station to sewing station: from the kitchen table, to the living room, to the van for road trip sewing sessions, to the picnic table. I hope the spots come out.
This is after the wash.... Not too bad. Not too bad.
I see some issues with the fit.
I'm pretty sure I need to learn how to do a full bust adjustment. I can see some pull lines and the waistline is riding up in the front. Those are signs that I need a full bust adjustment. I have watched how-to videos and read tutorials, but I am still super intimidated to try customizing a pattern.
I have one more dress already cut and ready to sew. Since it is already cut out I am going to put off learning how to do a FBA yet again.
Have you ever had to adjust a pattern to fit your measurements? How did it turn out? Was it easy to learn?
I forgot to update you on our tadpoles last month. They took much longer to grow legs than I had expected. All of June they were growing. I first noticed back legs July 1st. After that they grew fast. They have all hopped out of the water and gone on their froggie way. It was a new experience for us to watch them grow from egg through all the stages to frog.
This weird little spiral of eggs (I think) was floating in the surface of the tadpole pool. You can see the dead fly for a size comparison.
I was amazed and flabbergasted by this bug that I saw one day on our house siding. I ran like I was on an emergency mission to go get my phone camera. This is a Wasp Mantidfly. I had never heard of it before or ever seen anything like it. It has arms like a Praying Mantis and a body like a wasp. But it isn't a wasp and it can't sting.
I foraged and tried Woode Ear Mushrooms for the first time. I dried them first as recommended and then cooked them in a soup. I found the crunch and chewiness quite pleasant. I will keep an eye out for more Wood Ear Mushrooms.
This Sphinx Month gave me a nice shot. I kept my fingers in the frame for scale.
We visited a historic village and I was drawn to the period garden. I saw tobacco and cotton plants up close for the first time. The cotton really captivated my interest. At first I thought it was okra based on the structure. Once I saw the flowers I was even more convinced that I was looking at a plant closely related to okra. The flowers look like any mallow family flower.(Think Hibiscus, Rose of Sharon, Marsh Mallow, Okra,....) I had never imagined that cotton flowers would be so showy.
The funny thing about the tobacco is that I never would have guessed that it was a nightshade based on what it looks like. I saw no resemblance to the other night shades that I am familiar with; tomatoes, potatoes, black nightshade, horse nettle, ground cherries, and peppers.
This iridescent beetle crossed my path. It made me think of fancy hats in the old days that were decorated with pretty beetle shells like this. It made me wonder how they found so many of these iridescent beetles back then because I hardly ever see such beetles. Certainly there were people that studied them and figured out how to farm them for hats and stuff for profit back at the time.
My favorite picture this month is this moth that I found on the window one morning. The lighting is good. The focus is good. The reflection on the glass adds some nice colors. And, best of all, the subject. This moth is captivating. It looks like bird poop, but weirdly in the most attractive way. And, it is holding out one of it's front legs like some kind of diva pose.
The smoke from the wild fires up in Canada and Minnesota have given us some hazy days. I liked the strangeness of the sunrises and sunsets during this time.
These next two pictures make me feel summer-in-the-midwest, especially the corn field. It leaves me with a nostalgic feeling for the fleeting youthful summers.
My son caught this lizard at a park. Unfortunately, he accidentally pulled the tail off while he was trying to catch it. Thankfully, lizards grow their tails back. It was very interesting to see the place where the tail broke. It looked like a connection joint for a lego or something similar, like it was perfectly meant to snap in that place.
I don't know what kind of flower this is, but I see it on my morning walks and I enjoy its beauty.
Do you have a favorite picture from this month? I have to say my favorite picture is the diva moth with second place being the driving by the cornfield and third place being the tadpole graduation.
