you want what now?

monday was my dear hubby's birthday, as much as he didn't want to admit it, as much as he hates the fact that he's getting older. even though now he feels he can refer to himself as an "old man" all the time, thinking that'll get him out of doing chores around the house.

anyway, as this past week has been absolutely insane and filled with alexander days (this is what i'm talking about), we haven't been able to have a proper birthday dinner for him. all week i've been asking him what he wants me to make for him. usually he wants some sort of large cut of beef or something with shrimp, something special that we don't have too often. not this year though. this year he decided he wanted me to make him a beef wellington.

it's my own fault, really. i'm the one that watches all the cooking shows, and he sometimes sits down and watches with me. i know these shows always put bad ideas in my head, filling me with desires for random dinners and parties and things to try and make, i just never thought they'd also infect my hubby with bad ideas too. not that beef wellington is a bad idea. honestly it's something that i've always wanted to try and make. and it seems surprisingly easy to attempt.

i believe beef wellington falls into the seemingly hard but actually simple and just time consuming category of dishes. really, what's stopped me from trying to make it before has always been the price. wellington is simply a beef fillet covered in duxelles and wrapped in puff pastry. a whole fillet is the expensive part. duxelles is just finely chopped mushrooms, with shallots or onions sometimes thrown in, cooked in butter or olive oil or just a dry pan, so it's actually something i could probably make for about $4. and really, puff pastry isn't too crazy expensive, and i usually have a coupon for it too.

so yeah, he wants beef wellington, of all the random things for me to try to make. and i still might make it for him. though now he keeps changing his mind, sometimes he says he wants a steak and sometimes shrimp scampi. i'm thinking that whatever i make will have to be a surprise, and he'll just have to like it.