Unique Serving Platter

I know that my hatred of fruit baskets is a little bit misplaced, but if you had as much history as I have had with them, you would probably feel the same way. I know what you’re thinking: who has history with fruit baskets? Well, let me tell you a story. Every Christmas, my mother-in-law used to send us incredible edibles fruit baskets. That was it – no call, no card, nothing. When we would call her, she wouldn’t answer the phone. She was a bit of an eccentric and a shut-in. Sometimes we would get her something personal, but it didn’t matter. Whether we got her a beautiful piece of jewelry, a great book, a new sweater or something else, it was always the same thing - edible fruit baskets.

After a few years, our presents started to get lamer and lamer. Because we would only get an edible fruit basket from her no matter what we got for her. We started getting her less thoughtful presents like calendars, trinkets, books of quotes and other things like that. What we didn’t know is that she was silently holding a grudge in her head. Apparently, she wanted to get us edible fruit baskets because that was what she wanted to receive from us. Here we were, racking our brains for good presents for years and all she wanted was edible fruit flower baskets! It didn’t even look like she would like it – I never saw her eat one when we would all get together on family occasions. Nonetheless, she had been resenting the edible fruit baskets we didn’t get her every year, and she was saving it up to have it out with us.

A few edible fruit baskets later, we finally got a call from her on the holidays. My wife answered cheerfully, happily surprised that her mother had decided finally to call us. When she hung up the phone, she was in tears. I never found out what she said to my wife, but I knew what it was about. All my wife would say over and over again was “flower fruit baskets, she wants flower fruit baskets.” You would think that if it was so important to her, she would have asked us at some point, but it never occurred to her to say anything. As a matter of fact, because we were not sending her edible fruit baskets while the other children in her family were, we were actually nearly cut out of the will!

Filet mignon is, has always been and will always be the supreme cut of beef, and one of the greatest foods in the world. Ever since I was a kid, I have associated this rare and delicious cut with the most special of occasions and the most formal of events. My parents, when they would take us out for a trip to the theater as children, would first bring us to an exclusive Italian Bistro. Several courses would be served, beginning with a light dish of pasta, a tray of delicious sliced meats and cheeses, some wonderful minestrone soup, and fresh-baked, piping hot bread. Although the individual offerings would vary from day-to-day, the main, and most sublime course would always remain the same. The filet mignon recipe was so good that none of us ever tried anything else. It was, in fact, the specialty of the house.

For many years, I was afraid to even experiment with filet mignon. It seemed too rich and an exalted dish for my amateurish culinary pretensions. Nonetheless, one day curiosity finally got the best of me. I prepared a filet mignon blue cheese recipe, a variation of the steak I had never tried before. I figured that even if it was not very good, it would at least be unique enough to warrant my efforts. My attempt was not in vain. I was a natural! The fillet mignon was delicious, almost as good as what they would serve in the Italian restaurant. At that point, I realized it was not just the expertise of the chef, but the wonderful quality of that cut of beef that made it taste so good.

What I didn’t know then is that filet mignon is not all of the same quality. I had yet to discover such things as aged beef, Kobe beef steaks, grain fed organic steak, and all of the other innovations in preparing the perfect beef. I only use 100% hormone free grain fed cattle. I feel that if I’m going to make something as good as filet mignon, I probably shouldn’t compromise at all. Everything about it should be just perfect, otherwise there is no point. I’ve gotten to the point where I know a dozen different ways to make it, all of them tasting absolutely delicious. I’m glad that I was brave enough to cook it in the first place.