Beef Wellingtons

For Valentine's Day this year, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and try something I've never tried before: Beef Wellingtons. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I figured it was worth a shot: steak, sauteed mushrooms and onions all enclosed in a pastry couldn't be all bad, right? RIGHT!

The recipe I found on Taste of Home's website (which I halved) was fairly simple to follow. You need the following ingredients (this is for 2):

Ingredients:

2 beef tenderloin steaks (6 ounces each)
salt and pepper (to taste)
1 Tbsp olive oil, divided
A whole normal size package of fresh mushrooms, chopped (I LOVE mushrooms)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 package (17.3 ounces) frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

You start by generously seasoning the beef tenderloins with salt and pepper sauteing the tenderloins lightly on each side just until brown.

Then, remove the tenderloins and let them cool completely in the fridge while you sautee the mushrooms and onions in the same pan.

Once the tenderloin is cool and you've let the mushrooms and onions cool to room temperature, you remove the bacon from the beef tenderloin and place it in the middle of a square of puff pastry, then top it with the sauteed mushrooms and onions like so:

Close those little pockets of goodness up, pinch together at the top and brush with egg, then bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

The finished product :)

It was truly delicious! I'm not entirely sure I'd go through all the trouble again dealing with the puff pastry, but I was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out, and the hubby thought they were delicious as well!

However, I'd probably pass on the lobster mashed potatoes we paired with them. They took more work by far than the beef wellingtons, and they weren't that good. I would opt for normal mashed potatoes and let the wellingtons shine like they should.

I also added a large stuffed mushroom (store-bought) and some fresh steamed broccoli.