I probably could’ve served just these crackers for the hunters, because they were pretty crazy about them, but dinner was the event! Dinner included some of the favorites of past groups – beef tenderloin, potatoes dauphinoise, sauteed mushrooms, and marinated green beans. I don’t think I’ve given you the green bean recipe, but I will next week. I prepared two appetizers – grilled pepper poppers, and thyme parmesan shortbread crackers with salami slices. I made rather large quantities of both, in fact the poppers filled a large aluminum roasting pan, and five guys ate all of it. For dessert we had Angie’s Chocolate Cookies.
Before I forget to tell you, I got the beef tenderloin from the meat market at the Feed Mill Restaurant in Gatesville. It was awesome. Ricky trims and ties one of the most gorgeous pieces of meat you’ll ever see. And I didn’t exactly follow my previous beef tenderloin recipe. Well, I forgot cheesecloth. Instead, I used a baking pan I had cooked bacon in earlier in the day. I rubbed dry spice all over the tenderloin, then rolled it around in all that bacon fat. A normal person may have stopped at that point, but then I smeared softened butter over the whole top, and wrapped strips of bacon around the whole thing. Oh, it was good.
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
- 2 tsp minced thyme
- 1 tsp cracked pepper
- Salt
- 1 stick butter, cut into small chunks
- 1 TBSP sour cream, cream, or softened cream cheese, if needed
Instructions
- Place flour, cheese, thyme, pepper, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process until combined.
- Add butter. Pulse several times, then turn the processor to on. If the dough does not start to come together to form a ball in a few seconds, add the sour cream, cream, or cream cheese.
- Process until a dough ball starts to form.
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap (at least 20") on the counter. Turn the dough onto the plastic wrap. Form a log about 1" across, wrap in plastic, and store in fridge.
- When you get ready to cook them, leave dough log (roll) out a few minutes, just long enough to be able to cut through it easily without tearing the dough up.
- Heat oven to 325°
- Cut roll into 1/8 inch slices. Place slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake about 15-20 minutes, do not brown.
- Recipe doubles easily, if you'd rather make more at one time.