Beef Tenderloin Roast, and No-Knead Bread...again!

We didn't travel anywhere for Christmas this year, but I wanted to make sure that we had some 'traditional' Christmas food to top our lazy day off. Plus, my mom was flying into town and I thought she'd enjoy a delicious beef tenderloin, her world famous scalloped potatoes and some other delicious food to end her afternoon of travel. I started by making the New York Time's No-Knead bread again, but in doing so I learned that I was actually using the wrong yeast to make the bread! I was using Active Dry and the recipe calls for Instant - apparently they're different! Well, the bread still turned out VERY yummy, and beautiful. I've bought some instant yeast now and I am dying to give the recipe a try with the correct yeast!

The centerpiece of my Christmas meal was a 2lb beef tenderloin:

Here's what I did to prepare the roast:
1. Bring roast up to room temperature - let it sit covered on the counter for about a half an hour or so.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. I used a convection roast setting on my oven.
3. Salt the roast generously on all sides using Kosher salt.
4. Sear/brown the roast on all sides until a nice carmel color forms.

5. Sprinkle freshly cracked pepper on the roast.

6. Transfer roast to a roasting dish or baking pan. I used a 13x9 glass pyrex dish. Worked just fine!
7. Cook roast to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for a medium roast. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Roast will continue to cook as it sits.
The beef tenderloin came out perfectly cooked, well seasoned and very tasty. I served it with salad, steamed carrots & broccoli, and scalloped potatoes. Clearly my dog was hoping for the leftovers...

Dinner was topped off by this decadent chocolate cake, courtesy of Betty Crocker. I have to admit, Betty does a better job at baking cakes than I do from scratch, so she won the competition for completing my Christmas dinner.