The Accidental Filet Mignon Pot Roast

Dinner last night: grilled Arctic char with fennel and spice rub, grilled zucchini, and an heirloom tomato salad with mozzarella, basil and Dijon mustard vinaigrette. And champagne.

Sounds great, looked better.

Except:

Me: How do you like the salad?
Hubby (setting aside an almost full salad bowl): It's good...except...I don't normally like that many tomatoes in a salad.
Me: Oh! I'm sorry. I thought you liked tomatoes. It's just a deconstructed caprese salad.
Hubby: I know. But...too many tomatoes.

Hubby reaches for the fish. I continue munching away at my salad happily. I like tomatoes, and especially heirloom tomatoes.

Hubby (chewing thoughtfully on fish): Um...baby? This fish tastes metallic.
Me (alarmed): What?

I spear a bite of fish and pop it in my mouth. Metallic? Maybe something in the pan? Was the fish bad? I bite down. Uh oh. I know why it tastes metallic.

Me: Uh...That's the fennel spice rub.
Hubby: Oh. It's a little strong for the fish.
Me: Yeah. You're right. It was just so yummy on the chicken last night I thought it'd work on the fish.
Hubby (brightening): Last night's dinner was excellent.

He reaches for the zucchini.

Hubby: Is this what I brought back from New York?
Me: Yep.

Hubby begins sawing at the zucchini with his table knife. Not slicing, sawing.

Hubby: Why's it so thick?
Me: It was sorta rock solid. It nearly broke my kitchen knife when I was slicing it.
Hubby (chewing his zucchini with difficulty): Is it ripe?
Me: It looked fine.
Hubby: Is it cooked?
Me: Yeah.
Hubby: Maybe it's just not good?

Pause. We both start smirking.

Me: This is the Accidental Filet Mignon Pot Roast again, isn't it?

Last year I was making filet en croute, and made the dumb mistake of accidentally baking my filet mignon in the oven, which resulted in a very expensive pot roast (very very important to remember to set the timer when main courses go in the oven).

We look at each other and start laughing.

Me: But your wine is good.
Hubby: My wine is very good.
Me: It sounded good on paper.
Hubby: I'll bet it photographed really well.

As a matter of fact, it did.