Damon Lee Fowler

Dec 21, 2014 9:49 PM EST

Here it is only three days until Christmas and all morning I was fretting over the fact that our Christmas dinner was not already in the planning stages. I am a Southern from North Carolina and Georgia living in Beijing China and my homesickness often gets the better of me living so far from my family and friends back home - especially at Christmas time.

I'm embarrassed to say that I am new to your writing and came to your website after reading your name in the contributors list of CornBread Nation 1. I was trying to cheer myself up and reading about Southern cooking always does the trick.

Your recipe for Beef Tenderloin looks wonderful and uses ingredients I can always find here. Turkey and a real ham are not as readily available and take some pre-planning to order from a local restauranteur. This year I had not done that.

I have no idea of how to sew up a piece of meat, but I can probably work out the tying if I can find some string. Looking forward to giving it a try. :-)

Thank you for sharing your recipe and I truly look forward to ordering your books and becoming more familiar with your website.

Blessings to you and may you have a very Merry Christmas this year.

Warmly,
Allison
www.southerngirlatheart.com

- Allison Plyler

Dec 26, 2014 6:24 AM EST

Jenny and I learned how to make this on our cooking trip to Parma, Italy, a few years ago and served it as the main course for an Italian dinner that we auctioned off for a St. Andrew's School function (when my grandchildren were students there). . It's very special indeed! The butcher at Kroger who trimmed our filets was fascinated by the idea of the finished product and asked for photos.

- Pam

Sep 09, 2015 6:29 AM EDT

My daughter Jenny and I learned to make this dish when we took a cooking course in Parma five or six years ago and served it as the main course for a dinner we raffled off at a St. Andrew's fundraiser (where Jenny's children attended at the time.)

We had been disappointed that the finished dish in Italy was well done, and the recipe we took home did not specify that it should be otherwise. My goodness, when we spend THAT much on a filet of beef, we are darned if we're going to overcook it, so we decided ourselves to serve it medium rare, just as you have suggested! It was a hit!

The butcher at Kroger who trimmed and butterflied our filets (we were serving ten people and wanted leftovers as well, so we made three rolls) was fascinated with the idea of how we planned to prepare the dish and asked for pictures of the finished product!

Thanks for adding the recipe to your web site so that I can refer to it the next time I make it!

- Pam McCaslin

Sep 09, 2015 1:20 PM EDT

Pam,

Whoever gave you the recipe didn't cook it properly: Rosa di Parma should be no more done than medium and actually, cooked a little more done than medium-rare provides the best texture and flavor. For some reason, I never got notifications of the previous comment and so never saw it. I hope you enjoyed it!

- Damon Lee Fowler

Sep 09, 2015 1:24 PM EDT

Allison,

For some reason there was a hitch in the notification system in December and I didn't get notified of your comment, so I am just now seeing it. There's got to be a better way to do this!

Thanks so much for your comments and support. I'm going to visit your site right now!

- Damon Lee Fowler