"What the hell is that?!?"

Picking stuff to make from the pantry isn't a big deal because, as Bill Belichick loves to say, it is what it is.  But substantially older food from the freezer is a different ballgame.  Yesterday I pulled a couple of things out of there that made me feel like I was playing a more difficult version of Dave Letterman's game "Know Your Cuts of Meat."  One appeared to be a big shoulder or something like it (still thawing, and I'm still not sure what it is), while the other clearly looked like a piece of tenderloin.  At least it did to me.  It was in a freezer bag, and wrapped in plastic and black butcher paper inside of that, and clearly the paper threw Beth off.  She saw the piece of meat sitting on the counter and mistook the color of the paper for the meat itself, instantly wondering what the heck I was trying to pawn off on her

It turned out to be a beef tenderloin, and a good one at that.  I threw together a southwestern spice rub with some cumin, chili powder, ancho chili powder, cayenne, garlic powder, salt, pepper...good stuff like that.  AJ helped me put the rub on the meat and it must have been decent because he licked it off his fingers.  Yes, sometimes he can be a little weird.  Anyway, I did the beef on the grill and it turned out great.  We had it with some black beans, canned corn, and quinoa with some frozen peppers and onions mixed in.  I also found a little can of diced jalapenos and sprinkled them around in pretty much everything.  All in all, Pantry/Freezer week has been a rousing success so far.