A delicious, quick meal that will use some of your filet is beef stroganoff. This is the recipe I use...sounds complicated but you can simplify the sauce. The point is that the beef is sliced thin and quickly, very quickly, sauted and then tossed with the sauce and served over egg noodles. Delicious ! Beef Stroganoff (Silver Palate) 3 Cup Crème Fraiche (can use sour cream) 1 1/2 Tbl Dijon mustard 3 Tbl tomato paste 3 Tbl Worcestershire sauce 2 Tsp paprika 1/2 Cup demiglace (or good beef broth) 3/4 Tsp salt fresh black pepper To Taste 1 Lb firm small sized, white button mushrooms 10 Tbl butter (or a combo of butter)and EVOO 24 pearl onions 3 Lb of beef filet Italian parsley Chopped Combine creme fraiche, tomato paste, mustard Worcestershire, paprika, demiglace (or beef broth if you don't have demi glace), salt and pepper in a medium size sauce pan. Simmer slowly for 20 minutes or until sauce is slightly reduced. Do not boil. Remove from heat and let sit covered. Cut a small x in the bottom of each onion. Bring a pot of water to the boil and drop the onions in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain the onions and run under cold water. Peel the onions. Melt 3TBSP of butter in saut pan. Saute Mushrooms until tender. Remove mushrooms and add 3 TBSP more butter, saute onions just until lightly golden. Remove the onions from the pan and add to mushrooms. Cut the meat into thin slices on the diagonal. Heat the remaining butter in the same pan. Cook on high heat just until lightly browned,do not over cook.This dish can be prepared to this point several hours before serving. To complete, set sauce over medium low heat and bring to a bare simmer. Add mushrooms, onions and any accumulated juices. Simmer 5 minutes. Add beef and juices, heat just until meat is heated through. Serve immediately over hot noodles , garnish with the parsley.

LOL Stacy, I was just getting ready to post the same recipe. It is soooooo good! Here is another really good one. You will have to adapt a bit because you are doing a whole tenderloin. Just use the pan drippings from your whole roast instead of the pan fried part. To tell you the truth I don;t think you even need to do that. Filet Mignon With Mushrooms And Madeira 1 TBSP butter 2 Tbl olive oil 12 ounces button mushrooms thinly sliced 1/2 Cup minced shallots (about 3) 4 garlic cloves minced 1 Tbl chopped fresh thyme 4 5-ounce filet mignon steaks(each about 3/4 inch thick) 1/2 Cup Madeira 1 1/2 Cup canned beef broth 1/2 Cup whipping cream Melt 2 tablespoons butter with 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and saute until tender, about 10 minutes. Add 1/4 cup shallots and half of garlic and saute until shallots are soft, about 3 minutes. Stir in thyme; season with salt and pepper. Transfer mushroom mixture to medium bowl. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in same skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper. Add to skillet and cook to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer steaks to plate. Add remaining 1/4 cup shallots and garlic to same skillet. Saute 2 minutes. Add Madeira and boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add broth and boil until mixture is reduced to 2/3 cup, about 6 minutes. Add cream and boil until sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Stir in mushroom mixture. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Return steaks to skillet and cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Transfer to plates. Spoon sauce over and serve. Makes 4 servings.~ Bon Apptit May 2001~

Hi, Stacy! Your post just struck such a chord with me, and I wanted to share my experience for what it's worth... My family had always (and I do mean *always*, as in for the last 100 years at least) had a huge Thanksgiving feast with turkey, dressing, ham, homemade rolls, along with countless side dishes and lots of desserts. Then we'd repeat the exact same menu for Christmas dinner. Besides hours of grocery shopping and days of cooking, there was silver to polish, linens to iron, crystal and china to hand-wash, etc., etc. Like you, we usually had a crowd of 16-18, so it was a massive undertaking. But with several good cooks and lots of willing helpers, it was always great fun -- very definitely a pleasure rather than an obligation. A couple of years after I 'inherited' hostess duties from my mother, though, suddenly the joy was all gone and it became overwhelming. Our family reached a point where the grandparents and others of their generation were too old and feeble to help. And the grandchildren were still too young to assume any meaningful responsibilities. There was absolutely nobody to help me with this huge project. Well, except for my sister-in-law, but I refuse to go there.... After serving Thanksgiving dinner that year, I was on the verge of collapse. (As usual, SIL didn't even offer to help with the dishes!) And all I could think about was the fact that it would be deja vu all over again in less than a month -- PLUS all the shopping, wrapping and decorating that makes Christmas 10 times more chaotic. In order to save my mental health, something had to give! So I did the previously unthinkable and announced that our holiday food traditions were about to change dramatically. The Thanksgiving menu would remain basically the same, but Christmas dinner would be way different. I promised them it would be elegant and delicious, but it would also be extremely simplified. To my shock and amazement, all the oldies were extremely supportive. They said it made lots more sense under the circumstances, that they were sure they'd love anything I served, and it would be fun to start a new tradition. (Pretty cool 'tude for people in their 80's and 90's, huh?) The ones who howled with indignation were my kids! I actually had wild-and-crazy teenaged boys up in my face, accusing me of "throwing generations of family tradition down the tubes..." It would have been riotously funny if they hadn't been so genuinely upset. Who knew they had even noticed the enormous effort I put into holiday celebrations, much less cared??? Despite a negative PR campaign (orchestrated by my oldest son) that would have done any politician proud, I stuck to my guns. The result? The most wonderful Christmas dinner you could imagine! I put the boys in charge of the salad. One prepped the spinach and red leaf lettuce and sliced some red onion. Another cooked the bacon and shredded the Swiss cheese, while the third mixed the poppyseed dressing. Their other assignment was to cook the beef tenderloin. (They weren't real great in the kitchen at that point, but they were already superstars on the grill.) Yes, it put a lot of pressure on them to cook such an expensive entree -- but I knew they'd step up to the plate. And they were sooo proud when the beef drew raves! For the first time, one of them invited a girlfriend to join us. When she insisted, with obvious sincerity, that she'd like to help, I accepted her offer. With me providing the recipe and a minimal amount of supervision, she prepared a wonderful crabmeat concoction for our starter course. All I had to do was layer the ingredients for a potato gratin and cook a green veggie, pop some rolls in the oven, and later pull out the cheesecake I'd made two days in advance. It was the most wonderful Christmas dinner! So wonderful, in fact, that we've repeated it every year since. For once, I was able to relax and enjoy it as much as everyone else did. And, of course, the 'cherry on top' was that my sons readily admitted afterwards that they had been wrong and that having a different menu for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners actually made both meals seem more special. Talk about feeling vindicated!! You don't sound like you're on the verge of a mental breakdown over your menu like I was. lol But I would really encourage you to try this different approach! However, like several others have said, stick to the basics. Stuff something that needs help, not this. I've found it's best to allow 1/2 lb. per guest. Unless you have a crowd with unusually large appetites, you'll even have a little bit left over. Good luck! sm P.S. Almost forgot to share the best part of the story. The lovely young woman who so thoughtfully insisted on helping prepare that crab dish 5 years ago? To my joy, she became my DIL last month. Just one more reason our first Christmas dinner without turkey will always rank up there with the most wonderful ever!! :)

This is Ina Garten's method (The Barefoot Contessa) and if I could get it right, anybody can. FILET OF BEEF Serves 8 to 10 1 whole filet of beef (4 to 5 pounds), trimmed and tied 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon coarsely ground pepper 1. Heat oven to 500. Place beef on a baking sheet; pat the outside dry with a paper towel. Spread butter on with your hands. Sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Roast for exactly 22 minutes for rare and 25 minutes for medium rare. 2. Remove from oven; cover tightly with foil and allow to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove the strings and slice the filet thickly. Serve with Gorgonzola Sauce. Gorgonzola Sauce Copyright, 2001, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, All rights reserved Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 50 minutes Yield: 3 cups 4 cups heavy cream 3 to 4 ounces crumbly Gorgonzola (not creamy or "dolce") 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley Bring the heavy cream to a full boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, then continue to boil rapidly for 45 to 50 minutes, until thickened like a white sauce, stirring occasionally. Off the heat, add the Gorgonzola, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and parsley. Whisk rapidly until the cheeses melt and serve warm. If you must reheat, warm the sauce over low heat until melted, then whisk vigorously until the sauce comes together.