HOW TO: Beef tenderloin

I had plans, BIG plans over Christmas break to pretty much cook my brains out. Unfortunately that never happened...instead I watched my mother cook our annual family Christmas party dinner, in this case being beef tenderloin. I would have cooked it myself if my mom would have let me, but alas, she wanted a dinner that could actually be served. So, I had to settle on her giving me a step-by-step tutorial. Now it's my turn to teach you, and hopefully by the time I'm done, you will be able to make a scrumptious meaty meal.

Let the cooking begin:
First, she told me to wash my hands. I asked why (because I wasn't even cooking), but she said just do it because it is mandatory when your cooking so I should get used to it. After that mini lesson she turned to the oven and set it for 390 degrees. (I always forget to do this at the beginning and end up having to wait for it to heat up after everything's already prepared). I asked her where her recipe was so I could write it down. She just pointed to her head and said I don't need a recipe, I just know the basics and then wing it. This might have been fine for her, but I don't do well with "winging it". Anyways, she grabbed two huge slabs of bloody meat about the length of my arm. She took a knife and sliced open the plastic. This allowed a bunch of blood to ooze out (one of the reasons cooking is G.R.O.S.S.). Mom was not deterred in the least, but went right on the tell me that at this point you can trim the meat of it's fat. She decided to skip this in favor of flavor. Taking out the beef, she folded it in half ad tied it up like a present with kitchen string. This, she said, was to prevent uneven cooking. (one side was very skinny and the other relatively fat, almost like the top part of an exclamation point.) Mom then squeezed both enormous pieces of folded meat into the aluminum pan and started seasoning. I asked her how much of each seasoning she used but again she told me that she could just tell when it was enough (very helpful mom, thanks). Anyways, after putting on imprecise measurements of salt, pepper and Montreal Streak Sauce, and rubbing the meat with gross enthusiasm, she dumped out the extra blood and settled the steak in the middle of the oven (again, for even cooking) with NO COVER (She was very specific about this).
The entire time she was cooking, my mom gave me little bits of wisdom, for example: Never freeze good meat!!! It'll ruin the juices or something.
By this time, we were pretty much done. All that was left was to wait about an hour then check to see the temperature of the meat. Mom said that we wanted it to be about 120-125 degrees because it would continue to cook after we take it out (COVER ON this time). By the time it would be done it would be around 130-135 degrees. And all we'd have to do is cut and serve it up.

After watching the whole process of cooking the beef, I was prepared to be completely disgusted and only take a tiny bit. Of course, once I tasted it I took a huge chunk. It was SO good: all juicy (don't think about the blood, don't think about the blood...) and tender. It was a big success at the party. I'm hoping next year I get to do more than watch the meal preparations.
Here's the final product: Delicious looking right?
Well, this isn't the exact beef tenderloin that we made (I found it on the internet), but it looks uncannily similar to the master piece my mom made.