Once again… Prime rib and Yorkshire pudding. Same as every year, but since I only make it once a year it may as well be Christmas.
Usually I make boiled red potatoes. I think I’ll mash them with garlic this year. The veg? Brussels sprouts. I always have them. Someone posted a recipe that involved halving em and roasting them in the oven. Or something like that. I’ll have to see what I can turn up. I suspect green bean casserole will also make an appearance.
Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner? Probably. And some red table wine so I can make glögi for afterward. (With vodka, of course.)
I should probably get or make a dessert. But really, we’re too full for dessert after a massive slab of roasted deadcow.
I’m kind of stuck in this mode also. Too many family members won’t eat pork, lamb, or seafood. Green bean casserole is the only vegetable everyone can agree on. They all want my french onion soup instead of anything more interesting. A wonderful creative cooking event has been reduced to a chore.
It’s not a chore for me at all. It’s dead easy to make. And I like it. I’m not complaining; it’s just that I’m doing the traditional meal.
It’s too late for me to learn to make French onion soup, but I should get some from Trader Joe’s and make that. And I have some snails in the cupboard. They’re always good before ribbage.
I love roasted Brussels sprouts! Halve 'em longitudinally, so there’s just a bit of the cruciferous stem on each half, holding the leaves together. Slice up an onion and smash some garlic, or slice a couple of shallots instead of the onion/garlic. Toss the veggies with melted bacon grease to coat, if you have it, or canola or “vegetable” oil if you don’t have bacon grease. You can use olive oil, but don’t use the good stuff. Add some salt and black pepper to taste, and some dried or fresh rosemary if you like. Roast*, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until they brown on the edges.
*If I’m doing them alone in the oven, I do them at 425 for about 30-40 minutes, but if I’m cooking something else, they just go in for the ride until a bamboo skewer goes through with minimal, but some, resistance. If it’s too cool to caramelize the edges, then just crank up the heat when you take the meat out of the oven to rest for a few minutes.
For desert, maybe a nice Panna Cotta with berries? Cook’s Illustrated has a good recipe. Or maybe a nice premium sherbet? Something cold and fruity might be nice after the heavy meal.
I had to look up glogi (sorry I don’t know how to make the two little dots over the o) and that looks very nice.
Christmas dinner is at my husband’s aunt’s house. It will be a culinary disappointment but she insists and we can do nothing but show up and force a smile. Luckily, we get to host Christmas Eve which is the feast of the seven fishes. I think we’ve managed 7 this year, it’s difficult. We have to keep it simple because the old people simply balk at the idea of eating a lot of food. It’s strange, it’s like they’re afraid of a table of delicious food and the remark is always “that’s a lot of food” followed immediately by “don’t give me too much” not “that looks delicious” or “let’s eat, I’m starving”. Crazy old ladies.
Your Christmas dinner Johnny L.A. is the Christmas dinner of my dreams.
It is very nice. Especially on New Year’s Eve when we walk down to the beach to participate in the Ring of Fire and Hope and to watch fireworks. Nothing like a hot Thermos of sauce!
Aw, shucks! :o It’s nothing you couldn’t get at a restaurant any day of the year! I hope the roomie’s widowed BIL (or is it step-brother? I don’t know.) can make it up. As it is, there are two of us with a roast as big as my head.
Culinary disappointment? Poor cook, or poor menu?
I find I’ve opted for smaller portions or no seconds since my late-20s. I overindulged at Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch once, and was in pain. It put me off eating too much at a sitting – not that I don’t eat too much physiologically, or that it keeps me from cooking for an army even if I’m alone! I marvel at people who build mountains on their plates at all-you-can-eat buffets. I mean, the whole point of those places is that you can get more! Why get to much at the start? As for oldsters, maybe it’s just that they eat less. I wouldn’t make a fuss of it, though. If I want less, I’ll take less.
Prime rib and Yorkshire puds here, as well. Also a very rich cabernet au jus from this recipe. I think I’m doing this recipe for the roast. My cousin is bringing the traditional plum pudding, flames and all.
Some people blast the roast at the beginning, and others blast it at the end. I prefer the former.
I tend to like certain things – like roasts – uncomplicated. For one thing, it’s easier. For another, I like the flavour of the meat. Seasonings shouldn’t overpower. (Which is why I eschew steak sauce on my steaks, for example.) I start by cutting the ribs off of the roast. I season them and the roast with kosher salt, freshly-ground black pepper, minced garlic, and rosemary. I put the meat back on top of the bones. Sometimes I’ll tie them together, if it looks like the meat will fall off. I roast the meat, ribs down, in the oven at about 450ºF for 45 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325-350 for 20 minutes a pound until a probe thermometer reads 125-130. (I like rare to medium-rare – bloody, but not cold.) The goal is to have it red in the middle and a nice Maillard reaction for a crispy, salt, brown crust. Remove from the oven, cover with foil, and allow it to rest for half an hour. Carve off Flintstone-sized slabs of flesh and save the ribs for later. I like a mixture of sour cream and horseradish (a bit on the hot side), but not so much per bite to overpower the meat. Use the drippings for gravy and the Yorkshire pud.
The ribs: I like to wrap them in foil with as much juice as I can spare, and cook them in low heat until the meat is practically falling off the bone. Then open the foil and baste with BBQ sauce and let it caramelise. I usually cook them without the sauce as long as I have a hot oven, and do the BBQ sauce when I get to eating them a couple of days later.
I might have posted this before, but for little red potatoes, I have yet to find one that gets a better response that this recipe - for ‘Crash Hot Potatoes’
It is just the four of us this year, so I am going to spend the day slowly simmering a pot of spaghetti sauce to perfection, and serve it with fresh garlic bread, a tossed salad and a nice red wine.
Sorry, didn’t mean to be a downer. I’ll hide my rant.
It’s about 15 years in a row I’ve been stuck on this menu. No crown roast of pork (“pork’s not good for you”), goose (“geese are cute, turkeys are ugly we can have one of those”), lamb (“lambs are cute too, no lamb”), shrimp (“I’m allergic”), scallops (“I’m allergic”), other seafood (“I don’t like fish”), brocolli (“Upsets my stomach”), brussels sprouts (“There were bugs in them when I was a kid”), anything spicy (“Too spicy”), no sausage stuffing (“Sauage is pork, pork’s not good for you”), no bacon (“Bacon is pork, pork’s not good for you”)
I love roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. My french onion soup is good (and way easy if you need a recipe). So I’m not complaining about the food I have to serve, just wish I could change it up.
