Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

Nice.

My dinner was supposed to be the appetizer before the Lady Gators versus Stanford volleyball match, but the Penn State vs Nebraska match went to 5 sets. My MIL and SIL went home as it was getting late. Everyone liked the food.

 

Send it to me.

 

Cool.

I am going to cook it like this:

https://www.thespruce.com/closed-oven-prime-rib-roast-method-995286

 

Having my youngest son's best friend over for my son's friend's birthday. Boneless rib-eyes about an inch and a quarter thick, baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, and salad on the menu.

Since I like mine medium rare I find that thickness works well. It could be just a tad thicker and still be good. For folks that like steaks rare I would suggest getting really thick steaks.

For folks with faulty palates that like well-done I would suggest going to Goodwill and looking for old shoes to eat. Much cheaper.

And a little secret. Sprinkle a tiny amount of sugar on the steaks before grilling them. And by tiny I mean very tiny and nothing remotely like a coating or a dredge. That little bit of sugar will caramelizes on the surface and is really good. It will give just a slight bit of crust that is not burned meat. Be careful, though. If you put too much sugar on it won't completely caramelize and you will taste the sugar on your steak and that isn't good.

 

Sounds delicious. Snapper and redskins work well together.

I make something like that with plum tomatoes, olives, onion, pickled jalapenos, raisins, and capers added. Also some lime juice, olive oil, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper as well a some flat leaf parsley as a garnish.

It is a bit of work, but really good.

This dish is from Veracruz. I have only been there once almost 40 years ago and I recall fondly the seafood I ate in some very nice restaurants.

 

Getting ready for holiday cooking.

Bought a turkey breast today to start thawing it. Plan is to brine of Friday and smoke on Saturday. Son #1 will be arriving in town from DC with his girl friend in the late afternoon. Looking forward to that.

Talked to the butcher about picking up a prime rib on Saturday just in case the one that gatorfan5220 sent gets lost in the mail. That will be the main course on Christmas. For a change I won't have to spend the whole day cooking. Only seven for dinner this time. There will be some manner of potato as well. Probably some sort of mashed potatoes. Garlic mashed potatoes is easy. Mashed with leeks is a nice upgrade on that. Or maybe I will get some Florida lobster tails to jazz up the mashed potatoes. Hmmm.

On Christmas Eve my wife will be making Cornish Pasty as is our family tradition. I will be making "stuffies" also known as stuffed clams. Think of clams casino but with Parmesan cheese instead of bacon and you won't be far off.

 

Picked up some frozen spiny lobster tails today so I will be making lobster mashed potatoes for Christmas dinner. My youngest son (22 years old) loves that. They are not hideously expensive and I am not making that dish for 25 to 30 folks this year like the last couple of Christmas dinners so just a tiny splurge.

Today I am making oxtail ragu to serve over bucatini pasta. I find oxtail very rich and cut down the meat from many recipes. And I keep the spices simple: lots of thyme and a little fennel seed. I do use a whole bottle of red win for the braise and used the entire contents of a $3.99 bottle of tempranillo. I put that wine to its best use. The rest of the liquid is tomato sauce and chicken stock. I only used sauteed onion in the braise and skip using carrots.

After braising I shred the meat, put it back in, and simmer until the ragu has the right consistency. That part takes patience, but it makes the house smell so good. The braise is almost done and the house is smelling pretty good already.

And Merry Christmas to me! Last night after the Gator basketball game we were having pizza and my wife invited our friend over that is a local lawyer that hails from the Macclenny area where we gave her a bottle of nice Rhone style wine from the Paso Robles area of California. She asked what kind of food would pair with it and I said steaks, but really game meat would be even better. She then said that her dad bagged three deer this fall and asked if we wanted any meat. Sounds like I have some backstrap coming my way! Thoughts of backstrap wrapped in bacon is making me drool. If not that at least some good ground venison that I can mix with some chuck and make some tasty burgers or chili.

Added in edit: It is called oxtail but it is really beef tail. It is some really tasty meat, but takes a long time to cook. Don't be put off by the name.

And after two hours of braising the meat was not fully cooked so I added the bones to the mix when reducing the liquid to the correct consistency. Usually two hours at 375 F works, but this time it didn't. Hey, you roll with the punches when cooking.

 

Finished the worst part of packing the trunk to drive to DC. Just a few odds and ends left and there is plenty of space left because the front of the truck is packed pretty solid with the heavy stuff, like boxes of books. My son's girlfriend said that it looked like I was playing 3-D tetris when I was packing it. Hey, I am an engineer and I have really good spatial skills.

So I left my MIL's house (most of the stuff in the truck is furniture from her house as she is seriously downsizing) and came home to start/continue dinner prep.

Last night I uncovered the five pound prime rib in the frig to dry out the outer layer a little bit. Just before 1:00 I took the roast out and placed it on a cookie sheet on the counter to warm to room temperature. At 3:35 I rubbed it with a light sprinkle of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. At 4:06 it went into a 500 F oven for 25 minutes. At 4:31 I will turn the oven off and let the roast sit in the oven for two hours.

Prime rib is awesomely good and trivial to cook. A perfect choice to today with everything that is going on.

I have some time to relax before I start peeling potatoes for lobster mashed potatoes. This is also a simple dish that is outrageous to eat and simple to make. It is a bit of a splurge, but my youngest son loves it and it is Christmas.

 

I just started my fourth load of dishes for the day and still have at least one more to go. And some bigger things that need hand washing, but I need the sink and counter space to do them.

 

Back from DC last night around 6:30 PM. Had warmed up leftovers for dinner.

Today my wife is making lamb kabobs that I will grill and fatoosh. I am making a yellow rice pilaf to go with it.

Tomorrow is black-eyed peas and collards for good luck that my MIL is making. I am slow cooking a rump roast in a crock pot with Italian spices for making Italian beef sandwiches. If you are ever in Chicago you must have one. I don't have a meat slicer to slice it very thin but shred the meat instead. The taste is spot on, but the texture is a little off. It is a reasonable facsimile. We received a big jar of giardiniera from Chicago as a gift and it is the perfect condiment for it. I will also saute some cubanelle peppers and onions as an additional topping.

Happy New Years everyone and bon appetit.