Christmas Prime Rib Roast ~ Newlywed Girl

Happy Holidays everyone! Every Christmas I try to make something a little fancier than my normal menu items for my family. I think they usually wait for me to plan and discuss my menu options and then we pick the star of the show. The last few years I’ve made pot roast, turkey and goose. This year is the fanciest year yet. I am going to attempt my first prime rib roast.

I purchased the prime rib from a local butcher who is famous for their prime rib. They dry age the beef for a couple of weeks so its like steakhouse quality. Lawry’s Prime Rib – eat your heart out!

You can try my recipe too if you’re interested. This feeds 8-10 people.

Ingredients

9-12 lb Prime Rib on the bone – should be about 4 bones

3 Carrots, peel and chopped into large chunks

2 Onions, chopped into chunked pieces

2 cups of water, add more if necessary

Horseradish for dipping

Herb Blend

1 1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary

2 Tbs fresh ground pepper

2 Tbs salt

5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

4 Tbs olive oil

2 15 oz cans of beef broth

1 cup red wine, cabernet or pinot noir

2 tsp butter

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare the spice rub in a small bowl to ready for the meat. Trim some of the fat off the prime rib. Rub olive oil on the meat and then take the spice rub and evenly spread around the meat.

Take a large roasting pan with rack. Add vegetables to the bottom of the rack and place the meat on top of the vegetables. Pour the water onto the vegetables.

Cook the meat at 450 degrees for 40 minutes. Turn the heat down to 275 degrees for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the internal temperature reaches 130. Check that the pan has enough water for au jus. add more if needed.

When it is ready, remove from the oven and cover and allow to rest before eating. Reserve 2 cups of drippings for au jus. Strain and defat the drippings into a pot and deglaze on the stove with the beef broth and red wine. Add the butter towards the end, and season with salt and pepper.

Carve tableside or onto a platter. Serve with the horseradish. I am also going to roast potatoes to go along with this great meat.

Happy Holidays!!

Loving the Holiday Season ~ Newlywed Girl

Now that we’ve turned the corner past Halloween, I can start thinking about the best part of the year, Holiday Time! The best part about this year is the family time, cooler weather, and the days off from work! I really cherish the holidays because it brings back some really great memories of childhood. Now that all of my siblings and I are older, we have gotten past the whole materialistic gift exchange, and just really enjoy the time together with our parents and our significant others and families.

I started thinking about the Holidays today when I walked into the cheesiest decoration store. It was originally our home patio furniture store, but when we went in today for patio accessories, it had turned into a winter wonderland. There were fake trees of all sizes, ornaments, wreaths, giant Santa Claus lawn ornaments, and other over the top decorations. Here is a quick picture I took from my cell phone.

Sorry to people who like lawn decorations, but the ones they had at this store were way over the top. This particular statue was about $1200. In this economy, I really can’t see any justification for this type of figurine. I do however, look forward to my annual fresh tree purchase and recycling my old ornaments from the last few years. Maybe I’ll  even put a couple of small gifts under it for my niece.

What do you look forward to this Holiday Season? For me, ever since my sisters and I decided to forgo gift giving, I feel like I’ll enjoy the Holidays even more. No more malls, long lines, and ringing 2009 in with New Year debt. I’m looking forward to the yummy meal with my entire family.

Why Puppies…? Why Worms…?

Why did we give ourselves this name for the blog? Its kind of a funny name but its meant to encompass all of our topics from cute and cuddly as well as the dirty and messy. We want to talk about all things messy, cute, and cuddly about life.

In introducing our new format, we are going to feature a series of guest authors for our blog who can speak to all different stages of life. Initially, we will have two contributors; a hip / cool modern mom to a 4 year old, and the level-headed newlywed. It’ll be fun to read about their daily musings and the things that really make their world go round.

Look for their future blogs here at Puppies and Worms!