Christmas Dinner with Sheriff John, the Mrs. and, of course, Jax

This Christmas I was able to spend 10 days with my parents. Most people might grumble about that, but I absolutely loved it! I have amazing parents who are fun and thoughtful and loving and oh so very generous. Lane joined us for 5 of the 10 days, and we had a wonderful time filled with lots of food, wine and laughter. My mom and I planned out a menu the weekend before Christmas and wanted something special for Christmas eve dinner. We almost always do beef tenderloin on special occasions, so we wanted to try something different, and prime rib fit the bill! Of course, we made Lane cook it. He often gets volun-told to cook, but I think he likes it! We found a basic prime rib recipe online and added our own little touches. It was delicious and really so easy. The meal was fabulous, as always!

Prime Rib slightly adapted from Simply Recipes
(The link has GREAT pictures to go with the recipe)
Ingredients

• One standing rib roast, 3 to 7 ribs (estimate serving 2 people per rib), bones cut away from the roast and tied back to the roast with kitchen string (ask your butcher to prepare the roast this way)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Rosemary springs

Directions

Remove roast from the refrigerator, loosely wrapped, 3 hours before cooking. Roasts should always be brought close to room temperature first, before they go in the oven.

Cookbooks often call for the excess fat to be removed. By "excess" fat they mean any fat more than an inch thick. The fat is what provides the flavor and what you are paying for with prime rib, so you want to leave it on. Your butcher should have removed any excess fat.

If your butcher hasn't already done so, cut the bones away from the roast and tie them back on to the roast with kitchen string. This will make it much easier to carve the roast, while still allowing you to stand the roast on the rib bones while cooking. Basically, you cut the ribs away then tie them right back on. It helps provide the flavor, but makes it easier to carve when you’re ready to serve.

Preheat your oven to 500°F, or the highest it will go (our oven goes up to 700°F, which is too hot). Generously sprinkle salt, garlic powder and pepper all over the roast. Cut slits in the top of the roast and insert small springs of rosemary.

Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast, making sure it doesn't touch a bone. (Some meat thermometers require that you poke a hole first with a skewer, and then insert the thermometer.) Place the roast, fat side up, rib side down in a roasting pan in the oven.

After 15 minutes on 500°F, reduce the heat to 325°F. To figure out the total cooking time, allow about 13-15 minutes per pound for rare and 15-17 minutes per pound for medium rare. The actual cooking time will depend on the shape of the roast and your particular oven. A flatter roast will cook more quickly than a thicker one. So make sure to use a meat thermometer. This is not a roast to "wing it". Error on the rare side.

Roast in oven until thermometer registers 115°-120°F for rare or 125°-130°F for medium.
Check the temperature of the roast using a meat thermometer a half hour before you expect the roast to be done. For example, with a 10 pound roast, you would expect 2 1/2 hours of total cooking time (15 minutes at 500° and 2 1/4 hours at 325°). In this case, check after 2 hours of total cooking time, or 1 hour 45 minutes after you lowered the oven temp to 325°.

Once the roast has reached the desired internal temperature, remove it from oven and let rest 20 minutes, covered with aluminum foil, before carving. The roast will continue to cook while it is resting.  (I think we let it rest a little too long, so just watch your temp. We prefer it to be on the more rare side.)

With a knife or scissors, cut the strings which attach the meat to the bones. Remove the bones (save for making stock for soup. Then, using a sharp carving knife, slice meat across the grain for serving, making the slices about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.

DELICIOUSO and oh so easy. It takes some advance thought, but the actual preparation is really easy. Just make sure you have a great (and accurate) meat thermometer that you can constantly watch the temperature on.

Here’s Jax wondering what happened to his portion of prime rib, but then settling with a bowl of bacon bits. (No, we didn’t actually give him the bacon.)

We served the prime rib with a wedge salad, baked potato and sourdough bread. For dessert, we had apple pie and honey lavender vanilla bean ice cream (recipe to come).

Oh, and the wine. Let’s not forget the wine. Several years ago, my dad said to my mom and me, “Well, if I die, you can sell all of the wine.” Mom and I looked at each other, paused, and at the same time said, “We won’t sell it…we’re going to drink it!!!”

So, from then on, my dad realized that if he wanted in on his own wine, then he should start opening it now! We’ve convinced him to open even more by saying that we’ll just have to go back to Napa to get more. Whatever the thought is behind the decision to open more wine makes no difference to me…I’m just glad I get to partake!

On Christmas eve, we opened two bottles…A 2003 Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet and a 2004 Sullivan Vineyards Cabernet. These are my two FAVORITE wines. Not only are they wonderful to taste, but since I’ve been to both vineyards, drinking them brings back such wonderful memories.

Silver Oak has been a long time favorite of my parents and, therefore has become a favorite of me and Lane. The last time we went, part of their property had burned and we tasted in a portable building. They were in the process of rebuilding so I can’t wait to go back and see their new facility.

Sullivan is actually right across the street from Silver Oak and we first went in on a whim because my dad had a good friend whose last name is Sullivan. We thought it would be fun to get him a bottle of it, not knowing what we were tasting. That was in 2001. When we walked up to the barn (because there was no tasting room) Mr. Sullivan, with his handlebar mustache, greeted us and immediately treated us like family….and the wine, well it just happened to be FANTASTIC. I’ve never forgotten that experience. When we went back in 2008, Mr. Sullivan had since passed away and they had an official tasting room, but we still had the same experience…greeted by the old, white faced golden retriever and Mr. Sullivan’s son inviting us into their family home. Can’t wait to go back.

It was a wonderful Christmas and I’m so thankful for my parents. They have created an amazing example of what marriage should be and we are forever grateful to them for that.

And, just because I promised and I know you’re on pins and needles waiting for pictures of cute puppies…here you go!

Jax in his monster sweater.


Sleepy Lane and Jax on Christmas day. (Jax now sporting his cable knit fisherman’s sweater)



Reindeer Knox


Poor baby Jax had a toenail ripped off and had to have a little bandage put on. It also couldn’t get wet so we had to wrap a baggie around it when he went outside. I told him I wouldn’t put the picture on the internet, but oh well. Sorry King! Don’t banish me!