This is what’s for dinner tonight

Tags

postaday2015, roast beef

My husband had a hankering for prime rib and he wanted it as rare as possible, so how better to do that then to make it at home. As I was driving, he took the time to google what exactly is a prime rib, it is the rating, not a cut of beef, so it is prime rated beef that happens to be of the rib section. Next they advised to sear the rib roast in the oven at 450 degrees for a half hour and then reduce the heat to 275 degrees for ten minutes to the pound. When he took the rib roast out, it was a thing of beauty and after waiting the traditional ten minutes before slicing into it,  the beautiful shade of deep red was so mouthwateringly tempting where he made that first slice. One of my favorite accompaniments to roast beef of any kind are string beans sauteed with garlic and olive oil. Tonight will be very yummy.





Experiment in the kitchen with a failsafe in place

Tags

experiments, postaday2014, roast beef, soup

Years ago my husband found a shop called l’Occitan that also housed a Bistro on the second floor. L’Occitan has stores throughout the Northeast, but I have never seen one coupled with a Bistro except for the one my husband found on Prince Street in SoHo. I had the good fortune to have eaten there when it existed (it is closed now) and I had an excellent broccoli, cauliflower and cilantro soup. I decided to try making at home; I diced an onion, minced two cloves of garlic, cut up both the broccoli and cauliflower and sautéed everything in olive oil for several minutes before adding chicken stock and then leaving it to simmer for as long as it took until the broccoli and cauliflower were tender. I pureed it and then I added a half of a bunch of cilantro and pureed it again. I like it, but I am not sure that it is what I was remembering, I wish that I could get a time machine to go back a few years to grab another soup from their Bistro to refresh my culinary memories. I will have to tweak it because though it is good, it isn’t great. Perhaps I need to add more cauliflower or maybe the reverse, more broccoli, I don’t know. I will finish my pot of soup and think about it some more.

The failsafe is the roast beef and roasted baby potatoes that I made for my men so if nothing else we have meat and potatoes. I am not sure that my husband or my son will enjoy the soup so the meat and potatoes are guaranteed to keep them nourished. I am no longer the meat and potatoes fan that I once was, even if I get tired of eating soup, I would prefer it over eating beef nowadays. Soup is good food.

The comforting aroma of meat and potatoes

Tags

dogs, postaday2014, potatoes, roast beef, vacuum

I wish that technology would advance to the point where we can share aromas as well as visuals in our blogs. My kitchen smells really nice right now, just like Sunday dinner. I made roast beef and a gratin of potatoes for our son for the week so that he has something nourishing to eat. I can do the tough love and not cook anything, but the only person being punished by this is myself, fretting about our son’s diet. And to be honest about it, everyone knows by now that I love cooking anyway so why not just do it. It isn’t as if I am depriving our son of exploring his inner chef, he has made it very loud and clear, he hasn’t any inclination to cook now or anytime in the future.

Roast beef is good hot or cold, I made a little jus from the drippings so he can do with that as he pleases and the gratin is easily heated up in the microwave. I can guarantee that Jack will be sitting right next to our son as he eats, begging for something, anything and if our son decides not to share, I bet that Jack will be sniffing the floor all around where our son sat; praying for the tiniest sliver of food that might have escaped from the plate or our son’s mouth. He really is a miniature Hoover vacuum masquerading as a dog, dedicated to inhaling all things edible wherever they may be; on the floor, in the cushions on the seats of chairs; it’s his mission to find it and eat it.