My Daring Easter Feast

I had no idea what I was signing up for when I decided to make Prime Rib for our Easter dinner. Yes, I've had it now and then over the years (and even once at Sardi's as an unknowing 6th grader) but never understood how hard it is to make, how special it truly is and crazy expensive. I was just thinking it was time to have a holiday meal without fowl on the menu.

With my ignorance fresh in hand, I began searching the internet for recipes. When I asked a dear friend who has about 600 cookbooks and is my cooking guru for her suggestions, I got nervous when she told me she had never made Prime Rib. Ack! She sent me a bunch of ideas and they are my bibliography for a recipe I morphed when I casually mentioned to another friend what I was about to tackle. "Oh, you should talk to my sister, she makes this all the time and it's great!" She gave me the confidence to venture forth.

OUR MENU (everything with a # is made from my lov'n kitchen)

* Brie & Bruschetta

* Organic Greens and Parmesan Salad Dressing#

* Rosemary Prime Rib#

* Gruyere & Parmesan Potatoes Au Gratin#

* Fresh Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes# (recipe straight from allrecipes.com)

* Hershey's Chocolate Cake# with Buttercream topping

* And why not a Pumpkin Pie with New York Vanilla Ice Cream while we're at it?


For this entry, I will focus on the main meal. In the next blog, I will share the recipe for the cake. That way, I get points for two entries this week!

Seriously, I broke all the rules by making so many new recipes all at once!



ROSEMARY PRIME RIB
I bought a boneless 5 lb Prime Rib Roast, so adjust as needed... (I wanted leftovers cuz COLD PR is wonderful!)

Night before cooking: season with Kosher Salt, Ground Pepper and Paprika on all sides. Place in a jumbo Ziplock and refrigerate. Turn the bag whenever you are near the fridge. No stress, even if you just flip it twice - great.

3-4 hours before cooking: take the PR out of the fridge and set on a plate on the counter and bring to room temperature.

When ready, preheat oven to 450. Remove meat from bag, brush all sides with Kitchen Bouquet. Shake on Garlic salt, more ground pepper, paprika and generously cover all with fresh Rosemary. All sides need to be covered. Insert Meat thermometer into a side. Place on roasting rack inside roasting pan.

Bake for 15 minutes. Then reduce the oven temp to 275 and continue baking until temp reads 133 for medium rare. (This took us 2 1/2 hours)

Remove and cover loosely with foil and let sit for 20 minutes, (now you can finish up your side dishes and get that gravy going) then slice and serve.

AH MAZE ING!!


MADERIA GRAVY
In large saucepan, melt 3 TBSP of unsalted butter. Whisk in 2-3 TBSP Wondra until thick paste is formed. Boil briefly, continuing to whisk. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of Maderia red wine, in small quantities. Be sure fully mixed before adding more. Slowly add a 32-oz carton of low sodium beef broth. Whisk in enough Kitchen Bouquet to tint gravy a medium-dark brown. Go crazy with ground pepper. Bring to boil, then simmer, covered for about 20 minutes til slightly thickened.


GRUYERE & PARM POTOS Au GRATIN
I will never use cheddar cheese again!

1. Wash and slice 5 baked potatoes as thin as you can without harming yourself
2. Place slices in 5 quart pot with enough water to just cover potatoes (you will add more water as you slice)
2. Thinly dice 6+ cloves garlic, add to pot
3. Add generous pinch of Kosher salt and ground pepper to pot - bring to boil.
4. Reduce heat to simmer and cook @ 8 minutes more - just don't let them get mushy
5. Drain in colander, add ice cubes to keep potos from sticking
6. When ready, layer 1/2 of the potatoes in a 9 x 13 baking pan
7. Drizzle 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream over all, generously cover with ground pepper, sprinkle 1 cup freshly shredded parmesan cheese over all
8. Layer the rest of the potatoes, drizzle 3/4 cup more of heavy whipping cream, cover with pepper and 1 cup freshly shredded Gruyere cheese, then sprinkle with 1/2 cup more of the freshly shredded parm
9. Bake at 350 for 1 hour... or as we did, 30 minutes in the oven with the P R at 275 and then 30 minutes alone at 375 til cheese just bubbles


GREEN BEANS WITH CHERRY TOMATOES
Surprise... I pretty much followed this allrecipes.com recipe except we did not chop up the beans or halve the tomatoes.

Not only did Spot give this 4 paws, so did my hubby, my son and our other son! This is our new Special Dinner. Now I just need to watch for the meat sales in order to find out when we can have it next.