Similar to a Thanksgiving turkey, one of my favorite culinary aspects of Christmas is the standing rib roast and using it the days following.  On Friday a large part of my morning was spent picking up around the house while a fragrant beef stock simmered on the stove.  As the week comes to an end, we will wrap it up with some out of town friends coming by tonight for cocktails and appetizers, lots of football, and believe it or not, I will hang my apron up for a day or two.  Okay, probably just a day.  So enjoy this last edition and most importantly, a Happy and prosperous New Year to you.

Thursday, December 26th- still celebrating!

Breakfast BST on C’s, citrus salad

Cobb Salads

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza’s

Breakfast BST on C’s, citrus salad–  Breakfast BST’s on C’s are a simple and delicious way to use some of the ingredients laying around in my fridge.  Bacon, Smoked Salmon, and sliced Tomato on a Croissant.  I think my mother in law had hers with a fried egg as well, a complete breakfast sandwich.  We have so many beautiful grapefruits, oranges and pears around, so I segmented these fruits into a simple salad.  This breakfast sounds ways more fancy and complex than it is to prepare!

Cobb Salads–  Today we were all craving something crisp and clean, so we settled on Cobb Salads for lunch.  Crispy romaine lettuce (using up what was left from Christmas dinner), blue cheese crumbles, boiled quail eggs, avocado, chopped bacon, tomato, diced red pepper, and a small amount of turkey breast, tossed in a vinaigrette with croutons…a light and clean lunch was in order and oh so satisfying!

 After a lazy afternoon on a cold day spent by the fire, we had a little treat of baking some deep dish Chicago pizza’s someone had sent my husband through work.  I apologize to all of you Chicago style pizza lover’s out there, but they were just not as good as beloved NYC thin crust to me.  I’m not complaining, I was glad to have a break from doing a meal, but I would have rather been in the kitchen again over that!  Oh well, kids were happy…

Friday, December 27th- the end!

And finally, a morning to make the beef stock!  I will not bore you with our simple breakfast or leftover lunch and dinner, but will share with you why I like  having a rib roast on Christmas Day.  As pictured on the last blog, this rib roast is simply beautiful and delicious.  A rib roast for those of you who aren’t sure, is a large bone in cut out of the prime rib section.  If it was cut into steaks you would have very large well marbled rib eyes, and it is often referred to as prime rib.  We do not cut ours into prime rib slices, we prefer a thinner slice.  It can be 2 ribs, which would serve about 4, to 3 ribs or 4 ribs or more.  I ordered a 4 rib roast which will feed 8-9, with leftovers.  Leftovers, that is the key word!  I will make this simple as I can.

Yesterday to make the stock I cut the ribs into individual pieces and roast them at 425 for about an hour, nice and browned.  Deglaze the roasting pan with nice red wine (if you have it leftover), and at this point I had to transfer from the roasting pan to a stock pot; and then add a mire poix- a fancy way of saying carrots, celery and onion.  I threw in a little extra meat, some scallions, garlic cloves, fresh thyme and rosemary, too, added half a can of tomato paste and water to cover the ribs about an inch. Simmer, not boil, this fragrant beauty for a while.  I think total time for me was close to two hours yesterday.  Strain slowly and carefully into another pot where stock can cool, separating mire poix and meat from liquid.  (Be sure to remove and freeze the rib meat and the fall apart tender cooked meat for vegetable beef soup or tacos in a few weeks.)  Let stock cool completely, overnight is best, then skim the fat off the top, and you are ready to use and/or freeze your beef stock.  This stock, when reduced a lot, is almost more of a demi glace.

Pictured below: Stock pot cooled with top layer of fat,

it looks like carrot soup in the picture!

 

Pictured below I wanted to show you the partially skimmed stock on the left,

then the last photo is fully skimmed of fat and the reserved meat to freeze

Over the weekend with this delicious stock we will enjoy French Dip sandwiches with thinly sliced roast beef and au jus, and another favorite is French Onion Soup.  We’ll probably have the soup on Sunday, as it will be perfect on a cold rainy day after a fun filled week and weekend of Christmas celebrating.  I will be in my pj’s, apron on the hook, settling in for a long winters nap.  Enjoy, the best of food and life, and all our celebrations have to offer and contribute to the joy in our lives.  For some of us that might mean it being over, but that’s ok too!