I had my parents over for Christmas Eve dinner, and wanted to make something special for them. Those of you who know me well, also know that I really love adding extra steps to recipes, to maximize depth of flavor. My co-worker had been talking […]
as you know, i love really involved recipes. as it happens, i’ve had a yen for spaghetti and meatballs for some time – comforting, savory but slightly sweet, altogether delicious. it is also, however, a cold-weather food, but luckily for me the weather complied […]
* note: this platter is ~20″ wide, and the big slices of beef are ~8″ in diameter in the long dimension
ok, here’s the lesson first, to be followed by the story: let meat be all that it can be, and it will reward you. the lesson is first because i didn’t know where else to put this line, but i couldn’t let it go. sorry for the gratuitous text.
we had christmas (or pre-christmas, since we happened to celebrate christmas both before and after christmas this year, but not actually on christmas itself) dinner at my cousins’ house in new jersey, and my mom put me in charge of roasting the massive beef rib roast that she had purchased. i had a photo of it, but my camera battery is out, so i’ll have to edit this post later.
my mother had also frozen said rib roast, because she had bought it several days before the day of the dinner. considering how long a turkey (a similarly large hunk of meat that is often frozen) takes to freeze, i thought that close to 14 hours in a cool car would be enough to thaw the 10-pound-and-change roast. not so. not so at all, my friends. the behemoth was only just starting to thaw when we arrived at my cousins’ house. (more…)
beef-thyme stew with mushrooms and swiss chard 3T olive oil or vegetable oil 2 lbs beef chuck, cut into large-ish chunks 3 large onions, halved and sliced 1T garlic, minced 2T fresh thyme, leaves stripped off stems and chopped fine 1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes […]