Christmas Dinner Roast Beef

One of the nice things about our recent Christmases in Florida has been the availability of really nice fresh oysters. A little place in Saint Augustine has them by the bushel, still covered with the muck they were dug in. You take them across the street to the car wash and hose them down with the power hose. Uncle Curt has become an expert shucker, so pretty much all of the meals you see here are preceded by plentiful oysters on the half shell during cocktail hour, served with horseradish, cocktail sauce (ketchup plus horseradish plus red pepper flakes), lemon and pepper.

That same place had major prime ribs for sale, so we wound up with a beautiful fifteen pounder. I wasn't there to see the guy prepare it, but I think he cut the mean off the ribs, tied the ribs to the bottom of it, and rolled the whole business back up stuffed with garlic, then rubbed it with pepper. Next year I'll get a lesson.

That led to a dilemma about how to cook it. I have been hearing about various low temp, or even oven off methods, but when you look on the internet you also see a bunch of high temp methods. I was too nervous to try the oven off method the first time, so I made some sort of compromise and put the thing in the oven at 300, about three hours before dinner. About two hours later nothing was happening, the meat thermometer still registered cold, it hadn't browned at all.... people were hungry and I was getting nervous. So I kept upping the temp in the oven, it wound up at 425 has three and then three and a half hours passed. I was checking constantly, but I still sort of blew it, before I knew it the whole thing was a little overdone, medium rare at the rarest, and well done on the ends. It happened really fast, I think this is why those oven off methods exist. It was still pretty good though, there was enough almost-rare for the blood loving members of my own family, and fortunately some others from other families actually prefer it a little better done. But still, when I get home I am going to buy a roast beef and try it oven-off. Live and learn.

Anyway, another key part of Christmas Dinner, from my mother by way of her German Jewish mother in law, is "baked dish." I do this one by ear so I can't be too specific. Let's see. Peel and quarter about eight medium size baking potatoes and four yellow onions. Butter a 9 by 13 baking dish, scatter in the potatoes and onions, salt and plenty of black pepper. Then add rice.... the hard part is how much. I add it thinking that I want it to fill the pan once it expands as it cooks. It about covers the bottom of the pan around the potatoes and onions. I would say about 1 1/2 cups, maybe 2. Then fill with boiling water to within a cofortable distance of the rim of the pan. Not too close or you'll never get it in the oven without spilling. Bake at 350, keeping an eye on the liquid as the water is absorbed. If it starts looking dry before the rice is cooked, add a little hot water a cup at a time. The idea is to have another half hour after the rice is done to cook off the last moisture and brown it on the bottom so it gets crispy. Mom could only make that happen about half the time, and I'm not sure I do that well. It's good anyway, kids love it, and it's great with roast beef jus over it.

Finally we had steamed green beans. Trim the beans, put them only wet from the water they were washed in in a microwavable dish, topped with some butter, salt and pepper. Cover with plastic and microwave for... depends on how many beans. About one minute per serving of beans would come pretty close.