I hope the 1st day of the New Year was an enjoyable one for everyone! We stayed up very late the night before, so we slept in a bit on this first day of the year. Madison made us breakfast and we just enjoyed a lazy day for the most part.
A few years ago I started a tradition on New Year's Day to try to turn things around. We had experienced several challenging years, and by challenging I don't mean the normal challenges that most of us experience at some point in our lives. I mean the type of challenges you think will never happen to you...or anyone you know for that matter! I won't bore you with the details, but it all started in 2004 when we lost our home to that crazy hurricane season here in Florida. You can read about that here if you are interested in the details. In the years following the hurricanes Don had a brain tumor, my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, and Madison and I were in a devastating rollover vehicle accident.
One thing after another! You'd think that would defeat us, but it didn't. It brought us closer together as a family, and we look for the blessings in each of those challenges.
I'm not one to be superstitious, but after the accident I needed to do something! Here is my Facebook status for January 1st 2010
New Years day in our house is usually spent taking down decor & cleaning. This clearly has not been working as evidenced by the past 5 years of one tragedy after another,so I'm making a change. We are indulging ;o). Brunch was a rich baked cinnamon french toast and dinner will be a real splurge: Roasted Beef Tenderloin,garlic smashed potatoes,green beans & mushrooms & some honey rolls. TV is ON. We'll work tomorrow
All of those wonderful dinner recipes can be found here.
2010 was a good year filled with normal challenges, lots of love and laughter, and none of those crazy - knock you off your feet - kind of challenges. It was a great year, so it only made sense to start every year the same! Thus, a tradition was born!
We have since changed from Beef Tenderloin to a Standing Rib Roast, and not because it is less expensive, but because it has more flavor. Lucky for me I've been able to pick it up on sale each time, which just sweetens the meal that much more!
This year the sale on the roast was right before Christmas, and I had it on good authority it would not be on sale the week following Christmas. Therefore, I was faced with a dilemma. I wasn't going to change my tradition. NO WAY! We were going to "indulge" on New Year's Day one way or another! The dilemma was, do I buy it early on sale or do I wait and purchase it at full price??
Freezing was NOT an option! I don't like to freeze meat, and I will NEVER freeze a standing rib roast. It changes it - trust me! So what to do?? I had heard of dry aging before, but there is so much controversy over it, I had never tried it....until now. After much deliberation, I decided dry aging was my best option, but I was terrified!
After much research on the subject, I decided one week of dry aging wasn't going to hurt anything. I have to admit, I wasn't completely convinced and was in fear that meat was going to go rancid before I ever got to cook it! It was a stressful week!
New Year's Day finally arrived and I took the roast out of the fridge to inspect it (I had left it alone as instructed - no peeking! hard to believe, but it's true!). The fat on top had gotten very hard, so I trimmed that up a bit leaving a nice layer of fat on top for flavor. Other than that all looked (and smelled) fine, so I proceeded with my favorite prime rib recipe - allrecipes.com Garlic Prime Rib! (see below for cooking tips)
Our roast was a 3 rib (gotta get at least 3 ribs for flavor and leave them attached please!), 6lb roast. I made it just as the recipe states except I use fresh Thyme and I remove the roast between 120-125 degrees F. then let it stand for about 20-30 minutes before slicing. That is mid-rare and just the way we like it!
As soon as I cut into the roast I could tell it was very juicy! This definitely was the juiciest most tender prime rib I have ever made. As far as the taste...eh I don't think that was affected much. It was just as delicious as any other prime rib I've ever made! It was exquisite and the perfect indulgence for our tradition!
This was so delicious, it was gobbled up and we only have scraps left, so no pictures - sorry :( It was beautiful though - probably the most beautiful roast I've ever made. It was done to perfection and would have made for pretty pictures, but I do have the ribs left and plan to make a tasty prime rib soup. We will definitely get pictures of that to share!
Would I dry age again? I don't know that using up all that space in the fridge during the holidays is worth it (an entire shelf just for the roast!!). I do think it improved the texture just a bit, but I don't think the flavor was deeply enhanced. I think that requires much more aging time and special refrigeration, but I'm thankful I was able to buy my roast on sale and have a process to keep it safe until we were ready to cook it. I definitely recommend dry aging for a week if needed to save some $$$$$!!!
Remember...
Life is Short and can change in an instant
so always Choose to be happy
Make it a great year!
Oh so true...life can be changed in an instant! I'm so sorry to hear about so much tragedy in your life. My heart sank! The only thing that helps me get by in hard times like you had is to think that no matter how bad things seem, it could always be worse! I hoping we both have better years to come...or at least not worse! Great post!
ReplyDeleteLillian, thank you so much for your kind words, and that is so true! It really does help to remember that! Here's to "not worse" years ahead haha! Happy New Year!
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