Prime Rib Dinner and More!!

Holidays are special times for most families, and mine is no exception. We have had some serious big time blowouts and elaborate celebrations over the years and we have had some fairly low key celebrations too. Easter 2018 was one of those low key holidays. My daughter Debbee and her husband Randy invited just the Chef and I over for a quiet evening dinner and it was perfect. The Chef and Nathan got to spend some quality time playing guitar and talking about music. Nathan is learning to play guitar now, and you already know the Chef is quite a skilled player, it's only natural that they would share this hobby! Since Nathan is a middle school student he is learning some actual rock songs, like Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, and a couple Journey songs. I can't wait to see how he develops as a player especially with the Chef as his grandpa.

Both Debbee and Randy are very good cooks, and spend an equal amount of time in the kitchen preparing meals. Even Nathan, as you already know, has an interest in cooking and learning about new foods, and we always share our Nathan Night adventures. Since Debbee and Randy invited us over for Easter Dinner this year and she decided to go BIG with a beautiful prime rib roast. Although we have all eaten prime rib many times out for dinner, she had never prepared one before. She scoured around for hints and recipes and eventually found exactly what she was looking for. Fresh herbs, garlic, and butter added that extra special touch to a pricey cut of meat. Pretty daring for a first timer but she hit it out of the park with this meal.

Almost as enjoyable as the dinner, was her story about shopping for this roast. She had come across a recipe for "ribeye roast" that looked good to her so she decided to make it. She had not yet put two and two together. At the meat counter she didn't see anything marked ribeye roast so she asked the butcher and he said sure, he had some in the back, what size did she need? She told him how many servings and he came back with a good size roast, and after she and Randy approved, he put it on the scale. Just a quick flash before he whipped it off and wrapped it up, she caught the price- $81.00. She said her heart almost stopped, but she had already gone this far, no turning back now, time to make a prime rib roast. Having spent that much on just the meat, they were determined to not only have the perfect Easter dinner, but to utilize every single piece of that leftover roast the rest of the week, and boy did they ever!!

Herbed Prime Rib Roast

1 prime rib roast (Debbee had an 8 lb roast)

2 sticks butter (NOT margarine), room temperature
7 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped, plus more

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped, plus more

1 tablespoon salt 
1 teaspoon pepper

Allow the prime rib roast to stand at room temperature for about four hours. Two hours before dinner, heat the oven to 500 degrees. 

In a bowl combine the softened butter with the garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Spread all over the top and sides of the roast, including the ends. Place roast on a rack in roasting pan and place in preheated oven. Roast at 500 degrees for 5 minutes per pound, then turn off the oven and leave the roast inside. DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR!!!! Leave the roast untouched for two hours. Meat should be 135 degrees, or rare. Remove roast to cutting board and reserve the drippings to make the gravy. Slice the roast into servings and serve with mashed potatoes, herbed gravy, and a vegetable or salad. 

Herbed Gravy

Pan drippings
2 tb flour
2 cups beef broth

Place the roasting pan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until a smooth paste forms, then whisk in the beef broth. Cook, until bubbly and thickened. Add a few pinches of reserved fresh herbs right before serving.

Since the roast they purchased was an 8 pound roast and a lot more than we would eat for dinner, Debbee was going to make sure to waste nothing from this splurge. The next day, part of the leftover beef became a beef stroganoff with creamy sauce, and tender pasta.

Debbee's Beef Stroganoff

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried sage, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
salt and pepper
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups leftover prime rib, cut into strips
fresh parsley, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until browned. Add the shallot and garlic, cook for one minute longer until softened but not brown. Stir in the herbs and salt and pepper.

Add the butter. When melted, stir in the flour and mix in completely. Add the beef broth, Worcestershire sauce and mustard and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until thickened. Stir in the prime rib and cook until heated through. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream.

Serve over hot cooked noodles, sprinkled with parsley.

The second day was Taco Tuesday with a clever twist on steak tacos. This recipe even used some of the leftover horseradish sauce from Sunday to create a zippy avocado sauce to add a kick.

Steak Tacos with Avocado Horseradish Sauce

olive oil
leftover prime rib roast, cut into bite size strips or chunks, about 1 pound
2 limes
2 tablespoons taco seasoning or chili powder
6 flour tortillas
shredded cheese
pico de gallo- your favorite recipe
Avocado Horseradish Sauce- recipe follows

Cut the limes in half. Cut one half into wedges and set aside for serving. Juice the remaining limes.

In a large skillet, heat a couple swirls of olive oil. Add the prime rib and sear well. Sprinkle the lime juice and taco seasoning over. Continue cooking until heated through.

Warm the tortillas. Place a small amount of cheese on the bottom, top with the meat, a little pico and the avocado sauce. Serve with lime wedges.

Avocado Horseradish Sauce

1 medium avocado, peeled and pitted
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
salt and pepper

Cut the avocado into chunks and place in food processor with remaining ingredients. Blend or pulse to desired consistency. Serve immediately.

Finally, the remaining prime rib roast was sliced into super thin slices, heated in simmering au jus, and piled onto French rolls for some easy and fast French Dip Sandwiches. You can have this meal on the table in minutes with one simple shortcut- canned au jus or au jus mix packets! So easy and so delish!

I was truly impressed not only with Easterdinner, but her creative uses for those leftover. She used up every bit of the meat too! So, tell me, if you had to recycle some leftover prime rib roast, what would YOU come up with?

Meatless Monday meets Taco Tuesday

Every now and then we like to throw a vegetarian meal into our rotation. We get to be creative with food and it doesn't hurt to give up meat every once in a while. In fact, lots of vegetables and other foods  make great protein replacements and can be just as hearty as a piece of steak or chicken.

When it comes to bulking up a meal when we're not eating meat, we love mushrooms. The modern grocery store has so much variety these days that the produce section often has four or more different fresh mushrooms at any time. We have the usual suspects- button mushrooms and portobello mushrooms, but we also see cremini, porcini, shiitake, oyster and others. When you consider the variety of dried mushrooms too, wow, you can really have fun with textures and flavors.

I didn't want just boring old button mushrooms. A while back I was sent a package of mushrooms and peppers from Marx Foods to try, cook with and share what I thought, so the chanterelles and black trumpet mushrooms are going on the tacos. They were big and great quality, rehydrated easily and cooked perfectly. They added a nice woodsy flavor to the tacos.

Today we're talking tacos. Now your mind probably immediately went to the old boring Americanized taco- a blah tortilla with greasy spiced hamburger, shredded processed cheese, wilted lettuce and, often, leaky old sad tomatoes. Trust me people, it isn't like this in Mexico. At all. I'm not claiming my mushroom tacos are authentic either, but they are a nice change with lots of flavor, none of the grease, none of the gross fake cheese.

I had to use dehydrated mushrooms for my wild mushrooms.
These mushrooms are from Marx Foods. 

Lakehouse Mushroom Soft Tacos

1 1/2 lbs mixed fresh mushrooms

1 large sweet onion

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cumin

1 garlic clove, smashed/bruised

1 14.5 ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, divided
2-3 tablespoons adobo sauce

1 cup sour cream, divided

diced avocado, sliced radish, cilantro leaves, etc.

whole wheat soft tortillas

Divide the sour cream into two small bowls. Add 2 tablespoons cilantro to one bowl, and the adobo sauce to the other. Cover and chill.

Clean the mushrooms and slice. If using shiitakes, pull off and discard the stems; if using portobellos (the big ones), scrape the gills off with a spoon- an optional step but it helps the dish not be so brown. I used white button mushrooms, rehydrated chanterelles and black trumpet mushrooms.

Clean the onion and slice into thin wedges. Use the flat side of a knife to smash and bruise the garlic clove without chopping it up. We want the garlic flavor but we will be discarding it later.

Place the vegetables in a large zip top plastic bag.

Combine the oil, lime juice, salt, cumin and mix well. Pour over the vegetables in the bag. Close the bag and pop in the fridge for about an hour.

Preheat the broiler. Remove vegetables from bag and drain off marinade. Discard the garlic clove. Spread the vegetables on a baking sheet and broil for about 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through cooking time, until mushrooms are nicely browned.

Drain the tomatoes and toss with mushrooms and onions. Pop back in the oven for a few seconds to heat the tomatoes. 

Serve the vegetables in soft whole wheat tortillas drizzled with the cilantro crema, adobo crema, crumbled queso fresco and whatever toppings you like.

Tonight we topped ours with cilantro leaves, shredded radish
greens, sliced scallions, sliced radish and queso fresco.

The mushrooms and tomato mixture is also good served over shredded lettuce as a mushroom taco salad with avocados and the cilantro cream. You can add salsa if you like- I like mixing salsa and the sour cream in equal parts and using that as a dressing for taco salad. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe are of good quality and safe. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

The Three Fs- Fourth, Food, Festivities

Oh we had SUCH big plans at The Little Lake House this year. We live right across the street from the park, and the lake's events committee had scheduled a live band to perform in the park as part of the annual Independence Day celebration- basically our front yard. So while other folks had to load up coolers, lawn chairs, blankets, food, drink and use the dreaded Kybo, we were going to get to enjoy the party from our front deck, the fridge just steps away, loads of food to snack on and comfy patio chairs.

Sadly, Mother Nature had to throw a wrench into my plans and a rainy morning and stormy forecast caused the band to be cancelled. But the food and drink shall go on. My sister and her husband came, armed with St. Louis style barbequed ribs, and cocktails, and the night went on- with our own music!

Captain and Coke and a few ice cold beers got us started, and then the feasting began. Our menu for the night-

• St. Louis Style Barbequed Ribs
• Tacos Al Pastor with Jicama, Kohlrabi and Carrot Slaw
• Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip with pretzel bread
• BLT Dip with crackers
• Assorted cheeses and sausages
• Mixed olives
• Chipotle Ranch Tortilla Pinwheels

Yum, right? The ribs were made by my brother in law, Kim, who used Jack Stack Barbeque meat rub and smoked the ribs on the grill. Cheese and sausage was just cut into bite sized cubes. The BLT Dip had a little help from a couple mixes I had on hand- BTL Dip mix from a craft show (small batch local company) and some Bacon Bacon from Tastefully Simple, mayo and sour cream. We had lots left- thinking it's going to make a great burger spread! The artichoke dip was cheesy and creamy with chopped artichoke hearts, chopped fresh baby spinach, cream cheese, sour cream and a little packet of Okey Dokey Artichokey dip mix I had tucked in the cupboard. Chipotle Ranch Pinwheels also used a seasoning packet I'd had around- this one from Pampered Chef, with cream cheese, shredded Colby Jack and chopped scallions, served with salsa for dipping.

The Tacos Al Pastor took some research. I've had these tacos at Malo, but they actually stack the meat on a vertical roaster, which I don't have. So I have to improvise. The spices and chilies required for this dish were also quite an extensive and complicated combination and I thought might be a little over the top heat-wise for our guests, so looking over our spice and pepper collection I decided to start with Arizona Dreaming seasoning from Penzey's and play with that.

For the pork I used a boneless pork roast, about 3 lbs. It was very lean already so had no fat to trim. I cut the roast into six thick "chops" and placed in a ziptop bag. In a small bowl I combined a can of crushed pineapple in juice with about 3 tb. of the seasoning and a couple shakes of chili powder. I poured this into the ziptop bag and sealed it, then massaged the marinade allover all the pork, and placed in the fridge overnight. The next day I removed the pork hunks from the bag, browned in a little oil, then poured the marinade over all and roasted, covered, at 325 degrees for about 2 hours. When done I removed the hunks of pork, sliced into bite sized strips, and returned to pineapple mixture in the pot.

To serve the tacos, spoon some pork and pineapple into a tortilla and top with slaw. You can add salsa verde if you like. No cheese, no lettuce, just the fresh, crunchy slaw. 

Jicama, Kohlrabi and Carrot Slaw

• 2 cups jicama, cut into matchsticks
• 2 cups raw kohlrabi, cut into matchsticks
• 1 cup carrot, shredded or cut into matchsticks
• 3 or 4 scallions, sliced, including green tops
• salt and pepper
• 2 limes
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3 tb honey
• 1 cup cilantro leaves (or Italian parsley)

Combine the vegetables in a large bowl. Zest the limes and add to vegetables. Season well with salt and pepper. Juice the limes into small bowl. Stir in honey till dissolved. Whisk in oil. Pour over vegetables and toss well. Add cilantro right before serving and toss again.

This was my first time cooking with both jicama and kohlrabi and I have to say- they were so crunchy and fresh and delicious. I am SOLD! The lime and honey dressing was the perfect partner for these veggies. I did have to use parsley because I had no cilantro but it was just as fresh and delicious.

Our evening was capped off by fireworks around the lake and a ride around the muddy backroads in a Jeep- muddy and FUN !!!! So today, it's muddy laundry and cleanup and RELAX. I hope you all enjoyed a safe, fun and happy 4th of July. 

*Fireworks photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Restaurant Review: Shakedown, thunderstorms and celebrating

Today was a WONDERFUL day. Lots to be thankful for. A new and exciting career change for my Chef, my son's birthday, my grandson's baseball games, my awesome children, my sister graduates from nursing school, and my middle child reaches a momentous step in her career path- managing the newest, hottest Latin restaurant in Des Moines.  

Whew! Take a deep breath, and concentrate. The shakedown- that's what we're here to talk about. Maybe you've had the unfortunate experience of going out to a brand new restaurant in town, only to be disappointed by less than stellar food, chaotic service, and an overall bad first impression. Des Moines has several amazing chefs that shape our city's culinary identity, and without doubt, George Formaro is at the top. When he opens a new restaurant, there is always "the shakedown"- before opening, the staff's family and close friends are invited to check out the menu, restaurant, and enjoy dinner on the house. It's a great way to shake out the issues BEFORE opening day, before you have a house full of paying customers, a great way to test the staff for training and make sure the menu is exactly what you want.

We already had a preview of the new Malo. The restaurant opens in 6 days and these last several days are their trial run. Tonight I was able to check out the food and drink and you better believe I was not disappointed, even though the weather was raging outside, and the power went out for several minutes in the restaurant. We barely made it in the door before Mother Nature unleashed her fury! Enough about the weather. Now, Des Moines has Mexican restaurants on just about every corner. This is NOT your average Mexican. It's an eclectic mix of Latin flavors with a few American twists thrown in for fun. The menu is amazing. No jalapeno poppers in the appetizer selections here. Oh no, instead you will find pupusas, a traditional Salvadoran food; seafood nachos piled high with shrimp, lobster and crab; giant house-made tator tots served with jalapeno ketchup, beer cheese sauce and salsa blanco, and much much more.

First order of business for us- a cocktail. Malo Punch for my sister, and Rum Rickey for me. The Malo Punch was a playful combo of Sailor Jerry, Captain Morgan and fruit juices, and falernum- not something you see used much in bars around here. My Rum Rickey was bright and fruity. White rum, raspberry gastrique and soda- very refreshing. We couldn't resist the Pineapple Mojito- rum, triple sec,pineapple juice, soda and mint leaves- a perfect summer cocktail.

Rum Rickey and Malo Punch

Tacos anyone? Malo has tacos- twelve different kinds, three different shell options and more flavor than you can imagine. Enchiladas? Try a Texas Gulf shrimp enchilada with salsa blanca for a fantastic change of pace. Steaks and seafood are given the Malo treatment and flavors shaped by Latin-inspired seasonings. 

Al Pastor taco and Carne Molida taco on house made flour tortillas

The most delicious enchiladas I have ever had- Texas Gulf shrimp

Hungry? Try the giant Tijuana Trainwreck- a colossal casserole dish filled with chorizo, tortillas, tomatoes, onion, avocado, salsa roja, cilantro crema and topped with a fried egg. 

You can get your pasta fix with Shrimp and Chorizo Fettucine, Ravioli de Maiz- jalapeno, lime, Cotija cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach and salsa blanca or Nacho Daddy's Mac & Cheese- a macaroni nacho dish with all the Mexican flavors. Even the sides are different and unique. Drunken Beans, Jalapeno Creamed Corn, Hominy with garlic and spinach, Tostones, Cilantro Rice, and much more.

Black beans and Cilantro Rice

Dessert will not leave you one bit disappointed. Mexican Chocolate Lava Cake is pure heaven on a plate. Chocolate gelato and fresh raspberries make this a beautiful dessert. The real star of the dessert menu is the Cubans and Coffee- chocolate "cigars", a truffle sort of dessert, rolled in cocoa and served with a scoop of coffee gelato and powdered sugar "ashes" in a pristine white ashtray. So clever and soooooo melt in your mouth amazing. Make sure you save room- it won't be easy. The portions are generous and the food so delicious you won't want to.

Powdered sugar "ashes" in an ashtray

The decor remains outstanding in the finished restaurant. Unique fixtures, perfect tableware, and a beautiful patio make Malo one of the most impressive restaurants in Des Moines. 

Of course, the mom in me has to brag up a little on my daughter. Laurie has worked in three different businesses owned by George Formaro, starting as a part-timer at Gateway Market, moving over to Zombie Burger in the East Village and now, reaching a goal for her- restaurant management at Malo. Where many parents would have been shocked and recommended their child NOT leave their corporate job, I trusted Laurie's judgment and experience. She will be a phenomenal manager. I am a very proud mom.

So there you have it- my shakedown wrap-up. I hope you will visit Malo in Des Moines. You're in for a really wonderful experience!