Thanksgiving Dinner – 2016

Have you ever gotten tired of turkey for Thanksgiving?  Well, we have!  First of all, the focus on today’s turkey’s is on white meat and my better half always feels a bit cheated as she much prefers the more moist and flavor packed dark meat.  Secondly, cooking a turkey isn’t difficult but I’m tired of dissecting the bird for leftovers for the freezer after dinner…

So this year I suggested that we go for a change of pace!  Simple to cook, delicious, great leftovers and easy to clean up when we’re done. 

Our families weren’t visiting this year and we weren’t able to visit them either.  However, we did learn that Larry (aka Big Dude at http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/) was on his own for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  He was more than happy to join us for the big feast!

So Laurie and I were off to Fresh Market where we picked up some crusty fresh baked bread, some fresh Brussel sprouts and a 6.5 lb. prime rib roast. (I love leftover prime rib roast!)

First, Laurie took the roast out of the refrigerator and rubbed it with kosher sea salt, repacked it in the butcher paper and left it on the counter for 3 hours to get to room temperature.  Then she rubbed the rib roast with grape seed oil and doused it with Kirkland’s Steak Seasoning from Costco before she popped it in a 500 degree oven for 15 minutes before turning the temperature down to 325 degrees for roasting…

As for the Brussel sprouts, Laurie cut them in half.  Then she applied grape seed oil to a flat baking pan, also brushing the sprouts with more grape seed oil.  Then she seasoned them with a generous sprinkling of Webber’s Savory Herbs with Roasted Garlic Seasoning.  She also added just a touch of that Kirkland’s Steak Seasoning. (350 degree oven for half an hour while the rib roast was ‘resting’)

Looks pretty good doesn’t it!?  The prime rib was roasted in the oven until the thermometer read 120 degrees.  Then Laurie pulled it out of the oven and tented it so it could rest.  The temperature increased to 130 degrees before I began my carving efforts.   

Larry/Big Dude brought a bottle each of white and red wine.  He also constructed 3 of these delicious holiday appropriate salads using lettuce, cranberries, candied walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, carrots and raspberries.  For a salad dressing he provided a tart vinaigrette salad dressing which perfectly complemented the ingredients in the salad.

Finally, I was permitted to start carving up the rib roast!  All 3 of us prefer medium rare so the roast came out perfectly.  One convenience is that Fresh Market butchers separate the bones from the roast itself and then they tie it tightly back to the ribs so the flavor is maintained and it’s much easier to carve…

Note: Even though I prefer medium rare beef, I do have a ‘thing’ for the end cut from a prime rib roast…and I had one of those for my second serving!

This is what the Brussel sprouts came out looking like… They were caramelized and almost decadent!  Believe me they were all gone when we finished dinner.

Here is one of our dinner plates ready for action.  The mashed potatoes were from Bob Evans with creamy local Amish butter blended in. (Why make dinner prep difficult when these potatoes are so good?) The au jus was courtesy of Heinz with added garlic and pepper.

Larry and I both had seconds of everything!  In addition, we sent him home with some mashed potatoes and a big meaty rib bone for him to gnaw on at his leisure.  We know that the mashed potatoes will be fried and topped with an egg for breakfast.   

Sticking with simple… This apple crisp pie also came from Fresh Market.

Dessert consisted of a slice of the apple crisp pie heated and then topped with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream from our local ice cream maker…Tic Toc Ice Cream in Loudon Tennessee.

What a great meal!  Kudos to my desire for something different for Thanksgiving, Laurie’s cooking skills, as well as Larry’s imaginative salad and wine.

I’ve already started thinking about what we should serve for Christmas dinner…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by to see what we’ve been up to!  We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving…

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave