Happy 2012, officially!

Since my husband’s birthday is on the second, we start off my celebrating his special day.

This year, since we got a great deal on a ribeye roast, that’s what he chose for me to make for dinner.  He also loves popovers (mini-yorkshire puddings) and steamed broccoli.  

Being untraditional-and having procured a free platter of cheesecake slices-he didn’t want a cake, he wanted to have his candles stuck in that.  I made a batch of dark chocolate peanut butter brownies to add to that.

Here are some great hints for those of you who haven’t made a standing rib roast before or haven’t done so in recent times:

Make sure and defrost it and put the dry rub on for a couple of days.

I don’t have the hands for scrubbing a roasting pan or a rack-so I try to have disposable foil pans in my outside larder.  For the “rack“-I like to use whole carrots and celery and I toss in some onions around it as well.  Just cut a small slice of the carrots to stop them from rolling around!  I love to crust the outside in Montreal Steak seasoning and put some slivers of fresh garlic on the inside of the roast.

Since my backyard has a huge hedge of rosemary-I also put a few sprigs into the bottom of the roaster.  Put the entire pan on a good cookie sheet for support.  

And yes, you can serve those veggies up!  They‘re delicious!

Now for the roasting.  Pre-heat your over to 425.  Yes, 425.  Take the roast out of the fridge and let it “warm up” while the oven comes up to speed.  Now I love my digital thermometer-so I stick the probe in the middle, avoid the bone and the fat!  I set it for 165.

Roast the meat for about 25-30 minutes at the high temp.  This is what gives it the nice brown crust.  Then lower the oven temp to 350.  I’m lucky enough to have an oven that does both conventional and convection cooking (I even have one that does specifically convection meat roasting!) so I use that.

Remember to let the roast rest for about 15 minutes-covered.

The “secret” to perfect popovers:

It may sound different, but after the roast is out-crank the oven to 425-450 (depending on your favorite recipe).  For flavor-I use about a tsp. of the roast fat to put in the bottom of my non-stick muffin tin.  Heat the tin for 5 minutes-or until you literally see smoke.

This is important because it’s that heat that promotes the batter to puff up!

Another handy hint-make the batter up, cover it and let it “rest” for a minimum of 30 minutes-45 is better.  Give it a good whisk and then fill the tins 3/4’s full and bake.

For added flavor-I like to add a tsp. of minced garlic and 2 tsp of minced fresh rosemary.

Serve immediately-it’s the norm for them to start collapsing minutes after they come out of the oven.

Last-I am going out of town next Wednesday to visit our daughter and family for a week, so I’ll be back with more food and fun after the 19th!