Friday, January 31, 2014

Just doing what grandma told me

My grandmother, Thelma, was a child of the Great Depression and in the Great Depression you didn't throw much away.

She taught me many practical lessons including how to repurpose toilet and paper towel rolls to use for your electrical cords on your small electrical devices. You can make 2 cardboard bands per toilet paper roll if you use scissors to cut the cardboard into a 1-2 inch band; or 3 bands if you use a knife.

And these are easy to replace!


I want some meat on those bones

I'm talking about Prime Rib. This recipe has become a New Year's Eve tradition for me to feed my friends. I got the recipe from my mom and I believe it was passed along to her by a dear family friend, Lee Pattison. I knew her as Mrs. Pattison. She was my high school History teacher and an AMAZING woman.

Prime Rib

  • Buy 1/2 pound of prime rib per person. Costco and Whole Foods both offer choice cuts
  • Kosher salt and pepper (I like to use a fancy truffle salt that I purchase at the Fungi Store in the San Francisco Ferry Building. Williams Sonoma also carries it.)

Preheat oven. Roasted prime rib at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Reduce heat to 325 degrees and cook for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and cover with foil for 15-20 minutes to let the beef 'rest.' Do not overcook. The beef will continue to cook while it's 'resting.'

Yorkshire Pudding

  • 1-2 muffin tins
  • 2 eggs room temperature
  • 1 cup half and half room temperature
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
Spoon fat from cooked meat into the bottom of each muffin cup. 3 teaspoons - 1 tablespoon each. If there isn't enough meat juice, add some olive oil.

Whisk eggs, milk and flour together and fill muffin cup 1/3 - 1/2 full. (I put a cookie sheet on the rack below the muffin tins in the stove to prevent oven fires from the oil spilling over.) Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.


Serve with a green or spinach salad and a bottle - or several - of great red wine to celebrate to beginning of a new year.

Happy Chinese New Year of the horse. Wishing you good fortune and health in the year ahead.