Getting up to date

Had a blip the last time I tried to make a post due to the site being down, I have to admit that was very very annoying!  So it has been longer than I intended since I last posted something useful.

The big event since my last post was a three day meal extravaganza involving a standing rib roast, sherry trifle and yorkshire pudding.  A few months ago whilst at my girlfriend's salon (Beautiful From Head To Toe) my husband noticed a meal in an issue of Wine Spectator.  We have been planning ever since to attempt this gourmet delight inviting said girlfriend and her family over to partake in the feast.  I started on the Saturday making a pound cake for the sherry trifle continued through to Sunday by making the gelatin and custard layers and having my husband aided by the 2 1/2 year old daughters peeling up the sprouts.  Monday rolled around and 3 hours before putting the meat into the oven I took dutifully took the meat out of the fridge to come up to room temperature.  Now before we go much further I should mention the meat was a 14 lb rib roast from the local butcher not the local supermarket, the difference?  HUGE!  The butcher recommended meat from Painted Hills, and I can say it looked amazing before cooking.  I did a little research and when looking at my recipe decided to go for a rosemary garlic rub omitting the salt so as not to draw the moisture out of the meat.  The roast was place on top of a bed of carrots, celery and onion, toped with some thyme and rosemary.  I seared the roast at 450 for 30 min then cooked it for a further 3 1/2 hours, then let it rest for 40 minutes while we waited on the yorkshire pudding.  The end result a perfect roast with meat that you could literally cut with a fork.

The sherry trifle, tasted great but I think I needed to thicken the custard a little more and whip the cream a tad more too but hey I've not made too may from scratch of those either.  So we have been enjoying the left over beef this week and even the next day the meat was just as tender and flavorful.  Ah not something we do very often but oh so worth it and imo almost as good if not better than what we could afford in a restaurant.