Beast for Feast of Christmas Eve

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ORIGINAL POST: 

This was the fourth year that we hosted what I like to call "Feast of Christmas Eve". Feast of Christmas Eve is our big family celebration for the holiday. This year, we had 23 people, but in past years we have had as many as 27! It's chaos, but it's a great Christmas tradition that we have made.

Our past menu has been a roast beef in the oven (THE BEAST), and my grilled pork tenderloin. But seeing that we got so much snow early in December, I wasn't seeing it as grilling kind of Christmas (basically, we couldn't get to it under the 27" of snow that we had had so far). So, this year, I changed up the menu a bit and decided to keep the Beast, but Judi offered to make a lasanga as a counterpart, in addition to the red mashed potatoes and green beans I made.

Judi and I went to BJ's the week before Christmas Eve to try and figure out what I needed. With no one there, I went back myself the next day and decided to go with a "rib rib eye", which was a boneless slab of meat, with good marbeling, and not too much fat (what there was, I trimmed off).

I ended up buying an 18-pound rib rib eye beef. I kept it in a cooler, out in the garage until Friday (yes, it was that cold in our garage), and then on Friday, brought it inside, trimmed the bulk of the fat off bottom, and cut about a 5-pound piece off to save to have after the Feast, since we only needed about 12-13 pounds for the actual party.

To start the dry aging process, I lined the bottom of the cooler chest with paper towels and then placed the roasting rack that I would be using with my roasting pan on Monday. Technically, I could have done this all even a few days before, but due to too many other things going on, Friday was the earliest I could do it.

I put the roasting rack with the beef, bottom (fat) side down, in the cooler chest, and then loosely put a layer of paper towels over the top of the beef. This would help absorb any excess moisture on the outside of the beef.

Monday morning, I brought the Beast in around 6:45 a.m. and took it out of the cooler chest, and put the rack with the Beast in the roasting pan. I let it rest, to help bring it to room temperature, for about an hour. At about 7:45 a.m., I preheated the oven to 500 degrees.

Meanwhile, as the oven was preheating, I put a very small amount of olive oil (just enough to help the seasonings stick), and an ample amount of kosher salt and cracked black pepper all over the Beast.

By 8:00 a.m., the oven was preheated, and in went the Beast.

How I would cook the Beast for the future would be at 500 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 325 degrees, for about 20 minutes per pound. This would put the Beast's estimated time of arrival to be 12:15 p.m.
(I was actually recommended to put it in at 350 instead of 325, for 20 minutes per pound, but it was done by 11:15 a.m... much too early, therefore, when I made the smaller piece yesterday, I used the above in bold as my guide)

I also used a meat thermometer to keep an eye on it, and took it out when it got to 145 degrees -- medium rare. I put aluminum foil around it and it continued to cook as it rested, while I made the pan gravy.
(when I cooked it on Friday, I actually took it out 140 degrees -- rare; I will use that as my guide in the future)

To make the pan gravy, I actually preferred the one I made with the smaller piece of beef, so that's what I will use here:

• Pan drippings
• Flour
• Beef Broth

On Christmas Eve, I also used water and red wine; but I actually thought it was more flavorful with just the above. I'm not sure how much flour and beef broth I ended up using. I added the maybe ¾ of a cup of flour to the pan drippings, and as I heated it on the stove, I used as whisk and added enough beef broth (maybe 1-1 ½ cups) to make it a just-barely-thick liquid. As the heat thickened the flour up, I continued to add a little more beef broth to make it the consistency I wanted.
That is the simple way I made our Beast for the Feast of Christmas Eve. It was really easy and made the house smell phenomenal (and again yesterday). I actually should try to do it again before next Christmas (especially since I have been told we will not be hosting Feast of Christmas Eve again)


UPDATE:  December 24, 2011

This year's Beast was a 9½  pounder rib-eye with half the bone that I bought at Shaw's, as they were having a sale for $5.99/pound.  After seeing it for $10/lb. at BJ's, I came close to just picking pork tenderloin or something else, especially since this has been such a mild year for weather (other than one early snow storm before Halloween, we haven't seen any snow since, and it's been in the 50°'s a lot).  But Beast is our tradition, so I was thankful to find it on sale.

Although there was only 10 of us this year (well, really only 7 of us eating the Beast), I cooked the whole thing.  Once cooked, and after trimming the fat and bone, we probably still probably had almost 3 lbs of leftovers.  Yay for us!

I cooked it the same as I did above, except this year, I brushed melted butter over the top, and then sprinkled a mixture of kosher salt, cracked black pepper and garlic powder over the top, with a splash of oil on top of that.

It was so good, and we can't wait to make leftover sandwiches with what's left!

UPDATE:  December 24, 2012

I had totally forgotten that I had bought last year's Beast at Shaw's.  I went to BJ's again about a week ago and got totally discouraged seeing the beef prices at about $8.99/pound.  I really didn't want to spend almost $100.  I was telling my friend, LaDawna, how I was on a mission to find a better price, and was ready to drive over to Wegman's to see what they were selling for there.  She was driving home the next day when she heard a commercial for Shaw's and their $5.88/pound sale on Semi-Boneless Rib Roasts.  SCORE!  For almost half the price, I got an amazing Roast Beast for this year's feast!  This year was just over 8.5 pounds of beef for 9 people, and thankfully, we still had enough for leftovers.

This year, we started similar to previous years.  I bought the Beast at Shaw's on Thursday and on Friday, we unwrapped it and put it on a rack in a plastic-wrap lined cooler.  Since it's been on the cooler side, we dry aged it, fat side DOWN, out in the garage with the cooler lid partially cracked open.  Jimmy brought the cooler in this morning about an hour before I wanted to get it in the oven, so that it could come to room temp as I started to prep it in the roasting pan.  With the Beast on the rack in the roaster pan, I splashed some olive oil around the entire piece of beef.  In a small bowl, I mixed together kosher salt and cracked black pepper and then slathered it all around the beef.  That's it... nothing else (although if I had read this post, I would have probably done it like last year, adding a little butter and garlic powder.  Oh well, maybe next year.  But honestly, everyone said it tasted fabulous, so I don't think anyone would have noticed the difference).

I preheated the oven to 500°, intending to cook the Beast for 15 minutes at the high temperature, with the fat side UP; however, I have to admit that I don't think I have ever cleaned my oven in the almost 9 years that we have lived here.  Let's just say that within 6 minutes of the oven being up that high the kitchen was getting a wee-bit smokey.  I was able to hold the smoke alarm at bay (door open and big fans turned on), but 11 minutes into it, I couldn't take it anymore and turned the temperature down despite there being 4 minutes to spare.  I knew it wouldn't hurt anything in the long-run.
(Note to file:  clean the oven this week!)

Again, not really having my brain on straight, I didn't read through my entire post and turned the temperature of the oven from 500° to 350°.  About half way through, I did read the post and realized I should have turned it to 325°, just so it wouldn't cook quite so fast, especially considering the family was running behind.  With the temp down to 325°, it cooked in perfect time to 140° (rare) when I took it out.  I left it on top of the stove, covered in aluminum foil, and it kept cooking to about 147° -- perfect, we wouldn't have wanted it any more done.

Like last year, we can't wait to have some roast beast sandwiches with the leftovers.  YUM!
  

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I got this recipe from bargirl76 on the Boston Board of the Nest, although I have heard people talking about this recipe for months now, so I figured I'd give it a try for Feast of Christmas Eve 2007. Everyone raved about it, as advertised. So, now I can pass this recipe on too!

• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded, diced or chopped
  or one large can/pouch of chicken
• ¾ cup Franks Hot Sauce
• (2) 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup blue cheese salad dressing
• 1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 bunch celery, washed and cut into sticks

Directions
Cook the chicken (or use from a can), and break into chunks or shreds -- not too small, but not too big.
Open the two packages of cream cheese and place in a bowl.
Warm the cream cheese, in the microwave.
In a large bowl combine: chicken, hot sauce, cream cheese, dressing and ½ of the shredded cheese.
(Adjust the amounts of hot sauce and/or cream cheese to make the dip mild, medium or hot per your own taste.)
Pour mixture into a greased baking dish and sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese.
Bake at 350º F for 25 to 30 minutes.
Serve with Tostito Scoops and celery.

Make Ahead Breakfast Eggs

I got this recipe from my friend and long-time co-worker MJ. She made this for our 2006 staff holiday GTG, and it was absolutely delicious. She said she usually makes it for Christmas morning for her family. It has now become a favorite special breakfast for our family too.

• 1 dozen eggs
• ½ cup milk
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 4-6 oz. sour cream
• 12 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
  I pre-cut the slices and fried them in a saucepan
  
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions
Beat eggs, stir in milk, salt and pepper.
In skillet, melt butter and pour in egg mixture.
Cook until set, but still moist.
Cool and stir in sour cream.
Put mixture in buttered 12x7 pan.
Top with bacon and cheese.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Chunky Chocolate Drop Cookies

We call these quadruple chocolate cookies. Catherine bought me a book all about cookies, and we've always just looked at the cookbook, like a picture book, but had never tried one. One day, a couple weeks ago, she talked me into making one of the recipes, and this was it. It's made me realize we need to try more recipes!

• 6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 oz. white chocolate, chopped into ¼-inch pieces
• ½ cup milk chocolate, chopped into ¼-inch pieces
  
  Optional - 1 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONSPreheat oven to 325 degrees
Grease two large baking sheets.
In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the semisweet chocolate chips and unsalted butter, stirring until smooth.Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugars for 2-3 minutes, until pale and creamy.
Add vanilla extract.
Gradually pour in the melted chocolate mixture, beating until well blended.

Beat in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt until just blended.
Stir in chocolate chips, white and milk chocolate pieces, and nuts (if used).

Drop by the teaspoon (or tablespoon for larger cookies) on to the prepared baking sheets.
Bake 8-10 minutes, until the tops are shiny and cracked and the edges look crisp.
Do not overbake or the cookies will become fragile.

Remove the baking sheets to a wire rack to cool for 2 minutes, then transfer cookies to the rack to cool.

Variation:
We did not have white chocolate when we made these, so we added 2 more ounces of the milk chocolate pieces, and 2 more ounces of semisweet chocolate chips.
We didn't use the nuts...

We also added powdered sugar to the tops of the cookies. Incredibly delicious!

Apple Crisp Cheesecake

Posted by ready2006 from the Nest.

Cheesecake:

• ½ cup butter, softened
• ¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup oats (not instant)
• ¼ cup finely chopped walnuts
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 (8 oz.) packages light cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14 oz.) can low fat or fat-free sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
• 3 eggs or ¾ cup egg beaters
• ½ cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed

Apple Topping:

• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 2 medium all-purpose apples, cored and sliced
• 1 Tbsp. apple juice concentrate

Crumb Topping:

• ¼ cup softened butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
In small bowl, beat ½ cup butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add flour, oats, walnuts and cinnamon; mix well.
Press firmly on bottom and partially up the sides of 9-inch springform pan.
Bake 10 minutes.
In large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.
Gradually beat in condensed milk until smooth.
Add eggs and apple juice concentrate; mix well.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 30 minutes.
While cheesecake is baking, in large skillet, cook apples in remaining 1 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. of apple juice concentrate until tender-crisp.
Allow to cool.
Combine crumb topping ingredients in similar manner to crust.
Remove cheesecake from oven, arrange apples on top of cheesecake.
Break up the crumb topping over the apples.
Place cheesecake back in oven for about 30 minutes, or until the center no longer jiggles when pan is shaken.
Chill.
Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.