Prime Rib Dinner at Cypress Grill

As the weather cools we tend to turn to comfort style hot meals.  Soups, stews and roasts begin to take centre stage!  The weather here has been warm during the day but quite a bit cooler after the sun goes down. Soon we will be bundling up so it's nice to enjoy a bit of transitional foods before the cold weather hits.

Cypress Grille had a prime rib roast dinner special for $12.50 followed by an evening of dancing.  We decided this would be a nice way to spend a Saturday night.  The meal came with a side salad and dinner rolls.  I ordered mine medium well while my husband ordered his medium.  The large portion of  prime rib was nicely cooked, tender and melt-in-your-mouth. It was served with au jus, baked potato, and mixed vegetables.  The mixed vegetables were a little different in that there were sliced black olives added.  The was no horseradish something that is usually served with prime rib.  It was a very good meal followed by an enjoyable evening with friends.

Prime rib roast is not difficult to cook but it is easy to overcook it.  Ideally the roast is cooked to centre rare or very rare.  Typically the end pieces will be cooked though a bit more for those who do not like rare meat.  The meat should be tender and juice, served with it's au jus and prepared horseradish on the side.  Keep the sides simple to let the prime rib be the star of the meal.

Angel Hair Pasta with Vegetables

October is National Pasta Month!  As if I need a reason to serve pasta.  I'd love to tell you that for the next 30 days I will be featuring pasta dishes but that isn't going to happen although there will be more pasta dishes presented this month.  I think like many pasta started out somewhat as a frugal, inexpensive meal choice then blossomed from there.  Pasta is so versatile it takes little effort to make a dish from scratch or using up leftovers.

There were a couple of grilled boneless pork loin chops left over from dinner the night before so I decided to use them in a pasta dish.  I used a light butter garlic sauce for the angel hair pasta then topped with the cubed pork that had been warmed in a fry pan.  The meat was topped sautéed onions and zucchini and slightly warmed home canned mushrooms.  Finally I topped with coarse chopped tomatoes and fresh grated parmesan cheese.

This was a simple, easy to make dinner that was packed full of flavour and texture.  It was also a very quick dish to make.  Angel hair pasta is a quick cooking pasta at only 6 minutes cook time to al dente.  From start to finish the meal took less than 15 minutes to prepare!

Boiled Peanuts

A surprising number of snack foods are purchased ready to eat.  Boiled peanuts are a very popular and traditional old southern snack.  They are often found at flea markets and other outdoor events in the southern US states.  The going price is around $4 for about 2 cups of boiled peanuts.

The boiled peanuts have a dark shell with a bit of a sheen.  They are a wonderful warm, salty snack well worth shelling!  They are on the wet side so a serviette is recommended.

According to Paula Deen boiled peanuts are quite easy to make at home.  There are only three ingredients - raw peanuts, water and salt.  The unshelled raw peanuts are boiled in the salt water until they are soft, about 2 hours.  They are served warm.  If you can't find raw unshelled peanuts in local stores they can be bought online for about $11 for 5 lb which isn't a bad price at all.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Labeling Foods

Don't use labels!  Use a Sharpie or old fashioned grease pencil to label food packages for the freezer, canning jars or other food storage containers.  A Sharpie can be cleaned off using rubbing alcohol or a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser while a grease pencil will wipe off with a little rubbing.