The Dish

What a great Christmas for our family! With Mac home before he leaves for Iraq, we’ve been especially blessed this year. It’s been hectic and frankly, I’m sick of cooking, baking, cleaning the kitchen, and mostly…going to the grocery store! I’m thinking take-out tacos tonight!!! I love shopping for food, but the crowds definitely put a damper on my cruising the aisles, day-dreaming about a new recipe! It’s more like I went into survival mode! Milk, butter, eggs, get out!!!! Yikes!!!! But today brings a certain peace (just laundry!), and Mac is still here, so it’s all good! We had a raucous good time yesterday with both our families. It’s poignant with my Mom descending deeper into the pain of Alzheimer’s, but with almost all of us there, it was very reassuring. Aunt Nancy did a fantastic job of herding all us cats, and feeding us a wonderful meal. The Wilkinson clan get together was, as usual, loud, crowded, and merry, lots and lots of food….and Bubba running around in his Santa boxers. Nice! And Uncle Richards home-made tamales! It almost makes up for Bubba’s boxers!

But the best part of Christmas was making a special dinner for Kurt and the our “kids” on Sunday night - “Garlic-Roasted Standing Prime Rib with Cognac-Mustard Sauce”. Woo! So good!!!!! We had the best time…so rare to get all of us together for one meal, it was wonderful!

I think I’m at my very best with sauces and this is one of the best. I wasn’t able to take a picture, since it disappeared so fast! Use any good Prime Rib recipe (or any good fatty roast) and this sauce comes together fast and easy.

Cognac-Mustard Sauce

8 servings

Ingredients: (just for sauce…use any good recipe for seared, then roasted roast)

1 tablespoon butter
4 medium shallots, minced
2 cups good beef stock (homemade if you can manage it!)
2 tablespoon Cognac
2 tablespoons Dijon style mustard
3 tablespoons minced fresh curly leafed parsley
½ cup (1 stick) butter, cut into 8 pieces
Salt and pepper

1. After searing whatever beef you choose to use, save the skillet.
2. When meat is out of oven and “resting”, begin sauce by sauteing the shallots in 1 tablespoon butter for about 5 minutes and the searing skillet.
3. Pour off fat from roasting pan. Set pan over high heat. Stir in stock, scraping up any browned bits of meat and fat. Add to shallots in saute pan. Boil until reduced by half.
4. Add Cognac and boil 1 minute. Reduce heat to low.
5. Whisk in mustard and stir in parsley. Whisk in butter, 1 piece at a time.
6. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
7. Spoon over slices of beef, and serve immediately.