Prime Rib Roast with Au Jus and Twiced Baked Potato...YUM

To my few blog readers out there,

I'm so sorry for not posting lately. My schedule for work hasn't been the best lately so I'm just getting to this blog now. I would bitch about my life at the moment but since most you are my fb friends, why bother, I'm so vain I share my whole life story on there anyway, so, let's get to the real reason you're reading this blog!

I love a great rib roast! I love beef really. Alright, I love food. Anyway, nothing says holiday season like a great cut of Rib Roasts on sale at the supermarket. I'm sure your local supermarket probably has one on sale so its perfect timing that I post about one of my favorite dishes.  This is probably the easiest and tastiest dishes I've ever made. There's really no thinking into how to marinade the meat. The baked potato took more time, no, seriously!

So....let's begin and start with the Rib Roast. You can marinade this thing up to 3 days, for me it was 4, only because I was in Vegas and had a party the day before so...blah blah blah, it marinated for 4 days. This is my version of a no frills rib roast.

Ingredients:
1 3-4 lb rib roast (recipe can go up to 5 lbs) with bone or without (mine didn't have bone...I usually prefer the bone (that's what she said) but this was on sale, will adjust for cooking time if bone in)
1 packet of dry italian dressing
1 packet of dry onion soup mix
1 tablespoon lawry's seasoned salt (regular salt is fine)
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
Meat thermometer

This is another dish you'll have to get your hands dirty. So take roast and rub olive oil all over it making sure the entire roast is covered. In a bowl combine all dry ingredients together and take mixture and rub all around roast so that entire roast is covered. You will want to do this over a bed of foil.

Then once its covered with ingredients wrap in foil and let marinade overnight or up to 3 days in refrigerator. The longer you wait, the more tender the beef will be. But either way, it will taste awesome.

On the day you cook it, pierce roast with meat thermometer and place on roasting rack, if you don't have a roasting rack, a broiler pan is fine too. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place in oven at 425 degrees to sear the roast for 25 minutes. After it sears, turn down heat to 350 degrees (DO NOT OPEN OVEN), and cook for about 1 1/2- 2 hrs or until meat thermometer reaches 135 degrees for boneless (for medium rare), or 140 degrees for bone-in roast.

After it gets to appropriate temperature, take out of oven and let it "rest" (leave it alone) for at least 20 minutes (this will make sure the roast stays moist, and finish off cooking itself). Don't be surprised to see the temp on the meat thermometer go up after you take it out of the oven.

This roast is easy and scrumptious. It looks awesome too!

My mouth watered as soon as I cut into this bad boy...yours will too! Now onto the Twiced Baked Potato!

Keep in mind, there are only 3 of us in our household, and one of them is a toddler so this recipe is for two people really.

Ingredients:
Two large potatoes
4 stalks of green onions, sliced into small pieces
5 strips of bacon fried and crumbled (3 pieces for inside potatoes, 2 pieces to top off after cooking)
3/4 cup of shredded sharp chedder cheese (save about 1/4 cup to top off potatoes after cooking)
1/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup of sour cream
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Take the two potatoes and wrap them up in foil and place in the oven (I used a convection/toaster oven) at 350 degrees and cook for 60 minutes or until soft. You can also cook it in a microwave, but I prefer the oven method. If they are on the large side, try cooking for 1 hour and 15 mins to ensure doneness.

While potatoes are baking, fry bacon until crispy. Take 3 pieces and crumble or cut into tiny pieces with knife. Save the other 2 slices to top off potatoes after cooking.

After potatoes are done cooking, let them sit for about 10-15 to cool off, they should be soft and a bit firm to the touch to make sure they are cooked through. If they are not cooked through, nuke them in the microwave 1 at a time for about 1 minute and 30 seconds.

While the potatoes are cooling, combine the crumbled bacon (3 strips),  1/2 cup of cheese (1/4 cup will be added later to top), milk, sour cream,butter, salt and pepper in a bowl.

After combining ingredients together, proceed to cut potatoes in half, make sure they are cooled off before slicing into them.

After they have cooled, take a knife and gently poke around the rim of the potato being gentle enough so you don't pierce the skin because you want the skin to be the cup or container.

With a spoon scoop out the inside, being careful not to tear skin.

Place the potato in bowl to mash with the other ingredients.

With a potato masher, mash the ingredients together. Or if you want you can use an electric hand mixer. I went for the masher, less stuff to clean.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, scoop potato mixture back onto potato skins.

Place potatoes on a foiled baking sheet, add the remaining cheese and the 2 strips left of crumbled bacon on top. Then bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle a few green onions on top if you like, but you don't have to. I love onions so I did! You can eat it as a meal or a side dish...this hungry beast of a women must eat it as a side. Anyway, I ate every last bit of it, but I also made steamed broccoli...so I don't feel too bad LOL...hope you enjoyed this VERY long blog, well, it took me a long time to upload all the pics so please enjoy...oh and to make the Au Jus, just take the pan drippings and put it in a medium sized saucepan, add a can of beef stock (you can use chicken if you don't have it), add about a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of worcestershire sauce, and this is optional but if you have an extra packet of dry onion soup mix, throw it in there, wait for it to boil, then strain out the onions and you'll have a wonderful Au Jus!

Bon Apetite!