Roast beef, vinegar green beans, and southwestern potatoes

We had a p re-Thanksgiving dinner tonight with semi-family, people who have come to be family to us. Jordan, Christian, and Jacob were here, along with neighbors Jay and Susan and temporary tenant and longtime friend Elizabeth. I admit, this dinner was a lot of work, most of it done last night, but the raves it got were worth it. Jordan said tonight, "It felt like Thanksgiving." Since she will miss Thanksgiving with the family due to another obligation, I thought this was particuarly appropriate.
For years I have had a roast beef recipe in my "Entrees Not Tried" file. I finally decided I had to try it or discard it. When it was published it said this was a reasonably priced cut of meat--not so when I bought it, but hey! Beef and all groceries ahe gone up. The roast required three garlic preparations--first you sauteed garlic cloves in olive oil, poked holes in the beef, and stuck the cloves in. My mom used to do that! Then you made a rub of mashed garlic, powdered thyme and salt, rubbed it all over the meat, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Next day you rub the seasonings off with a paper towel, brown the meat in a 450 overn, and cover with garlic oil (you've made that by sauteeing 12 garlic cloves, split, in olive oil with bay leaves and thyme sprigs). Make a paste of those sauteed garlic cloves and a bit of the olive oil. Brown the roast on all side in a really hot oven, then reduce to 300, rub that last paste on the fat top, and roast until thermometer reads 120. We actually took it out at 116 and it wasn't nearly as rare as I'd hoped. But it was darned good.
I made Christian's green beans--bacon, chopped scallions sauteed in the grease, 2 huge cans of green beans, vinegar over all, and then the bacon sprinkled on top. He loves them.
And then there were southwestern baked potatoes--I didn't feel too bad about eating a twice-baked potato since there were small--the biggest red potatoes I could find.

Southewetern Stuffed Potatoes

Scrub six good-sized red potatoes, cut a bit off the bottom so they'll sit flat, rub with oil, and bake at 350 until tender.
When cool enough to handle, scoop out the insides (carefully) and mash with 1/2 c. shredded cheddar, 2 Tbsp. sour cream, 1 Tbsp. melted butter (I left it in the microwave and forgot it), 2 Tbsp. buttermilk, 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper or to taste, and 1 4-oz. can chopped chillies. Carefully stuff mixture back into the potatoes and bake until bubbly. I took the roast out to rest, turned the oven up and reheated the potatoes while the roast rested.

Here's Susan's picture of her full plate and her after picture.

At the risk of sounding immodest about my cooking, I have to say it was a great dinner. But the company and the sense of family really made it perfect. We are blessed to have these people in our lives.

Collaborative cooking

When I invited my daughter and her husband and son to Sunday night supper, she said, "We need beef" and suggested flank steak. Maybe I don't cook it right, but I always find flank steak too chewy. I had a recipe for roast beef from Mystery Lovers Kitchen, courtesy Cleo Coyle, author of the Coffeehouse Mysteries and one of my favorite authors. It called for a sirloin tip roast. Another recipe I want to try called for 1-1/2 lbs. boneless sirloin steak. It's the end of the month, and I'm eking out my pennies, so I asked the butcher which was cheaper, and he said the roast. I asked for a 3 lb. roast at most--which was really too much for us, given that Jacob doesn't like beef--and got a 3.87 lb. roast. Dilemma.
Called my cooking neighbor, Jay, and said I had a brilliant idea. We'd butterfly the roast and grill it. (The original recipe, which calls for a rub, also specified grilling as an option but not for a roast the size I had.) Jay had two objections: he'd never butterflied a roast, and he'd never grilled a roast. Plus he had only cooked one roast in his life and that was chateubriand (some help he is, with caviar tastes!). I could see clearly how it would work, but I needed a co-conspirator.
Here's what we did: I set the roast out about two, covered in plastic wrap, to come ro room temperature. A little before five, I lit the grill. When Jay came over, we butterflied the roast (split it sideways, if you will) and spread the rub (kosher salt, pepper, sweet paprika, brown sugar, and chile powder) heavily on both sides. Then Jay dabbed olive oil on it, and oiled the grill. We kept the front burners lit and put the roast on the back until he decided it would be a good idea to sear it and then move it to the back. A little over an hour later, we had a perfect, moist, tender medium rare piece of meat--with enough left over for lunches for everyone. I think the advantage to butterflying it was that the slices were thin and you got a taste of the rub with every bite. Absolutely wonderful.
Here's Cleo Coyle's recipe. You'll see how we changed it: http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/search/label/roast%20beef. To accompany this, Jordan made a big salad. Jay doesn't eat the blue cheese we love, so in order to have his company and that of his wife, Susan, we sacrificed and made a salad with feta. Warmed over rolls from the freezer and, at the last minute, chocolate chip cookies. Jay ran home and got the frozen dough Susan had bought from some school child. She's better than I am because I always just say, "No, thank  you."
Not a gourmet meal but so good--and lots of wine and beer consumed. Lovely evening. We all sat on the porch during the cooking but moved inside for dinner--six just won't fit around my porch table.
Years ago, one of the things I liked about my marriage, when it was good, was having someone to cook for company with. Tonight took me back to those days but now I can do that roast myself.