New Year's Eve 2020

Another 2020 holiday - you know the deal, we spent it by ourselves but had a lot of fun cooking and watching the annual Phish concert. On to the pics!

For the main item on the menu, we settled on a traditional standing rib roast, which Leah's family normally eats on Christmas day. I was already leaning toward this idea when I saw Alton Brown's timely post for his recipe, which cinched it due to the inclusion of Yorkshire pudding.

Step one entailed air-drying the roast for a week in the refrigerator, before seasoning and placing into a 250F oven until the internal temperature reached 118F, which was about 2 1/2 hours. 

Once the roast was cooked through, we pulled it out to rest. In the meantime we got to work on the Yorkshire pudding, using the roast drippings and rendered beef fat in both the batter and the pan. This conveniently baked for the same duration that the roast rested. 

While all that was going on, I prepared the ingredients for our other side dish, a classic Caesar salad. Not much work here, just some lettuce prep, dressing making, and crouton baking. 

When the Yorkshire pudding was finished, we pulled it out and set it aside, then returned the rested roast to the oven, cranked up the heat to 550F, and blasted it for ten minutes to sear the outside. This method worked absolutely perfectly, yielding a delicious brown crust. The best part is that since the roast was already cooked through internally and had sat for 30 minutes, it required no further resting - we were able to go straight from the oven to slicing, so we each got a hot, crisp piece. Thanks Alton! 

The only downside was the massive amount of smoke that filled our apartment...

Walter Gibson

Old Home Distillers Gin

Tito's Vodka

Old Home Distillers Applejack

Dolin Dry Vermouth

Cocchi Americano

Simple Syrup

Cocktail Onions

I previously mixed this same cocktail on Christmas Eve. The recipe came courtesy of the NoMad Bar, where Leah and I enjoyed the drink back on New Year's Eve in 2017, but since theirs has a few esoteric ingredients (like pineapple gomme), I had to make some substitutions, listed above. 

Caesar Salad

Romaine

Homemade Caesar Dressing

Sourdough Croutons

Pecorino Romano

Standing Rib Roast

Yorkshire Pudding

Horseradish-Chive Cream

Happy wife, happy life

A shot of our beautiful New Year's Eve spread - I think we did a pretty good job! 

Bûche de Noël

Tequila-Soaked Sponge

Coffee Buttercream Filling

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Cold Brew Coffee w/ Frangelico

We ate the last two slices of Bûche de Noël for dessert, along with a cold glass of strong coffee with booze - a great end to a great meal!

And of course it wouldn't be New Year's Eve without a champagne toast, although we opened ours around 8pm when the Phish show started rather than at midnight. I can't remember what we actually drank - it was a bottle that had been sitting unopened in our fridge for months, likely something a friend brought over earlier in the year.

Either way, a great end to a not so great year!