MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Christmas morning and that Santa brought you lots of cool stuff.    I tried to get a cute picture like this of the puppies to post on Christmas morning, but truly, it didn't go so well.

After a couple of hours, they were no longer happy campers and I was frustrated.  This is the best I can do ... yup, photoshopped.  Merry Christmas from Jessie and Cooper.

I spent the morning with a nice cup of hot chocolate in front of the fire while I waited for the prime rib to warm up.  Not the easiest feat since my house was a chilly 60.

I know that YOU know this didn't go exactly according to plan.  This part was good ... butter infused with a myriad of spices, slathered all over the 5.83 pound roast at a cost of $46.99.  I was really hoping I didn't screw this up!!

The oven heated up to 500 degrees.  That was a surprise since I had no idea it would go that high.  In went the gorgeous hunk of meat.

I'm pretty sure you know what this red thing is.  It's a fire alarm.  I'm well aware that mine seem to be extra sensitive, even when it comes to steam from boiling water, not to mention the tinniest bit of smoke.  

Five minutes per pound is the required time to cook a prime rib.  Here's where I strayed from the path.  My oven is hotter in the back than the front.  The beautiful chunk of meat was looking amazing on the back side, but the front was not browning.  I will just quickly turn the pan around.  In my defense, this was NOT the part where I had to leave the door SHUT.  Turns out it was.

I swear there was hardly a wisp of smoke that came from the oven, but two seconds after opening the door, it was enough to set off every fire alarm in my house.  There's no way to turn them off.  You just have to endure the pain until they quit on their own.

That should have been it, but NOOOOO .... they began chirping one after another, I imagine because the batteries were toast.  There's nothing in the world that scares Jessie more than those chirps.  She instantly became a shivering mass of flesh, hardly able to walk.

So how many 9 volt batteries are there in YOUR house?  I trashed every drawer looking for some, but of course there were none to be had.  How about the RV you ask?  I found two, but needed six.  I quickly scaled the ladder and replaced two batteries.  Chirp ... chirp ... chirp!!  By now four were going off and Jessie was in a panic.

Luckily I remembered to turn the oven off at the end of 30 minutes before heading to Target for batteries.  Just what I needed ... hitting the big box store on Christmas Eve!!

When I returned from that horrible experience, which I won't even mention here, the chirping had stopped ... BEFORE I even put in a battery.  Thank goodness!  Now I can relax for an hour while the roast remains in the oven with the door SHUT!!

All of a sudden it dawned on me Jessie was not in sight.  Did I leave her outside?  I called and called, but no luck.  I went through the house, opened every single door and called louder.  Back outside .... back inside ... I just couldn't find her.  I began to panic.  Maybe she slipped out the door when I went to town.  

On the last trip through my bedroom, she must have heard the panic in my voice.  I saw her nose peek out from under the bed.  Keep in mind, Jessie does not FIT under my bed.  It took ten minutes to extract her, but at least she was safe, still shaking like a leaf.

Finally .... I could relax.  No more fire alarms ... no missing dog.  Time to remove the roast from the oven.  WOW!!!  It's just amazingly beautiful and smells even better.  In spite of all the fire alarms, I think I got it right!!

Garlic mashed potatoes, brown sugar carrots and a hunk of prime rib.  What could be better???  I have to say the beef wasn't all that tender.  You need lots of marbling for tender meat, and this didn't have it.  None of the roasts I looked at had decent fat content ... I guess that's a thing of the past.  At any rate, it was delicious with a capital D and I ate the whole thing.  

Someone mentioned yorkshire pudding ... something I've never tried before.  I thought about it as the roast was resting, but decided not to push my luck.  Today however, I have lots of time and a huge pan of drippings.  That along with my second ginormous piece of prime rib just might be the ticket.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night ... except for my neighbors who were trying to sleep this morning.

Of all the days ..... I haven't been setting my house alarm at night.  I figure I'll hear anyone breaking in and I'll just shoot them.  For the last week however, I went crazy, set the alarm and amazingly have been remembering to turn it off.  

Until this morning.  I'm happy to tell you that every single alarm in my house is in GREAT working order.  I apologize to the neighbors that I woke them up at 4:30 am when I let the dogs out.  I SWEAR it was Santa, not me!!!