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Christmas 2020: The Meal(s)

Christmas is one of those holidays that is lined with traditions. From watching Christmas movies to making Christmas cookies, there are lots and lots of traditional activities for celebrating the holiday. Some families also have traditional meals, where certain items make an appearance during the festivities. It doesn't take too much imagination to see how these things happen a few years in a row, and then suddenly it is a family tradition.

In the case of the Mild Home, we do appreciate a nice panettone and hot chocolate, but we don't have a go-to recipe yet. Many times we visit our respective families during the holidays, so we have left-overs that we will happily feast on. We did make a seafood paella a couple of years as a means of celebrating, but it didn't stick around as a long-term thing. Basically, we're still experimenting a bit.

For this latest go-round, we decided to make a prime rib. We both appreciate it, but it wasn't something we had ever prepared ourselves, so we decided to give it a go. After all, it was Christmas and we wanted to splurge a little bit to celebrate. Like I said, it's something that the Mild Wife and I have never cooked before, so we relished the opportunity to give it a go. It's always fun cooking something new in the Mild Home.

The meal itself was pretty tasty, and we definitely liked how it turned out. We may have a new contender for a Christmas meal. However, the really fun part was in the aftermath. We had plenty of leftovers because we simply weren't going to finish all of it ourselves in one sitting. So, we cooked other meals with the left over meat. Let me tell you: prime rib tacos are delicious. So is prime rib fried rice, though I don't think I'm quite doing that particular dish justice by calling it "fried rice." All in all, the leftovers were delicious.

My absolute favorite part, though, was the fact that we had a big hunk of bone when we were done. That bone had been seasoned, it had slow-cooked in an oven, and had undoubtedly soaked up some of the fat from the meat. Basically, it seemed like a waste to throw that out. So, we made some broth out of it. Specifically, we went out of our way to add extra seasoning to it to make a pho broth.

That broth lasted for even longer than the remixed leftovers did, and it was every bit as delicious as we expected it to be. A single hunk of meat made a bunch of meals for days at a time, and left us with a profound respect for the bones from a chunk of beef.

I'm not guaranteeing that this is going to become a Christmas tradition in the Mild Home, but I'm certainly not going to bet against it, either.
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