Life of a Bombchelle: 1/1/19

The 52 recipe challenge is way of bringing together our friends far and wide who love to cook and share their successes and failures in the kitchen. The challenge; to make 52 new recipes in a single year. This is our eight year of sharing food, recipes, kitchen catastrophes, and culinary creativity with friends far and wide. Our Facebook group, which started with 7 people, is now over 200 foodies.

2019 Top 5

Instant Pot Pork Carnitas (18): This was delicious, although something about the instant pot really brought out the heat. Nice and spicy! We put the leftovers on top of a salad. Yum. The rest of the leftovers will be served with eggs for a Mexican breakfast. Highly recommend.
Creamed Spinach (56): This is now our go-to creamed spinach. Everyone raved about it at Christmas dinner, and it is everything you can get in a fine steakhouse and more.
Super Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies (28):
Kaiser Rolls (7): This triggered nostalgia in the New York born and bread (get it). These Kaiser Rolls were exactly what you get when you order a "Sausage Egg and Cheese with salt, pepper, butter sandwich" at the deli.
Perfect Prime Rib (52): Reverse Sear Prime Rib. The smallest bone-in prime rib roast they had at Costco was 19.5 lbs... so why not!This turned out great, even though I had to play with the temp (still took 7+ hours). The 500 degree oven didn't provide perfect results in crisping up the outside, but my 1800 degree broiler helped! Next time I'll prep the grill with natural hot burning charcoal to finish. Sous vide and reverse sear is the only way I'm making steaks here on out!

Honorable Mention

Buffalo Chicken Dip (39): Solid buffalo dip.
Chinese Broccoli with Garlic Sauce (25): Good and simple.
Fried Rice (42): Deviated somewhat from this (used hoisin instead of oyster sauce, added pork), but the basics of how to cook, what order to cook, using cold rice, and using butter and sesame oil are good reminders/guidelines. This turned out great.
Brussels Sprout Gratin (50): This was good, I would kick up the sage a little next time, and consider adding some fresh thyme as well. The crust is really good
Italian Chicago Beef Sandwich (49): Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches. Used a 3 lb round, might do sirloin next time. Regardless, came out very tasty. It was critical that I had a meat slicer to slice thin and keep it tender (enough). I did broth instead of bouillon... no regrets. The rub was excellent, may use for other beef roasts.