Home for the Holidays

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Spicy Rib-Eye Beef

1  6-pound boneless beef rib-eye roastrib eye roast
1/3  cup coarse or cracked black pepper
½  teaspoon ground cardamom
1  cup soy sauce
¾  cup red wine vinegar
1  tablespoon tomato paste

 Trim excess fat from roast.  Combine pepper and cardamom; pat onto roast.
Combine next 5 ingredients, pour over roast, cover
Marinate overnight in refrigerator, turning occasionally

Remove roast from marinade; discard marinate.  Wrap roast in foil and place in shallow baking pan. Bake at 325 for 2 hours or until thermometer registers 140 (rare) or 160 (medium)

 

Well, it’s not like it used to be around here. Of course the kids grow up and move away. That’s good, it means we raised them to be independent and self-supporting. But it also means a lot of “new” traditions for the holidays.  2010 Family pic-Optimized

El Son lives seven hours away, which is not an imposing drive for him. But it’s where I hit the wall and need to pull over. He drives in for Thanksgiving (usually) and Christmas. There are years those are the only times I actually get to see him. We talk often, but his work hours until recently have made weekends and nights a problem. He did get to join us at the beach this summer! This year he’s spending Thanksgiving with a friend (the girl variety) and her family. So I guess Hubby and I will go to K&W for turkey with the other old farts.  No, actually we have a very nice invitation from friends, but if I want to feel sorry for myself I can.

La Daughter is a stage manager in New York City–making a living at it! I couldn’t be prouder, but New York City? It ain’t exactly around the corner. And those pesky tourists like to go to plays when they go to NY for the holidays. Guess who’s behind the scenes – yep, the unsung stage managers. So, holidays like Thanksgiving (when there’s the Macy Day parade) and Christmas (when the whole city is lit up) are busy days.

S&S decorating for XmasSo, we’ve learned to adapt. If the kids come at separate times, we have two Christmases. We leave the tree up and the decorations out and so far the neighbors haven’t come after us with pitchforks and tar. At least one of them will fully understand this year when their son leaves for the military. Since I know El Son likes the spicy rib eye roast (recipe enclosed) we’ll have that for him and La Daughter prefers turkey so we can do that too and both feel extra special (well they are!) They get individual attention as if they were only children. And there’s no bickering like when they were kids either–though I think they’ve both outgrown that (Lord, I hope so!).

If/when they get married and have kids, I suppose it will get even more complicated and we’ll travel more. There’s no room in either’s apartments for us and they seem to like to come home (and it can’t be for my cooking).  S&S kids at Xmas

So the traditions change or we take them with us and fit them in with new traditions that the kids are evolving for themselves just like we did when we got married. I’m glad it’s not static, most of the time. But I can’t wait to hug the stuffing out of them next time I see them.

My latest novella – Nowhere for Christmas will be released December 17 – leave me a comment and you’ll be in the running for a copy as soon as it’s available!

 

57 thoughts on “Home for the Holidays

  1. I dunno… Roast beef for Thanksgiving? Is that even legal? (You’re giving me ideas. Since I don’t have family visiting me anymore, I stopped cooking for Thanksgiving years ago. Usually I get take-out the day before and then nuke it on Thanksgiving. This year I’m thinking of hitting a restaurant. Like Denny’s. But a nice bit of roast beef might be an interesting change.)

    • It really is, and now the kids expect it. Used to have Italian at my sister in law’s with her Italian husband. It’s all in the “tradition”. Enjoy!

    • It was the only time they were together and not fighting nearly. Yeah, I do have good pics. Don’t suppose you’ll be here for Christmas this year? I’ll have room!

  2. Recipe sounds really good, my husband has mentioned the last couple years, how about doing beef for the holidays, still haven’t done it, but many one year soon.
    skpetal at hotmail dot com

    • It was different for us at the beginning, but now it’s what we look forward to all year. Still have the turkey at Thanksgiving, so that’s enough!

  3. Recipes are nice, but I prefer someone cooking for me. What time should I be there? Your kids are good looking. I have the same problem getting my kids home at the same time too. Change and adapt I guess.

  4. Oh that Roast looks yummy. But alas my family would kill me if they didn’t get turkey…lol But I could make it on another holiday. Christmas isn’t far behind…hehe Thank you & Big Hugs

    Missie Jones
    missie25524 (at) netzero (dot) com

    • Thanks! Hope he enjoys it. Yeah, as much as I like having everyone together, it is kinda fun to have time with each. There’s just never enough time

  5. the spicy beef recipe looks delicious and could be used for any occasion. My kids are also very young so we have plenty of years before they leave . However I know how you feel about the all the family being far away. My parents moved over 600 miles away from us and it was hard because we didn’t get to see them often especially during the holidays. But with the help from my parents my sisters family and my family are now living only 15 mins of my parents and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Hope you have a great holiday.thanks amybowens34@yahoo.com

    • So glad you’re closer again. For awhile we were 7 hours away and I was very aware of that as my parents aged. We got to come home before they were gone too (and they loved this roast!) Of course M got the well done pieces on the edge – LOL!

  6. I am going to try this recipe. I think though I would like mine a little more done…LOL
    Thanks for the recipe.

    koonie2888 at yahoo dot com

  7. I try to keep my family’s traditions as it makes me feel close to them. Thanks for the hop and giveaway, and I love the recipe. Have a wonderful holiday season. koala571 (at) msn (dot) com

  8. Sounds great, can’t wait to try it. Thanks for sharing it. Thanks for sharing the hop and your giveaway. Wishing everyone a wonderful and magical holiday season! evamillien at gmail dot com

  9. Iwill hhave to give your recipe a try one year but it’s unlikely that it will be this year.
    My son lives about 8 hrs away and he’s stationed in Georgia. He graduated from boot camp for the Army in August. He stayed with his dad that time. I think he got a week.
    He’s supposed to stay with my husband, his sister, and I this Christmas. I know he’s looking forward to mom’s Christmas cooking but I haven’t the heart to tell him we don’t have the money to buy the food to make the dinner. He’s just going to have to settle for something we do have in the freezer.
    I’m not in the Christmas spirit this year and it’s unlikely that he will even stay because of it. I can’t afford the $100 I need to get my daughter the laptop she wants. Amazon has a 10′ Dell, windows 7, and it’s $130′ I have the $30 on my Amazon account. I think it’s been there since June but now I’m trying to figure out how to get the rest.
    Anyway thank you for sharing and for your participation in this giveaway. It’s a wonderful thing you’re all doing.
    Angela
    angie1977t@gmail.com

  10. We ALWAYS have a rib roast on Christmas Day. I usually do a kosher salt, rosemary and garlic rub, but your version sounds delicious. Change can be a tasty thing.

    blueshedevil32 AT gmail DOT com

  11. Oh, so yummy!! That rib-eye sounds and looks delicious! I havent had any in so long! Hmm. That might be something im making before the holidays. lol Thank you for sharing and for the giveaway!! Happy Thanksgiving!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

  12. Oh my goodness, I absolutely live ribeye! I can’t wait to try this!!

    Thank you for being part of this hop,
    Karen(dot)arrowood(at)sbcglobal(dot)net

  13. Oh my goodness, I love ribeye – and that sounds fabulous! Thank you do much for sharing the recipe.

    I love this hop. 🙂

    karen(dot)arrowood(at)sbcglobal(dot)net

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