Have I mentioned that I cooked an 11 1/2 lb prime rib and a spiral-cut ham for Christmas Eve?  For 5 people...Pardon me if I have, but for a while, those foods were the only things it felt like we would ever be eating again.  Since I didn't know I would be cooking Christmas Eve dinner until a few days before, the only prime ribs I could find were either too small or of the ginormous variety.  Better to have too much than too little as my mom always says, so this beast lived to see another day, and another, and another. WARNING: If you cannot stomach the sight of rare roast beef, avert your eyes.

This wooly mammoth was still what was left, and the family was ready to roast me if they had to have another slab of beef plopped down in front of them (ironically, as I sit here writing, we have a dinner reservation at Ruth's Chris in less than 3 hours.  Beef anyone?).  Trolling my brain for ways that I could disguise the fact that they were eating prime rib again (how devastating is that?), I remembered that on the menu of a favorite haunt, The Cove Bar in Ariel's Grotto inside Disney's California Adventure, they have prime rib sliders on the menu.  Whenever we sit down for a drink at The Cove, I wonder if Walt is turning over in his grave, but then I wonder if he's buried.  Was freezing him a myth?  Anyway, I grew up with Disneyland being an alcohol-free zone.  Except for in Club 33 which a lot of people don't even know exists.  The Cove actually serves some good bar food like the sliders and lobster nachos, so if we are going to eat at the parks, we usually head in there.  I tried to replicate with what I had on hand including  leftover creamed horseradish and Maytag blue with some rolls I picked up at Whole Foods that morning, and I was lucky enough to score some Romanesco cauliflower at the farmer's market that week which I dosed in olive oil, sea salt and ground pepper and roasted.



I didn't want to overcook the prime rib, so I decided to use my trusty Brisket Sauce diluted with water for simmering.





The finished product.