Christmas Dinner: prime rib, mushroom risotto, and stuffed mushrooms

For Christmas this year, we spent it in Los Angeles (horray! no painful east coast weather for me!), so we had our cousin and her family over for dinner.

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous prior to the dinner because I was afraid that:
1) The food will come out horrible and they will never want to eat anything I cook ever again.
2) I would not be a very good person to work with in the kitchen  (I usually work solo in the kitchen, so I have no idea how to share a kitchen with someone).

To avoid #1, I looked for recipes on the internet and printed them out and followed them step-by-step (SO not my style!) to ensure nothing went wrong.... and if it did, I could blame the recipe (teehee).
For #2, I was not sure how to be a good team player!  But it seemed like everything worked out just fine anyways so I had nothing to worry about.

I was very happy with the recipes for the prime rib, risotto and the stuffed mushrooms, so I'm sharing the recipe here.
We also enjoyed a vegetable side dish consisting of roasted asparagus and Italian squash  (olive oil, salt, pepper, into the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes), which I really liked.  For drinks, I served some hot pear cider (from trader joes!) and spiced it with some cinnamon sticks, star anise, and orange slices.
Sadly, I did not get a picture of the meal on my camera, since I dove right into the food.

For the prime rib recipe, I think the only thing I would change is to mince the garlic into even smaller pieces, and double the garlic-oil mixture.

For the mushroom risotto recipe, I actually did not follow all the directions.  I left out the truffle oil (what am I, rich?) and the chives.  I doubled the mascarpone cheese, and quadrupled the parmigiano cheese (no such thing as too much cheese!). Also, there was way too many mushrooms -- we ended up using about 3/4 of the 2 pounds of mushrooms this recipe called for. 

For the stuffed mushrooms, I would probably use a little less cream cheese next time, but that's about it.


Garlic Prime Rib
Ingredients:
    1 (10 pound) prime rib roast
    10 cloves garlic, minced
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    2 teaspoons salt
    2 teaspoons ground black pepper
    2 teaspoons dried thyme

Directions:
Place the roast in a roasting pan with the fatty side up.
In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.
Spread the mixture over the fatty layer of the roast, and let the roast sit out until it is at room temperature, no longer than 1 hour.
Set the roast on a roasting rack, over a drip pan.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
Bake the roast for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F and continue roasting for an additional 60 to 75 minutes.
The internal temperature of the roast should be at 145 degrees F for medium rare.
Allow the roast to rest for 10 or 15 minutes before carving so the meat can retain its juices.




Mushroom Risotto:
Ingredients:
10 cups Chicken Stock
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 tablespoon Diced shallots
3 cups Arborio rice
1.5 cups White wine
1 pound Shitake mushrooms sliced 
1 pound Oyster mushrooms sliced
¼ cups Mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons Parmigiano cheese
1 tablespoon White truffle Oil
3 tablespoons Chopped Chives 
Salt & Pepper 

Directions:
Bring chicken stock to a boil.
In a 6 quart sauce pan add in olive oil.
Next add diced shallots and let them cook for a minute or until they turn translucent.
Add in the rice and make sure to stir so that all the rice kernels are coated with oil. Make sure rice kernels are warm before adding in the wine.
After the wine has been added reduce the liquid by 60 %, now the hot chicken stock can be added too. Just cover the rice with liquid and when the rice is beginning to stick to the bottom it is time to add in more liquid.
On the last stage of adding in the stock add in the mushrooms too.
Finish cooking for about 5-8 minutes.
When the risotto is Al dente, turn off the heat and finish with the mascarpone and parmigiano cheese, this is when you really want to stir the risotto feverishly, finally add in the truffle oil and chives. 


Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients:
    24 whole fresh mushrooms
    1 tablespoon vegetable oil
    1 tablespoon minced garlic
    1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
    1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
    1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
    1/4 teaspoon onion powder
    1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel.
Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.
When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick.
Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.