For Christmas dinner, I decided on a small standing rib roast, since it was just the two of us. I bought a four pound New York style standing rib roast with nice marbling.

The menu for dinner was:

Rib Roast with Garlic
Hasselback Potatoes
Roasted Northwest Style Vegetables
Tossed Salad

Wine – Pinot Noir

I cut about fifteen half inch slits in the fat at the of the roast and shoved in a garlic clove in each of the slits. Then I sprinkled salt and pepper on the top. I put the roast uncovered in a 350° oven until the internal temperature was almost 135° (rare) in the middle, almost 2 hours. For the potatoes, I cut slices into each potato that were about a quarter inch wide and almost all the way through potato, leaving each slice hinged at the bottom. Then I drizzled some olive oil across the top and placed each potato in a small baking dish and put it in the oven along with the roast. I then spread the vegetables on a cookie sheet, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and minced garlic and baked them in the same oven for about 45 minutes.

For the wine, I opened a bottle of Wine by Joe, a 2014 Oregon Pinot Noir. The wine was a red color in the glass, translucent, I could see through the wine. The wine was dry with a hint of a smoky wood smell. I could smell the alcohol, too, which was 13.5%. The wine was a light Pinot Noir with a medium finish. This was a nice light Pinot Noir, good to just sit and sip or with cheese and crackers or fruit. Maybe not the best wine to go with a standing rib roast, but it was super tasty and went along with the meat just fine.