Roast beef, sauteed green beans with garlic and chili flakes, scalloped potatoes with Gruyere

My mother made roast beef for Sunday “dinner” (served at noon, the old-fashioned way) more weeks than not when I was growing up. She usually made potatoes of some sort, usually baked, maybe some canned corn (cooked in milk, the old-fashioned way) or some green vegetable we kids wouldn’t eat, and sometimes popovers. On Monday nights, we would get the leftover roast beef, cooked in the leftover gravy, served on slices of white bread as a sort of open-faced sandwich.

I make roast beef maybe 2-3 times a year. Because Charlotte was home, and because I wanted to use up the roast that has been in my freezer since April, this past Sunday was one of those occasions. My mother always uses Lipton onion soup mix on the outside of her roast, and I often do the same, but went with Penzey’s English Prime Rib Rub. It has more nuance, mainly because the celery seed is the most prominent flavor of the ingredients. I also like that rub on a ribeye steak. I think I nailed the doneness, thanks to my trusty ThermoPen;if I had pulled the roast at the suggested cook time, it would have been much too undercooked, but the instant-read thermometer convince me to give it an extra fifteen minutes and it was perfect.

My preference with roast beef is to roast some parsnips, potatoes, and carrots, but neither my wife nor daughter like them nearly as much as I do. I have been trying different cheesy scalloped potato recipes, and I thought I had a winner this time, but I think I had too much liquid and did not cook the casserole at a high enough temperature. It was tasy, but didn’t really come out as I wanted. Charlotte specifically asked for the green beans, and I was glad to oblige. They are always good.