This week I reached out for a new Prime Rib Loaded Potato Skillet — don't touch the skillet, it's burnin' hot — at America's 24-hour diner, Denny's, with 1,600 restaurants across the U.S., plus Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras, Puerto Rico … and Guam and New Zealand. Somebody in the Denny's franchise department has a weird sense of humor … or direction.

Usually I'm wary of simple food with long names, but I'm crazy for: prime rib, potatoes, things in a skillet and anything that's loaded (except my Uncle Lou on New Year's Eve. You're supposed to kiss your own wife at midnight, Uncle Lou).

Here's the Prime Rib Loaded Baked Potato Skillet blueprint: slices of oven-roasted prime rib, red-skinned potatoes, diced bacon and broccoli, served on a sizzling skillet, and the whole thing is covered with cheese sauce, shredded cheddar cheese and a glob of sour cream. The only thing missing is a small side plate so you can toss the broccoli.

Total calories: 700. Fat grams: 39. Sodium: 2,250 mg. Dietary fiber: 5 g. Carbs: 43 g. Manufacturer's suggested price: $7.99.

From the blueprint, and considering that this skillet packs one full pound of food covered with bacon, cheese and sour cream, I was expecting a far higher calorie and fat count. This is a full, rounded meal, and the calories are no more than a big burger and medium fries at a drive-thru. More fill-up for less fill-out.

The Prime Rib Loaded Potato Skillet is total comfort food — everything is piled together in a frying pan. I like when foods touch each other. This skillet is a melting pot.

Let's start with the prime rib. It's not the big, honking Fred Flintstone bone-in rib like you get in a steakhouse, but the meat is tender and fresh. It tastes like actual prime rib, too, nothing like the paper tray of pre-portioned "prime rib" that's been sitting out all day at Subway. That's not even the right color.

The Prime Rib Loaded Potato Skillet is served so hot you can hear it coming out of the kitchen. Don't be grabby. Denny's wisely puts a form-fitted potholder on the skillet's handle, because you're like me and will turn it around as you eat. There's an art to knowing your audience.

The amazing heat-retaining properties of the skillet keep the food warm till the last bite. How's that for a little food science? Alton Brown has nothing on me.

The potatoes and everything else — except the broccoli — is a monster hit in this skillet. Why would Denny's ruin this comfort-food masterpiece by putting a green vegetable in there? It wrecks the whole winter color scheme.

For $7.99, this is a heck of meal, even if you have to pay extra for a soft drink. And it wouldn't kill you to leave a nice tip.

There are six other winners on Denny's Sizzlin' Skillets menu, all available for a limited time only.