Braised Short Ribs

Al made these for dinner and we loved them. Dave had leftovers for lunch the next day and said they were even better than the night before! Al didn't love the thyme and rosemary but I didn't think it was too herby-strong and liked the flavor of the 'gravy'. The original recipe is courtesy of Ree Drummond on Food Network, she serves the short ribs over cheese grits which I'm sure is good,  Al made mashed potatoes and it was delicious.

Ingredients:

• salt and pepper
• 8 beef short ribs
• 1/4 cup flour
• 6 thin slices bacon, diced
• 2 T. olive oil
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2 shallots, finely minced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• splash of red wine
• 4 cups beef broth (enough to almost cover the ribs)
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• cheese grits, regular grits, or mashed potatoes

Directions:

Preheat the oven 325'. Salt and pepper the ribs, then dredge in the flour. Set aside.

In a large Dutch oven, cook the bacon over medium heat until completely crispy and all the fat is rendered. Remove the bacon and set aside. Drain off any excess fat.

Add the olive oil to the pan with the bacon fat* and raise the heat to high. Brown the ribs on all sides, about 45 seconds per side. Remove the ribs and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium. Add the carrots, shallots, and onions to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Splash in the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to release all the flavorful bits. Add the broth, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper and bring to a boil. Taste and add more salt if needed. Add the ribs to the liqu8id; they should be almost completely submerge3d. Add the thyme and rosemary sprigs (whole) to the liquid. Add the cooked bacon.

Put on a lid and transfer to the oven. Cook until the ribs are fork-tender and falling off the bone, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes with the lid on before serving. At the last minute, skim the fat off the top of the liquid (you can also refrigerate the mixture, then remove the solid fat from the top).

For each serving, arrange 2 ribs on a bed of grits or potatoes, spooning a little juice over the top.

*note: the directions are a bit confusing regarding the bacon fat - first it says to drain off any excess fat, the next part says add the olive oil to the pan with the bacon fat. I didn't ask Al what he did but my guess is the directions mean that even tho you've drained off excess fat there will still be bacon grease left coating the pan since it doesn't say to wipe the pan out. So you're adding the olive oil to the residual fat leftover in the pan.

8.31.18: farmhouse projects
8.31.17: remoulade sauce
8.31.16: coconut cream filled cupcakes

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I don't think I have any Polish in me (but who knows - I descend from Cortrights, Hodgsons, Guenthers, and Suggates...that sounds like I have a little bit of a whole lot going on so maybe there is some Polish!) but I woke up the other day thinking about cabbage rolls. I know, it's weird. So I asked Dave if we could go north and hit Leggs Inn outside Petosky because that's the last place I had them and they were SO good, but a road trip can't happen this week - so I did the next best thing even though I've never made them before and gave it a go.

carefully pull the leaves off

Did an internet search till I found a recipe I wanted to try, click here to see the full recipe on Food Network. The reviews almost scared me off because so many people had a hard time separating the cabbage leaves, but I wasn't to be put off by temperamental cabbage and conquered it without any problems whatsoever. I followed the directions and they came apart easily - cut the bottom of the cabbage off so it sits flat and cut out some of the core, then carefully peel the leaves apart. If you look closely you can see the order they are layered, I put my fingers under the next leaf on top and wiggled around a bit to loosen and they came right off. Put into a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes or so to soften them up. Then immediately put them in a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

after boiling for a couple minutes put the leaves
in a bowl of ice water

I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and they were quite easy to make. There were lots of dirty pans and dishes when all said and done, but none of the steps was difficult - even rolling up the little cabbage roll burritos was easy. I only made one head of cabbage because it's just Dave and I eating them, so there weren't enough outside "bad" leaves to line the baking dish with, but I covered the whole pan with foil and they cooked just fine. I had leftover filling and looked around for whatever else I could find to stuff - the 2 small sweet peppers from my garden and a leftover zucchini fit the bill. The recipe says to bake for an hour but quite a few reviews said it took longer, so I did 2 hours at 350'.

the filling is ground beef and pork, cooked rice,
an egg,  and the doctored up sauce

back pan is the sweet and sour tomato sauce,
front pan is a little sauce mixed with
sautéed onions, parsley, tomato paste...

cut out the thick rib of the cabbage leaf. I cut out
too much actually,  don't do this much. 

my v cut is a little big so rolling wasn't quite as nice as it
could have been - now I know! It still worked fine.

Might not be Leggs Inn cabbage rolls but they turned out really good and I will definitely be making these again in the future. I wonder what I'll wake up wanting to eat next?

one head of cabbage made 8 rolls, I also stuffed 2 small
sweet peppers and a zucchini. top with tomato sauce before baking. 

Lemon Cake

My friend Sheryl brought a slice of this lemon cake to me at work and I loved it SO much she brought a whole loaf over for our super bowl party. I asked her to share the recipe along with any changes or tips she has so I could share it with you guys (well for you guys and so I'd have it too haha) - and here it is! This is a very lemony cake, I actually think it's more of a lemon quick bread but whatever category you want to put it in it is delicious and if you like lemon I hope you'll try this! Promise, it's really really good.

The recipe is from Food Network (click here for the recipe), Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa is usually reliable and this is no exception.

Sheryl's changes are:
-  she uses 2/3 cup each of sugar and lemon juice to make the syrup, noting that she uses Meyer lemons and if you use regular lemons that much syrup might be too sour - so I would leave the recipe alone if you are using regular, increase it if you have milder Meyer lemons.
-She removes the cakes from the pans and sets on a rack covered with aluminum foil to let the cake absorb all the syrup instead of having it run off.
-for the glaze, she decreases the amount of lemon juice to 3T to thicken it a bit.

Ok, now my mouth is watering from thinking about lemons and this cake...enjoy!

Did you know that eating black eyed peas on New Years Day is thought to bring you good luck and prosperity? I'm not entirely sure why that is - but I'm all for bringing good luck and if eating them helps than why not haha! I searched for black eyed pea recipes and settled on making Emeril Lagasse's black-eyed pea jambalaya - it isn't like any jambalaya I've ever had before but that doesn't matter, it is delicious and easy to make.
I made a couple changes - I couldn't find tasso sausage so I used portuguese sausage instead.  I also couldn't find chorizo that was already cooked so bought fresh and cooked it first, it was a little greasy so I took some paper towels and blotted some of the grease out of the pan before adding the other sausages. I was afraid it would be too spicy for me but it just gave it a little bite, not at all too much. I added some cubed ham for texture since the chorizo was ground up instead of in chunks, didn't really need it though. The recipe doesn't include it but after reading the instructions on the bag of black-eyed peas I soaked them in water overnight.

I'm posting this a couple days after New Years so not sure if you will still get the benefits of good luck and prosperity ;) but fortunately this is just a yummy recipe that you should make just cuz it's good! Click here for the recipe. 1/2020 update - I clicked on that link and it no longer takes me to it on the Food Network - hmmm that's weird. I found it on emerils.com and also pasted it here so we will have it for the future!

Black Eyed Pea Jambalaya

• Prep Time: 20 minutes, plus overnight to soak the peas
• Total Time: 1 1/2 hours
• Yield: 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 ounces tasso sausage, diced into small pieces
• 1/2 pound chorizo sausage, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into1/4-inch pieces
• 1/2 pound smoked sausage, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (1 large onion)
• 1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 4 bay leaves
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 1 pound black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
• 2 cups long grain rice 
• 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
• Essence to season
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 tablespoons chopped flatleaf parsley

Directions

• In a large pot over medium heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the tasso, chorizo and sausage, and render for 5 minutes. Stir in the onions, bell pepper, salt, cayenne, black pepper, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onions are wilted. Stir in the chicken stock and the peas. Bring the liquid up to a brisk simmer, reduce heat to medium-low and cook partially covered just until the peas are nearly tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Stir in the rice, bring the liquid to an intense boil, stir, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover the pot, stir the rice and peas again to evenly distribute the rice, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, until the rice has absorbed the liquid, about 10 minutes longer. Remove from the heat.
  Sprinkle the shrimp with Essence to season. Using a large fork, gently fluff the rice and toss the shrimp, green onions, and parsley into the rice. Return the cover and allow to steam (undisturbed), for an additional 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm.