Short ribs!

Tonight's Menu

• slow-cooked beef short ribs
  
• steamed rice
  
• green salad "bar"
  

It's finally fall, and that means short ribs! Our favorite recipe is this one from Allrecipes.com. They slow-cook in the crockpot all day -- what could be easier? I used boneless short ribs and thickened the gravy on the stovetop instead of in the slow-cooker (my crockpot is ancient and doesn't do high heat well), but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. Yummy!

The rice was steamed in the microwave, and the salad was left over from last night. WAY easy!

Slow-cooked comfort food

Tonight's Menu

• beef short ribs in the slow-cooker
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• sauteed cabbage
  

We had some wicked thunder and hail storms roll through here last night, leaving us with mostly overcast skies and slightly cooler temperatures today. As luck would have it, I had bought some beef short ribs this week and decided to fire up the ol' crockpot for some comfort food!

We love our usual short rib recipe (found here) so much that I couldn't bring myself to deviate from it. Except I sort of did anyway. I didn't bother to dredge the ribs in seasoned flour before browning -- I just sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper and browned 'em off naked. And I was out of chili sauce, so I substituted ketchup. I also laid the sliced onions on top of the ribs and poured the rest of the mixed-together sauce ingredients on top, instead of adding the onions to the sauce. But other than that, it was the same as usual, and every bit as delicious!

The mashed potatoes were frozen Ore-Ida, doctored up with some butter, salt and pepper. Shut up.

For the cabbage, all I did was take half a head of plain old green cabbage, core it, chop it into chunks, then saute in a mixture of EVOO and butter until it was tender. I let it get a bit of caramelization for extra flavor. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dump into a serving bowl. Easy!

Tomorrow it's back to grilling. Oh yes, best beloveds.

Lazy dinner

Tonight's Menu

• slow-cooker barbecued pork on buns
  
• leftover coleslaw
  

This could not have been easier if we'd ordered takeout. All I did was dump a pork roast (sirloin, I think? or shoulder? you could use any cut you like) into the slow cooker, pour a bottle of Carolina-style barbecue sauce on top, cover and cook on low for about 8 hours. When it's done just shred the meat with two forks and ladle some of the sauce on top. Serve with some sandwich buns and thinly sliced sweet onion, and Bob's your uncle.

The coleslaw was leftover from Wednesday.

The girl child ate a pork sandwich AND some coleslaw. Unbelievable! I don't know who kidnapped my daughter and replaced her with this changeling who actually LIKES TO EAT, but I'm sorry, I'm keeping this one.

It's Fall, Bitches!

Tonight's Menu

• slow-cooker beef short ribs
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• steamed broccoli
  

Yeah, I know. I HAD TO. I can't grill another thing. Not until April, at least. I don't CARE if it's still hot and humid as all hell, I WANT FALL FOOD.

Ahem.

So, I've made these ribs before and they are amazing. This time I thickened the gravy on the stove and it came out much better.

This is the heaviest meal I've eaten since at least March, I think. BUT IT WON'T BE MY LAST.

Mwahahaha!

Indoor barbecue

Tonight's Menu

• slow-cooker barbecued pork
  
• potato salad
  
• steamed corn on the cob
  
• mixed tomato salad
  

Hey! Hello there! I have not been posting! Sorry about that. We've been eating really boring crap, like hamburgers and tacos and ... leftover hamburgers and tacos. And stuff. This weather has me ALL MESSED UP. I like to grill all summer long, you know that, but it's been really rainy. So I went and planned some meals that did not require grilling, and since then it's been sunny. WHATEVER, Ma Nature. I think you're just trying to piss me off now.

Ahem. ANYWAY.

It did rain a bit today, so the slow-cooker pork was a good call. All I did was slice a big sweet onion, separate it into rings, layer them in the bottom of the slow cooker, whomp a pork roast on top (I used sirloin but you could use loin or shoulder or whatever), then dump on a bottle of barbecue sauce (in this case Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle, which was FABULOUS) and cook on low for a good 8-10 hours. If you're using a long-grained cut of meat, like loin, you can shred this and serve it on buns, but I just chunked it up a bit and we ate it like that. Really yummy and summery, but I didn't have to light the grill!

I'm convinced my potato salad is the only reason we get invited to the neighborhood 4th of July potluck every year. I have been told not to bother showing up if I don't bring it. Okay, nobody actually SAID that, but I KNOW WHAT THEY'RE THINKING. Seriously, this stuff NEVER fails to draw compliments. I take no credit for it because I cribbed it from an old issue of Taste of Home magazine.

All you do is take a bag of those small red-skinned potatoes (about 2-3 pounds), cut them in quarters or eighths depending on how big they are, layer them on a foil-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, bake for about 45 minutes at 425 degrees F and let them cool. Then dump them in a bowl with some chopped hard-boiled eggs, a bunch of crumbled cooked bacon, chopped sweet onion, and shredded cheddar cheese. Mix three parts sour cream to two parts mayonnaise, squirt in just a bit of yellow mustard, and toss that with the potato mixture. You can serve this right away or make it a day ahead of time. It's SO GOOD, I am not kidding. Bring it to a party and you might get invited back, is all I'm saying.

Oh, I almost forgot the mixed tomato salad! That was just chopped (well, cubed really) red tomatoes from my garden along with yellow tomatoes from my dad's garden tossed in just a wee bit of EVOO and apple cider vinegar (whisk those together first to emulsify), salt and pepper. I've done this with balsamic before too and it's really good, but I thought the cider vinegar would better compliment the barbecue.

Crock-Pot pork

Tonight's Menu

• Crock-Pot barbecued pork on buns
  
• homemade coleslaw
  
• sweet corn on the cob
  

Super easy dinner tonight.

For the pork, all I did was slice an onion in half lengthwise, reserving one half and slicing the other half cross-wise. I put the onion in the bottom of the crockpot, stuck a pork roast on top (I used loin because it's lean, but you could use whatever), dumped in a bottle of barbecue sauce and cooked it all on low for 8 hours or so before shredding and serving on buns.

The coleslaw was just shredded cabbage tossed with a mixture of mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar and celery seed.

The corn was fresh, cleaned and then wrapped in wax paper before being steamed in the microwave.

If you make the coleslaw right after you start the meat and just stick it in the fridge all day, you can have this dinner on the table in 10 minutes.

Cooking disasters: The crock pot o' blandness

Okay, so here's what happened. Yesterday I fancied something autumnal for dinner, so I did the following:

1. Peeled a sweet yellow onion (Maya Sweet, I think it was) and cut it into wedges.
2. Peeled a large Granny Smith apple and cut it into wedges.
3. Peeled three smallish sweet potatoes and cut them into wedge-like chunks.
4. Tossed all of the above into the crock pot and stirred in a bit of marsala and a couple of spoonfuls of frozen apple juice concentrate.
5. Sprinkled a boneless pork loin roast with salt and pepper and then seared it off in a pan so it had a nice brown crust.
6. Stuck the roast on top of the veg mixture and cooked the whole thing on low for 10 hours.

Can you see what I FAILED to do up there? Anyone? Bueller?

That's right. NO SEASONINGS! What the hell?! I think the fact that the garbage disposal chose to vomit into the sink when I was shoving the peels into it is what threw me off. (The trap was full. DH fixed it. Gross.)

So yeah, this was pretty damn bland. We made do with salt and pepper at the table, but there's still a lot of food leftover and I can't bring myself to waste it. So I'm left with trying to salvage this thing at the re-heat stage. Now I just have to decide if I want to go the sage-thyme route or the allspice-ginger route. Anyone have suggestions?

Oy.

In praise of short ribs

Tonight's Menu

• crockpot short ribs
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• salad

I tried this recipe for the short ribs and they were soooo good, y'all. I followed it exactly except that (a) I cooked them for more like 10 hours and (b) my slow cooker is really old and doesn't do "high" very well so the gravy didn't get thick. Next time I'll pour it into a pan and thicken it on the stovetop.

In every book of his that I've read, Anthony Bourdain sings the lament of the unpopular meat -- you know, those cuts that tend to be cheap and fatty and have to be cooked just right to be rendered palatable. But when they ARE cooked just right, yowza! Beef short ribs definitely qualify. They're ugly when raw -- big hunks of bone, the small amount of meat thickly marbled with fat -- and if you don't cook them properly, they are tough as old shoes. But when cooked slowly over low heat (whether in a crockpot, braised on the stovetop, or roasted in the oven) until the fat renders and the meat is so tender it falls off the bone, they are a thing of beauty, y'all. The fat just melts through the meat and gives it an amazing flavor that you'll NEVER get from a leaner cut. And short ribs are so cheap!

In addition to the recipe I tried tonight, I love them with sauerkraut. Just salt and pepper the ribs and brown them in a skillet (to boost the flavor and make 'em pretty), dump a jar of sauerkraut into the crockpot, maybe stir in a little brown sugar or some grated apple or onion, dump the ribs on top, cover and cook all day.

The meat is so rich that they're probably better suited to cool weather than the 100+ degree temperatures we've been having here lately (and will continue to have until Thanksgiving, probably), but what can I say? I had a craving. And the crockpot doesn't heat up the house TOO much.

Day 21

Adult Menu*

• leftovers from last night
  

Girl Child
She had Campbell's Double Noodle soup leftover from lunch, raw baby carrots, and whole-grain saltines.

Boy Child
Had whole grain bread with margarine (Smart Balance -- no trans fats), some shredded mozzarella, and some raw snow peas.

*Just me again.

Day 20

Adult Menu

• crockpot pulled pork sandwiches (bbq sauce optional)
  
• potato salad (from scratch)
  
• coleslaw (ditto)
  
• a big pitcher of decaf iced tea
  

Girl Child
She said the pork looked and smelled really good, tried a bite and liked it, so she had some on a bun with no bbq sauce. But then she decided she didn't like it after all, and didn't eat it. I was a big softie and at her request I saved out some shredded cabbage with no coleslaw dressing, but she decided she didn't like THAT either, after trying it, so she didn't eat it. She ended up eating a teeny tiny piece of leftover steak from last week, a few deli ham slices, and a couple of raw baby carrots.

Boy Child
He was hesitant to try the pork but the girl child told him it tasted like chicken, so he tried a bite and thought it was good and let me put some on his plate (no bun or sauce). But then he didn't eat it. He did eat a bunch of shredded cabbage with no coleslaw dressing, and he made and ate a peanut butter sandwich. He tried the tea and said he liked it but it wasn't his favorite and he probably wouldn't want it very often. Then, when I gave him permission, he switched to water.

Sigh. This is one of my favorite meals, and takes a bit of time to prepare, but its reception was less than enthusiastic all the way around. Even DH made a crack about the tea being decaf (I can't have caffeine for medical reasons) and passed on it because he'd already had two glasses of tea today. And he said this particular potato salad, which I love and get recipe requests for all the time, is not his favorite.

Screw 'em all, man. More pork, potato salad, coleslaw and tea for me. And if I'm the only one eating it, it'll probably last a week, at least. Anyone want to come over?