5/13/08

The Close to Perfect Short Ribs

So the night started off leaving work early....just a little, to get to the supermarket before everyone bought all of the short ribs....



well, arrival at Stop and Shop on the way home, led me to 2 packages left of some "eh" looking short ribs....I picked them up and proceeded to the second place on the way home.....A&P. No Short ribs...well they did, but the boneless ones...



Thinking to myself I should have just gone to the "GOOD" supermarket (albeit crowded, crappy parking lot, etc.) in the FIRST place I was going to punish myself, not go and work with what I had......that will show me.



The Ingredients

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boneless (bone-in are browning)



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hey...it was going to be a LONG night.

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so I started at 5:45 with my prep and browning...

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first the miripoix - I threw a left over shallot I had in there too..

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a little garlic.

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and some tomato paste...

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some wine to deglaze..

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with some beef stock

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to a boil and in the oven it went.at 300. went it at 6pm.



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what to do next?

movie. (Martian Child if you must know...it was good)

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we are not alcoholics



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but after the movie we opened another bottle....and started the rice.

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we checked the ribs and agreed another 20 minutes more after eating one ;)



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MMmmmmmm rice came out pretty good :)

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I wish I could bottle this smell..

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got rid of the mush..

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reduced it by half...

added a little salt.

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how did it taste?



amazing.

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So to answer the OPs question...about a bottle and a half of wine is how long (in my case about 2 hours)



it was borderline stringy, caught it just in time (went from "needs a few minutes more" to "almost lost it" in 20 minutes)..next time I'll do 275 for the same amount of time.



The boneless were "ok" but I'd never cook the boneless without a 2-1 ratio of bone-in in the pot.....my girlfriend loves the boneless though so it worked out well.



Dinner, not including the non-cooking wine was about 20$....

5/5/08

Practice makes Perfect Pasta - "Progress" Pictures

Attempt 1 at homemade pasta.



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This was a couple of months ago.

Lessons learned:

Hand rolling will never get it as thin as you like it without double the arm strength of sanity

Bigger is not better, because they almost double in size.



Next attempt.



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lessons learned:

Pasta rollers are GREAT. But I can still improve the look of the ravioli.



Last attempt (this weekend)

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These ones were worthy of lobster/crab.



Presentations were "eh" because it was a family meal.

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Lessons learned:

the 6.99 ravioli "punch" is great, but I kinda like the hand made look....so I'm torn... maybe I'll experiment more...



I should probably invest in a mixer with dough hook....hand mixing isn't all that fun.



I'm getting pretty good at getting the right feel for the pasta doing it by hand though....using a mix of semolina and AP. I'm also working on more efficient tricks to rolling it out and getting the right size strips without wasting a bunch of dough scraps.



I'd be willing to go out on a limb say that I can make some good tasting pasta dough and I'm pretty confident about it now. I used to make the the day before as to ensure the dough would roll out ok, etc. etc. now I'm confident.

4/24/08

Babka for Russian Easter

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4/21/08

Fw:Herbs

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4/19/08

This is how WE do it on a weekend morning...



Made Quesedillas last night...had some leftovers so made some steak and eggs and an omelet for Laurie. She made the crescents...










4/17/08

spicy chicken skewers on the new grill

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4/16/08

Out to lunch...spring fever!

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4/15/08

New Grill!!

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New Grill!!!!

4/13/08

Bye-Bye Newport...

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4/12/08

Dinner at Mama Luisas!

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Crab salad wedge

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Enjoing my extraveganza weekend!!

My surprise was Newport, RI! Wine tasted yesterday, 2 wineries, a most EXCELLENT dinner at 22 Bowens.....late wakeup today...lunch at Brick Alley...Breaker Mansion tour next...then another good dinner at Mama Luisas!! I picked me a good one!

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4/10/08

guess im going somewhere for my bday....

found this when i came home!

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4/9/08

When I'm left to my own devices....

4/8/08

Mango Salsa Chicken and Salad





Balsamic Strawberries and Glazed Pecans

Short Ribs

Made some short ribs braised in a red wine



4/4/08

God Bless Them!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2008/04/03/douglas.married.75.years.died.wfaa

J.C. and Josie Cox were married for 75 years. They died five hours apart.

4/3/08

Scallops

4/1/08

New Years Resolution - Eat Seafood

This year, I decided to take the bull by the horns, and finally just eat seafood. For those who don't know me, I've never eaten more than a taste (and usually spit it out) of seafood in 25 years. Just one of those mental gag reflex things that I can't even explain....I WANTED to eat seafood, it just never "worked".

2008 is a new year and I said screw it. I'm going to eat me some seafood.

To date, I've eaten (and by eaten, I classify it as more than 1 piece of in more than 1 mouthful, just a 'taste' or 1 piece doesn't count)

Shrimp a couple of ways
Lobster
Crab
Scallops
Mussels
Seared VERY rare/raw tuna

My latest accomplishment was actually ordering a dish with shrimp in it....I'm working on it...