Don't underestimate the little guy

I'm still alive and still blogging! Sorry I have been MIA lately.  Four of my precious teeth of wisdom were removed last week and although I had saved dinners to blog while I was on the couch and in pain, the pain took over and so did the pain pills.  Needless to say, blogging did not and really could not happen. I'm not really sure why God felt it necessary to give us 4 extra teeth that don't grow properly or fit in our mouths but it is not a fun process.  I am still in pain and can't really open my mouth wide enough to eat anything extra delicious but I am making due.

So now onto my first "saved eats" from 2 weeks go! Let's hope I still remember this process.  Two Thursdays ago, we had the alarm guy come and work on our alarm system so I had to be home all day to let him in and be around while he was working.  For me this meant prepping dinner Wednesday night so I had it already available Thursday so I didn't have to leave for the store.  One thing I have been wanting to make for some time is beef short ribs.  With the change in the weather this seemed appropriate, even though that day ended up being beautiful and not Fall/Winter-like at all.

This process began the night before, sat overnight and was baked the next day.  I did my best to take as many pics as possible but I was also making dinner for Wednesday at the same time.  Here were the ingredients:

4 lbs short ribs

salt

pepper

onion

carrots

celery

garlic

1 bottle red wine

thyme

chicken stock

To start, I chopped up the veggies and put them in a bowl set aside.  Then, using a dry paper towel, I dried each rib.  Using a dutch oven and some canola oil, I heated the oil and then browned the ribs on each side until "crusty." I did this in 2 batches since they wouldn't all fit at once and then removed them from the pot and put them in a baking dish. 

Once the beef was out, the veggies were added to the pot and allowed to cook until very soft.  This took about 30 minutes over very low heat.  The wine and thyme were added next and allowed to come to a boil over high heat. 

Once that mixture boiled, I poured it over the baking dish and let it sit at room temperature until it cooled.  Then, I covered it with foil and put it in the fridge to sit overnight.  The next morning, I turned all the ribs over.

The next afternoon, I put the ribs and junk/marinade back into the dutch oven.  This is when the chicken stock was added and brought to a boil on the stovetop.  Once boiling, the pot went into the oven and cooked for about 1 1/2 hours.  Then, I removed the lid and braised the ribs for another hour.  I made sure to remove the ribs every 15 minutes or so and turned them.  I let the sauce reduce to about half which equaled about 2 cups of liquid.

After the pot was removed from the oven, the meat was removed and I placed it in a clean baking dish and took out the bones.  The remains in the pot were strained the I put the junk in a separate container for the dog :)

The remaining liquid was then poured over the ribs and the dish was put back in the oven under the broiler for the liquid to turn into glaze.  I let it cook for about 10 minutes.

I decided to serve this dish with mashed potatoes, which I didn't take pictures of since I have posted about mashed potatoes before.  The process hasn't changed at all :) I decided to use red-skinned to keep some structure so they could be chunky and not as mashed as russet usually are.

OK! So final product:

These turned out really well.  I'm glad that I finally took the time to make them because it's definitely a great cold day meal.  They had a great sweetness to them while also having some tart aspects from the wine.  The meat was so tender and fall of the bone which was great.  I think the mashed potatoes were a good touch b/c they added the aspect of salt to the dish and I think were a better touch than rice or noodles.  This meal definitely takes some prep time but I think if you have time to make dinner and decide to plan ahead, this is a great dish to try!