Winter Cooking with Smitten Kitchen (part 1)

Well, Hello there!  A few months later and I am still cooking.  I canned up and froze a garden's worth of veggies over the summer, and have been continuing to cook (mostly) seasonally- trying to simplify, cut excess starch and ingredients, cut out pre-fab 'foods' all together, and increase 'good' fats.

Winter is a time for comfort foods, and I've been baking, pureeing, and braising a LOT of them!  For Christmas, I received a copy of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. Upon opening it, I had all I could do not to bypass the rest of the celebration and get cooking.  I've been following Deb Perelman's blog for quite some time, and was 100 percent sold on her recipes after homemade Cheez-Its, which I've made a dozen times, and they're awesome.

With Sharp Cheddar and Aleppo

Paging through the new book, I realized that just about every recipe has appeal.  She has this awesome way of taking a comforting food, simplifying the fussy parts, paying attention to the specific detail that makes it awesome, and then adding something particularly interesting. Beginning today, I've begun a less organized,  Julie and Julia type thing with this book, and I hope my family and neighbors are up for the challenge of eating our way through this book.

So, to start out a long New Year's Eve holiday weekend, I decided to lock myself in the house and cook all day. Beer and Balsamic Braised Short Ribs over a parsnip puree with horseradish, from the Book, seemed like a good place to start. In our household, we have 2 meat eaters, and me. I don't love preparing meats, but I am willing to do it for a good recipe, with ethically raised meats, in sane quantities, ideally the cheaper/ less sought after cuts, from our Co-Op, sometimes.

On the continuum of meaty things for a vegetarian to cook, I can say that this recipe isn't that bad doesn't stink up the whole house.  Its one pan and one plate- not a lot of cleanup, either. And, it's a pretty straightforward preparation: Brown the ribs in some oil on all sides, set aside. Cook the onions and then the garlic in the same pan, in some of the drippings, add liquids (beer, balsamic, worcestershire) and deglaze the pan.  Nestle the ribs in with the sauce and put in the oven @ 325 for 3 hours.

So far, good review.  The meat did, in fact, fall off the bone on a few of the ribs.  Its VERY Fred Flinstone-y, if that's your thing. It's supposed to be even better the 2nd day, and with a reduced sauce from the pan sauce- that will happen later today.