Saucy Short Ribs

Short Ribs....

 

For some reason they get a rap for being really difficult, they aren't. Nope! And they are a pretty inexpensive cut of meat which is great as well. They just take time.

Something you should know about me, I am not patient. I try to be, but then I just get frustrated :) Not patient at all.

 I just do not have the time to stand in the kitchen all day babysitting food. If I did that, there would be one child or the other in the emergency room daily... My kids are dare devils and very sneaky ones at that :)

So, back to me not being patient. If I am going to cook a meal, I do not want it to be a huge production. I want to cook and get it on the table to feed my family, and I want it to taste amazing. I do not use my crockpot a lot because, although a great invention, I have a hard time being home and just seeing my food cook there and not go messing with it. See, I told you I am not patient :)

So when I make short ribs, I do so on Sundays. I am out of the house early and not back for a few hours, so when I get home, these babies are tender and delicious and best of all...Ready To Eat!

I served these delicious ones up with a cauliflower puree and crispy Brussels sprouts. YUM!!!

Saucy Short Ribs
2 pounds boneless short ribs
1/3 cup flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon dried thyme

Combine the above ingredients in a zip-loc bag and shake to coat all ribs
Heat a cast iron or other heavy bottom pan to medium high
Add a drizzle of oil and wait until oil is hot, but not smoking
Brown ribs on all sides and place in slow cooker

In same pan, add the following ingredients

2 tablespoons butter (organic or grass-fed is always recommended)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 large cloves, or 3 small, garlic - minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce (I used the trader joe's brand)
Cook until onions are transparent, watch garlic so it does not burn

Add in the following ingredients to deglaze the pan

1 cup stock (I used homemade vegetable stock, but any kind will work)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup or honey
Stir to combine everything

Pour all ingredients on top of ribs in slow cooker, set to low (8 hours) or high (4 hours) depending on your desired setting. When you take them out the meat should very easily shred/separate.

Carefully remove meat and strain the liquid into a saucepan, cook down until a thick, saucy, sticky syrup remains. Place the ribs back in the sauce, turn to coat, remove ribs to the plate with puree, top with Brussels sprouts and sauce.

Cauliflower Puree
1 small head cauliflower, about 2 cups of florets
1.5 cups whole milk, half and half or heavy cream (you can use lower fat milk, it just wont be as creamy)

Combine milk and cauliflower in a saucepan, cook on medium heat until cauliflower is very tender.
Transfer cauliflower to heavy duty blender with about 1/4 cup of liquid. Blend until very, very smooth, adding in more cooking liquid as necessary.
Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts
Trim up about 1 pound of Brussels sprouts and cut each in half
Heat olive oil in a pan until oil shimmers
Add in Brussels sprouts and cook without flipping or stirring for about 5-7 minutes, until cut side down is very golden brown
Flip and cook another 5-7 minutes without turning until this side is golden brown as well.

So if you look at this as a whole, the ribs cook themselves in the crockpot and you just spend about 15 minutes whipping up the puree and Brussels sprouts to go with it and you have a beautiful, hearty, wholesome, real food from real ingredients. YUM!!

Happy Eating :)

Mini Quiche with a Sweet Potato Crust

So it was Mother's Day...

These little faces greet me each morning...

 But on Mother's Day they greeted me just a little bit later than normal... it was the best gift in and of itself :) I mean I love my children, they are the best thing to happen to me, but man when then sleep in!

I figured I would make breakfast for the family as I do everyday, I was offered breakfast in bed, but alas I am happiest in the kitchen making food I know will nourish and fill my family. Oh, and I am a complete control freak :) There is just something about the unknown..you should see me decide on a meal at a restaurant I haven't been to.... yeah, not pretty.

These were super yummy, quick litte quiches that tasted amazing and were free from that guilty feeling you get when you realize you basically just ingested a pie crust filled with butter....for breakfast...filled with eggs and cheese....yeah.

Mini Quiches with Sweet Potato Crusts

Crusts
Par cooked sweet potato/yam or both shredded...
yup precook those babies, its really the only way to make this crust work. scrub them up, pop them in the oven and cook until they are tender with just a little bit of 'bite'left in them...don't bite them, just push on them and they should not be completely mushy.

Let the potatoes cool, peel and then roughly grate them. Press into a mini tart pan with removeable base (you can also do this in a large tart pan or even muffin tins - just grease the muffin tins or they will stick). When you are pressing in the potatoes make sure to get the whole thing covered and go up over the side edges a bit because they will shrink a bit while cooking. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes.

Precooked - i used one small sweet potato and one small yam

Bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes. You want the crusts to brown up but not burn, so watch carefully. Remove, set aside and turn down oven to 400.

Quiche



3 eggs
2 tablespoons milk or cream
choice of fillings - sauteed for a few minutes
(I used spinach, zucchini, asparagus, bell pepper, scallions and shallot sauteed in a bit of olive oil until spinach was wilted and shallot was almost translucent)
2 tablespoons grated cheese - I used parmesan

veggies all sauteed up and ready to be used

ingredients...i think i need more color here :)

Add sauteed ingredients to the par baked crusts
mix up eggs and milk/cream, season with salt and pepper to your taste
Pour egg mixture into crusts to almost the very top
Top with cheese

Bake at 400 for about 12-20 minutes (time will depend on size of your baking dish) or until eggs are set and golden brown.

All golden, bubbly and delicious

Remove your quiche from your tart shell (if using) by placing tart pan on top of a small bowl and letting tart ring slide off.

Ahhh, look at the beautiful butter and guilt free crust

Garnish with chives or sliced scallions and enjoy :)

And thank your mom, she's pretty great.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Cocoa mini cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream and salted caramel sauce

 

 

I love salt.... seriously, it is a hard core love affair with that stuff...
I like sweets of course, but they are SO much better when they have a bit of salt in them.
Salt just enhances all of the flavors and makes everything pop...right in your mouth - YUM!

Salted caramel is everywhere these days... sauces, ice cream, cakes, brownies, everywhere. It is pretty much the perfect base for a myriad of desserts...and maybe chips or something, I mean it is pretty amazing.

This is simple, quick and only has 5 ingredients... most of which you probably have in your home right now...so read on and then quick, run to the kitchen and whip up a batch of this yumminess!

Salted Caramel Sauce

2 cups sugar ( I used evaporated cane juice crystals)
3/4 cup (or 12 tablespoons) butter - cut into pieces
1 cup room temperature heavy cream
1.5 tablespoons flaky sea salt (large pieces are what you are looking for here)
1 vanilla bean, cut in half and scraped to get the seeds out (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

Add all sugar to a heavy bottomed saucepan
Stir sugar until all sugar has melted
Once all sugar has melted, carefully watch but do not stir until sugar turns a deep amber color and reaches 350 degrees (use a candy thermometer clipped to the pan to help with this step if desired)
As SOON as sugar reaches 350, add the butter in and stir until melted
Remove the pan from heat and add in HALF of the cream and vanilla bean seeds/extract (be careful, it will bubble up and possibly splatter), stir well
Whisk in sea salt and let pan cool on stove (turned off) about 5-10 minutes
Add in remaining cream and stir to incorporate
Store in a bottle or jug in the refrigerator for up to a month (if it lasts that long)

Stir in the cream, yum

adding in remaining cream



Oh, she's so pretty!

Tummy Tamer Lolliops

Stomach sickness is awful... period.

There is just something about when your stomach is feeling upset that makes it hard to do anything else. I can work through headaches, colds, runny noses, allergies, etc... but when my stomach gets sick, forget it, I am out.

I jsut returned from a really fun quick break away with my husband. We needed it. I am so happy we went :) We hit the beaches of California and took a quick day at Disneyland. It was great!

One of the most fun things about vacationing is eating :) Oh is that just me, ok then...

I am happy to report I ate everything under the sun, a lot of things I normally do not eat. And then I paid the price. My stomach quickly let me know that it really couldn't wait for me to be home cooking like I ususally do.

We all know how great ginger is for when we are sick, but there are almost zero brands of ginger ale that are free from high fructose corn syrup and some have absolutely zero actual ginger in them... fail.

I wanted to think of a way to incorporate ginger in a fun, easy to eat, portable way... thus the lollipop was born.

These babies are good! Full of fresh grated ginger, lemon zest, lemon juice and honey. oh and they are corn syrup free too!

Lemon Ginger Lollipops
(makes 8 big ones, or 16 small ones)

natural (not bleached) sugar and honey make brown pops, but they sure taste amazing!

1 cup sugar (I used organic evaporated cane juice sugar)
1/3 cup water
1/8 tsp cream of tarter
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (do not use the powdered stuff)
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon honey
1.5 teaspoons lemon juice
8 big lollipop sticks (or 16 small ones)

honey is missing here, but there is the ginger, lemon and zest

Line a baking sheet with parchment (not waxed) paper, and spread out sticks - set aside
In a heavy bottomed pot fitted with a candy thermometer, over medium heat, add sugar, water, lemon juice and cream of tarter
Stir until all sugar is dissolved
Turn up heat to medium high/high and let boil (do NOT stir) until it reaches hard ball stage (about 310 degrees) . It took me about 7 minutes.(if you drop some of the liquid into ice cold water it should harden to the point of breaking and no longer be sticky)
Working very quickly after the temperature reaches the right stage, remove pot from burner, plunge bottom of pot in water, add in honey, lemon zest and ginger, stir, and carefully pour onto sticks.
Let set up about 10 minutes.
Brush tops of lollipops with more lemon juice and sprinkle with more zest and ginger if desired.
Let set until completely dry and peel from paper.

Happy Eating...

Oatmeal Coconut Jam Bars

I don't bake much.... at all....

There is something about having to be precise that just does not go well with me. I CAN do it if necessary, and have done it with success....but it is not my favorite.

I am getting ready to go on a quick vacation so I really want to make sure that I use up everything perishable. I hate when things go to waste.
In that spirit, I have tons of fresh blackberries I need to use that, much to my dismay, no one else in my house loves - they will eat them by force but not their first choice.
I wanted to make sure to use them up, but I knew I was not going to be able to eat all of them alone so I wanted to see if there was something I could come up with... to the internet I went.

I finally found a recipe that looked like it would be yummy and I had everything i needed.
The white flour, the quantity of sugar and the store bought sugar filled raspberry jam it called for were not things I really wanted to use though.

Indulgence is ok. In my life it is actually required :) I am not one of those wow this fresh fruit is just like having a slice of chocolate cake people....um.... whoever said that lied... bad...
I do indulge, its actually quite the norm here, but I think if the food can taste just as good or better and use healthier ingredients why wouldn't you?!

The original recipe calls for sweetened coconut, bleached white flour, a full cup of sugar and store bought sugar filled jam.
My recipe uses unsweetened coconut, whole wheat pastry flour, 1/2 the sugar and fresh berries cooked down into a thick jam like yummy sauce. But make no mistake, they are still an indulgence - there are 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter involved here :)

OH, and it tastes FABULOUS :)

golden, toasted, unsweetened coconut

blackberries and strawberries reducing away

all thickened up, no additives, no sugars

dough after butter addition, but before oats and coconut... all in the food processor

right out of the oven

close up of the bubbly, toasty, goodness

 

Oatmeal Coconut Berry Jam Bars

1 1/4 cups unsweetened coconut flakes - toasted at 375 degrees until golden brown (about 8 minutes, but watch CAREFULLY as it can burn fast)
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup brown sugar ** see note at bottom **
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter - cut into pieces but kept cold
1 1/2 cups plain rolled oats (not instant)
2-3 cups fresh berries of your choice - you want this to cook down into about 1.5 cups of jam so you may need more/less fresh berries depending on the size, type of berry you use.
up to 1/4 cup raw honey (may not be needed)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and toast coconut

In a saucepan over medium heat, add the berries and up to 1/4 cup of honey; 1 tablespoon at a time. Depending on the sweetness of your berries, you made not need any of the honey. As the berries cook down they will concentrate and become sweeter. Cook until a thick jam has formed, set aside to cool. This will take anywhere from 10-20 minutes depending on stove, pan, and berries.

Combine flour, sugar, salt in the bowl of a food processor, process until combined. Add in butter and process just until a dough begins to form. Add in oats and 1 cup toasted coconut - pulse a couple times and then transfer to a bowl to combine. Knead until everything is incorporated but do not handle too much or else the butter will melt. Set 3/4 cup of the dough aside.

Press remaining dough into pan until flat. I have a strange 8 1/2 x 11 pan that I used but you could use a 9x9 or even a 9x13. You would need to add more time to a 9x9 pan and subtract some minutes from the 9x13. Add jam on top and top with 3/4 dough you set aside as well as the 1/4 cup of coconut you have left. Spread out the dough/coconut mixture carefully on top of the jam.

Bake about 30 minutes watching to make sure the coconut on top does not burn.

Here is the hardest part...let cool...ugh!!
You have to let these babies cool... unless you want your homemade yummy jam pouring out all over youself so that you singe your arms, hands and face (cough...ahem... i would have NO idea what this would be like). Cool about 20 minutes at room temperature, then cut into squares (I was able to cut mine into 16 small squares).


** I normally try to avoid using straight sugar/brown sugar and try to stick to raw honey and maple syrup as sweeteners. I tried these once with honey and here is what I found. The temperature had to be lowered, the flavor was much different, the moisture level was weird and I had a hard time with it. I am sure many of you are much better with subbing in other ingredients, so feel free to let me know if you do.

Happy Eating...

Clam Craving...in the Desert...

I have said this before, but I LOVE seafood!
One of the perks about growing up on the East Coast is the fresh seafood so readily available...

flash forward a few too many years and find yourself smack dab in the middle of a desert... and a seafood craving hits.... what do you do?!

You jump in the car, drive 20 minutes to the closest Whole Foods and grab a pound and a half of their wild caught, fresh from that day little neck clams.

These are some really really good clams people. They actually rivaled some of the best ones I had back home, and that is saying something!

Big, Meaty, Tender...and chock full of flavor, and all ready in under 20 minutes! Whoo Hoo!!

                   LittleNeck Clams
in a brown butter, white wine, garlic sauce

1.5 pounds fresh, wild caught littleneck clams (about 8-9 big ones)
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup water
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 slices lemon
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil (or 1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped)
* I added some olives to mine just because i like olives, they are not necessary *

Wash clams in a big bowl of water, scrubbing clean, dry off
In a deep pan or pot, bring lemon slices, 1/4 cup wine and 1/2 cup water to a boil
Add clams, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook until all clams have opened (about 8-12 minutes) If clams are not open after 13-15 minutes, discard
Once the clam has opened, remove from pan and set aside until all other clams open
Once all clams have opened and are removed, drain pot/pan, set back on burner on medium high heat
Add butter, garlic, herbs, red pepper flakes and saute until butter turns light brown (watch garlic carefully, do not let it burn)
Add in remaining 1/4 cup wine, capers, lemon and clams
cook about 3 minutes, plate clams, pour sauce on top
Best served with some crusty bread to soak up all the sauce

Happy Eating...

Herbed Lamb Burgers...

I've never eaten lamb. Well before last night that is...

I had this mental image of a poor lamb and I just could not do it. It seemed so sad... I'm kind of a sap like that. All I hear in my head is "Mary had a litle lamb, little lamb, little lamb"...

With the decreasing supply of really good, natural, clean meat available I have been forced out of  my comfort zones with eating. We eat a lot more vegetable based meals and a lot less mainstream red meat.

I was perusing my local sprouts store when I saw this great display for 100% grass fed lamb, and it was just a few cents more per pound than the ground beef. I figured I may as well give it a try.

Change is good. Right?! Please tell me it is...

These were actually really good burgers, a nice change. I had to make myself think they were regualr old hamburgers though... Not becuase they didn't taste amazing, but because all i could hear was "Mary had a little lamb" playing in my head...

The flavor was not too different than a traditional burger and it was super moist and tasty.

The real success of this meal, my 1 year old ate almost 2 of these babies, and my 5 year old scarfed 1 and asked for more. Now that is a success in my mommy book :)

Herbed Lamb Burgers
(Makes about 4 regular sized patties or 6 sliders)
1 pound ground lamb (if they have organic or grass fed - go for that)
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon water
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, or 1/2 of a small white onion, grated
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried cumin
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried coriander
2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

In a bowl, combine lamb with the beaten egg, water, mustard, vinegar, garlic, shallot or onion. Use your hands to gently incorporate the ingredients. Add in the spices and herbs and gently fold together once more.
Form patties and refrigerate at least 45 minutes. You can skip this step but you may notice that your burgers start to fall apart once cooked. The chilling time helps them bind together. If you find you do not have time to refrigerate, you can add in about 1/4-1/2 cup breadcrumbs to help with binding, but chilling is best.

Heat a cast iron skillet (or other heavy bottomed pan) over medium high heat, add in a drizzle of olive oil, until pan is pretty hot, but oil is not smoking.
Add burgers, in batches if necessary to prevent crowding, press your thumb into the top to create an indentation, and cook about 4 minutes. Carefully flip burgers, cover pan, cook an additional 2-5 minutes depending on your desired level of doneness. 6 minutes will normally produce a lamb burger cooked medium.

Remove, build burgers, don't forget to use a homemade bun Recipe on this blog HERE, and some amazing feta/yogurt dip. (Recipe Follows)

Feta/Yogurt Dip
1 6 ounce container plain greek yogurt
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon shallot, minced
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl, mix all ingredients, cover and let chill 30 minutes to let flavors incorporate.

Happy Eating....