Beef Short Ribs

This is a hearty stick to your ribs meal!! We recently bought a portion of a whole cow and short ribs came in the assortment, so I had to figure out how to make them. I first made this last year and it is a hit! Ingredients:
Beef short ribs about 5 pounds, 2 cups red wine, 4 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, onion, 1 lg can of tomato paste, bay leaf, thyme and garlic. Salt and pepper of course!

Although this looks complicated, it is not...puree the onion, garlic, carrots and celery. My food processor is broke, so I added it to a blender.

These are short ribs look like this.

Salt and pepper the ribs and brown them in a large pan, do this in shifts.

Place the ribs in a large roaster, preheat oven to 375.

Take the veggie puree and brown in the pan that you had the ribs in, add a touch of olive oil and salt and pepper. Leave until all water is almost gone then turn, you will end up with a dry ball of mush that smells AMAZING as it is cooking.

This is what it looks like, next add tomato paste, the whole large can.

This will brown for about 4-5 minutes to combine flavors. Salt and pepper this layer as well. Each new layer should always be re-seasoned. I do not ever need to add salt to my finished dish, if it is seasoned along the way it will taste better in the end.

Add 2 1/2 cups of red wine, Merlot of Cabernet work well just not sweet red. Add 2 cups of water as well.

Reduce this mixture for a few minutes until thick (around 7 minutes).

Pour over the ribs add 1 tsp of thyme and 2 bay leaves, cover with foil and bake for 3 hours, pull foil off for the last 30 minutes, at this point I skim the layer of oil off.

The finished ribs look like this. They are delicious. Sever with the "gravy" that has formed in the pan, I always serve with potatoes, but you can do whatever you like, fries, grilled veggies, rice, macaroni and cheese...limitless possibilities. ENJOY!!

Ahhh to feed a toddler....

So, you have a toddler and one day they LOVE something, the next day, Ewwww. Story of our life around here. A few months ago, this little princess could ear her weight in blueberries, one day without warning, "no berries mom". So I have been trying to make her food LOOK more interesting to her and it works! Let the trickery and creativity begin. I find that a few options are the way to go, I many time offer "leftovers" for lunch. That spoonful of veggies or pasta that would have gone to the disposal now finds it's way to a muffin pan. 6 little cups that can be filled with little goodies and fit right on a highchair like it was made for it. (Hint, I put a little silicone hot mat down to prevent sliding)

Today on the menu. Fruit snacks, gold fish, green beans, cheese sticks, peaches and pb & j cut out using a cookie cutter (mitten for the Christmas season). I do veggies and dip, assorted fruit, pasta, cookie, cottage cheese, hummus and pita the possibilities are endless. She likes all the variety and I have been cutting lots of things into shapes, which she loves. I had little mini flower cookie cutters and cut out cucumber flowers, big hit!

Laundry Soap

So, the economy stinks...laundry detergent is crazy pricey, even the cheap stuff. SOOooo, I recently found the love of Borax after making flubber with my boys. I previously posted about my love affair with Borax and it's uses, so I decided to see what else I could do with it, and as luck may have it, both Pinterest and Google have great links to homemade laundry soap!! I thought about my expenses and realized I spend about $19 per week give or take on soap. RIDICULOUS. So I thought I would try the homemade stuff. My rule, must clean and smell good. All blogs/sites guarantee this, so I combined a few and this is what I came up with....Needed: A grater, 3 packages of Fels-Naptha or Ivory bar soap, Arm and Hammer super washing soda 2 boxes and 3 boxes of Borax.

Grate the Fels-Napth I used a trashcan and liner to mix (also an eager kid to help)

After this, add all the boxes of powder and mix, I got this large glass jar ($9 at Wal-Mart) and another butter dish full. Use 1-2 tbsp per load, plus you can use fabric softener of choice.

Next project, chalk board paint for my jar!!

I am always looking for casserole ideas that my family will eat. Many reasons fuel my search. First, I work full time and need things I can make ahead of time, second is they are generally cheap and feed very hungry boys. Always a big plus, I can't say for sure where the casserole recipe came from, as I generally look up several and then play around with it to suit our needs or list of ingredients I have in the pantry. The garlic biscuit knots are from pinterest. The stars of this show (not all pictured as I was tending to a 23 month old too) are:
Casserole: 2-3 pounds of chicken breast, macaroni (any shape pasta), shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese. 2 cans evaporated milk, ranch dressing (not dip) mix, salt, pepper, onion and garlic.
Garlic biscuit knots: 1 can of flaky biscuits, canola or olive oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder and oregano.


Put both cans of evaporated milk into a sauce pan with ranch dressing mix, heat on low. In a separate pan get water boiling for the pasta.

Next cube up chicken and set aside. Chop onion and garlic.

Soften onions and garlic in a pan, add salt and pepper to this. If you salt and pepper in stages, you food is flavorful, if you wait until the end of the meal, it will taste like salt on top of the food.

Next add chicken, and brown until no longer pink in the middle. Do not over cook.

Cook 2 and 1/2 cups of pasta into heavily salted water according to package directions follow the al dente time.

Set the cooked chicken and drained pasta aside. Layer half of each into a buttered casserole dish like pictured below.

Next pour half of the ranch milk over the past and sprinkle with handful of both cheeses.

Repeat and top with cheese, bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Take biscuit dough and roll into a snake, tie into knot and put on baking sheet.

In a bowl add 1/4 cup of oil (I used olive oil), 1 tsp of oregano, 2 tbsp of parmesean cheese, 1/2 tsp of garlic and I also cracked some pepper into it.

Take this mixture and spoon onto the biscuits and bake.
These smell so wonderful as they cook.

The finished casserole.

What a beautiful, bubbly and cheesy dish.

What a filling yummy meal, just a hint of ranch and screams winter time comfort food. It re-heats nicely and even the kids loved it. This dish can be assembled and kept in the fridge for a few days and then baked or even frozen.

*Many dishes are made with chicken breast sauteed like this, to save time, while doing a dish cook double chicken and put half aside for another meal, saves times for later in the week. Hope you enjoy.

Cube Steak Sandwiches and Rosemary Fries

This is a dish that I searched for, it is a combination of a few recipes that I found. This is for sure a KEEPER. It is easy, cheap and a crowd pleaser. We bought a portion of a cow recently and we got cube steaks with it, I don't cook a lot of cubed steaks, so I was on the hunt for a way to use them. Bonus is that both the hubby and the 15 year old absolutely loved it, since the 15 year old boy can eat A LOT these days, this is a big score as my husband took it to work today and says it reheats great.

The list of ingredients: 2 1/2 - 3 pounds of cube steak, butter, flour, 1 gallon plastic bag, season salt, worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, butter, olive oil, rosemary and french bread rolls or hoagie buns. First cut up potatoes into fries.

Remove sprigs of Rosemary by pulling the sprigs backwards from the stem and finely chop.

Add 2 tsp of the rosemary a heavy sprinkling of salt and 1/4 cup of olive oil and toss.

Spread the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 45-55 minutes. The smell is delightful.

Once the potatoes are in the oven slice onions and saute' with 1tbsp of butter, be sure to salt and pepper the onions once the onions are cooking. This should take about 7 minutes, the onions will be soft and golden brown.

Now take cube steak from package and cut into strips. The butcher tenderizes the cube steak, it is one direction, make sure to cut in the opposite direction of the directional marks.

Sprinkle with season salt and pepper.

Set the onions aside and add more butter to the pan letting the pan get very hot. Put 3 tbsp of flour in the plastic bag, add meat and shake gently to coat.

Add the floured steak to the hot butter. DO NOT stir, I know you chronic stirrers out there will have a hard time with this, but leave it alone, otherwise you will have steamed grey meat... By leaving the meat alone, it will allow a crust to form, which is the best part and helps deepen the flavor of the dish.

See this is just pure flavor!!

Butter and toast whatever you plan to serve this sandwich on...I used a dry pan.

Next add about half of a bottle of the worcestershire sauce to the pan, be sure to loosen all the bits off the bottom of the pan, again, more flavor. Add the onions back to the pan and simmer for a few minutes add cayenne pepper, depending on how hot you like it. I added about 1/2 tsp at a time until I got the flavor I liked. Before serving add a pat of butter. This helps thicken, gloss and bring the dish together. Don't skip this, I am sure there is a smart reason this works, not sure what it is...but I add butter to all my sauces at the end and I am rarely disappointed.

Add the met to the toasted bread and add a few tablespoons of the sauce.

Serve with the Rosemary fries and be prepared for bite after bite of goodness!! Enjoy.